Dear Editor,
I read your article about campers and the amount of litter on the West Coast (The Resident edition of May 23).
It touched a nerve because I have just come back from a short break in our motorhome on the West Coast. Although we live near Silves, it was nice to see how a few kilometres and a short drive can change the scenery so dramatically.
It was lovely – apart from the litter and rubbish that had been left behind by visitors. That, unfortunately, is about the only thing I can agree with Dago Lipke about, the owner of a surfing school.
To talk about, let alone to be wasting hours of his life, campaigning against campers being in the area is misguided. The majority of people who go camping do not leave rubbish, a fact endorsed by many years of caravanning and motorhoming. These people, like ourselves, are more likely to be taking other people’s rubbish away when they leave.
When leaving a site, either paid for or free, the last thing most campers do is check that they have taken everything with them, usually leaving the place cleaner than when they arrive.
It’s a matter of pride, and to avoid giving people like you the ammunition, they need to level accusations. I draw the distinction between people that go camping for the pleasure of camping and those that happen to be camping but are primarily there for other reasons, i.e. surfing.
My own experience of my recent trip to the surfers’ coast is that it is was the people in tents, and sleeping in their cars, that were leaving the place looking like a Câmara tip. I saw it with my own eyes, and, sorry Dago Lipke, but, in this case, it was the very people you are attracting!
Before I create a furore, and for the record, I am not suggesting banning surfers, nor that all surfers are untidy, nor for that matter that all campers are tidy. It takes two to tango so if you want the area litter free, shut your surfing school Mr Lipke, which will give you far more time to campaign about banning surfers, campers, dog walkers, and just about anybody else who visits the area.
It will be nice and clean once again, with nobody to appreciate it!
Can I make a suggestion, Mr Lipke? If you get a minute, get on to the local Câmara and get them to supply decent toilet facilities. When I was there, the shabby looking toilets were locked, there was soiled paper blown everywhere with other unmentionables, which I assume was the result of non-camping visitors not having their own facilities on board.
All modern caravans and motorhomes have their own toilets; we don’t have to rely on third party facilities.
Good luck my friend.
Barry Martin
Alcantarilha
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