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Any
dignified Arab in burnous and flowing robes would probably be politely
incredulous, at the suggestion that there are any points of similarity
between himself and the bushwalkers who wander round the Sydney district
clad in shirts and short. Doubtless he would also be puzzled to find that
amongst the bushwalkers "abdul" is a verb. Some of the younger
members of the fraternity have recently been trying to find out how It
came into use, and Wal. Roots, a past-President of the New South Wales
Federation of Bush Walking Clubs, has supplied this explanation.
Some
years ago Wal. and his wife, spent a week-end at the country house of
their friends, the Brewers, "Happy-daze," Hat Hill, Blackheath.
This, is a. house of great individuality, with rooms of various shapes and
each with its own name. One room is called Abdul’s Tent," and the
visitor does not need to ask why. He immediately has as vision of an
Arab's tent. A week or two later the Rootses walked over to Era and found
Peter Page camped there, with one side his "A" tent raised to,
the level of the ridge. When they caught sight of the tent, both stopped,
and, turning to each other, they exclaimed : "Abduls’ tent"
The
term was apt, and it stuck,
The
earliest. Bushwalker used whatever they could buy or make, and they all
had "cottage" tents with one end closed. Those who’ slept in
the tents did so with their feet to the doors! The others invariably
spread their ground sheets and slept by the campfire— except when it
rained.
When
I joined the Sydney Bush. Walters in 1929 I had a homemade copy of a tent
bought in England, which was similar to those used by 'members of the
Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland, It had several features that
were new to the Bushwalkers, but the most important was that it could be
opened at both ends. Soon many walkers were altering there tents to
improve the ventilation. About 1930 "Paddy" Pallin started his
business of providing camping gear for walkers, and nearly all the tents
he made to order were "A" or "wall" tents. opening at
both. ends. More and more bushwalkers took to sleeping in their tents,
particularly during that year, when we had over twenty wet week-ends in
succession.
Probably
it was at Era that tents were first "abdulled," for there they
they left up all day on Sundays while the owners surf or play on the
beach. A tent without a fly becomes unbearably hot when the sun shines on
it for long, but an "abdulled" tent provides a cool shade in
which to lunch,
Throughout
the drought years the practice of abdulling has become firmly established,
and even in mid-summer many bushwalkers now sleep in "abdulled"
tents. The verb has become an integral part of our vocabulary,
In
summer an "abdulled" tent has one serious disadvantage. It is
wide open to the onslaughts of mosquitoes and flies, and so, a few years
ago, I made for my tent a net that would fit all round the three open
sides. The idea is now spreading, and by this adaptation "Abdul’s
Tent" becomes a meat safe! |
