Factors influencing the choice of bivouac site. How to set up camp correctly on a hike. Dinner bivouac, day and overnight

| Determining a place for a bivouac and organizing bivouac work

Basics of life safety
6th grade

Lesson 5
Determining a place for a bivouac and organizing bivouac work

Presentations for the lesson

When preparing for a hike, special attention should be paid to the choice of a place for a large halt - setting up a bivouac (bivouac - tourist camp). The bivouac site should be protected from the wind and located on a flat, dry place not far from water and firewood. In addition, you cannot set up a bivouac near populated areas, livestock yards, near reservoirs with stagnant flowering water, or on the way of moving herds.

If the hike is in the mountains, then you need to determine whether the place you have chosen for bivouac is in a rockfall zone. You cannot set up a bivouac next to a mountain river, much less in the dry part of its bed. If it rains, the river will turn into a torrent and can wash away the camp.

Making a fire

The site for the fire is chosen in an open but protected from the wind place, preferably near water. Take care of nature: make a fire on a trampled area of land, on old fire pits, having first removed the turf on the site chosen for the fire. Dry leaves, grass, pine needles, branches that can catch fire should be removed 1 - 1.5 m from the fire.

Must be remembered that a fire cannot be lit directly near trees, in young coniferous forests, in areas with dry reeds, reeds, moss or grass, in clearings where there are remains of forest combustible materials (dry branches, leaves, etc.), on peat bogs, and also in the forest on rocky areas. The fire should not be left unattended. When leaving the bivouac site, be sure to light the fire.

Starting a fire in dry weather is not difficult. It is more difficult to light it after rain, when the wood is damp. In any case, when going on a hike in nature, you need to have matches, a candle stub and a lighter with you. Before going on a trip, each box of matches must be packed in double plastic film, for which you need to run a hot knife blade along the film with the box of matches along its perimeter. You can also place the matchbox in a bottle with a sealed stopper or put it in a rubber bag. It is also convenient to use metal cases for matchboxes, which protect them from getting wet and mechanical damage.

Before lighting a fire, you need to prepare kindling from small dry spruce branches, birch bark, resin from coniferous trees, dry moss, grass, lichen, shavings, splinters. In wet weather, kindling is made from the middle part of dead wood split with an ax. The prepared kindling is placed under small dry brushwood folded in a hut or well and set on fire, and thicker firewood is carefully placed on top as it burns.

In rainy weather, a fire is lit under the cover of a cape or raincoat., which is held by two tourists. The stronger the wind or rain, the denser the kindling and firewood are placed on the fire.

In damp, cold weather, you can (if the supply of firewood allows) build two fires. The first is for cooking, the second is for drying clothes and equipment (sticks are placed next to it on which you can hang wet things). It is imperative to place a person on duty near this fire, who will maintain the fire and ensure that things do not burn.

Shoes are placed near the fire with the inside (not the sole). After drying, the shoes should remain slightly damp and soft, but they should not be allowed to become hard.

Fuel procurement

When preparing fuel, you should know that damp and rotten firewood produces a lot of smoke, but little heat; small brushwood burns out in the first two to three minutes; Aspen and fir firewood are bad because they shoot too many sparks.

If you need to make a big fire, then the best firewood will be from pine, cedar and spruce dead wood.

Working with an ax

Anyone who goes camping must be good at wielding an axe. The ax blade must be protected: do not cut the roots of bushes and trees, do not sharpen the pegs on stones or on the ground, but only on pieces of wood. You especially need to take care of the toe and heel of the ax (these are the ends of the blade that are needed for small jobs).

If logs are chopped, you need to split at least some of them lengthwise into two parts, and if the log is thick, then into four. Split logs burn faster.

A sharp ax is no less dangerous than a loaded gun.

Most often, ax wounds are inflicted on the leg when the ax slips from a tree trunk or a thin branch is severed with force. In the parking lot, the ax should be stuck into a stump or a lying trunk (but not into a growing tree!). It must be carried in a special case. When working in the forest, you need to look around to see if neighboring branches and trunks will interfere.

Cooking while camping

Arrange the fire for cooking so that it does not blow out, and the flame evenly heats the pot.

Salt add to food to taste. For a mug of cereal you will need about a teaspoon of salt, for milk and sweet cereals - half a teaspoon. Concentrates of soups, porridges and stews already contain salt.

Porridge First, cook until thickened (with stirring) over high heat, and then over low heat. If you forgot to put salt in the thickened porridge, then you need to dilute the salt in boiling water and pour the solution into the porridge.

To get rid of the bitter taste of millet porridge, the washed millet should be poured with boiling water, quickly bring the water to a boil and drain it. Then pour clean water and cook porridge.

To cook rice, you need to put it in cold water, bring to a boil, and then, after draining the boiling water, add cold water again.

Pasta for cooking is thrown into boiling salted water and cooked: 8 - 10 minutes - vermicelli, 15 - 20 minutes - noodles, 20 - 25 minutes - horns, pasta. The liquid is then drained.

Buckets and cauldrons hanging over the fire must be moved or removed using a mitten or a rag to avoid getting burned.

Kissels, milk mixtures, cocoa powder are first diluted in a bowl until the lumps disappear, and then boiled.

Dishes from food concentrates are prepared as written on the packaging.

Test yourself

■ What precautions must be taken to ensure fires and cooking during inclement weather?
■ On your day off, go hiking with your parents. Practice on your own and with the help of your parents in preparing fuel, making a fire, and cooking.
■ Come up with your answer to the question: “Why is it necessary to take measures fire safety In the woods?"

After lessons

1. Write down the basic fire safety requirements when starting a fire in your safety diary. Learn these rules.

2. Use a large-scale topographic map to locate a large stopover site for a day hike. Explain your choice.

On your day off, go hiking with your parents. Practice on your own and with the help of your parents in preparing fuel, making a fire, and cooking.

ABC of tourism. Choosing a bivouac site

Mastering the technique of bivouac work occupies a special place in the preparation of a tourist. And that's why. During the day, tourists’ time is distributed approximately as follows: 8 hours of travel + 8 hours of sleep + 8 hours of bivouac work. The first two terms are irreducible quantities. This means that all the interesting things that a tourist wants to do on a hike (visiting ancient monuments, performing socially useful tasks, picking berries and swimming, the opportunity to talk and sing by the fire, etc.), he must do by reducing the time of bivouac work . Unfortunately, very often young tourists, especially those traveling in large groups, conduct bivouac work so lazily and haphazardly that, together with packing, they take even more than 8 hours a day.

That is why, until young tourists have learned to spend one and a half to two hours on morning and evening bivouac work, before the hikes in which they participate, it is pointless to set any other goals other than completing the route and mastering tourist equipment. It makes no sense to entrust such a group with any tasks. She can implement them only by reducing sleep time or completing the route.

While the fuss with the bivouac can last for an indefinite period, the life of the group is built on the principle: “We will leave when we can, we will come wherever we can.” The group that owns bivouac equipment lives by a different principle: “We’ll go out when we plan, we’ll come where we need to.” With such a group you can already make exciting journeys, take on interesting tasks, and outline bold plans.

So, let's look at issues related to mastering bivouac techniques. This will include choosing a place for a bivouac, organizing bivouac work, setting up a tent, and folding up the bivouac. Essentially, this should include making fires, drying clothes and shoes, and cooking. But a separate chapter is devoted to making fires (due to the importance of this issue), and the last two issues are discussed in the chapters “Equipment” and “Food on a hike.”

The bivouac site must satisfy several requirements. The first of them is safety. Of course, this requirement fully applies to long and difficult hikes. In the conditions of central Russia, security issues are not so pressing, and they are most often completely forgotten. But still, they should not be completely ignored. It is not recommended, for example, to camp downstream of the river near large villages, farmyards, slaughterhouses, and villages with industrial enterprises. Water taken from a river in such a place may turn out to be spoiled. Unless absolutely necessary, you should not camp near bodies of water with stagnant blooming water. True, in principle, such water can be neutralized: filtered through the soil. (To do this, dig a small hole at a distance of 1-1.5 m from the water. When it is filled with water, scoop out the water with a mug. This operation is repeated several times until clean water begins to flow into the hole)

But it’s still better to walk an extra couple of kilometers and stop near running water. You should not camp near villages or roads, especially if you are hiking on holidays. An outside company is unlikely to bring much joy, even if it is quite friendly. A random dog that runs in and will carry out an “audit” meat products in backpacks, a herd of cows passing through the camp in the morning - all these possible cases do not speak in favor of choosing a bivouac site close to the village, although they are not related to security issues.

The next requirement for a bivouac site is the availability of water and firewood. It is difficult to say which of these requirements is more important. It all depends on the specific conditions of the trip. Usually, in the hot summer in central Russia, it is more important to find water. It’s easier with firewood, but in early spring, when the melt water has not yet subsided, this problem comes to the fore.

So, safety, provision of water and firewood - these are the main requirements for a bivouac site. All of them are taken into account first of all when the bivouac site is marked on the map, and then when it is chosen on the ground.

The remaining requirements for the bivouac site should be considered as desirable, but not mandatory. Such requirements include the convenience of a place for deploying bivouac work. It is advisable that you don’t have to climb into a deep ravine to get water or drink a mug from a barely noticeable spring, so that you don’t have to go far to get firewood, so that the bivouac site is protected from the wind, and if there are a lot of mosquitoes in the forest, then, on the contrary, so that the place was ventilated so that the tents could be pulled up on trees, and not on special stakes, etc. If the bivouac does not meet such requirements, this will delay the time required to set up the camp and require a lot of effort from tourists, but, ultimately, In such conditions you can ensure yourself a good rest.

Aesthetic requirements for the bivouac site and the appearance of the camp are also among the additional requirements. Of course, all other things being equal, it is better to set up camp in some beautiful, pleasing place. It is not without reason that experienced tourists who have traveled extensively native land, try to remember such places and, if necessary, bring newcomers there. But, of course, the aesthetic requirements for a bivouac site should not be given preference over the basic ones. The same can be said about appearance camps. Of course, it’s beautiful if the tents are placed at the same distance from the fire or if the dining “table” is decorated with a bouquet of wildflowers. But under no circumstances should this become an end in itself. Meanwhile, an inexperienced leader often forgets about this. And so, in order for the tents to be placed in one line, the camp is set up not in the forest, where it is protected from the wind and partly from the rain, where firewood is literally nearby, but somewhere on the edge of the field, close to road, open to all rain and wind, from where you have to walk three hundred meters to get firewood. And for the sake of a bouquet of flowers decorating the “table”, lunch is delayed for half an hour, and everyone eats cold food. In a word, when choosing a place for a camp, you should not forget about what is important and what is secondary.

The bivouac site must satisfy several requirements. The first of them is safety. Of course, this requirement fully applies to long and difficult hikes. In the conditions of central Russia, security issues are not so pressing, and they are most often completely forgotten. But still, they should not be completely ignored. It is not recommended, for example, to camp downstream of the river near large villages, farmyards, slaughterhouses, and villages with industrial enterprises. Water taken from a river in such a place may turn out to be spoiled. Unless absolutely necessary, you should not set up camp near bodies of water with stagnant blooming water. True, in principle, such water can be neutralized: filtered through the soil¹,

(¹To do this, dig a small hole at a distance of 1-1.5 m from the water. When it is filled with water, scoop out the water with a mug. This operation is repeated several times until clean water begins to flow into the hole.)

through a cloth and then boil or throw in a few crystals of potassium permanganate. But it’s still better to walk an extra couple of kilometers and stop near running water. You should not camp near villages or roads, especially if you are hiking on holidays. An outside company is unlikely to bring much joy, even if it is quite friendly. A random dog running in that will “inspect” the meat products in backpacks, a herd of cows passing through the camp in the morning - all these possible cases do not speak in favor of choosing a bivouac site close to the village, although they are not related to security issues.

Aesthetic requirements for the bivouac site and the appearance of the camp are also among the additional requirements. Of course, all other things being equal, it is better to set up camp in some beautiful, pleasing place. It is not without reason that experienced tourists who have traveled a lot in their native land try to remember such places and, on occasion, bring newcomers there. But, of course, the aesthetic requirements for a bivouac site should not be given preference over the basic ones. The same can be said about the appearance of the camp. Of course, it’s beautiful if the tents are placed at the same distance from the fire or if the dining “table” is decorated with a bouquet of wildflowers. But under no circumstances should this become an end in itself. Meanwhile, an inexperienced leader often forgets about this. And so, in order for the tents to be placed in one line, the camp is set up not in the forest, where it is protected from the wind and partly from the rain, where firewood is literally nearby, but somewhere on the edge of the field, near the road, open to everyone rain and wind, from where you have to walk three hundred meters to get firewood. And for the sake of a bouquet of flowers decorating the “table”, lunch is delayed for half an hour, and everyone eats cold food. In a word, when choosing a place for a camp, you should not forget about what is important and what is secondary.

For people who go for barbecue or fishing, choosing the right place to stay is often not as critical as for tourists, but following the basic rules when solving this problem will allow you to spend time in nature more comfortably and safely. For tourists or those who find themselves in an emergency situation far from civilization, the correct determination and choice of a place for is one of the primary tasks, as it makes staying in the wild safer, allows you to save and restore strength, and sometimes even settle down with sufficient comfort .

A well-chosen place for a bivouac in the mountains: fairly flat area, distance from the fire from the tent, absence of dry trees.

Choosing a place for bivouac

In each individual situation, when choosing a place for a future parking lot, you should focus on a number of criteria, evaluate the advantages of each over the others under given conditions, highlight priorities and select a specific site based on the analysis and identified advantages of one place compared to the others.

There are only a few requirements for the future parking location. This:

Safety. Staying in the camp and carrying out bivouac work should not increase the risk of injury or damage to equipment.
Comfort. The place for the bivouac should be as convenient and comfortable as possible for work and rest. It should be such that the organization of bivouac work is as simple as possible.
Visibility. The bivouac site should be clearly visible from the sea and air. This condition is important for victims in wildlife who are awaiting salvation.
Aesthetics. It would be good if the camp was located in a picturesque place. But this is more likely not a requirement, but a wish.

It’s more joyful to wake up with such a panorama from a tent than with a view of a rock wall.

It is these requirements that should be taken into account when assessing a place’s suitability for setting up a camp.

And now I propose to consider the issue of choosing a place for a bivouac in more detail, having analyzed the main criteria.

Availability of fresh water nearby

This is perhaps one of the primary and most important parameters, so let’s look at it in more detail.

A solid bivouac on the river bank.

A person needs an average of two and a half to three liters of water per day under normal conditions. During a hike, the need for water can increase significantly, which is due to:

Physical activity. During active physical work, the body heats up and is forced to cool down to avoid overheating. Sweating is one of three ways to cool the body. By secreting sweat, the body can lose a significant amount of water.
High air temperature. At high temperatures, water loss is also associated with sweating.
Air humidity. When air humidity is high and temperatures are high, water loss will be greater because the cooling efficiency from sweating will be significantly lower than in low humidity conditions.
Low temperature. Cold air contains much less water vapor than warm air can contain. Entering a person’s lungs during breathing, cold dry air heats up, becomes saturated with water vapor and is removed from the body. Moreover, in conditions low temperatures Cold diuresis may occur, in which the body loses a lot of fluid through urine.
Consumption of salty and high-protein foods. To remove excess salt and protein breakdown products, the body spends a significant amount of water.

Lack of water for just a few days can cause significant discomfort, reduce performance, cause a person to make more mistakes, lead to accidents, and, under some conditions, cause severe dehydration and death.

This is why proximity to a water source is so important. In addition, water helps keep the human body clean, which is important for the prevention of various diseases.

On hikes longer than 3 days, the ability to wash can be critical for the normal atmosphere in the group.

Of course, in some situations you can’t really count on water (for example, in the desert), and then you have to carry it with you, actively applying water-saving tactics. However, this option is an extreme measure, since an extra day of travel requires an increase in the weight of the backpack due to water reserves by 1.5–3 kg, depending on the conditions. And in some cases this figure may increase.

In some other situations, you don’t have to worry about water, for example, in a snowy winter, because you can always melt snow or ice on a fire and get drinking water, and in extreme cases, in the absence of a fire, melt them directly in the mouth. In this case, you can arrange a bivouac without taking this criterion into account.

It is also important to note here that the parking lot should be placed with caution directly near rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, since for various reasons the water level can fluctuate greatly, and there is a chance of ending up in the water. For the same reasons, the location of a bivouac in a dry riverbed is unsuccessful: during heavy rain, the once dry riverbed can turn into a raging torrent, sweeping away everything in its path.

Picturesque places near waterfalls are most often not the best place to set up a camp: they are damp and very noisy, which makes it difficult to control the situation and creates difficulties during collective bivouac work.

Also, if you are located near a water source, there is some chance of being in the path of animals going to drink, and this is not always fun and exciting, especially when you have to deal with large mammals.

Presence of trees nearby

In different situations, this criterion can play both for a person’s benefit and against him. Trees provide people with:

Fuel for the fire. It is the availability of firewood and brushwood that is most often considered when choosing a parking spot in the first place.
Materials for shelter construction. This is important in cases where there is no tent or other shelter.
Windbreak. As a rule, the wind in the forest is much less than in open areas.
Food: nuts and fruits. Of course, not all trees are suitable for this, but, nevertheless, this benefit should not be overlooked, especially when a person does not have his own food supplies with him. In addition, a variety of vegetation provides material for constructing weapons (such as bows and arrows) and traps (such as spring traps and fishing traps).
Protection. This is more likely to apply to a war zone, as forest trees may impede free movement military equipment and interfere with the detection of people from the air.

However, there are also problems associated with the presence of trees. For example, trees can make it difficult for a person involved in an accident to identify their location to a search party, and can also pose a serious hazard in the event of hurricane-force winds.

In some situations, trees can indirectly affect humans. For example, in a snowy winter a cap of snow may fall from a branch, extinguishing a fire, and in the summer during a thunderstorm tall tree lightning may strike, electrocuting anyone in the immediate vicinity.

Availability of a nearby settlement

Like the previous ones, this criterion has duality, in some situations it helps travelers, and in others it makes their stay in nature unbearable.

So close settlement means that:

If desired, you can purchase food and water there.
If necessary, ask to spend the night at someone's house.
If an emergency occurs, quickly get out to people.

Winter bivouac on the outskirts of a mountain village in the Alps.

However, as was said, this also has its negative aspects, for example:

Very often, the area near populated areas is contaminated with garbage and waste products of domestic animals and, in particular, livestock.
Holidays near a populated area often lead to clashes with the local population, who are not always friendly.
Finding a camp near a populated area dramatically increases the likelihood of things being stolen from the camp.

These, of course, are not all the pros and cons associated with the proximity of a village or city. For example, the aesthetic moment was not indicated when, instead of the chirping of crickets, the silence of the night will be broken by the howling of dogs, the roar of a motorcycle engine and the bass of a local disco. Therefore in specific case You need to arrange a bivouac in a place that corresponds to the goals and objectives of tourists.

Relief and other terrain features

Relief and some other terrain features play an important role in choosing the best parking spot. These criteria are also often ambiguous depending on the conditions.

Let's look at some options in more detail:

The bivouac area must be dry. Setting up camp in a swamp when there is a dry place nearby is, to say the least, strange. However, if you need to remain undetected, wetlands are one of the best options, since they are less likely to bump into someone.
The site on which the camp is planned must be level. On such a site it is easier to work and relax. However, during heavy rainfalls, the slope of the site on which the tent stands can play a positive role if the tent is dug into a small ditch: water entering the ditch will be carried outside the resting place, and a puddle will never accumulate under the tent.
Vegetation (such as tall grass and thorny plants) and plant debris (such as pine cones and windbreaks) should not interfere with camping. It is better to choose clean places so as not to waste time clearing the area. However, this rule primarily applies to tent camps. If you plan to relax in a hammock or an improvised shelter, then the presence of the same rubble or tall grass can, on the contrary, serve as a good help.
The height of the terrain at which you plan to set up camp depends on the conditions in the wild and the equipment available. So, for example, at higher elevations, thanks to the wind, midges are less susceptible to mosquitoes, but the wind itself in some cases can act as a negative factor. In the lowlands, it is usually colder and often damp, which is bad for people who find themselves in the river valley, but good for those who cross the desert.

The list goes on, but the main thing here is not to indicate all possible options, but to show that the same criteria can have a positive and negative impact on travelers, depending on the conditions in which these people find themselves.

A few more words about the safety of the parking lot

There is, however, also clear rules that should not be violated. Here we will talk about some of them and summarize what has already been said.

You should try to avoid places where there is a risk of getting caught in an avalanche, rockfall, or being caught in a mudflow.
It is dangerous to set up a camp in the mountains on snow-covered slopes, so as not to accidentally cut the crust and cause the layer to move and cause an avalanche.
In most situations when it comes to tourism, best places for bivouac are located away from populated areas. The wildest places are easily recognized by the almost complete absence of human garbage (tin cans, bottles, plastic bags and the like).
You should not position yourself near a dead tree or a tree with thick, dry branches that are waiting in the wings to fall down if there is any significant wind or icing.
When planning a camp, it is better to avoid the beds of dry rivers, river valleys in close proximity to water, and the shores of seas and oceans if it is unknown how much the level in a given reservoir may rise in the near future.
An animal trail is one of the worst places to stop, since sometimes such paths are used not only by animals that are harmless to humans, but also by those that pose a danger to health and life, for example, wild boars.
It is also not good to set up a tourist camp near the highway and in areas where livestock is grazing.
It is dangerous to set up a camp in the area of existing training grounds, since the military does not always have enough people to ensure control of the territory - and it may turn out that a shell exploding nearby will disturb your sleep.
In areas where thunderstorms occur, it is best not to camp on top of a hill due to the risk of being struck by lightning.
If you plan to light a fire at the camp, the place must meet fire safety requirements. We talked about how to choose a place for a fire in a separate article.
You should try to avoid places with a large number of blood-sucking insects. In this case, you need to find a place that is well blown by the wind.
In windy weather, especially at low temperatures, you need to look for a place with a natural wind barrier, for example, in a ravine or, if we are talking about mountains, then behind a pass.
In the desert and steppe in hot weather, it is better to place a camp behind a natural obstacle, hiding in its shadow.
A bad “omen” is choosing a parking spot near a wasp nest or near the home of other representatives of dangerous fauna.
Most often, in tourism conditions, it is better to allocate a place for a bivouac, devoid of tall grass vegetation, in order to avoid encounters with local poisonous and dangerous fauna in terms of diseases (for example, spiders, centipedes, snakes and ticks).

These are, perhaps, the most basic rules that you should follow when choosing a place to bivouac. Now we will reveal one more question, without which it will be very difficult to apply the acquired knowledge in practice.

When to start looking for a place to camp

Choose optimal place For bivouac it is necessary before sunset. This is usually done two hours before the sun disappears below the horizon.

In the photo - a bivouac in the mountains, set up at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, an hour before the sun disappeared behind the ridge:

This time, selected empirically, is indicated in many textbooks on tourism and survival: it is assumed that it should be enough to find a suitable place, set up a camp, collect brushwood, prepare firewood and make a fire. However, you need to understand that this time also depends on many factors such as:

Availability of convenient camp sites. If during a hiking day you came across only a few suitable places, then you need to allocate additional time to find the next place.
The need to build a fire. If there is no need for a fire, or you plan to cook food on a burner, you can afford to deal with the issues of finding a parking space later.
Having a tent or hammock. If you don’t have a tent or hammock, then you need to allocate additional time to find a suitable natural shelter or build a shelter from available materials.

If we neglect this rule, then find a good place for parking, quickly setting up a camp, collecting brushwood and starting a fire will be much more difficult: darkness rarely works in a person’s favor, even if he has a lantern with him.

On one of the hikes, we did not have time to leave the village before dark and ended up in the forest where we were going to camp only at night. During the bivouac work, two hornets flew into the light of the headlamps, which significantly complicated further work. Fortunately, when we woke up in the morning, we did not find a nest of these large wasps at the site, although the situation could not have been so successful.

Without clocks in mid-latitudes, you can use your hand to determine the approximate time remaining before sunset. For this:

An outstretched hand is placed in front of the face.
The hand is bent towards you with the palm.
Close one eye.
Place your palm between the visible horizon line and the sun.
If this distance is more than one palm, the palm is moved higher. And so on until the sun visually appears to be “lying” on the index finger.
Count the number of fingers that fit between the horizon and the sun. Thumb are not taken into account.
They do a time recalculation. Each finger corresponds approximately to fifteen minutes. Accordingly, one palm will correspond to one hour, two - to two hours.

The video below shows how to determine the date and time without a clock:

At the same time, it is important for everyone to take into account the fact that darkness in different conditions comes at different speeds. For example:

In the forest zone, other things being equal, it gets dark faster than in the steppe zone.
In the summer, after the sun sets over the horizon, deep night comes faster, but in winter months It gets dark earlier.
In the tropics, twilight is very short and quickly gives way to night, while in the Arctic there can be light for six months.

But even this seemingly irrefutable rule has its exceptions. So, in some cases it makes sense to move in the dark in order to remain unnoticed (for example, in a war zone) or to prevent hyperthermia (for example, in the desert). The search for a parking spot is carried out either before sunrise or as soon as possible after the sun has risen above the horizon.

As you can see, there are not many strict rules for choosing a place for a future camp. Basically, there are only criteria, focusing on which, you can achieve the best conditions in terms of comfort and safety in such a camp.

The bivouac site must satisfy several requirements. The first of these is safety. Of course, this requirement fully applies to long and difficult hikes. In the conditions of central Russia, security issues are not so pressing, and they are most often completely forgotten. But still, they should not be completely ignored. It is not recommended, for example, to camp downstream of the river near large villages, farmyards, slaughterhouses, and villages with industrial enterprises. Water taken from a river in such a place may turn out to be spoiled. Unless absolutely necessary, you should not camp near bodies of water with stagnant blooming water. True, in principle, such water can be neutralized: filtered through the soil?

(?To do this, dig a small hole at a distance of 1-1.5 m from the water. When it is filled with water, scoop out the water with a mug. This operation is repeated several times until clean water begins to flow into the hole.)

Aesthetic requirements for the bivouac site and the appearance of the camp are also among the additional requirements. Of course, all other things being equal, it is better to set up camp in some beautiful, pleasing place. It is not without reason that experienced tourists who have traveled a lot in their native land try to remember such places and, on occasion, bring newcomers there. But, of course, the aesthetic requirements for a bivouac site should not be given preference over the basic ones. The same can be said about the appearance of the camp. Of course, it’s beautiful if the tents are placed at the same distance from the fire or if the dining “table” is decorated with a bouquet of wildflowers. But under no circumstances should this become an end in itself. Meanwhile, an inexperienced leader often forgets about this. And so, in order for the tents to be placed in one line, the camp is set up not in the forest, where it is protected from the wind and partly from the rain, where firewood is literally nearby, but somewhere on the edge of the field, near the road, open to everyone rain and wind, from where you have to walk three hundred meters to get firewood. And for the sake of a bouquet of flowers decorating the “table”, lunch is delayed for half an hour, and everyone eats cold food. In a word, when choosing a place for a camp, you should not forget about what is important and what is secondary.