Love the beach? Then love it right!
Beacheneering 101

It’s nothing you haven’t heard of, seen, or even done before. You cannot find it in the dictionary but it certainly is prevalent among our seashores and is especially appealing to our nature lovers and/or budget travelers.

In Pinoy slang, it’s called ‘beacheneering’ by some. In my book, it is swimming and bumming around the beach then camping out in your tent, applying the skills and values learned in mountaineering.

Meals vary from eating at a nearby restaurant to re-heating pre-cooked meals to cooking your own fares from scratch. Whichever is fine, as long as you know how to handle your trash. Bathing with shampoo and soap is optional, and is only recommended in beaches with shower rooms nearby. If there are proper toilets then well and good but if there aren’t any, catholes dug 6-8 inches that are reasonably distant from the waters are a necessity. Probably the only ones who can do ‘full-beacheneering’ ie totally devoid of the comforts of urban life are, apart from the mountaineers, the more adventurous travellers.

It’s a simple concept but if not done properly, has a “killing-me-softly” effect on the places we visit. Unfortunately, not all of us are exposed to the Leave No Trace* (LNT) principles or even if we have been, we go a little amnesiac at times or more sadly, seem not to care. A quick session on the LNT principles is very helpful in enlightening us on how to behave when we’re outdoors. In addition, I don’t think that it’s the lack of common sense that’s polluting our beautiful beaches, but the lack of concern for these places.

The LNT principles below apply to outdoor behavior primarily when camping out in mountains or backcountry but some of the examples cited are beacheneering-specific.

Leave No Trace Principles

1. Plan Ahead and Prepare
   
   
   Plan everything including meals so you won’t have leftovers. Re-pack food in reusable containers to minimize trash.
   
   
2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
   
   
   Don’t camp too close to the waters. Besides being a safety measure, you shouldn’t hog the beach area
   .
3. Dispose of Waste Properly
   
   
   Pick up ALL your trash and bring them home for proper disposal in the city. Do not leave leftovers, even heaped in a clean mound, “hoping that the birds or stray cats or dogs will eat them”. No, no, no.
   
   
4. Leave What You Find
   
   The sand belongs to the beach, along with the “cute” shells or corals out there. The best souvenirs are imprinted in the thoughts and feelings of responsible visitors.
   
   
5. Minimize Campfire Impacts
   
   
   Or better yet, eliminate campfires. Use camp stoves instead for cooking. No camp light? Use candles or lamps as an alternative.
   
   
6. Respect Wildlife
   
   
   Do not harass the animals you encounter. Leave them be. Go watch “Planet of the Apes” to get a better sense of how we should treat each other when the world turns upside down.
   
   
7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors
   
   
   I don’t get it why some people bring their boom boxes when they head for the outdoors in an effort to “escape the urban jungle”, but if you couldn’t survive without a little music on the side, just make sure you don’t bother anyone, animals included.

There are so many more ways we can exercise these principles in your next beach trip. It may be a little inconvenient at first but you’ll get the hang of it. Don’t go around giving any litter bug a full lecture on the LNT principles but maybe you can start by showing a good example by leaving your camp site as if you were never there. You can shock some people perhaps by picking up their trash in their presence. Whatever works, as long as you don’t resort to violence.

A few suggestions come to mind…maybe you can skip Boracay for a while to minimize the garbage and allow the island to heal? For the pampered traveler, how about shedding off some of those inhibitions and try ‘full-beacheneering’? How about doing a clean up by picking up trash as you stroll along the beach? Think of ways of becoming non-polluters of the beaches you visit. Do your share.

*Leave No Trace is an organization that upholds avoiding or minimizing impact on the environment. Their principles basically apply to hiking/camping outdoors but most are applicable to our immediate environments. As they have wittingly said in their website, ‘Outdoor awareness…from the backyard to your backcountry”.

Text: Delcee Salera
Photo: Paolo Picones © (Calayan Island)

YTRiP suggests that these simple tenets should be done even if you just want to hang out at the beach. Keeping the beach clean and being considerate of its well-being and other people's are always important.