The Open Air Is Marvelous But It Can Be Bettered And Made Available For More To Enjoy It
Absolute joy as BBC4 go on with the Great Outdoors programming, mingling documentaries, travelogues and dramas drawing attention to the practice of people going out into the outdoors and taking pleasure in what our country has to offer.
This is not merely a British thing of course, many countries celebrate their untamed areas, none more so than the Australians whose society is almost entirely founded upon getting away from walls. The majority of this is focused around the beach as most Aussies live within an hour of the coast. And because of this, the custom of the Australian bbq is one of the most famous aspects of life Down Under.
When we lived in Canberra, we were just across the road from a picnic area by Lake Burley Griffin which had public bbq grills built in for anyone to use. This is a frequent feature and makes life easy (if you can find one not being used) as you just need to pack some coals and food and leave behind your own bbq. All you had to do was to bag one of the available bbq grills, lay out and light the coals and then when finished, scrub it down and clear away the mess so someone else could use it. Although, of course Aussies being what they are, it was normal if someone was only needing a small part of the bbq, to invite someone else to jump on as too.
You could also find a public gas bbq in many places. All you needed was to put a coin or two in the slot and a metered amount of gas would be released from the bottle which made things even more straightforward as it meant you didn't have to carry any dirty coals in the car. The gas bbq also meant that there was little to clear up at the end, you would just take a wire brush to the grills to clean off the charred remains and that was all that was needed to make it ready for someone else to use.
I have also seen public bbq grills when on holiday in the Balearic Islands but not as yet anywhere in parks or by the coast in the UK. It could be that I have just not been to the right places, but I think it would certainly attract visitors if they could reduce their loads on an outing to know that they did not need to get or bring a portable bbq with them, and a public gas bbq facility would also help generate some cashflow to go towards the upkeep of the area. The main thing is to have sufficient numbers provided so that long queues for them don't build up as this would lead to anger and reduce the likelihood of a return visit, and make them sufficiently everyday items for people to reasonably expect to find them when they visit, instead of find them and wish to have known before packing and carrying the portable.
We Brits love the open air, it's been a feature of our leisure time for over a century to get out of the urban and into the fresh air but like anything else, you need to persuade more people to take part, and facilities must be continually improved to facilitate this.
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categories: bbq,bbq grills
