I’m really wrestling with an issue which has been bothering me for a while. Duncan and I have been travelling for six weeks. We are both very social people and are forever inviting fellow travellers over to our camp … but I just don’t know whether to ask ‘solo travellers’ or not. I worry that they might view it as some sort of sympathy invitation, or that they simply want to be on their own and don’t want to be ‘hassled’ by the likes of me. We were camping near Kununurra in WA last week, when I asked a friendly-seeming solo lady to our awning. She looked at me like I was crazy, politely refused, and left me feeling like a fool. Is there sine way I can know whether solos want to be friends or not?
Tamara
It’s lovely of you to be so thoughtful, Tamara, but I think you might be over-thinking this. If you meet people you want to invite for a drink or game of cards, go ahead and do it … whether they are solos, couples or a party of 30! The fact that you are already aware that people may not want to be ‘hassled’, shows you are already applying some sort of filter to your Happy Hour invitation process. If you are as social as you seem to be, you are inevitably going to come across people who may not want to join you for any number of reasons. Don’t let it put you off. Be friendly, be polite, be considerate, invite whoever you want and respect their decision. And then, for goodness sake, just enjoy your evening.
Jaclyn
What a load of an absolute nonsense, Tamara. You start off by making yourself sound like the social queen of each and every campsite and then you apparently turn into a quivering wreck at the sight of these awfully frightening ‘solos’. You remind me of a teenager who has been at an all-girls school for the past eight years and gets tongue tied at the mere thought of talking to a boy. Solo travellers aren’t from another planet. They are just people like you who want to enjoy this wonderful country. Have you ever wondered whether the ‘solos’ you are so fixated with are looking at you and thinking: “Why does that woman and her husband keep staring at me? They’re creepy. I don’t think I’ll invite them for a drink, after all!”
Heidi
