London mayor Boris Johnson reveals love of camping

Outspoken London mayor Boris Johnson has revealed his love of camping.

The colourful politician told how he had pitched up in a string of unusual locations - from outside a railway station in the centre of Paris to the Serengeti in Africa.  

And he revealed how he once accidentally set up camp in the middle of a roundabout in the Australian capital Canberra.

Writing in his Daily Telegraph column, Mr Johnson said: "At the risk of sounding like  a character from Enid Blyton, there is absolutely nothing to beat camping.

"I love the exultation you get when you rise from your groundmat and all the aches melt away from your body as you realise the night is over at last. Then follows the sizzle of bacon and the hands wrapped around the mug of tea and the first peep of sun over mountains or the mist rising off a river."

The former journalist and Tory MP added: "I have camped everywhere from the drizzle of Salisbury Plain to the Serengeti to the beaches of California. I have bivouaked on cardboard outside the Gare du Nord in Paris. I have dossed down on my towel in Spain, and I once accidentally pitched my tent late at night in the middle of a roundabout in downtown Canberra, and woke to find my hands had been so badly bitten by bugs that they swelled like blown up washing-up gloves; and yet I would do it again tomorrow."

Mr Johnson, who was a regular on TV panel show Have I Got News For You before being elected mayor in 2008, said youth groups like the Scouts and the Boys' Brigade were teaching youngsters to enjoy the "joys of camping" and other outdoor activities. They were a "force for social good", he said, and could help tackle inner city issues like gang culture and knife crime. 

And he urged anti-capitalist campaigners from the Occupy movement - who have been camped outside St Paul's Cathedral in London for several months - to share their skills and sign up as volunteers for youth groups like the Scouts.

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