We all have those days. You know the ones. It’s been an overstimulating, downright exhausting day and you’ve just gotten home. The TV news is only reporting depressing stuff, you’ve already binged The IT Crowd for the seventh time and all you want to do is sit in bed with a hot mug of something liquidy. All you need now is something soothing to watch and boy, do I have the perfect suggestion.
Early last year my YouTube algorithm threw me a curve ball. It was a video from a channel called Go4X4. This ain’t even a spon-con, promise.
The ethos behind this bloke’s channel is simple: camping vlogs but with zero speaking.
Now, before you say “but I don’t even like camping, I’d much prefer having Wi-Fi and a couch to sit on when I go away for the weekend,” let me just say that I totally agree with you.
I could count on two hands the number of times I’ve been ~properly~ camping (i.e. in a tent).
But there’s just something so inviting, calming and somewhat ethereal about these videos. So much so that it has started to soften my opinion of the concept as a whole.
“But hang on — how can you do a vlog without chatting to the camera?” you ask.
Well, this is achieved in a few different ways.
The first is that the focus of all Go4X4’s videos is to elevate the viewer’s sensory perception of the environment. Their perception of any humans that feature in the videos very much takes a back seat, contrary to most vlog content on the internet.
Without getting too deep into the technical side of things, the sound of every cricket chirp, fallen raindrop and sizzle made by food hitting a frying pan is picked up crisply with what I’d guess is a mucho expensive microphone.
The videos are quite formulaic but in the best possible way. The creator has found what works and he’s sticking to his guns. Give the people what they want, I say!
The opening part of the video features a highlight reel to get you primed for what’s to come.
I was going to write “excited for what’s to come” but that probably wouldn’t be an adequate way to reference a video with the sole purpose of calming you down, not hyping you up
Next, we get a variety of angles showcasing the creator’s 4×4 arriving at whatever visually stunning environment he’s decided to camp at that particular day.
Most of his videos feature him on a solo expedition (with the exception of his dog Ted) so I cannot even begin to imagine how painstaking it would be to capture all these perspectives. Mad respect.
After this, we see him unpack all his gear and set up shop. And BOY, does this man have a lot of gear. Cookware, a metal fire pit, a tent, a tarp to put over the tent, and of course, a chair.
The rest of the videos comprise him preparing dinner (which always looks fkn scrumptious) and going for an explore of the surrounding area before eventually turning in for a snooze as it gets dark.
When the sun comes up the following morning, he brews a coffee (using only the finest camping equipment, of course) before he bids us farewell via some closing shots of whatever leafy landscape he’s woken up in.
After all that camping content, if you still can’t get to sleep, we’ve compiled a list of the best 15 snooze tips from around the PEDESTRIAN.TV office.
Ya bloody welcome.
