Well it’s been 5 months since the camp fees increased from the $2.00 per person per night to $4.00. Discussions at the time advised that patrolling and enforcing would eventuate, but in the early days of change, campers were given the opportunity to get used to the new fee structure.
Some recent research at the campgrounds does tend to point toward the fact that many of the people who weren’t paying before, probably still aren’t paying. Lots of tents with no payment receipts. Two bucks was cheap, 4 bucks is still cheap and 5 months is a reasonable amount of time to get used to the new fee structure. Lots of people, climbers and campers included, backed this and put effort into this favourable outcome.
Easter is always a particularly busy time at Araps and this will mean there are more patrols and ranger presence due to visitor numbers and workload. With fines for non payment of fees being a real possibility, there could be some unhappy campers. It would be a shame to see something that we worked for and viewed as successful, leaving a nasty taste in the mouth. Let your friends know.