Hi Darren,
It's a good question. I'd have to say "Sort of".
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of soft-floor camper trailers in the US. There's a few hard-floors, but most people either have a RTT on an ex-army trailer, or go the caravan route. RTTs on actual cars seem a very niche area. Of course, the other end of the spectrum is to go with a big motorhome towing a hugely-modified Jeep - all the luxuries of home, plus an extreme rock-crawler to have fun with. Tent-wise the US also has the full spectrum, minus the concept of a swag. They have small hiking tents, and hammock tents, right up to big multi-room jobbies. Check out Expedition Portal for a good window into the US camping scene.
South Africa is different again - A lot of people there use Land Rovers with roof-top tents, or more "serious" campers like the Conquerer models. I'd probably want to be as far away from the lions as I could get too, and I'd probably like more than a thin canvas wall.
My read on Eurpoe is that it's not a huge "camping" place, due to the geography of the area (being VERY general here). It's not like in Aus where you can drive for 3 days and not see another soul - every half hour you're driving through a different little village with it's own pubs/b&b's/hotels/etc. IE, why have a fully-fledged self-sufficient camping setup when you're never far from civilisation. Also, some spots of Europe get a lot more rain than we do here (looking at the UK...), so canvas probably doesn't lend itself well to their climate.
It's certainly very interesting to me, to see the geographic differences between camping styles!
Good question.
Matto
