I think we need to re-define Camp Zero
At the start of this thread, Marty describes it this way:
"What I heard about the potential location for "Camp Zero" (the first survival camp close to where the plane might have landed on the reef) is that TIGHAR has not yet done a thorough search in that vicinity. It also seems not to have been an area where the colonists did any development."
Camp Zero in my mind is the first place AE and FN drag themselves ashore, along with whatever they felt was important enough to get ashore with them.
They want to stay as near to the Electra as possible since they are periodically heading out there to either gather up another load, or try to talk on the radio. With the body of post loss signals, this would mean they might have used Camp Zero for a few days, maybe three to five days. Keep in mind that the post loss signals are mostly at night, so we're not getting much sleep overnight, and with the heat during the day, daytime is a good time to lie low and rest up.
During this time, there is probably a little exploring done when not resting, just as the NC survivors tried to explore, but I think that we all agree that you wouldn't want to be too far away from the Electra knowing that there was likely a search on, and with the Electra being the thing that will be seen, psychologically you want to be nearby when the searchers arrive.
Then on Day 5/6, the Electra disappears, perhaps battered about a bit by the rising tide, then floated off the reef and into the deep. Your reason for hanging out at Camp Zero just disappeared, so its time to seek better accommodations.
Exploring down the beach turns up the Arundel buildings and / or the NC survivors cache, which you would make use of, so you set up Camp One. Water is now the big issue, maybe the NC cache has water, or maybe you've found the brackish source the NC survivors found, but enough to keep you from dying. You could be gathering water back there one morning when suddenly there are three airplanes overhead who pass on by, circle and zoom a bit over some place you are not, and then fly on just as you come running out of the trees waving your arms off.
Two days later you shake off your depression over being so close yet so far, and decide that its time to pull up your shorts and figure out how to live on this island as it appears you are going to be there for a while. That means doing some serious exploring to see what assets you've got to work with. So you load up with a few essentials such as some of that yummy brackish water you've been boiling, carefully funneled into a nice Benedictine bottle, some essentials in the sextant box - signal mirror / compact and sun protection ointments, put on your stout walking shoes, and head out.
Camp 2 could be the bivouac site near Kanawa Point. Camp 3, who knows. Camp 7 is at the 7 site of course, where you come across turtle tracks on the beach, so you hang out there to catch one, butchering it with the crude tools you have, and cooking it in a fire. Seems like a pretty nice place to hang out, birds are easy to catch, crabs are available, clams nearby, Buka forest is cool when the breeze blows. About as nice as any place on the island, and certainly nicer than Nutiran which was really hot. Nice enough that you end up going back to Camp 2 where your stuff is stored, and bringing whatever items you fancy down to the 7 site.
Who knows, the 7 site may not even be the final camp site, but it does have several of the ingredients as described by Gallagher, so it is an intriguing place, only compounded by the odd stuff we've found there.
Anyway, a bunch of speculation, but my point is that if we're going to talk about Camp Zero, I think we should focus only on the very first camp up where the airplane may have been. That is where the useless items might have been abandoned once the Electra went over the edge.
Andrew