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Can’t agree with that. I love cooking when camping. Petrol stove and a Webber go anywhere are the first things in the car. <br />
Cooking on a fire is far more fun though.
Cooking on a fire is far more fun though.
For sure. Less likely to be allowed to do that though.
I am actually surprised you guys are allowed to!
If it’s really cold those Halfords foam garage tiles make a great bedroom floor.
If you enjoy the shade don't pitch your tent facing south or you'll have the sun coming in through your awning all day, more applicable in the summer obvs, we generally face north if we can that way the sitting/ cooking area is in the shade all day.
We also only camp where fire pits are allowed, it's just not camping without a fire.
Good books and good beer are a given.
cheap kettle and air fryer FTW
A friend of ours always brings a George Foreman grill – it's amazing what you cook in one of those.
Be safe be seen 😀
Love that the description includes "Running at Night" as a potential use. In Crocs 😄
For sure. Less likely to be allowed to do that though.
I am actually surprised you guys are allowed to!
It's a fairly large country with multiple seasons and biomes, so plenty of places where you can't have fires... but I normally aim to be in a place where we can.
pondo
Free Member
If budget permits, a decent air bed is great –
Double Size Comfort Plus Air Bed – Navy/White
If not, best bet is two singles under a shared bedsheet so you don’t disturb each other every time you roll over.
Are those things not a) freezing cold b) just silly size of jelly wobbling?
It’s a fairly large country with multiple seasons and biomes, so plenty of places where you can’t have fires… but I normally aim to be in a place where we can.
Yeah I get that just assumed there would be a kinda blanket ban for the greater good to deter all the stupid campfires.
That would be “Un-Australian.”
We do have localised fire bans when conditions require. A bit like hosepipe bans.
- Porta-potty is great in the corner of the tent living area for night time wee's for the children without them waking you up to trudge across a cold and wet field. Stick it round the back of the tent during the day when it's not being used. Number 2's in it are banned.
- Our journey was get a bigger car, then add a roofbox, then get a trailer. For the full weeks away including paddleboards or body boards then both roofbox and trailer are deployed.
- Electric hook up makes life easier but isn't necessary. As long as you have a couple of power banks to keep mobile devices running (if desired) then everything else can be done with gas or batteries.
- Don't share an air bed with your partner. It'll lead to divorce. We have 2 separate air beds so that one doesn't launch the other off when turning over. I've tried various bed set ups (camp bed, thermarest etc) and last year settled on a £12 Aldi air bed with a foil blanket underneath. So far so good with it.
- Really Useful Boxes for storage. Durable, stackable, can be left out in the rain, and make a good flat surface if you need some extra space.
I’ve got 2 setups - if wide and daughter I’ve got a chunky air tent with stacks of room in it. For just the daughter and I, there’s a small 3 bed tunnel tent with poles - cheapie thing from GoOutdoors.
2 seperate air beds - sharing with the wife on a small double air bed would be a nightmare.
Electric hookup is essential for me with either the wife or child. Take a beer fridge with us too for cider (warm cider is horrible) / milk etc.
Webber Go Anywhere (charcoal version) is great for some grilling and bbq-ing. I have a couple of those single gas hobs that run off an aerosol can for frying bacon or sausages on for breakfast and heating water. Probably should just get a small electric kettle when we have electric hookup for speed - but it’s less fun than using gas.
I don’t think I fancy having to empty a chemical toilet plus there’s not the space in the car / roofbox to fit one once there is a massive air tent / big beer fridge etc in there.
Most of the stuff we've got. The loo will follow - probably more essential for the three nights we're in a field with 'festival' porta loos to share with a few hundred folk when we go to Fairford for RIAT.
We've two Decathlon 3 man pop up tents and a 'base seconds' but that's now got a fair few rips appearing. These have been 'superseded' by a Nordisk tent (Wiggle bargain).
Cooking is sorted, old two burner stove with grill that connects to 904/907 bottles, and a Camping Gaz Party 400 BBQ - use this loads on the beach - griddle, hot plate, BBQ and wok in one. Bits and bobs are in tough plastic crates with lids. Gone with camping beds after I got in trouble when a brand new out of box airbed went flat in the night due to a pinhole in it.
We're looking at 3-4 night trips.
1st trip, the site is fairly basic, but we know the area very well (it's not far from our static that we've just got rid of), but going for hookup to keep food cool as no re-freezing ice block options, and the loo's are basic. They also only charge for leccy used, rather than a fair old premium.
Fairford is going to be a field, so we'll freeze food/milk etc, and hopefully it will last the three nights. At worse case I can walk it to a shop (roads will be rammed I suspect with air show traffic). If food doesn't last, or beer get's too hot, there is some catering and a bar on site.
Bala, we'll not use electric as the non-leccy plots are next to the lake (swim and SUP), and the reception does ice block freezing. Have a small solar panel to recharge battery packs.
Oh and must remember to pack the tent where it's accessible first ! Bit different with pop ups, although they can actually take up more space than a normal tent in a bag.
matt_outandabout
Are those things not a) freezing cold b) just silly size of jelly wobbling?
a) nope
b) nope
For a bit more info, my Wife runs super-cold. In the evening. I'll be sat in a t-shirt while she comes downstairs in her pyjamas, a hoodie and a hoodie blanket still complaining how cold it is. Her hands & nose will be cold to the touch.
But, she insists on taking one of those large airbeds on camping trips. We've got an Intex one that looks the same as the one linked to above. The pump inflates it and deflates it in about 90seconds and we got our prior to my daughter being born, so it over 8 years old.
Regarding the stability, it's pretty solid - surprisingly so. No idea how, but it doesn't wallow around like you'd expect.
We normally find that once it's inflated, it needs a top-up once the temperature has come down - just a 15 second blast and then it will stay like that for the rest of our stay.
We use a Coleman double sleeping bag with it.
We have an airbed that has dual chambers so stops alot of the problems with normal doubles
Now that I'm having to take 4 bikes we've moved onto a tiny trailer. Bought off a neighbour super cheap and restored. Now I wish we'd gone a bit bigger as you can't get load bars or hardtops that fit as its too small. So I need a bigger trailer....and they seem to be silly money.
Air tents are great, and completely doable solo. They are however huge and very heavy. Our airtrek 8 fills the entire car boot, no chance of fitting much in around it. We went large in case its ever really bad weather - with a decent indoor space it would be more tolerable
When it comes to packing up we've stopped trying to roll up the tent perfect. It gets a quick towel and chucked in the trailer and then sorted out at home. Likley you will be rolling it back out to air / dry at home anyways.
At home having everything organised in really useful boxes makes the whole getting packed / unpacked much easier
Someone on the previous page mentioned paying a bit extra for stuff. That's a good shout, camping is somewhere where "buy cheap, buy twice" definitely applies. I started out with bargain basement gear and wound up replacing, oh, everything I think. Bloody Gelert should get into the teabag market.
have kids? get some cheap extendable skewers from Amazon
Harsh, but needs must I suppose.
Cooking on a fire is far more fun though.
Why is your tent under a tent?
We have a couple of single 8cm Vango air beds and a 10cm Berghaus double air bed. They keeps everyone warm. The air beds came from my sister. Each one is chunky though. The Berghaus packed is the same size as the old 4man tunnel we have.
I've camped enough on skinny bedrolls and sleeping on the ground. I know I can but I quite like some comfort, the boys can experience that joy when they're bigger.
We're going to get a smaller 4man tent for weekends away as the massive vango is, well, massive and drying it is a pain.
It sounds like you have a good setup there Fossy, I also got a Nordisk in the Wiggle sale so I am very excited to try that. I am not a fan of electric in tents it largely seems to go against the spirit but I did notice that Jackery have a sale on power stations including the compact 240 that would probably cover your needs. You can charge them up in the car if you are out for day trips. Great to have around to keep wifi and things running at home if you have power cuts too 🙂
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404282531369?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20230811123856%26meid%3D0985fdd2014d4236bf67638b98901115%26pid%3D101770%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D404282531369%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2&_trksid=p4375194.c101770.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3A3c6ce25b18d0ac6e43a5fc03ffff649a%7Cpageci%3A70dcf64a-bada-11ee-b380-aa0b984a1d26%7Ciid%3A1%7Cvlpname%3Avlp_homepage
We have a caravan and mini camper so the tent is in the mix for short summer stays and tent camping is always fun. We do have a porta potty that gets used at night, mainly by me due to having a bladder the size of a chocolate orange. I am going to have a look at those foam tiles someone mentioned from Halfords. If they are not too chunky I might try sandwiching them between a tent footprint and the tent floor, our Nordisk is only 2m x 2.6m.
Not relevant to Fossy but I cannot get on with blackout bedrooms, they make the tent oppressive to be in during the day and I like to feel the tent warm up in the morning.
BillMCFull Member
Cork screw, oyster knifeI wouldn’t bother with the chemi-khazi
I'd be paying a visit to the GP if I were you, not a campsite.