Camping

Cinisajoy

Cinisajoy

Veteran
Joined
7 Oct 2016
Local time
11:58 PM
Messages
3,602
Location
Texas
The Nescafe thread got me to thinking about camping.
We camp on nearly every vacation. We started out in a small tent with an ice chest and Coleman stove and a granite coffee pot. We always got water only sites. Then we upgraded to a larger tent and got electric sites. We took a small refrigerator then. We also added a 12 cup coffee maker. (This cut down on old men coming by with coffee cup in hand.)
We nearly always stay in state parks.
Now we have a camper though we have never cooked in it. We tend to do restaurants.

So the question is:
How do you camp?
 
We camp UK style. We have a small tent with a small single ring methylated spirits burner (which can and has got a tiny gas bottle conversion kit). We prefer to camp wild and do so most of the time. Pitches are usually in the tents area of campsites if we use them at all, and generally don't have electricity or water. If they do have either, we don't use it. We have no adaptors, carry no adaptors and only carry water bottles and occasionally a couple of 5L water containers (that flat pack). I also have a second lighter weight tent that is smaller, generally used by myself or for single overnight excursions with my OH in good weather. In addition to that we have 2 bivvy bags and a tarp which we sometimes use. The cold the weather (freezing cold that is) the better because it suits us better, early to bed, early to rise. We camp all year round (and have camped in -20C), though it is over 4 years now since I last camped in anything below -10C.

Our camping hasn't changed since we met, and how I camp has become more basic since I left home. I have camped all my life (started when I was 6 months old apparently!)

We may need to look at our tent situation for our new environment in Australia. We may be better going back to canvas for the humidity (at the coast) to dry off. But I don't know yet.

IMG_1028.JPG

Our main tent which my OH carries on his bike because he wanted the 'larger' sized tent with the built in extension at a wild camp in Ireland (EIRE)

IMG_0820.JPG

Our little tent which I can carry by myself. It weighs in under 1kg - or did until I replaced the pegs with something useable, on a Welsh campsite. I was the only tent.

IMG_2009_800.JPG

Our stove (a trangia) and its gas bottle can be seen by my OH in this picture (wild camp in Arctic tundra Norway above the 75th Parrallel). If we are in the car, we will 'splash' out and take both stoves and have 2 rings. 1 meths and 1 gas.

We also have 2 Vango Force 10 mk IVs (both originally bright orange, but now more of a very faded apricot) but they were left in the UK because I ran out of time to get them clean enough to get them through Australian Biosecurity Customs Controls and didn't want them confiscating and burning. Sadly both would have been idea on the coast here, with them being canvas tents (lets the humidity through where the above 2 don't.)
 
Last edited:
morning glory said:
Answer? You won't catch me doing that. I may be persuaded to do 'glamping' if central heating is provided. :laugh:
Click to expand...
We have both heating and air conditioning in our camper.
We had to get a camper because the chihuahua learned to work zippers.
 
Done "wild" camping in North Wales and England, Summer & Winter, Scotland, Winter.

It's always been done with equipment carried there. Tents have varied from a two-man Tadpole(Ultimate, local manufacturer) to an eleven-man Icelandic(Vango).
Stoves, from a Trangia to a larger homebuilt stove.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
We camp UK style. We have a small tent with a small single ring methylated spirits burner (which can and has got a tiny gas bottle conversion kit). We prefer to camp wild and do so most of the time. Pitches are usually in the tents area of campsites if we use them at all, and generally don't have electricity or water. If they do have either, we don't use it. We have no adaptors, carry no adaptors and only carry water bottles and occasionally a couple of 5L water containers (that flat pack). I also have a second lighter weight tent that is smaller, generally used by myself or for single overnight excursions with my OH in good weather. In addition to that we have 2 bivvy bags and a tarp which we sometimes use. The cold the weather (freezing cold that is) the better because it suits us better, early to bed, early to rise. We camp all year round (and have camped in -20C), though it is over 4 years now since I last camped in anything below -10C.

Our camping hasn't changed since we met, and how I camp has become more basic since I left home. I have camped all my life (started when I was 6 months old apparently!)

We may need to look at our tent situation for our new environment in Australia. We may be better going back to canvas for the humidity (at the coast) to dry off. But I don't know yet.

View attachment 3395
Our main tent which my OH carries on his bike because he wanted the 'larger' sized tent with the built in extension at a wild camp in Ireland (EIRE)

View attachment 3396
Our little tent which I can carry by myself. It weighs in under 1kg - or did until I replaced the pegs with something useable, on a Welsh campsite. I was the only tent.

View attachment 3397
Our stove (a trangia) and its gas bottle can be seen by my OH in this picture (wild camp in Arctic tundra Norway above the 75th Parrallel). If we are in the car, we will 'splash' out and take both stoves and have 2 rings. 1 meths and 1 gas.

We also have 2 Vango Force 10 mk IVs (both originally bright orange, but now more of a very faded apricot) but they were left in the UK because I ran out of time to get them clean enough to get them through Australian Biosecurity Customs Controls and didn't want them confiscating and burning. Sadly both would have been idea on the coast here, with them being canvas tents (lets the humidity through where the above 2 don't.)
Click to expand...
Much as I admire it, I don't get it!
 
morning glory said:
Much as I admire it, I don't get it!
Click to expand...
Don't worry, I don't get camper vans or motorhomes and my parents have only just quit with their motorhome and my grandparents (now both deceased) always used to take a caravan. When I stayed on holiday with them, I either slept in the awning or separately in a tent. I can't do and don't get sleeping in vehicles of any description.
Even houses get to me and I have to have as many windows open as possible, irrespective of the temperature and don't get me started on central heating. I hate it.
 
Ours at the moment is a pop-up.
It appears that SatNavSaysStraightOn camps for the fun of being outdoors.
We on the other hand camp for the savings and the quiet.

Several years ago, we wanted to do some things in Fort Worth, TX. So we stayed at Lake Mineral Wells. That was much cheaper than staying in Fort Worth.

So we pretty much glamp and SatNavSaysStraightOn camps.
 
I camp for the love of being outdoors.

Saving money is a bonus.
I camp wild when I can to save even more money and avoid people. I hate noisy neighbours and much prefer the wildlife being noisy. I find campsites during the summer season are too noisy for my liking.

My 'big' tent is a Hilleberg (just google them) (the top and bottom photo) and is an +£800 job that is arctic proof. It will and has stood up to hurricane force winds & rain without leaking or breaking. It is designed for winter in places like Iceland, Greenland, the very far corners of Scandinavia and high altitude. It is amazingly robust and we love it. It has been lived in for well over a year and travelled many thousands (upwards of +10,000miles) miles on our expedition bikes. We can't fault it and it is still going strong. I am hoping my back will be good enough for us to start using it again before long.

The little tent is a Vaude and (middle photo) is around £300 and weighs in at under 1kg. It is big enough for 2 adults and 1 child, so deceptively so. Ironically this tent actually weighs less than one of our bivvy bags and the tarp, so it is better to carry it, than bivvy (when you know you can pitch a tent).

My other 2 tents are basically in retirement, but I can't bear to part with them. One is the tent I camped in most of my childhood and teenage years. The other is the same (identical but newer) tent and I camped in that well into my 20's and 30's. In fact it was only recently replaced (in the last 5 years) by the Hilleberg, though we did have a series of lighter weight tents for backpacking and long distance hiking which usually perished after 4 or 5 years of use (variously Vangos and Mountain Equipment and another I can't now remember without looking up.)

My cooking equipment however, as remained the same. Trangias through and through. I think I have had 4 of them over the years. We went over to a gas conversion kit after it got too cold for methylated spirits to light, back when it went down to -20C for around 10 nights. And after a few issues with gas lighting but never getting hot enough to boil water 10 years ago, I went over to a pressurised fuel conversion kit for the trangia as well. This was upgraded 5 years ago, so that I could burn any fuel on my trangia no matter what. And 4 years ago this autumn we went over to an adonised trangia which takes all 3 burners (methylated spirits, gas, and multi-fuel). We still prefer the gas kit. (I am talking about the proper trangia here in the Swedish concept of it, as we know it in the UK, rather than the American concept of it which is just the burner from what I understand.) All of our trangia kit has travelled to Australia with us, getting through customs without issue thankfully!
 
Your tent and stove look totally awesome.
We avoid camping in the summer. Too hot and way too many people. We also avoid weekends.
You are pretty much right about the stove.
So have you ever been to the United States?

Though I have to say we wish we would have scheduled our last vacation later in the year. We went to south Texas the first week of September. Heat, humidity and mosquitoes. But my parents needed us.
 
Cinisajoy said:
So have you ever been to the United States?
Click to expand...
No, not yet. But my husband has been on several occasions (work related) but he was able to swing it so that they stayed more than 5 days because return flights of less than 5-7 nights get hit with a premium because they assume you are on business even if you fly economy. So it worked out cheaper for his work to put 2 of them up in a house for 10 days (2 weekends and 1 week if you get me) and pay them to do nothing and meet all their expenses, than it did to return them home within 5 days... He was up around Lake Michigan at least twice, and the Shenandoah national park at least once. I can't remember the other place he went to.

TBH, other than Europe (most of it or at least around 30 countries of it, Russia very briefly, Turkey (both Europe and Asia sides of it) I am not that widely travelled, but the areas I have been to, I have explorer quite a bit. Until May, I hadn't actually ventured south of southern Turkey/Gibraltar (both on the 36th parallel) But I have been up to the 76th parallel. Our plan is to make the most of our 3-4 yrs in Australia, exploring New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania and if we have time maybe some of Asia as well, but we are restricted with my OH's work etc.
 
classic33 said:
Give it a go, maybe you'll get the camping bug.
Click to expand...
I promise you I won't. Apart from anything else I have trouble getting up if I sit on the ground due to age and weakness in legs. I can't deal with cold to any degree either as I'm prone to chill very quickly. I even get numb fingers when driving due to poor circulation. Also, how am I supposed to do my hair in the morning (I need hairdryer and straighteners). And how am I supposed to go to the loo?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom