Essential Camping Equipment Everyone Must Take
When we went on our next camping trip, we had acquired a few more items for the luxury tent, although he might say slumming tent after last time. We started to pack up the car with the essentials
I packed what I considered essential camping equipment…
Tent – obvious first choice.
Coolbox and ice packs – these will last a few days, then it is daily shop runs for fresh food.
Plates, cutlery, pots and pans basically all things for eating and drinking from.
Sleeping bags – an essential camping item.
Clothes – I am terrible when it comes to packing clothes. I like to be prepared; I am still trying to learn how to travel light, although badly. We have to have clothes for all occasions: rain, sun, blizzards (we are going in October), heat wave, wind; you never know. By the time I have enough clothes for all four people in the car, I have very little room left. I might need to pack around the kids on the back seat.
Toys for the kids in case it rains all day – Monopoly is normally the go-to. I hate this game, but it lasts forever; the kids like it, so a good rainy-day tent game. A few circus games and outdoor toys, which are always a good laugh.
He packed what he considered must-haves…
Tent pegs - not just any old knock-in-and-go flimsy tent peg, no, these were deluxe go-through-concrete, for hard-standing ground tent pegs.
Drill – for the tent pegs, I never knew you could buy tent pegs that only worked using a drill; who knew.
Oven and gas bottle – there are no small gas canisters for this; this is having its own dedicated 4kg gas bottle. I am wondering how much he plans to cook to need all of that gas, but we will see.
Wardrobe – who even needs a wardrobe, yes it will come in handy for the coats if they are wet, but do we really need a wardrobe?
Carpet – all I can say on this one is, really.
Kitchen – I never realised people took so much stuff
Electric connector – This was a novelty, and I do mean novelty in a good way; never had electric whilst camping before.
Electric tent heater – He hid this one.
Sofa and chairs – He has gone extremely excessive on these
So both cars (an estate and 7-seater) are finally packed with a copious amount of stuff for two adults and two children ready for adventure, although we would be happy to just get there with the suspension still intact.
Is it just me, or does everyone have this overwhelming need to try out every toilet from home to your destination? Thirty miles into the drive, and we are stopping at the service station for a bathroom break; can you imagine if we lived in Europe or America, anywhere basically larger than a twenty pence piece, we could plan huge multi-day journeys exploring all the bathrooms along the motorway, and that is just to get to Walmart.
So we camped in the middle of the woods; it was amazing. We had a hard-standing pitch with electric, nestled within tall trees overlooking a quiet train track- bliss. His deluxe tent pegs were worth every penny, all £15.99 of them; personally, I would have paid more knowing how good they are. There was no way you were getting any form of normal tent peg in this ground. Imagine MOT (crushed aggregate), gravel and any other stone they could find, compacted together so tightly that even the ants struggle to make a nest. But not these pegs; you put the drill on, slowly start the pegs turning, and in they go- easy, definitely worth it. I had to admit that the carpet was also a must; he did well. The tent carpet made your feet all toasty, as I can't abide shoes on inside, which unfortunately includes the tent.
The following morning, Bo decided to try out the new heater. It was a lovely morning that you only needed a light jumper on whilst the sun burnt off the morning dew. I’m still curled up in bed, fast asleep on the blow-up divan bed (unbelievably comfy, still contemplating swapping my bed at home) when he put the heater on full to take the chill off for when me and the kids wake up. Anyone reading this might think that is a really considerate thing to do, which it is, if he hadn’t forgotten. So he puts the heater inside the tent on full, vacates the tent to make himself his morning coffee and proceeds to have a beautiful morning brew all relaxed whilst watching the birds. He hears movement from inside the tent; the tent door is zipped up, so he puts the kettle on again as he knows I like my morning tea. The zip hastily opens as he waits with anticipation, and then it hits him. The heat- it’s like a furnace door being opened, complete with its own inferno mirage. He looks through the shimmering haze to see me standing there, hair plastered to the side of my face, pyjamas dripping wet through like I have been dancing in the rain, gasping for breath with a face so red you would think I was auditioning for Elmo, and he laughs, actual lean back laughing. At least we know the electric fan heater works well and will do an amazing job in a blizzard; winter camping with unlimited electric supply, here we come.
We went for a walk up a ridiculously big hill; the views were amazing. Random sections of the hill were lined with trees which looked like a gateway to other worlds. If people have filmed here for scenes where fairies are darting about, it would look believable; an absolutely beautiful place; words will not describe it. When we got to the top, we sat down for a picnic overlooking the valley below.
Whilst eating, we heard someone shout, “Darren, you’ve got the sandwiches!”
A man in an electric wheelchair came whizzing past, big grin on his face. “No, Mummy, I am going to the top; catch me if you can.”
We looked back, and an older couple was sitting down, looking a little worse for wear. They looked at us, smiling, “Don’t worry, he’ll be back.”
He never did get to the top; just around the corner, he got a puncture. He was devastated; we helped them back down the hill, and I have to admit that wheelchair did brilliantly to get up the hill. Hopefully they will be able to venture up there again puncture-free.
When we got back, we made a massive chilli on the fabulous camping cooker with the option of rice or jacket potato; this beast will cook just about anything. Whilst the chilli was simmering, we had started to get a small gathering chatting and laughing around the cooker. It was a definite conversation starter, and as we were trying the cooker out properly, we cooked an obscene amount of food for four people. This turned out to be really lucky, as all fourteen of us sat down on chairs, tree roots and large stones for a home-cooked chilli outside; I did have to add a little more ingredients to the pot, but the cooker coped.
For our last day we went for a walk into the village for ice cream, you know, the proper wafer cones with Cornish clotted cream ice cream. They were that good that a random stranger came up to Bo, handed him a napkin, gave him one of those pity smiles and said, “I think you need this more than I do!” When I looked at him, he had ice cream everywhere; it looked like he had bathed in it. There was ice cream dripping down his beard, down his shirt and a splodge on his shoe. We still don’t know how he managed it. You just can’t take him anywhere.
This was the last tent adventure; come back next time to read why.
Or come and sit on the Sofa once a week.
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