A quick kit list for newbie Campers.

This list is specifically for a couple, who are thinking of throwing a few things in the car and heading off on a mini adventure, It is inspired by an overnight camp I did in Corgreggan Mill, near Dunfanaghy. The nicest, craziest, most ill prepared couple came along and camped nearby me and I nearly wet myself when they tried to get a double airbed into a tiny, single skinned pop up tent. They were like an upturned turtle and the pair of them were in fits of hysterical giggles. We parted friends and it is in tribute to them that I write this post. 

Tent

Editors Choice Camping Magazine Awards 2014 chose this tent for good reason. It costs a shade under £120.

The Quechua 2 Seconds XL is double skinned, so it will keep you nice and snug in an inner pod which is breathable, will wick away all the condensation from your breath and will prevent your bedding from coming into contact with the waterproof outer tent. The tent is a pop up, so is easy to put up and although there's a knack, just as easy to put away. 

It's small enough you can probably dry it out in your living room when you get home. It's big enough to let you sit up in comfort, and gives you the space to get changed. It's super strong, even a strong wind will only flatten it but it will not break it. This particular one even has a built in light. 

It's a three berth tent which makes it better for two people because tent manufacturers are always a bit on the mean size when it comes to calculating how much room a person needs, and it has a porch for your smelly shoes, your clothes bag or for storing that little backpackers stove you've picked up to make a cuppa with. 

QUECHUA 2 SECONDS XL III ILLUMIN FRESH POP UP TENT - 3 MAN, WHITE/GREEN

Link to website

Argos Ready Bed Double

This is a budget solution (about £40 but often on sale) to a double sleeping arrangement in a tent. It is not the best airbed on the market, but then even the most expensive ones are prone to leakage, as anything inflatable is. I'm a fan of Ready Beds because they are one of the few sleeping solutions that have a sleeping bag built in to the design. It is essentially a double sleeping bag with an airbed slipped in to a big pocket on the underside. That means that when you turn around, the bedding stays put, and I find this far more comfortable than struggling with individual sleeping bags that twist around you when you turn. The bed is sealed all around which makes it a better option than taking bedding from home as you will have gaps around the sides which will let warm air out, and cold air in. 

The cons of this bed are that the bedding is quite flimsy. This can be offset by taking a big throw or fleecy blanket from home. And you'll be together, so you can keep each other warm. 

The dimensions of the bed are 180cm by 132cm. Considering the above tent has a sleeping area of 210cm by 210cm there's plenty of space left over. 

Ready Bed Double from Argos currently £28

Extra Insulation

As airbeds are essentially a big bag of cold air, if you have it adjacent to cold ground then the result will be that you will possibly get quite chilly. Counteract this by using a layer of insulation underneath the airbed. This can be something like cardboard from a local shop, or a foil backed picnic blanket. A few pounds spent on foam camping mats, or even yoga mats will help enormously.

These Yellowstone mats from Amazon are foil backed which will help reflect your body heat back at you. They are about £6 each and you will need two for putting under a double airbed.

A free alternative, other than the aforementioned cardboard, is if you are installing some laminate flooring at home keep a bit of the insulating layer that you put below the laminate for under your airbed. If you really have nothing else, a couple of newspapers spread out will be better than nothing.

Seating

A very basic seating area can be achieved with a picnic blanket. I think that if you are just trying this camping lark out and you are young and reasonably fit, you can't go far wrong with a picnic blanket as your seating solution for your first camping adventure at least. Then, if you really like camping you can start to look for camping chairs. 

These picnic blankets, from Home Bargains are £4.49 each.

I haven't touched on cooking or basic tea making facilities, because in my eyes you start to get in to a whole lot of extra equipment. However I would recommend taking snacks, drinks and a picnic and store food in an airtight container to minimize attracting wild life into your tent. You will probably find you eat out in the evenings at least. Just go, enjoy and if the weather turns bad shove it all in the car and go home. There's always next weekend! 

The Wild Atlantic Campsite and the Wild Wind

Camping at the Wild Atlantic Campsite in a storm.

The Wild Atlantic Campsite is in North Donegal right in the village of Creeslough. It is a hilly terrain and the campsite is downhill from a main street which has shops, dwellings and a fuel station along it. The effect is that when you are on the campsite the road and buildings are above you. The campsite has an all-weather sports pitch, an extensive childrens playground, and a bike hire facility. At the bottom of the site is a mini golf course. This area was waterlogged and was not being used as a golf course at the moment. Creeslough itself is about 6 miles from Dunfanaghy, which is a popular holiday home area and has a bit of an arty buzz to it (and a strong smell of money) from the newly retireds, who wander down the street with matching pale blue sweaters over their shoulders in true sloan style, in search of a latte. This is not deepest Ireland as you'd see it in the postcards, it's not a place with 17 pubs down one side of the street and 12 down the other. There's not a shamrock in sight, even the 'trad' music is cool acoustic jazz. Apparently there's even a Jazz festival in September.

On the Friday evening I ended up in Dunfanaghy. This was mainly because I needed a bank machine to get Euros as I had not time to sort that out while I was still in the 'North' (paradoxically, I was geographically more 'North' than my own home town but people from Northern Ireland and Ireland will know well that 'The North' means Northern Ireland which has sterling instead of Euros and Donegal, despite being geographically north, is considered 'The South' as it is a county of good old Eire. I include this for my English relatives who are all a bit confused by the distinction.) Anyway I knew for a fact that there was a bank machine in Dunfanaghy but not sure about the whereabouts of bank machines in Creeslough. On a practical note, it turns out the bank machine in the Centra Shop, in Dunfanaghy, is in fact the only bank machine around for miles. Welcome to Ireland.

The second reason for going to Dunfanaghy is that I knew I could get a really fancy, very tasty gourmet pizza in a pub with music (soft acoustic) and I knew because I'd been once last year. The pub is called Patsy Dans and it has this really cool beer garden with lots of glowing lights and vintage furniture. It was too cold to sit outside and so I ended up sharing a table indoors with two other women who chatted away and made me feel a little less lonely, as sitting on your own is never that much fun.

My podding friends weren't turning up until the next day. I spent a bit of time glamping my new Bell Tent up and really enjoyed having the luxury of a double bed this time. I took a 'readybed' and layered it underneath with mats for insulation and on top with blankets. I was going for a blue theme as I have a blue 'Beanstalk camping kitchen which is a collectable retro item now. The wind was quite bad and I didn't sleep that well due to the noise and worry about the fact I'd pitched under a tree, and I was concerned the wind would knock a branch down. Little was I to know that the storm was only going to get worse.

The following day the tent didn't seem to be coping all that well with the now incessant rain. A few places on the polycotton developed white patches which seemed to have drops of rain coming through the fabric (although it did not actually drip) and the wind was getting stronger and the tent was bowing in on one side. I got my peg bag out of the car and replaced all the windward side pegs with deltas.

It felt quite restrictive being in a Bell Tent in the rain, but the two windows came in to their own for the first time in the use of the tent so far. Honestly the walls would have been closing in if it wasn't for the fact that I could see out. So glad I have those windows and worth going polycotton for that feature alone.

I went off for a drive to check out another nearby campsite, but the storm was so bad I could barely get out of the car. When I got back to the campsite I parked the car on the windward side of the tent to take some pressure from the guyropes, which looked like they would snap.

As the day became night (and my friends and I went for a takeaway to a place conveniently beside the campsite) the storm gusted to approximately 35 miles per hour, according to accuweather - and when I went to bed that night I felt genuinely scared, and that I was really stupid for being in a canvas bag, under a pine tree, in what amounted to a Force 7 gale. The Accuweather proclaimed a weather warning for wind and for flooding was in place. I did sleep fitfully, but the wind would whoosh so loudly overhead and then hit the tent a second or two later, that I did think I could be in real danger.

Somehow, the tent and I survived until morning. The wind subsided and the sun even tried to come out. I went to the onsite coffee shop with my friends and it was decided that we'd go to the beach. Honestly, if you'd seen us you'd have thought it was December. I was in a heavy winter coat, my friends where in coats, hats and gloves and their kids were in wellies, hats, waterproof jackets and scarves. We enjoyed the beach anyway. We found mussels - I brought some home. Soaked them, ate them, they were nearly restaurant size. They were lovely.

I arrived back on site about 1pm and found a couple in a campervan were waiting for me to leave. It was my own fault, I should have packed in the morning. It being a Sunday I'd assumed I'd not have to rush off site. I even considered staying another night (as the weather was to vastly improve) but it was not to be. I actually don't think this couple had to take my pitch, as there were others available. But it was clear that they fancied my pitch and so it was that I had to pack up sharpish. They went for a walk so at least I was able to get on with it without an audience. However the heavens opened again and I was like a drowned rat, and now I'm home with a hideous wet tent.

The Bell Tent

Pros

It kept standing even in a Force 7 Gale even though it didn't look like it would.
It was nice to glamp it up a bit
It has windows

Cons

It's too heavy, it's a beast. I can barely handle it. I'm not exactly fit though.
The PVC floor is so substantial that it doesn't fold up easily when one person is having to do it by themselves.
It doesn't dry that quickly.
It's quite big so you take too much stuff to put inside it.

Overview of 2014

It's been a funny old year. This is the year in which my teenagers rebelled against 'Family Holidays' and I had to hire a holiday cottage in order to bribe them into one last go of it. In the first part of the year camping was hampered by my re-taking of a GCSE I didn't pass 20 odd years ago, which thankfully I can claim a pass now. I was busy studying for a June Exam and since I also had a son taking all of his GCSE's, going away for quick weekends ate in to valuable study time so we didn't bother.

In that period of time I lost my 'wee camping buddy', Toby my long haired Jack Russell dog. He was only two. He got out through a hedge with a fence in it on to a busy road during a walk in a Forest Park and he was instantly killed. We decided not to try and replace Toby as he was one of a kind.

Our main family holiday took place in Cruit Island off the coast of West Donegal. It is an island that you access by driving over a bridge. The holiday cottage was compact but easy to keep clean and it was a bit like camping only in a brick tent. We pretty much did everything that we would normally do camping except I had a proper double bed to sleep in and a proper fridge, cooker etc, which was nice. I did miss the company of other people on a campsite though.

We spent our days fishing, exploring beaches because Donegal is probably one of the few places on earth where you'll have a beach, in mid July (incidentally, in another heatwave - great timing) all to yourself. I even swam in the same bit of sea as a Dolphin which was a real treat. We had a few great meals out and I read a few books and we walked our wee legs off.

Some photos of our holiday in Donegal

www.cruitholidayhome.com

Interior of cottage

The Poison Glen

Errigal Mountain

Fishing off Braade Head

Glenveigh National Park