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! 

Sunflower Festival 2015

The Sunflower Fest has come of age. No more are we the punters struggling with unnecessary hardship, the place was clean, the portaloos were plenty, the mud was minimal despite some rain. The bands were fantastic, the food was plentiful and varied, and the outer corners held some special little spaces that you came across by surprise such the Coconut Water Bar, a lovely little chill out spot.

There were lots of little tweaks. The main stage used to have an undercover area to one side that was VIP only, now opened up to all who needed it as a shelter from the rain. A Marquee right beside the sound tent (mid centre of main arena) that used to be occupied by a frankly dodgy burger vendor who took up most of the space for his customers, has been vacated with just a few simply constructed low tables that served as seating and/or coffee table, under cover and out of the elements. The hot food vendors lined the sides of the field in the main arena and the prices were reasonable.No more is the guy that served one slice of pizza and a can for a fiver - now you can get a whole pizza, any topping for a tenner. Also on offer was barbecue sticky ribs, a Burrito Bar, traditional Chippy, Thai and down in the 'Bliss' Valley vegetarian Falfatel.

The band of the whole weekend, in my opinion, was a band called The Screaming Eagles. They are a bluesy rock band that are sharing stages these days with such big name bands as Airbourne and Black Star Riders. 

The Screaming Eagles

The second best band was called 'The Love Street' hailing from Cornwall, with a surprisingly celtic rock flavour and who won over the crowd with a rousing rendition of 'Whiskey in the Jar', always a winner in my book.

The Camping Bit

My eldest son and I carried everything in on one run, using a decent trolley and a crap one. The crap one really let us down and will be replaced before we take this type of thing on again. The little wheels just weren't up to uneven stones and grass. We'd worked really hard to condense all we'd need down to as little as possible, and decided to take the Quechua Base Seconds with the optional inner you can buy, to serve as our 'home' for the weekend. In hindsight, considering the weather could only be described as iffy, it would have been better to take something a bit more spacious. 

In all it was a lovely weekend and although we were tired at the end we were happy and a bit smelly. I met a lady called Denise who I'd corresponded with on Facebook prior to going and who turned out to be camping right beside me. She was working hard as a volunteer and I would consider doing volunteering there in the future, now that they seem to have sorted out all the teething problems five years in to the start of running this festival. 

The 'NEVER NO MORE' camping list

This is a pared down list of camping gear which represents the minimum you can get away with whilst still having relative comfort. 

'Never No More' Camping List

Shelter

Tent 

Pegs

Mallet

Sleeping

Airbed/Self Inflating Mat
Pump if using Airbed

Bedding (sleeping bag or sheets and Duvet)

Pillow

Extra Blanket

Hot Water Bottle

Relaxing

Chair

Small Table

Book

Lantern

Eating

Mini Stove

Fuel Cannister

Lighter/Matches

Small Frying Pan

Lidded Pan

Sharp Knife

Small Chopping Board

Spork

Mug

Breakfast Bowl
Bottle Opener/Corkscrew
Tin Opener

Trug or Bowl for Washing Up

scourer and washing up liquid

Tea Bags

Coffee Granules

Cool box or cool bag

Flask

Personal

 Soft Holdall/Bag

Spare Clothing

A Big Jumper

PJ's

First Aid Kit

Bug Repellent

If the camping trip is short, you can cut out most of the kitchen equipment, as long as you have the makings of a cuppa.

Stendhal Festival, Limavady

The great thing about the Decathlon Base Seconds 4.2 is that it folds into a circle which can be carried like a rucksack, making it ideal for a Festival situation. It is heavy, the circle is bulky too, but carrying camping gear in to a festival site is never an easy task no matter what and having a tent you can carry on your pack at least frees up both hands to carry other things. 

At Stendhal Festival only two in my family were going. Myself and eldest son aged 16. He's a big strapping lad of 6ft now and so he gets the job of carrying the tent on his back. I carry a large rucksack with all the soft things in it (clothes, blankets, sleeping bags etc). Then we have a trolley which carried our coolbox and everything else bungeed to the top. It was heavy going, festival fields are generally quite far from the car parking area, but it was doable! 

I've learnt a few little things about festivals now, although I am sure I have much more tweaking to do. I feel this was our best effort yet. I think I generally brought the right equipment. At previous festivals I've brought a whole kitchen outfit only to spend a lot of money on food from stalls anyway. This time I only brought tea/coffee making facilities, and I gave both of us a food budget of £50 each to do food and drinks for the whole weekend. A meal is averaging out about £6 - £8 with soft drinks being £1 for a can and alcoholic drinks (for me) being nearer the £4 mark. The £50 was about right. I still brought multipacks of soft drinks and crisps and also cereal bars for breakfast. There was one breakfast at another festival, when I had no milk left so went to the kiosk for coffee and something to eat. One coffee and a bun in a plastic wrapper was £5 and I had two of us to buy for. Ouch! £10 for a breakfast and still hungry! Never again, bring cereal bars and if you are even better organised, bring large home made flapjacks which will be far nicer. 

The festival had brilliant music with the highlight for me being 'The Plaintains', a local group made up of pupils from a Special Needs school. They did Status Quo's 'Rockin all over the World' and it was the most feel good band I think I've ever been to see. 

This Festival was very good value at £35 for a family. A far cry from the Sunflower Festival who put their ticket prices up this year and it would have been £140 for us both to go! 

Shepherds Rest, Draperstown

What a fantastic overnighter we had at The Shepherds Rest which is near Draperstown, Northern Ireland. When I say we, I mean my nephew and myself. Our very first Auntie and Nephew camping trip! We also had great company in the form of John, a fellow member of the Northern Ireland Campsite Forum. 

We arrived on the Saturday morning about 11am with what we thought was minimal camping equipment. I had planned this out throughout the preceding week, and it seemed to be a longer list than it should be. Especially when we were only staying one night! We brought the tent obviously, and our beds, and a chair each. I brought the coleman mini table I'm so pleased with - and another backpacker table which I could have done without. I brought coffee making things, as we were only planning on one night we planned to eat out. We brought the makings of a breakfast and that necessitated a cool box. I also needed our basic first aid kit, baby wipes, a dish washing bucket plus dish washing liquid, a plate, mug and spork each, and kitchen roll.

The site is in the back garden of the Shepherds Rest public house. The pub nestles into a pretty valley in the Sperrin mountains and as the name implies, this is sheep farming territory. I had the good fortune to be travelling from the west, so I approached it through the mountains on a lovely sunny morning. The clouds threatened us with a few drops of rain every so often, but they soon moved on. 

The site is in two sections, separated by a hedge. On the south side of the hedge are Caravan hardstandings, and some terraced grassy areas for tents. On the north side of the hedge was the true pub garden, but it is large and can hold tents as well. It has planted borders which at this time of year are bright with many flowers, the grounds are well tended, the grass freshly mown. There is a long path through the middle of this garden, with a canopied area at the back of the pub, slightly raised and with tables and chairs. This part of the building houses the function rooms, not the general bar area, so you don't feel you are under scrutiny all the time. The other end of the path brings you to a re-creation of an old Irish Cottage, complete with a small campers kitchen in one corner. There is comfy seating, a table and chair arrangement and an open fire. There are a few vintage items strewn about, interesting artifacts like a traditional butter churn and some gas lanterns. The fuel for the fire seemed to be provided by the site.

The electric kettle in the campers kitchen corner was brilliant, much quicker than faffing about with my own backpacker stove which is not that stable. We used it for coffees, hot chocolate for my nephew, and to fill two hot water bottles. 

As the summer is wearing on the night time temperatures are starting to drop. The heat wave we had in mid July is gone but we've still had quite good weather since, mostly sharp showers with sunny spells. The temperatures have remained normal (not exceptional like they were in the heat wave) but the nights are drawing in, getting progressively earlier and with it, it's cooler. We had good bedding with us, but the hot water bottles were nice to warm the beds just before getting in to it. I had to evict mine once settled as it was too warm. Then about 2am, I woke chilled to the bone. I'd taken a fleecy blanket and woke up enough to arrange that over me and an hour later I threw it off again as I was far too warm. 

A large family group with four or five tents had come during the day, and they were lovely people but there were a lot of them. They had quite a few children as well. The kids got very excited and were incredibly noisy that night. They were having a wonderful time, and I love to hear kids having a good time...just not at midnight! Thank goodness for ear plugs! 

The amenities for the campsite are housed in a room at the back of the pub. There are steps from the 'garden' into this area and they are quite steep, and I think, would benefit from a hand rail. That aside, the room that caters for the campers is really good. There is a corner for laundry (washing machine, drier and dedicated sink), another for an information area which was a table and notice board, with notices, services, brochures and a guest book. Just inside the door was a campers 3/4 sized fridge. The men and ladies bathrooms were to the rear of this room, one per gender. As the shower was situated in the same room as the toilet that meant it was essentially a wet room. The only problem with this is that when someone takes a shower they are effectively stopping others from using the loo. 

All in all, a great site and one I will definitely return to. I will leave the tables and chairs at home the next time, and use the picnic tables already there. 

Buying a tunnel tent tips and hints

Going to a tent display, should you find one near you, is an ideal way of getting a feel for the kind of tent you'd like. I often advise a tunnel tent as they are one of the easiest designs and can come in family friendly sizes. Here's a few things to look out for:

• A tunnel tent usually has three or five flexible poles. The ones with five poles aren't much more difficult to erect that the ones with three poles. 

• A tunnel tent often has different lengths of poles. The pole will have a colour (usually in the centre of the pole so you won't see it through the pole sleeve) which corresponds to a colour sewn on to the end of the pole sleeve.

• A tunnel tent which has all the same length of poles won't need colour coding and eliminates a certain amount of faff. The Vango Icarus is an obvious example.

• Tents often have separate bedroom pods that are designed to be unhooked before striking camp. This is not necessary, bedroom pods can be left in situ when folding the tent up.

• Many tents are factory vacuum packed. This means that when you go to fold up a tent it is nigh on impossible to get it back into it's supplied bag. Look for an 'oversized bag' as a selling point. 

• A steel poled tunnel tent will be sturdier in a gale, but has a heavier and bulkier pack size. You can compensate by carrying poles and tent separately, but then you risk leaving the poles at home accidentally (and you won't be popular for that!)

• A polycotton fabric tent won't heat up as quickly in the mornings should it be sunny, so you'll get an extra bit of sleeping in time. Again it's heavier and bulkier pack size (and expense) , but you decide if it's worth it. 

A one nighter in Ballyness

I'd like to share my thoughts on the practicality of camping for one night only. I'd planned to go for two nights, solo (well with dog) while kids were at grans only dental appointments put paid to that. Anyway the weather report showed there wasn't any real point staying the second night.

The thing is, I'd got all excited about going camping (even though I'm just back from a two and a half week jaunt - see 'BIG TOUR') and I couldn't bear the thought that it might not happen. Even the night before I hardly got any sleep, I was so excited about going camping! I was going on my holidays!!....even though I'd just got back from some.....

I'd written a list detailing the things I would need. It included the Quechua seconds base plus inner, a lightweight airbed, my XL sleeping bag, a flight blanket (thin but warm), pillows, one chair, the stove plus kettle, a mug spoon and sharp knife, the sigg bottle for milk, the dogs crate, a windbreak, a lantern and a change of clothes. I also took the airbed pump, my toothbrush and a container of coffee, and strangely, a melon.

My Quechua really turned heads. I was very proud of my egg like space pod and I think everyone else was secretly envious of my cool tent. My sister and BIL (and kids) arrived on site for the afternoon. They had two little dogs, but one of them got tragically killed on the road last week. The remaining dog seemed to really enjoy the company of my dog. It was decided that we would all go to the beach, a place called White Park Bay. I've been here before but came at it from the east end, I've never approached it from the main path. The path is very steep, it's not so bad going down but it's a 15 minute hike back up to the car park again which required a fitness level better than mine. It's worth it though. Once I'd got my breath back from the ascent of the path we went off in search of fish and chips (diet...what diet) and luckily there's a place nearby that has won an award from the Fish Fryers Association. The whiting was spot on. Life is good. Especially when washed down with a couple of cans of beer.

I have to say I didn't sleep all that well. I've got spoilt with my Intex double height airbed. It took a few minutes to get feeling in all limbs again come morning. However, the 10 minute walk into the village to The Copper Kettle, where I sat outside and had 2 slices of bacon and two poached eggs, made it all a distant memory. I started striking camp at 12.30 and was on the road by one. That's not bad going considering it took me longer to force my sleeping bag into it's sack than actually take the tent down.

I've come to the conclusion, and you all probably already know this, that when packing up the thing that takes longest is emptying the tent. The quickest part is dropping the tent. Even my Icarus can be dropped and packed in 5 minutes. It takes me an hour to take all the crap out of it! On this occasion I had very little to take out of the tent, which eliminated all the faffing around!