Tent Sniffing for Beginners

Ah Tuesday. Time for a Tuesday tip. This week I'm off to a festival and so are many others so I thought I'd refresh your memories about electronics in fields. We all love to get away from it all, when 'all' doesn't mean our mobile phones! I'm as addicted to the online world as the next person and so when I camp I have several options to keep my smartphone charged up (and my tent lit so I can read after dark) An alternative to using apps and smartphones but still having the ability to stay in touch is of course to take a cheapy phone with a new preloaded SIM (no panic then if you lose it or drop it into the toilet) For example the Samsung E1200 is available on Pay As You Go (PAYG) for just £5 (when you top up £10 credit) on Virgin. The 800 hours of standby battery life will probably last longer than you do and losing it won’t ruin your whole weekend. It’s the ideal festival phone! Available from: http://www.mobiles.co.uk/pay-as-you-go-mobile-phone...

My favourite solar light company (you can tell a hippy camper when they have a favourite solar light company) has sent me a little Christmas gift! The rather cute but extremely bright, SunJack . It's not a solar light by itself, it's a usb light, it looks like a traditional bulb and is very light (in weight!) it can be hung up. At first I wondered how I would use it - but I not only take solar camping, but some rechargeable power packs. They are handy on dull days when there is little sun, and can charge phones via USB. It turns out they can power the SunJack too! To test it I didn't get the tent out, but I did try it on a dark night at home. DD helped to demonstrate the power of this tiny light. It's a great little light and would be useful with a solar charger with a USB port too. Check out The Solar Light Company for some Christmas gift ideas for the camper in your life (or treat yourself!) The SunJack® CampLight - the ultimate in portable ...

I was lent a solar light/charger. And also given a couple of solar lights to review by The Solar Light Co. After a few festivals over the summer (some of which had very few 'sunny' days!) I am ready to report back! The first test was the cute and frankly adorable ' Little Sun' . A cute yellow sunflower shaped solar light, complete with lanyard. Perfect for children to wear during the day and use at night. Having the solar panel on one side meant ensuring it hung with that side on display in the daytime! And at night it's super bright LED light (there are 2 settings but the lower one was always bright enough for us!) was great for walking back to our tent and then had loads of light for getting ready for bead and even reading, and the best thing was you didn't have to worry about falling asleep and wasting the battery because you could charge it again as soon as it was light! The light worked brilliantly (quite literally) at every festival. I would give the...

This is a very short review based on a weekend away, a fuller review will appear after I've tested these lights and charger at festivals over the summer, I was lent a SunBell light/charger by the rather lovely Solar Light Company . They are superbly green and sent me  (as they send all customers) a little tin of seeds to plant to offset the carbon used in delivery of the product! Which was a rather nice touch. The SunBell sounded so good on the write up I was sceptical...but it is as amazing as it sounds! A full charge on 3 hours of bright sunlight (we've had plenty of that) and it had power to light my tent and recharge my phone! The ability to pop the solar array outside the tent and leave the battery etc inside due to the 3m cable was excellent. I might be a bit in love, and I heartily recommend it. My parents. who camped with me were also impressed, enough to add it to the'Christmas wants' list! So that's one Christmas gift sorted. They fancy a yello...