Tent Sniffing for Beginners

It's been quiet here lately as it's winter and only the bravest of us are still out camping (well, the brave and those with heating in their tent or caravan) So I thought I'd ask a few people to share some of their camping tales and advice. First off is Karen from over at Excuse This Honesty blog. And she has some excellent festival top tips, I'm not ashamed to say that the last one taught me something, it's genius and I'll be trying it out in future when I camp in summer! Photo Copyright: wavebreakmediamicro / 123RF Stock Photo Karen's Festival Camping Tips Having attended several festivals over the past 10 years, I can safely say none of them have been the same when it comes to camping. Some years have given us conditions which have been wonderful to set up camp in – others … well, not so good. The first thing I learned is to take an extra bag of tent pegs . No matter what I do, there's always going to be a tent peg that miraculously gets ea...

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...

This week’s Tuesday tip is about sleep again! No one is on good form unless they sleep well. So today I’ll give you a few tips on staying warm. Staying cool is easy, you open up as much of the tent as you can and lay on top of, not in, your sleeping bag, wearing as little as possible. Staying warm is trickier. So here are my top tips. Even in summer it can be cold at night so don’t assume you won’t need these tips just because you are camping in August Use a quality sleeping bag, not the cheapest one you can get at the supermarket. Down is (apparently) wonderful if you can afford it. If not do unroll the bag early and give it a good shake to give it time to puff up. (air your bag during the day too to keep it dry and fresh)  At home you are toastily sandwiched between an insulating mattress and a duvet. When camping it’s easy to forget that camping beds/inflatables/roll mats etc have little in the way of insulation. On a chilly night try adding something (blanket, silver side...

Sometimes sleeping in a tent can't be tricky, both at festivals, where it can be extremely noisy at night, or in a campsite with crying babies (not yours!) or lowing cows, assorted wildlife screeching or rowdy tent neighbours. Nighttime needs to be peaceful and if it's not then a set of soft earplugs are your friend! Do not use earplugs if you have children that may need you in the night, obviously, you need to hear them, but you don't need to hear the man in the next tent snoring like a dying hippo (this actually happened at Glastonbury and I've never been so grateful for earplugs). So assuming you can safely be deaf overnight earplugs are excellent. I favour the soft ones that are disposable, you squeeze them and insert them and they expand into the ear canal, deadening all sound, they are great. The second thing that can cause lack of sleep is at the other end of the day. Canvas (and nylon) can be pretty poor at keeping light out on a bright sunny morning, so i...

It’s Tuesday and time for tip of the week. This week – toast!  Toast is a great comfort food, simple but effective with tea, coffee, hot chocolate, wine or beer . Toast goes with anything and is (in my opinion) best with butter. When camping bread is an easy food to keep to hand, both simple to store, and filling for adult and child alike. The butter can be more tricky, particularly if you are without electricity, but it will keep cool in a cool box assuming you have regular ice block changes or bung a bag of ice (£1 a bag at supermarkets) in it each day. Toast is nice as a base for baked beans or eggs too. And can be eaten with marmite, or jam or marmalade or honey (all of which keep well without refrigeration). Thick slices are best when camping as they are less likely to break during storage and cooking. As you know I tend to use a one ring gas cooker when camping and I’ve tried a couple of toaster types to go with it. Of course the best toast is cooked over a real fi...