Camping essentials

We have camped intermittently for many years. We both love the feeling of being under canvas and the sociability of campsites. We've rarely spent more than a few days at a time camping until recently because of the problems with comfort and particularly sleeping well. We have worked our way through various tents which we have discarded because the were too hot or too low or unable to withstand a strong wind. We've also had trouble finding a good mattress. Many blow up mattresses take too much effort to blow up and are too bouncy, with no back support. Thinner mattresses tend to bottom out on the ground at pressure points such as the hips. We have found that as each night passes we got progressively more tired which ruins a good holiday and compromises our riding ability.

The solution was to spend a lot of money! Now we have two bikes capable of carrying bigger loads we are able to take all the best equipment we have found. Here's our essentials with websites, also added to the links section.

The tent is a Tentipi Varrie 7 which we bought here - it's a single pole Scandinavian design and a hefty 12kg but is quick and easy to put up, it takes me only ten minutes on its own. It is very stable in the wind, waterproof and breathable with a superb ventilation system so it never gets hot and sweaty like a lot of tents.

Campbeds! Yes, you can fit beds on a bike! These are brilliant! They have transformed our sleeping.
They pack up really small and are wonderfully comfy. They're best used with a mattress for insulation as well as comfort otherwise your back gets cold.
Thermarest mattresses - http://www.thermarest.com/ I'm not sure which ones we have. Perhaps we should have bought thicker ones to start. Ours are too thin on their own but are perfect with our camp cots.

Sleeping bags - can't find them on a website but they're 3 season down sleeping bags. We bought them several years ago in the middle of a camping weekend after after a first night spent shivering. Now we have no fears whatever the weather. We use silk liner bags so if it gets really hot we'll just sleep in the liner.

Hmmm! am running out of time here. Will talk about our other equipment at a later date. time for a cup of tea now!

Elvie