You can never find an expert when you need one?

[bigboots]

There are some who listen to experts and there are some who don’t, whilst I am prepared to listen to them I am even more prepared to ignore them. When I was a youngster my parents used to take me camping and we always had great fun come rain or shine. Now that I am much older I have managed to persuade my wife and children that we should go camping. Well we had a few problems to begin with, no tent, no kit and a small car, but that has now been overcome. Have you ever noticed that you can never find an expert when you need one? The Tent – it will be crucial that my family enjoy our first camp and that was my main criteria for choosing a tent, whatever the weather my tent must be big enough for four people and have room to stand and walk about in. The tent should be fairly easy to put up and the outer fly should be put up first (In case of rain, so inside of tent remains dry.) The tent I chose was the Royal Avignon 6 plus…….I can hear the experts tutting away already. The Kit – My parents provided us with an old double gas burner with grill, after a good clean up and new gas bottle, regulator and hose its ready to make our first brew. What do I stand the cooker on? Well the shops appear to charge the earth for rickety tables, but the I managed to acquire a very sturdy kitchen unit ( ) Seating arrangements, well our local Tesco had some collapsible chairs for £5 ea, believe it or not they are also comfortable. For meal times and table games etc we acquired an aluminium table with four seats that fold up James bond style into a briefcase. A trip to the loft found our old inflatable lilo’s which were still intact, then we had to select something to sleep in. We selected some lightweight sleeping bags as we do not expect to go camping in the arctic, of course my 7yr old daughter thought it was crucial that her sleeping bag had a picture of a footballer on it. We acquired a lot of other items (Nat west profits must have soared) and that brings us to the small Ford focus family car. Unfortunately Ford never mentioned that the Focus was not a Tardis so I had a word with Franc, he advised me to get a tow bar fitted and then if I gave him a piece of paper (a cheque) he would give me a trailer. Fortunately I have completed a towing course at work which proved invaluable when selecting the trailer. In my next instalment I will let you know what pre camping preparations we made, the experts are probably now writing articles on “How not to do it” so I will give them a chance. Have I got it right or wrong……well we will all find out together. :-D

[Guest starspirit]

Hang gliding needs more wind which is where the expert can help. Definition of an expert. 'X' is the unknown quantity. Spurt is a drip under pressure.

[bigboots]

The Preparations Took tent to friends garden and pitched……tent instructions were a bit vague but we managed, time taken 1hr 30mins, the tent was so neatly packed with all the guy ropes well and truly knotted……..This exercise was well worth doing as I found out that the tent pegs were poor quality and that I repacked the tent with all the zips done up, sounds strange but I am now ready to pitch my tent on a rainy blustery day. The old gas cooker was fitted with a new hose regulator and bottle, gave it a good clean up and its now ready to go. Found out that a long reach lighter would save burnt fingers. Inflated the two lilo’s with an inflator which runs of the car battery, whilst it inflated the Lilo’s it was rather noisy,worth remembering if pitching up late. The trailer and tarp were new but still things needed to be done, for example I could move the trailer on end through our garden gate, but could not do it loaded up, hence I modified a garden fence panel for easy removal, I can now roll out a fully loaded trailer to the car. We were given an old bluet gas lantern, upon investigation I found it had plenty of gas but no mantle…….Remedied and works well. Ok so most preps went well……..now for the real thing…….The next instalment will be about the two three day camps booked to test us and the equipment, two nights at Camber Sands and then two nights in Newent, Camber is a standard pitch and Newent will be a powered pitch. Starspirit I love your definition of an expert and of a plan........ (lol)

[bigboots]

Two nights camping at Camber Sands. The plan was simple, setup camp at Camber Sands to test the equipment and survive two nights. If it all goes wrong I could take the family home, less than an hour away. Hitched up the trailer and started to load, tested trailer lights etc and set off to Camber Sands Holiday Park. Now I thought that in my planning I had every situation covered, well I did not expect that the campsite had overbooked and would have to search for a place to pitch on site. Camber Sands is not a "Tent Site" its more for camper vans etc, you know the ones who bring a Tv, Hifi, Microwave and of course the Playstation 2. Pitching the tent went very well (apart from the hard ground that hates tent pegs of any kind), to the extent that I (Novice) managed to help a couple to get their tent setup etc, to be honest I was a bit disappointed that there were no problems, I paced around the tent for 20mins trying to find fault even checking guy lines numerous times. The kitchen unit was next, unzip, expand, two clicks and it was ready, naturally I tried rocking the thing to death, more disappointment....it wouldn’t rock. This simple bit of equipment was excellent and I am glad I did not buy a cheap wire mesh version, safe and easy cooking. Connected the gas bottle to the regulator and cooker, this reminded me of Nov 5th....Light blue touch paper and run like the clappers. (Sorry chaps, but I actually read all the instructions for safety reasons). OMG the little Bluet stove needed a new gas cartridge; phew it had instructions on that as well. Never knew camping could be so scary, I saw someone get it wrong with a cartridge when I was a lad, you can’t miss the bloke who did it, he has no eyebrows and looks very embarrassed to this day. Yippee....our first brew up. Whilst the brew was being made I unpacked the table unit, you know the type of thing table with four seats job, I chose to buy the aluminium set rather than the blue plastic type.......more money but excellent quality. Suitably refreshed I went to inflate the Lilo's........went to use my super duper car 12v inflator.......felt so guilty that it sounded like a Hoover I decided to ask the couple whom I had helped if I could borrow their squishy foot pump thingy. Eventually the Lilo's were inflated.....I then had to sit down as my legs hurt like mad. During the two nights we had some wind and rain, inside the tent we were quite snug, the space inside a six man tunnel tent allows for rainy days etc, compared to some of the other tents and their occupants who could not stand up or move about we were very comfortable. Ok so some things went wrong....... 1.) The wife forgot to pack my socks. 2.) I forgot to bring my jumper and my fleece (They were safe at home on the side waiting for me to pick them up....Doh!...still they didn't need washing when I got back. (lol) 3.) I forgot to remove the two stretching poles as I took the tent down, don't worry I don’t think anyone noticed. All in all my family and I had a wonderful time, an excellent experience and needless to say they can't wait to go again. Next weekend I shall take the family to a campsite in Newent, it’s a totally different type of site, looking forward to the experience. *-)

[lofty]

Brilliant reading Bigboots, we started off in much the same way about 10 years ago.We now have everything ,mainly from carboots and in the local paper at the end of the season i.e now! We now go camping in winter which is fantastic especially in snow !! Its beautiful watching the steam rise from the tent early in the morning knowing my family are cosy and snug inside.We don't use sleeping bags we take quilts and sheets.We still have the old camp kitchen as new ones are mega expensive. I also have a two man ultra lightweight tent which I use for back packing on long distance routes.We have not been abroad since we started camping and we have no intentions of going,there are to many beautiful places to see in the UK. Regards Lofty