hike | camp | paint
At the end of 2020, I set myself a target of trying to buy no unnecessary outdoor gear in 2021*, and promptly went on a frenzy of going through the various websites to make sure anything I wanted I got before the end of the year. Equivalent to starting a diet, but pigging all the … Continue reading Making my Own 3 Season Tent – Part 1: Initial Thoughts
In my quest for the perfect pyramid, I became aware of the Pretents Soloist when scanning through one of the contintental European gear sites (I can't remember which one, though). At the time they were rather confusingly branded with mentions of Tara Poky, TFS (The Free Spirits) as well as Pretents. I think they were … Continue reading Pretents Soloist
We trudged through hop field after hop field, along shady lanes and even a bit along the road. Barely noticing our surroundings and wrapped up in our conversation - a conversation that had been going for several hours now. Frequent breaks, hidden stashes of sweets, Special Brew and Benson & Hedges. A burning hot day … Continue reading The Power of Nostalgia
The curse of tent greed has struck again, which recently led to me taking an unwanted new MLD Duomid off someone's hands. This means I am officially in trouble at home. Having said that, I do "need" a shelter that's really light - my Scarp, Hexpeak and Ionosphere are all in the 1.5kg area and … Continue reading A New Toy
In a recent post, I mentioned that I'm giving up on my failed experiment with the Trailstar, and switching to a mid instead - specifically, the Luxe Hexpeak. The new shelter arrived on Tuesday and I had to wait a couple of days before the weather and the ground was dry enough to pitch and do … Continue reading Playing with the Hexpeak
As revealed in my last post, I really haven't got on all that well with the Trailstar, so I've decided to pass it on to someone who will and replace it with a shelter that's more to my liking - i.e. one with a bit more headroom and an actual attached door. I also don't … Continue reading Trailstar For Sale
Two or three years ago, I saw that several people seemed to be acquiring these funny pentagonal tarps, and always wanting to keep my finger on the pulse, had a look at the Mountain Laurel Designs website myself to see what all the fuss was about.  At the time, I was just moving up from a … Continue reading The Trouble with Trailstars…(or a brief history of my tents)
This tent was provided to me free of charge by Go Outdoors for the purposes of this review. It's summer and festival season once again, and so it wasn't a huge surprise that the list of tents GO asked me to pick from to review focused firmly on that market. Not a festival-goer myself, I skipped … Continue reading Review: Hi Gear Atom 3
After six months of usage of Monica, my Tarptent Scarp 1, I've now got a feel for what I like (almost everything) and what I don't (a couple of minor things only). Most importantly I've got a good sense of how she performs in the field and in a range of conditions - from warm … Continue reading Pimp My Tent
Monica has a lot to answer for. It's all because of her that I've spent so much money on gear this year... For anyone who doesn't know, Monica is my tent, a Scarp 1 from Tarptent. Ever since she came to stay, sometime in March, two trends have been happening. Â The first is that the … Continue reading Some new gear
This week my work situation became a little clearer, and I've felt able to view a trip at the end of April/start of May as something which is going to happen. Â And in order to enjoy the spontaneity that the trip will bring, some further planning and decisions will be needed. What's also happened is … Continue reading Wild Camping planning 2