I’m not a huge fan of camping. I find it claustrophobic and uncomfortable – even with a thermarest and a karrimat underneath me, I never sleep very well.
However, when there’s no other option, my ideal camp site doesn’t have to have fantastic (or any) showers. It doesn’t even have to have a half decent toilet block; a buff and some cheap aftershave can disguise that. What it absolutely MUST have is reasonable access to good food! You can wash in a mountain stream or go to the loo behind a tree (or with a shovel if you must) but if you’re hungry, you’re not at your best; not by a long chalk!
However, recently I’ve been cajoled into a couple of camping trips with more on the horizon. With that in mind, we paid a visit to Cotswold Outdoor and acquired a Primus stove. If you’re in the market for a new stove, I can highly recommend it.
In food terms, we found that dried pasta, a tin of tuna, a tin of sweetcorn and a jar of stir-in tomato sauce goes a LONG way towards feeling better after a big day in the hills. For breakfast, a bacon butty on really fresh bread with red sauce is something worth getting out of your sleeping bag for; so long as you give it a little time to settle, it’ll set you up for the day quite nicely.
If this is going to carry on, the next big purchase will HAVE to be a 4-season down sleeping bag. Even with 2 liners – 1 silk, 1 fleece – the bag I’ve got just doesn’t keep my warm enough. But then there was ice on the inside(!) of some tents the next morning.
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