salamanda

[haptalaon]

The other news is that I was very wicked and I bought a tent.

I've been looking for a 2nd hand one for over a year now. People are always getting rid of camping stuff - but they're getting rid of crap they over-invested in and used once, 6 person tents and fold out chairs and cumbersome gas cookers. Not what I want, which is the trendy ultra-light stealth camping getups, the kinds of thing one only gets as a committed upgrade

i'm so pleased. It was half price at the store, a subtle lovely deep green, and the perfect size for one - a body bag with tent poles - and weighs nothing. I lived in my old tent all summer long, so I know I can quite happily bed down on the earth, and I'm rippling to take it out into the woods and live there for a while. There's some stuff I'm going through emotionally, too - survivalist things, I guess, about having been precarious in my life so long I need to know that I've always got my tent there, that if I have to I can live in it

My main problem now is that I really need a weighted blanket to have a good nights rest, and I don't know how to square that with wanting a light camping setup where I can have the pleasures of a really long getting-lost-stroll. & long term I need(? 'need') a more serious sleeping bag - both more all-weather, all-season and lighter.

I'm going to try and hold off buying stuff now before I know what I really need; I'm not getting a sleeping mat, my husband is vegetarian with me and then buys fancy organic meat which comes wrapped in real wool, all of which I've saved. It's very light and will do OK between me and the ground, I think - definitely better than anything in my budget.

I do think I need a chuck-it-up-quickly tarp cover, for if I'm walking and am hit by rain. My ability to dry off and find shelter will be ??? so being able to hunker down for a bit seems important. I think I can DIY a groundsheet (it goes under the tent) from old Freezer Bag For Lifes, which for some reason the rats really loved to chew holes through.

And I've not even thought about food. I def don't want it to be all ziploc bags, for waste reasons; food is heavy, and I need to strategise about heated food. Heated food is essential for the soul on a hike, but it's weighty and I definitely don't want to lock myself in to buying disposible oil cannisters. I don't have the skill to make wilderness fires and won't be hiking anywhere I can get away with that anyway. & I likely need a compass and to know how to use it, and some kind of get-away-with-it-in-Britain knife.

I did really want a real bivvy bag - for the uninitiated, it's basically a sleeping bag that doubles as your actual tent. They are extremely light and stealth. But I'm not sure the British weather is right for it. I know people do do it, but I want to go out in all weathers and at a moments notice. It rains a lot here. To make it viable, you'd definitely need a portable tarp and a groundsheet and that then undermines your weight savings; you can't keep your other stuff dry either. So I do feel a bit wistful about the (cheaper) bivvy they didn't have in stock, but its love at first sight with my bivvy tent. Which is 3x the weight and price, but it is a tent. & I'm so so about insects. I don't like the natural world that much.