Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 June 2006 19:32:48
I like camping. In some ways, I think I'm in the minority on this - I know a lot of people wince at the thought of being out in a wet field, having to walk to the toilet or even *shudder* use portaloos, and not having the home comforts we're accustomed to these days. But the sense of freedom you get is immense - having left the complexities of life behind, and just being in the great outdoors.
This weekend, I got a shiny new tent. My previous tent was bought almost ten years ago and frankly does have some pretty major disadvantages to it. The main one would have to be that the first bit of the tent you have to put together is the inner sleeping compartment, which is not waterproof. As yet, I've never tried pitching that tent in the rain, but I have a sneaking feeling it wouldn't work too well, and there might be quite a lot of water inside it that way. So, I figured that my luck can't hold out forever, and that I should probably get a more practical tent before this happens.
The new tent avoids this pitfall, and claims it can be erected in 20 seconds. I'm not sure how many people were involved in this, and whilst it's tempting to try and get half a dozen people together and see if I can break that record, I think I might have a problem persuading the other five to play along. I can pitch it in about 5 minutes on my own though - it's one of these exciting tents with poles already attached to the canvas, ands it sort of folds out a bit like an umbrella.
The only problem comes in trying to take the tent down again. I've never been that good at getting umbrellas down, so I had a feeling there might be problems. Let's just say it's a bit like wrestling with a very large spider, and its web. The tent is finally back in the bag again (just), but I may have to wait until everyone else has gone home after Greenbelt, otherwise I have a feeling I might be providing cabaret entertainment - at least that was the attitude of my mum and uncle when I was trying to get the tent down again this weekend.