I've done it I've done it I've done it!!!!!!

[lifeistooshort]

I have bought my bell tent!!! After a lot of musing, lusting, agonising over which type (emperor, big top little top or 5 meter).

In the end I have decided on the 5 meter soulpad hybrid G because it seems the simplest to put up, cheapest, because soulpad has quite a fan club here and because it does a mosquito net for when the sides are rolled up.

I CANNOT wait to try it.....am so excited....coming from the lady who has never camped and said she would never, it is quite a turn in the books

6m emperor looks amazing but not sure about the two poles in the middle and i imagine its harder to put up. will be buying something next week. looking at belltents.com.

Oh fabulous lifeistooshort! I'm sure you'll love it! When are you trying it out for the first time?

got a pic for us m'dear?

I've not received it yet so no no picture. Don't know when we'll try it out as we still need to buy the rest of the kit (at least the sleeping bags and mats! so we might need to wait until next month!). We have a trip scheduled for september but I really want to try it as soon as it arrives .

starjump the two pole thing is the reason I didn't buy the emperor, I thought I needed something that DH could easily put up and the two poles looked a bit tricky. Plus I read some reviews that said that spacewise there is not that much difference between an emperor and a five meters bell tent. So for novices like us simplest is probably best.

Thank you to all the bell tent owners on mumsnet who have spent so much time answering all my stupid questions

PS MisSal how did the cutting go??? Did you brave it in the end?

Uhm, I chickened out. Have delegated the task to dh. We're going camping in 3 weeks for a weekend, so will take stove with to mark cutting spot, which can then be done by dh at home when I'm away.

Oh, btw, depending on what type of campsite you prefer, it might be a good idea to book your pitch for three weeks from now already. We're going for small places where fires are permitted, and it's so annoying how little weekends over summer are still free. If you like bigger places though, it's probably not an issue.

When are you going to use it Lifeis? Mine hasn't arrived yet (this week I think?) but won't be going out with it until the end of July, so keep me posted as to how it goes.

I'm so incredibly excited! I've bought loads of tat stuff to give to DH with it as part of his Bday present. Actually, far too much stuff. He's going to be 30, so I had convinced myself that 30 things (eg. solar lights etc) is a good plan. Just wrapped them all, and had to double some up, I got more than 30!

Hope yours arrives soon and is amazing! :)

Ooh, that's my tent! It's sooo lovely :o I'm really excited for you, I love ours so much, it's the best thing I've ever bought (apart from my horse, but he was far more expensive!) :o

Sal, you are brave to cut your tent (soulpad recommend a stanley knife, btw) - DH was most taken with the idea of a stove inside the tent (despite me having previously mentioned it, to deaf ears, when some random 'bloke said' they were great as he was nosing around our bell last weekend, of course it's now a marvellous idea... grrr...) but I'm nesh about cutting it. And DD is marginally dyspraxic, so the idea of a hot stove inside the tent where she can trip/blunder into it is not appealing to me. Perhaps when she's teenage and we can decant her into her own pup tent, as the idea of waking up to a warm tent and boiling the kettle there and then for tea is v.v. appealing.... :o