What are you 'treating' yourself to, for camping this year?

[Wolfgirl]

My extra little buys are:

new LED lantern (big one); luxury inflatable mat; snuggly warm sleeping bag; Kampa Karze toilet

Will be getting as well: x2 single air beds, x2 self inflating mats, a carpet for the tent (not got one, and I think it is beyond essential ... what else! Mmmm.... I'm sure there just has to be more.

Oh, and I want a combi cooler, one that hooks up to same gas cylinder as the stove thingy.

[brambleschooks]

I need death socks for ds2. He is the unseen weapon of mass destruction.

I have a LARGE thermarest and two large canoes this year. They are not made of wine soaked cake.

(& my lovely four man popup with porch).

[Slubberdegullion]

Crag Hoppers might make some child repellent socks. Is worth having a look.

[MisSalLaneous]

Child repellent socks

[JetLi]

Warsteiner beer slubber - tis the nectar of the bavarian gods.

I have set fire to the bloody seal on the trangia spirit burner lid. Are these things replaceable? I don't particularly want to haul my arse & 2 babies to Go Outdoors to find not. I can get round it by burning off the meths but its a pain.

I am rapidly developing 2 sets of camping gear - weekend gear vs. 5 nights plus gear Its not good.

[bilblio]

Fennel - I haven't camped on the Scillies (yet) DH spent most of his childhood holidays camping there.
So far I've been either not been able to afford to get there... or lucky enough for in-laws to pay for a cottage. But we love them, so much so my daughter is named after one. So very envious of you going. Which one are you staying on?

Just back from a few days away with the icetek (and the family) :) stayed in a very hot cottage with an aga, but the icetek kept a pint of milk fresh for 4 days, and we didn't get chance to pre-chill it either. Very impressed.

I ended up treating myself to some microfibre travel towels too. Huge bath towel sized ones which should have been £15 but were reduced to £5. I think they should have been more... the smaller ones were more, but they were priced up wrongly.
I always curse having to dry towels when camping. DH totally soaks them when getting dried so we have to take several normally. Hopefully not now.

[Fennel]

We are camping 5 nights on St Agnes and then 5 nights on St Mary's. I've camped on the St Agnes site before and it was totally gorgeous, but that was when I was 16 (with the ranger guides), I think it might be busier now.

We have been checking out the new Go Outdoors! superstore that's opened near us. It was hell yesterday, a lot of, hmm, large very unfit people who don't really look very outdoorsy buying supersized camping chairs in the opening sale. Not as good as Decathlon. I guess I like people in Outdoors Shops to look a little bit as though they venture out of their cars now and then.

[bilblio]

St Agnes is the only island I've still not been to. Even though I'm desperate to go hunting in Beady Pool. The campsite on St Agnes is meant to be very good, and there's the Turk's Head pub there too. I can't imagine any part of Scilly ever seeming that busy.

We always stay on Bryher. I know the campsite there is very basic, but I wouldn't care so long as I was on the island. We know lots of people on Bryher now so it would be strange staying elsewhere.

A word of warning. If you go to Tresco or Bryher don't plan to do any shopping there. Bryher's shop has closed and the new one hasn't been opened yet. There are fantastic little veg stalls everywhere, a bit limited, but very cheap and delicious. We were eating several punnets of tomatoes a day, we'd buy one every time we passed to nibble on as we walked. Bryher also has fudge!!!!
There is a shop on Tresco but it's cripplingly expensive. I think their cheap loaves of bread were about £2. I bought a small bag of shopping and it came to £70! Okay it did include a CD, which was £12 but the rest was just basic food supplies.

[beachyhead]

I need details on the Kampa Khazee toilet... that is the one thing that will help hugely to make my trip a happy and healthy one......

[Fennel]

I have this feeling that buying anything on the Scillies will be quite pricey, islands are often like that. I haven't been to Bryher, they had a drought when i went last, but it looks good. I camped on St Martin's too, by the long sandy beach, but again, many years ago now.

[bilblio]

St Mary's is quite reasonable for your general shopping, they have a Co-op which doesn't charge much more than mainland prices. They do have some very expensive clothes shops for tourists though. The little fruit and veg stalls are generally good too. You just leave your money in an honesty box, so there's no point over charging or people just wouldn't pay. Tresco is just expensive as that's where all the millionaires have their time shares. :0

[Fennel]

Thanks Biblio, the St Marys coop sounds good. I think St Agnes has only one shop but for 5 days it can't be too bad.

[Starchart]

We just got a bell tent in March. I think we're done!

[Starchart]

btw, if anyone is interested in a useful tip?

Buy a few (but differently designed) small hippy cushion covers from a charity shop for 25p each. Fill the blue on with a red flower on it with your daughters tops, and the pink one with embrodery with her bottoms, fill the beige fluffy one with your son's trousers and the dark blue one with his tops.

Hey presto. No suitcases or unsightly rucksacks in your tent, just some scattered cushions to make it look all cozy.

Word of warning, - you will NEVER convince your DH to stuff his clothes into a hippy cusion so banish his clothes to the car.

[WayneKerr]

Starchart, I love that tip. I may have to use it at home on a full-time basis, too.... Do you also use cushion covers to put dirty clothes in, to continue with the theme?

We are planning a return to camping for the first time in 5 years (2 DC since then) and I have no idea what stuff we actually have stashed away anymore. Must be due for some new camping crockery, at the very least.