Compact tarp

[MinimalistMommi]

Most compact tarp for my bell tent? We're fair weather campers and practically boiled last August with no shade near our tent. Also, do we get charged extra for putting up a tarp?

We use the Decathlon one - £24.99 and packs down really quite small. However it doesn't really 'go' with the tent (being green and nylon). Practical though. And I have never been charged extra for a tarp - gazebos sometimes (and I think a Coleman event shelter would count as a gazebo) but not tarps.

Good to know about not being charged. Do you pitch it to the side of the tent or onto the front of your bell tent?

We have done both, but attaching it to the front prevents you having to come out into the wet to get to your covered area. Sometimes we put the ring in the centre edge of the tarp over the spike on the A frame and then attach using a cork over the top to hold it on. . Then tie the rear edge of the tarp nearest the tent down on each side of the entrance with guys and use the tarp poles to create a high front edge which we can sit under/cook under etc. This is a really bad explanation but becomes more obvious when you get the tarp out.

Mind you before you get one of these, you might want to look on Obelink;'s website because they do several tarps and 'tent wings' which better match the bell tent.

They don't post here though?

Oh they do - just not bell tents and one or two pyramid style ones. If you look on their English language site (click on the flag top right hand corner), you will see what they do ship here.

This is an example, but there are others on the site under "Tent canopies" I think: www.obelink.co.uk/tents/tent-canopies-tarps/hypercamp-tent-wing.html?category_params=s_company%3D4%26category_id%3D4187

The cotton ones are chunky though, as you would expect. Obelink do polyester too (as you will see) and they are maybe a better match for a bell tent than the Quechua one. For sheer compactness though, the Quechua one is fab.

Thanks so much for the info mummy I think I'm going to have to go for compactness as I need to fit my beast of a mat in as I'm getting a Dreamtime Thermarest

Go for it MM. The Quechua ones are really very versatile and small and a comfy night's sleep is WAAAAY more important than matchy-matchy bell tent and tarp.

about your dreamtime .

They sell Dreamtime toppers if you already have a self inflating mat........???
I so need my sleep when camping otherwise I'm so grumpy
LOL