yet MORE belltent questions, sorry!

[alabasterangel]

Sorry, I promise I have read other threads but wondering if someone experienced might be able to provide answers.

I am contemplating a 5m soulpad. We are in hard financial times, but hoping it is temporary. We camp, but in a modern 6 berth nylon tent and my 'dislikes' are.... nowhere to move about when we are all in bed except clambering over each other. Getting dressed stooped down. Hot (unbearably) in hot weather and that horrible condensation inside. Nowhere to store anything so it ends up a huge mess.

Sites we use are well facilitated, but I just want want to be able to make more of a 'home from home' out of it. We already have airbeds, sleeping bags, camping cooker, kettle, table and chairs, folding chairs, coolbags. I am in love with the idea of a belltent. I have a 400 gift card (like a pre-paid visa thing) which was a 25 year anniversary gift from my work. I am twitching to get one..... can anyone answer these Q's?

• I've read on threads that you can get camping pitches with electrical hookups - can someone expand on that? What do the hookups plug into? Presumably not just a socket on the end of a stick so what is in between the hookup and anything electrical you use such as a mains coolbox or heater?

• candle chandeliers - how do they fix to the pole in the middle? I'm wondering if we already have something which might fit that bill (or I might be able to make something, I'm a jeweller and soldering metal is not a problem for me!)

• talk to me about outside fires....what do you use for that - firepit? whats good value and easy to transport?

• do the carpets really make a difference?

• is sex in a tent with DC there ever possible? Or do you just forego sex on holiday, ever?

• do you really, really, take the tent, duvets, airbeds, folding chairs, eating equipment, clothes, toys, shoes, outdoor gear, beach stuff, towels, then on top of that a windbreak or awning, kitchen unit type thing, firepit or fire, BBQ, etc etc... we had half that and struggling to get it in our estate car.

Thank you.....

I am also hankering after a SoulPad so marking place for answers to the stuff I don't know. What I can help with are:

1. EHU- never used one but they go from the plug outside to a sort of heavy duty "wander lead" inside (a little more refined than a plug on a stick but not much :o)
2. I need to know this too as DH is a heating engineer and has furnished me with a roll of reasonably thin copper tubing that I have used to make hanging basket hooks etc. In my mind I fondly imagine a chandelier will be a doddle :)
3. I have a cheap fire pit from Aldi (£20) You can pay a lot more, some sites hire them for a fee. The big problem is they are very dirty and smelly once you are packed up so not great to transport home.
4. No carpets for my old nylon tent which I regret now. Stones, heat etc means we keep our shoes on inside which in turn tracks all the mud and grass in. A carpet would have made a "no shoes" rule so much easier.
5. DS has a separate bedroom pod in our old tent. As he's 10 and a scout we are planning on kicking him out in his own little tent when we have our SoulPad but TBH sex has always been a bit hit and miss due to tiredness, alcohol and people pitching 18inches from our bedroom wall It can be done but is not the relaxed and intimate experience I am accustomed to IYSWIM
6. We take most of that but over the passage of time you will learn what you can and can't live without or buy a trailer If we are going for more than a weekend we borrow a roof box- clever planning of packing is your friend here :)

thank you.

So do you need to bring the lead which goes from the EHU to inside or does that come with the hookup? Like an extension lead, so to speak?

EHU. Blue bit plugs into campsite socket, white bit stays in a nice safe dry part of the tent for iPad chargers electricals.

For a candle chandelier we use a round metal candle holder that's designed to go round a patio umbrella (bit like this one) and added some lengths of chain from B&Q and a carabiner, total cost under a tenner. It fits closer to the pole than some I've seen so I feel a bit more secure with the kids milling around it. (Centre pole has a metal loop high up for hanging chandelier or inner tent, not both together though.)

A notebook BBQ like this one works well for campfires, the metal has buckled a bit on ours but it folds down flatter than a proper firepit. Think Asda had them in for around £10 last year.

Carpets make a big difference, I got a load of old Ikea flatweave rugs cheap on eBay and they've worked well.

(My camping packing list is 2 sides of A4. We bought a roofbox. Then we bought a trailer. Then we bought a bigger trailer. Camping is NOT a cheap holiday!)

If I had a £400 giftcard, I would so buy a bell tent, twas one of my best ever investments

I think if we could get a pitch with a hook up I would be totally converted. DS has wretched rechargeable night light which is fine for one night as we charge before we go, but any more and he'd be bereft. I could recharge a few things which we have unfortunately got very used to having - yes, ipads, but also phones for social arrangements with friends who are nearby to various camps, and even something as basic as our battery recharger would make a difference between going for a night or two or a whole week. An electric coolbox to keep things from melting would also made a difference. I can slum it, yes, but warm wine? NO.

I don't acutally think other than the tent itself we would need much as we have most things. I would invest in one of those kitchen unit-y things that fold flat. I never know what to do with our water either - we have a 5 litre squashy thing with a tap, but it never stays put it sort of flumps off!

My finger is hovering over the 'buy' button.....

Only problem with EHU IMO is that it limits you campsite-wise.
Even quiet/less popular sites only have a fixed number of EHU if any at all so if you're booking at the last minute to hedge your bets with the weather they're often full up.

If you invest in not being reliant on EHU the answer is yes more often than not because it's a pretty hammered site that can't fit one more tent in the corner somewhere.
We have this gaslamp and a dizzying array of car chargers for every single gadget we could possibly take with us (oh and an IceyTek but I'd recommend you don't look at those yet )

Hijack! So if I wanted to camp at a site that offers electrical hook up, all I would need to buy is the long lead with blue and white plugs? No faffing with inverters then? (Whatever they are!)

I have no idea what inverters are either.

Ah they must be for the leisure battery things for caravans then! Good. Although can't believe how pricey the ehu cables are! Do they also work in France does anyone know?