What invaluable item would you always take camping........

[DrZeus]

Just asked DH (having just returned from our 5 rainy days) and he said:

Fan heater
Separate gazebo for cooking (or at the very least a sheltered cooking area - having tried to cook in a howling gale this morning)
Adequate lighting using electric hookup
Trailer to carry all the crap stuff
Kontiki
Hymer
Caravan...........

at which point I stopped listening!

i'd do Peak District and rustic.

where is Guilford?

Guilford is W London. I don't think lapin lives there...but she has that spread sheet of hers.

Peak District Good.

Yorkshire Dales Good.

I am deeply in love with the Lleyn Peninsula atm but N Wales is really not very central all all.

slubber have we seen a photo of your Country Living tent yet? matching pillows - natch

oh and your kitchen tent too - do you have an oven for VS's yet?

LC I was slightly joking about matchy matchy. Dh bought his sleeeping bag pre-me and therefore we do not co-ordinate . Obviously the dd's bags match and their fleece blankets have been purchased to tie-in with the hues of our bags. It's not exactly how I want it but it will have to do for the time being.

The kithcen tent is bog ugly and utilitarian. I have to hide it behind the cabanon. to oven. You know I am not a EHU girl.

lapin, how verrr naaaace. Will you be having ladies lunches with cod then?

Kitchen tent. Man it's ugly. Looks like a concrete turd.

however

after watching this tent fire clip and freaking out a bit, and then being advised by the canvas knowers on ukcs to get a utility tent. I got a utility tent. Ugly but useful.

Corkscrew

Moist arse wipes.

Seriously.

riven, in torrential rain? I know it can be done but it's not so high up on my list of 'things I most enjoy doing on my holiday'

I saw a folding Camping oven that sits onto one of those briefcase style gas cookers the other day in Camperlands - hand on I'll see if i can find it.

here you go slubber - VS's whilst camping

Electric hook up

no nononnonononononono

do not show me any more kit

I do not need anymore kit

I must not buy any more kit

repeats x 100

best friend phoned today to tell me she had just bought a Biscaya

I do not need anymore kit

I must not buy any more kit

repeats x 100

A knife. Matches. A newspaper. Fleece. Plastic bag (for keeping bottles cool in the ocean)

After 5 nights wild camping I can do anything! No gizmos needed.

pmsl who in the name of all that is Holy and Good bakes muffins MUFFINS when they are camping?

who does that?

who takes scales and measuring spoons camping?

who? who? who?

Can't believe there's a camping oven, Lucy! I (stealing the idea from Troutpout) very succesfully warmed croissants on my griddle with a frying pan over the top like a lid.

My essentials would be a bucket with a lid, a fan heater, and I thank whatever small voice told me to squeeze in an extra sleeping bag when we went to Anglesey last week as ds2 wet the 'bed' at 4am.

How did you go on then, Quint? Was it a true back-to-nature experience?

It was, Soren. The kids were busy gathering wood for our fire. All meals cooked on the fire. We had a great time!

I'm impressed - I love the idea but know myself well enough to know I'd hate the reality. What I really want is a well-equipped campsite (showers, loos, the lot) but with no other people on it

Soren, but you need other campers who have other children who whisk your children away and play with them for hours and hours and hours, giving you time to reorganise the contents of the boxes in your utility tent and have a nice cup of tea (or 15).

We had a lovely "plot" to ourselves. Just a square bit of grass, that once was a field, wedged between the forest and the sea. Spectacular mountains. You wouldnt see it from the road. 5 minute walk down a very steep rocky hill in the forest. Narrow path from the road. Bliss.

(again....I related your trip to Dh, who also went ). That does sound like bliss.