Do you actually like camping?

[robing]

I love it! You can't beat the freedom and flexibility of carrying your own home with you, and of course cheap or even free. The right equipment helps, just invested in a new sleeping mat and it makes a world of difference.

[psmiffy]

Serious question. I've done a few tours now with camping gear. I like the idea of camping - it's cheap or even free, gives you freedom. But in practice I don't really enjoy it. It's uncomfortable, often noisy, too hot/ too cold, midges, mosquitoes, no fun in the wet, etc. I just wonder sometimes if it's worth the hassle of carrying all that extra weight, setting up and taking down your tent etc. In some places a hostel or cheap hotel may not cost that much more.

Ah - reborn following the spring solstice

[ossie]

I love it! You can't beat the freedom and flexibility of carrying your own home with you, and of course cheap or even free. The right equipment helps, just invested in a new sleeping mat and it makes a world of difference.

Totally agree..

[MrsHJ]

I love it! You can't beat the freedom and flexibility of carrying your own home with you, and of course cheap or even free. The right equipment helps, just invested in a new sleeping mat and it makes a world of difference.

Uhoh, a convert!

I'm in the it depends category, it can be the best way to travel ever (especially for getting away from it places) and fortunately if it feels like one of those days it's not the best way to travel ever I have a credit card and won't hesitate to use it on a nice hotel.

[bigjim]

I'm not big on it. I do it if I have to, but I don't have to much these days. There are good points like that meal on a single stove that tastes so good, or that first brew in the morning. In England it's usually wet, either through rain or damp or a heavy morning dew. The same in France sometimes unless you are quite far south. I don't like packing up wet tents or crawling on wet grass. I'm 6'2" and struggle to get a comfortable reasonably priced lightweight tent. Same for sleeping bags. I sometimes carry an emergency tent and down sleeping bag which together weigh less than 1.6kg and in total cost less than £80 which is fine for one night and gives me that feeling of security. I also like a bath at the end of the day, especially with a brew on the side. I'm at the stage in life that I need to spend my money before the kids get at it so I usually plump for B&B in a variety of places. I do get ripped off, IMO as a single but I just curse under my breath and pay up. When I hear the rain battering against the shutters as I am curled up in my bed in a small French B&B I think I am in the best place. I've rode a bike all day I deserve it.

[whoof]

In general yes, but it's like most things in life it depends on the circumstances.

I've stayed in hotels all over the world and I've had ones with bedbugs, cockroaches and people running up and down the corridor all night screaming and occasionally hammering on my door to the extent I piled all of the furniture against it, this was in Nigeria. This doesn't mean I don't like hotels just rotten ones.

I don't like campsites full of drunk people shouting or cars driving about at night. I don't like camping if it's lashing down with rain. So I if I stay in a site in the UK I make sure I do a lot of checking first and I do most of my camping in Southern Europe in June. These sites are usually full of older people who are tucked up in bed by 10 pm. If I've been riding and it's raining and I get to a town then I'll probably look for a hotel. Most trips I average 2 nights out of 14 in a hotel. But the most memorable places I stayed whilst touring have been camping. for about 15 euros for two people I spent the night in locations where if there was a hotel I would have paid 10 times this. I have also had some of the best nights sleep I've ever had whilst camping with the tent sitting on lush grass next to a small river having had a great meal cooked on the camping stove.

[drossall]

My camping is almost entirely with Scouts, but I cycle there with my gear whenever possible, including tomorrow for a long weekend's activity camp.

I like camping (bit tough doing Scouts if I didn't), but I'm not actually that keen on all the kit sorting and preparation needed first!

[meic]

I am going on a cub camp accompanying my daughter on Saturday. Amongst the small list of things that we are not allowed to bring like penknives and electronic games was bicycles

The following items can not be brought to camp
Bicycles (Please no bicycles at all)

I wonder, do you leave yours just outside the campsite gate?

I was thinking of taking my Primus stove or are they now deemed too dangerous by the Scout Organisation that gave me a badge for learning how to use it forty years ago?

[drossall]

I'd imagine that they've found that Cubs charging round among tents on bicycles in unplanned activities is a recipe for disaster. It's bad enough stopping them running among tents (because of tripping over guy ropes, and sometimes then landing their heads on wooden tent pegs - h*****s for camping, anyone?) If you were actually thinking of taking your Cub to camp by bike, you could probably negotiate to get it (the bike, not the Cub) locked up somewhere safe and hide the key for the duration.

I just lock my bike to a tree near my tent. I'll be doing the same on another site in June. A third site lets me leave my car there when I'm not camping, for some Audax events that start near by with limited parking available.

I've still got the Primus (actually it's a spanish imitation) stove that I bought and used as a Venture Scout forty years ago. I took it to camp last summer, just to demonstrate it to the Scouts for interest. It's the petrol stoves that we once used that we've got rid of, although some of the multi-fuel stoves look good for older sections. I've still got my Tilley (paraffin pressure) lamp too. It's hard to know when to move on - it's easy to have things in the stores that still work well and have done for decades, but know that there's something modern that does the job better.

The big debate is always traditional canvas six-man Patrol tents versus modern (pseudo-)lightweight nylon/cotton. We've got and use both, depending on which suits the event better.

[mercalia]

NO. but I like the YHA or other stays and THE PRICES even less. Having to cart all that junk on ones bike is really not fun? I think the way for me to go is some kind of bivvying with just a light weight awning to keep off the morning dew?

[robing]

Serious question. I've done a few tours now with camping gear. I like the idea of camping - it's cheap or even free, gives you freedom. But in practice I don't really enjoy it. It's uncomfortable, often noisy, too hot/ too cold, midges, mosquitoes, no fun in the wet, etc. I just wonder sometimes if it's worth the hassle of carrying all that extra weight, setting up and taking down your tent etc. In some places a hostel or cheap hotel may not cost that much more.

Ah - reborn following the spring solstice

Yep, a convert. Nothing worse than a born again camper!

[drossall]

I like that kind of camping

In spite of some threatening forecasts a week or two back, it stayed dry all weekend bar a couple of weak attempts at showers. We got 13 tents down, all dry, two of us cycled home, and then it threw it down 40 minutes after we got back

Everyone was remembering the hail-stones two years ago...

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

I was thinking of taking my Primus stove or are they now deemed too dangerous by the Scout Organisation that gave me a badge for learning how to use it forty years ago?

Primus...........too posh for me over 40 years ago , we used to amuse ourselves with an empty Gaz container used as a foot ball..............oh you light it first ............ideal game in the dark.............

[sabrutat]

I can't imagine touring and not wild camping. The freedom from schedules and being able to change destination on a whim are the entirety of the experience for me.

[tatanab]

I can't imagine touring and not wild camping. The freedom from schedules and being able to change destination on a whim are the entirety of the experience for me.

Equally true of using camp sites. Freedom to change route and destination because nothing has been booked. It paid dividends last year on an extremely windy day when I simply "went somewhere else".