Camping/Glastonbury

Hey guys! I’m back and today I want to talk about Camping!

So I love camping anywhere and here in Scotland you can wild camp, which means you can set up a tent and camp where you want without having to go to a camping site, which is amazing.

So my love of camping started when I was a kid, remember those days when you get your first tent and your Mum and Dad set it up in the back garden and allow you to sleep out that night, while they stay awake to make sure your okay, I also went away with the army for a week as part of a school program and got to do rock climbing and many other cool things, so that also helped with my love of travel.

I hadn’t went camping for a while after school because I moved away but once I got back into I got the chance to volunteer to be a Steward at Glastonbury music festival 2015 so, I need to buy a new tent as I didn’t have one and of course all the other stuff that went with it, Water bottles and the tent mallet for the pegs, air bed, sleeping bag, mess tin, cutlery, etc, I should point out that I didn’t take a cooker or a kettle the first year or a cup for that matter big mistake, so I had a lot of fun at Glastonbury worked for 6 hours a day and got to explore the festival and see amazing acts! Because I had volunteered I got my ticket for free and my lecturer who was our supervisor drove us down there and back, it took us 8 hours and he was a legend doing that!

So after I got back from Glastonbury, I met up with my best friend Jordan as I hadn’t seen him in a week and to tell him what I did and what bands I saw, he then surprised me with a 3 day trip to Oban which is near the highlands, (I love and always wanted to go to the highlands of Scotland) I didn’t need to take a tent though as we was staying in a camping pod which is like a Hobbit Home 🙂 It was a really cool 3 day trip I got tons of photographs as well, one of the best things with being a photographer new places to explore, and we want to find time to go back but for a little longer this time like a week.

So after that trip it was back to working for him and college for me, I then got the chance to go back to Glastonbury this year and volunteer again which I said yes of course now the differences between 2015-2016 Glasto was the weather and what I took. Lets start with the weather 2015 was sunny and so hot and amazing, 2016 well I had to take Wellington boots  as it was cold and raining most of the time but hey thats festivals for you, was still amazing and I didn’t mind the mud or the cold :D.

Now lets get into all the stuff I took with me in 2015 and 2016 and then I will see what I currently have as a camping equipment!

So the things I took with me in 2015 was:

• Tent
• Tent Mallet
• Extra pegs and guy ropes
• Double Air bed
• Air bed pump
• Sleeping Pod
• Mess Tin
• Knife, Fork, Spoon
• Water Bottle
• Torch
• Small back pack
• Hiking Backpack

And of course my clothes and toiletries

So the things I took with me in 2016 was:

• Tent
• Tent Mallet
• Extra pegs and guy ropes
• Camping Bed
• Sleeping Pod
• Gas Cooker
• Gas for the Cooker x8 (Used 3)
• Pots and pans
• Mess Tin
• Knife, Fork, Spoon x2
• Kettle
• Cup x2
• Tea Towel
• Water Bottles x2
• Foldable Chair
• Torch x2
• Head torch
• Battery Power charging port
• Batteries
• Packing cubes
• Small back pack
• Hiking Backpack

And of course my clothes and toiletries

So it was much different from 2015, also this year we got a free t-shirt and water bottle for volunteering so I ended up with 3 water bottles which of course it all helped.

The main differences which I made was with the air bed and camping bed, The air bed was amazing sure but I had to keep refilling it with air and because I was close to the ground I was really cold at night, so I bought a camping bed, Its a foldable bed which gets you up off the floor and I was much warmer at night too!

Now many people maybe reading this and asking why I keep saying sleeping pod instead of sleeping bag, well my one is know as a pod because its not a sleeping bag, its round instead of straight and you can lay with one leg bent and one straight unlike a normal sleeping bag, (trust me guys upgrade to a sleeping pod its so much better and warmer!)

Also now with the cooker, in 2015 one of my class mates bought 2 cookers but not enough gas so we ended up running out on the third day and some of the lads just bought nothing but booze so we had to do a emergency trip to Tesco so they could actually buy food, now we couldn’t get the gas for the cookers, so we ended up buying a lot of throw away BBQS which worked fine for the rest of the time we were there. So this year I bought my own cooker with a lot of gas to go along with it, I had 8 gas bottles and I took them all with me, however for the week at Glastonbury Me and two others only used 3 bottles.

I also took some camping pots and pans and a mess tins with the cutlery to go with them, a Kettle and a mug for my tea or soup and a tea towel so I could dry them up after I washed them, Now two of my class friends gave me £5 each to use the Kettle, Cooker and Pots and Pans, Now I didn’t have a problem with them using it as long as they washed it up after they finished using it, which they did so it was fine 🙂 I did have a problem with some of the people that came with us they would go into my tent without asking to borrow things which wasn’t right! If they had asked me I would have said yes but they didn’t so I had to start putting a lock on my tent, one of them also broke my foldable chair which meant I couldn’t have a seat now I’m a bigger girl so I do need to sit down, one of my friends said to them they should buy me a new one as they broke it, well that didn’t happen and I’m still waiting on a new one! But I haven’t spoken to them since and probably wont, yes its only a camping chair but I spent my money on it for me, not for other people to take it out of my tent without permission and break it.

Same as my food I bought before the festival there is this fantastic thing you can get over here in the UK called coffee mate, its powdered  milk which you add into coffee and tea because we were at Glastonbury there was no fridges to put milk in, so I got coffee mate and it really helped! If you can get it I will recommend it! I also bought from home small packets of sugar, salt and pepper which of course everyone wanted them so I had to be selfish with them as I only bought enough for myself.

It surprised me as half the people that went in 2015 came back in 2016 and still didn’t bring half the things they needed and was relying on me for most things like the air bed pump I took it in 15 but because I didn’t have the air bed this year I didn’t take it, what was the point? I had the bed but oh my did they all moan because they had to go find someone who had a pump, they should have bought their own, most people would do that!

Now its been almost 4 months since this years Glasto and some of the people has started to messaging me asking to borrow my stuff, like the cooker, gas and bed, now I said no because it is my stuff and I’m planning a camping trip soon so I sent them the links to where I bought them and what I got back was why can’t I just use your stuff, now I’m sorry if this sounds selfish but the hint is right there it is my stuff! and the days there are away are days I’m planning to be away too so I need my stuff, but they should buy their own things, I mean come on the cooker with gas is only £20 thats not a bad price and I’m sure if they have spent over £50 on train tickets and stuff like that they can get their own cookers.

Wow! I went on a bit of a moan and rant there haha sorry about that! I think I should get back to what I was actually writing about! My Mum bought me a new tent so I’ll tell you about my old one, its just a normal 4 man tent takes 5-10minutes to set up with two people or on your own. I got a 4 man tent so I could keep all my stuff in there with me so it doesn’t get wet and so on, so the new one my Mum got me is like a massive family tent it has two bedrooms that can be removed and a nice space between them, I can also stand up in it, I mean I am small only 5’3 but still check out these photos of the new tent below (I could stand up in my old one too)

So here is my camping bed in one of the rooms.

This is the tent in its full glory! (with me chilling in it)

And this is me standing up in the tent! (please excuse the odd socks! but life is too short for matching socks!

And here is the tent in its bag before I set it all up! (It takes about 15-20 minutes for 2 people to set it up maybe 30-40minutes on your own)

So The stuff I actually need to get for camping there isn’t much, I mainly need a tent organiser, a foldable washing up basin, a peg extractor and waterproof bags, so like I said I don’t really need much stuff 😀 Oh and a new hiking bag may one sadly gave in to bag heaven 😥 RIP Ameliarose’s hiking bag.

I will write out all the stuff that I also have just for you guys to read what I actually have as I’m sure some of you will be interested to know, I mean if you have gone through this ramble and got here I might as well tell you 😀

So the things that I have are:

• Tent x2
• Tent mallet
• extra pegs and guy ropes
• Double air bed
• Air bed pump
• Camping bed
• Camping pillow
• Sleeping pod
• Packing cubes
•  Camping chair (Yes I bought a new one, as I know I wont be getting a new one from him)
• Mess tin
• Knife, Fork, Spoon x2
• Water bottles x10 (yes I know its a bit much, I’m obsessed)
• Mugs x3
• Gas cooker
• Gas for the cooker x5ish
• Pots and pans x4
• Water Carrier
• Old style Can opener
• Kettle
• Wooden spoon
• Plastic Plates x2
• Plastic Tumblr
• Thermal soup pot
• Thermal Flask x2 (one has two mugs with it)
• Fire Starter
• Travel clock
• Travel towel x2 (one for body, one for hair)
• Torch x2
• Head torch
• First aid kit x2
• Sleeping mask x2
• Hiking boots x2
• Toiletry bag (filled up with all the things a girl needs)
• Small backpack
• Hiking bag (RIP, getting a new one soon)
• Wellington boots x2
• Mini fan
• Battery charger power port
• Batteries
• Travel Mirror

And most of that fits lovely in my old hiking bag 😀

Anyway guys I think that is it for my ramble today! I hope you have such a lovey day and thanks a lot for reading!

Live Long And Prosper _\\//

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