braindribbles

Several of you will have already have followed our dithering about getting a tent and how to do camping to please both loved one and I.

Well, in spite of falling in love with Featherdown Farms (thanks for the tip, Lucy), we realised that for the cost of one holiday at Featherdown we could get all the equipment we need for the next ten years or so, camp in a great site in Norfolk for a week, and still have £200 or so left over.

At least four of these guys were involved in the hunt for the missing tent inner....

It was touch and go for a moment, though.  There was a deal on at our local Go Outdoors.  We had originally planned to buy a modest tent for £100 to £200. But a 10-person tent worth nearly £700 was on at £250, and we arrived on the last hour of the last day of the deal.  Loved one and I mooched round the display tent (the kids racing maniacally around all the others), looking at how with four double bedrooms the tent should still work when the kids were all teenagers. As we were pondering other people were also coming in and out and, although there had been three sets of tents, I hadn’t noticed anyone take any.  I fetched a trolley, thinking that it would be a good idea to grab some now before we made up our minds, so we didn’t lose the tent through procrastination, and returned to find the outer tents still available in plenty, but the bag with the inner tent and poles noticeably absent.

Had someone really walked off with three tent inners and nothing to hang it onto?  Had there been a stock problem?  Was someone going to arrive at a campsite one day soon, only realising their error when they arrived?

We asked about four different shop staff to see what they could do about this.  We lurked.  We investigated equipment possibilities.  We had a drink and admired the climing wall (I really want to try this out some day when I’m slightly thinner and fitter).  And then we decided to see if they could sell us the rest of the tent on the understanding that if they couldn’t get a hold of an inner for us we’d refund the lot.

They could.  They did get hold of an inner when we rang up the next day…you have to wonder whether it was there all the time and four members of staff failed to find it.  And we whisked it home.

image courtesy of Hi Gear

We chose a Kalahari 10.  It’s enormous when up, but fits into two tote bags, so it’s not too much of a drain on space.  It’s now happily stored underneath middle child’s bed, emanating new-tent smells, and I, instead of getting on with my presentation preparation, am spending a huge amount of time on the campfires-allowed section of UK Campsite looking at places we might like to go to.

We might try it out at half term… Can’t wait.