Camping it up...!

The All Important Camp Shower!



Really wanted the scary penguin!

Our new clockwise route means we'll be driving the European section first and this includes the prospect of spending many nights under canvas early on. In preperation we're now scouting around outdoor shops on a regular basis, not only for compact equipment, but useful items that are wallet friendly and practical.  It's very easy to be drawn into the world of camping and before you know it you've got a room full of mini dust pan and brushes, mess tins, jerry cans, camping mirrors, collapsable washing-up bowls, pop up laundry baskets, head, table and pocket lights, plastic dinner services complete with salt and pepper pots and a 4 sided toaster!  All great in a camper van but not suitable for life in a Morgan...!  

However, our favourite recent purchase is the camp shower, not only a great name that'll bring a smile each time we use it, but a highly technical piece of kit that we'll fill with water...and...yes...strap to the back of the car..!   After a couple of hours driving and an extremely scientific combination of soaring Med temperatures, bright sunshine and a black plastic bag, we'll have 20 litres of shower water!  All this for the bargain price of £4.99.

For space saving we've each a rather clever knife, fork and spoon that all clip neatly together (aluminium grey), a set of 3 stackable non-stick cooking pots (matt black), a compact camping kettle (grey), 2x bowls, 2x small plates and 2x large plates (black) that sit nicely together, 2x stainless steel coffee mugs, a dynamo camping lamp (matt black) which not only looks pretty cool but cuts down on having to dispose of batteries along the way and a rather impressive expandable water carrier that is completely flat when empty and slowly pops open as we fill it up - sadly only available in white!   

A bit of luxury can be found in the form of our air bed and electric pump that'll plug neatly into the cigarette lighter, ensuring we won't need to spend evenings blowing up a double airbed!  We splashed out on an air bed as were not stooping to levels so low as sleeping on rolled up mats.  They may have been considered character building in the girl guides or boy scouts, but are so thin you can feel an ant move!

Luggage has almost given us sleepless nights as we've spent an amazing amount of time, not only looking for something waterproof, robust and easy to clean, but we needed to make sure each bag wasn't longer than 50cms, they fitted the colour scheme and most importantly won't shout from behind the seats -  expensive!

Luxurious leather travel bags would no doubt look absolutely stunning strapped to the back of the Mog, but we've no intention of driving through remote villages waving bags that look as if they cost the average person's yearly salary.  This strong as an ox pair cost a very reasonable £40 all in, which means we can afford to give them a bit of a beating, plenty of sand storms and some strong desert sunshine.

They've a 45L capacity and have the added bonus of hidden rucksack straps...easy to throw on the back and practical to carry around.  They're amazingly strong and don't have any unecessary wheels that could scratch the Mog's leather and, to top it all, are in Tony's tradmark black and grey - absolutely perfect!



Vango's Inflatable Tent Range
- less stressful than a camping divorce

 Already at home we''ve a choice of two tents that are possibilities to take along at the moment, a three or a four man, but we need to dummy run them first - soon!  As most campers are aware the most dangerous aspect of any camping trip is how likely is it that a domestic is likely to arise during the pitching of the tent!  Vango are planning to launch towards the end of May their inflatable tent range - utter genius apart from the fact it's launched after we've sailed!

However we need to invest in a camping stove and as if by some miracle Coleman, have just launched a new range of multi-fuel stoves that rather cleverly run on unleaded fuel. 

Not sure what we'll encounter in North Africa, and that includes their range of gas camping bottles, so this ticks all the boxes.  It's powerful enough for everyday use and small enough to fit perfectly into the box perched on the back of the car.   



Looks a bit tricky to eat with these
 and better remember to unclip them
before we take an eye out whilst eating soup!



 

A peg-less not leg-less washing line