Tent
borrowing Alison’s – do I need stuff like pegs and mallets Alison?
Sleeping stuff
double blow up bed for me and Ady, pump to inflate it duvets, pillows, fleece blankets.
Kids have ready beds and sleeping bags.
Lighting
We have various torches dotted around the place and a couple of head light thingies. Probably need to get a battery operated light / lantern or two for inside the tent after dark.
Furniture
Folding picnic table & chairs thingy
Couple of camping chairs
Folding clothes airer for drying wet stuff – I might have one in the garage if not then a cheapo Tesco one
Stacking crates for food and clothing
Lid with box for kitchen stuff like knives
cool box for stuff like milk.
Cooking
Something to cook on! I have got a single burner thingy from freecycle but it looks fairly flimsy. Have been looking at the single burner things from places like Halfords for around a tenner but wondering if that is false economy and a double one would make more sense? I can’t see me being a one pot eater really 😉 Am also wondering at the wisdom of a BBQ instead? Infact Ady’s just rung me and said that if we do end up bringing both cars then we’d be silly not to just bring our gas barbecue (not the mobile kitchen one, our original one, which has a burner and a lid and would open up a whole new world of cooking things like roasted chicken etc – infact we’ve previously cooked Sunday roasts on it so if we do bring it then I’ll have all meat eaters over for Sunday dinner 🙂 )
Things to cook in. Now I’ve looked at the camping cooking stuff and it’s really flimsy – is that because it is supposed to be light and portable for (shudder) carrying in a backpack or does it need to be that thin so that the weak little flame from the stove can penetrate it and heat the contents? Cos we have various saucepans I could bring instead with weight and size not being an issue.
Kettle – any tips – is bigger better? or should I stick to a one cup capacity or I’ll be waiting all day for it to boil? I’m thinking a flask might be a cunning plan too.
Crockery and cutlery – no need to buy, will bring stuff from home
mugs, glasses, plates, bowls, knives, forks and spoons – two sets for everyone.
Cooking utensils, will bring from home.
wooden spoons, sharp knives, peeler, chopping board, tongs, spatula, matches.
Food – list nearer the time when sure of cooking facilities.
Housekeeping
washing up liquid, washing up bowl, cloths, washing up brush, kitchen roll, tea towels, dustpan & brush
Personal Stuff
Clothes for all including swimming stuff, warm and cooler weather wear, waterproofs and wellies, warm nightwear.
Towels – are those lightweight camping ones worth bothering with?
Shampoo, shower gel, cosmetics, toothbrushes and toothpaste, no water handwash.
First aid
Bite and sting cream / spray
sun protection and aftersun
piriton / benadryl hayfever stuff
plasters, antibacterial wipes, antiseptic cream
calpol and paracetamol
phone charger
batteries for camera / battery pack charger
OK, I’ll try to comment in order …
When you’re sleeping in a tent, layers beneath you are as important as layers on top of you, so make sure you have a blanket or two to go under you (or the airbed – I haven’t yet decided which is better). At Hesfes I just used my kids’ readybeds as airbeds with built-in layers and they slept in their sleeping bags (warm ones) on top – then I would add a fleece blanket which would then be kicked off 🙂 By the usual MP camp time, nights are much warmer – dunno what the 10th June will be like! But as you have two cars to fill, bringing more blankets than you need is obviously better than too few 🙂
Clothes airer???? Fucking hell, all this muffinicity has gone to your head – you have a tent’s worth of washing lines to hang stuff on, just bring some clothes pegs.
Thing to cook on – we recently splashed out on a cooker with a grill, so you are welcome to have our double burner. Needs gas. Barbecue sounds like a good idea as you have room 🙂
We’ve got a set of camping saucepans (not thin or flimsy), but before that I just took a couple of cheaper ones from home (i.e. not the Le Creuset!).
Normal towels will be fine, Material Girl 🙂
So if you buy a gas bottle for the first time for the stove you probably also need a regulator. Wouldn’t bother with any special camping pots etc – just the cheapest and thinnest from home. Hot water bottles? Agree with Alison about the layers underneath. And def don’t waste money on camping towels. Something to carry drinking water in (couple of big plastic drinks bottles fine for this) Cosmetics?????
Bit of old carpet……
Camping towels are very good for backpacking because they are so lightweight but they’re actually pretty shite as towels as they’re tiny and feel rubbery. Big bath towels much better unless you’re lugging your stuff.
Wetwipes.
Oh, forgot the first thing! Tent has pegs, mallet might be useful, although it’s probably also possible to borrow one on the day 🙂 It doesn’t have that many pegs either 🙂 C and I left ours at his grandpa’s last year and ended up banging the 60000 Khyam pegs in with a couple of stones.
Yeah, Roger’s tip about the bit of old carpet is a good one! Or you could bring a doormat for extra poshness 😉
Roger?
Sarah C’s Roger 😉 He told her, she told us. I think.
Yes – bit of old carpet, that’s the only thing we didn’t bring last year that I wished we had. Our battery operated lights were shite, I want a couple of gas or oil filled ones (do they do those I haven’t investigated?)
You can’t have too many blankets, I’m taking a bean bag this year (hahahaha) ‘cos my back really isn’t happy at the moment.
Can’t comment on cooking stuff (we have Alison’s old set of pans but I’m too terrified of the stove-thing exploding to cook much) but you definitely don’t need an airer 😉
Ok time to admit we aren’t going (Ellie can’t cope with not seeing daddy on her birthday!) so save money and use our stuff!
We have double cooker thing with grill and small gas cylinder for it, pans and kettle plus big water container.
Bean bag will be great Layla!
We’ve got several of the camping towels, as they’ve been cheap at lidl a time or two, and the kids love them. They aren’t the rubbery ones though, they’re microfibre of some description? They aren’t necessary though.
I’ll be bringing a mallet, but you’ll probably want to have your tent up before my arrival 😉
Ros, will miss you.
Lol @ Jax 🙂
Thanks Ros, that’s fantastic. Really sad you’re not coming though – will add you to the traditional drunken text recipient list then? 🙁
make sure you take the TENT POLES!!!
pmsl Helen, even *I* know they are essential, surely no one would set off without poles? 😉
You won’t need that piece of carpet, surely it’s not going to *rain*, at Kessingland, is it?!!!
still can’t help pmsl over all this, please someone take a video camera, I am so gutted to be missing Nic-in-a-tent. Sorry Nic, but the thought of it is just so funny! I really hope you enjoy it 😉
We take a camping towel (it’s microfibre jobbie and not at all unpleasant). I like it becuase it dries quickly, we still take peoepr towels for showers/swimming, though the camping one will do that as well. But I use the camping one for washing, and I like knowing that we have at least oen dry towel