Alright, folks, been a while since I dropped a post but I was camping the other night and thought I would share it because it's something I will be doing alot more of coming into the warmer weather and it would be cool to find out of there are any other HIVER's that camp also.
Let's go back to the start
I have not camped in about 25 years but 3-4 months back I watched a few camping videos and it looked pretty fun and I started to daydream. I was soon window shopping for tents and looking at all the gadgets people used. The idea of jumping on the motorbike, riding to the ocean and camping out for the night in some field on a cliff sounded pretty good. In the summer evenings, you chill outside, cook some steaks on a gas stove, make a fire and enjoy a few beers under the stars. No light pollution to wreck the view and only the sound of the wind flapping off your tent and birds.
Being from Northern Ireland which is small, I can ride to any shore/beach in under an hour and any within Ireland in between 2-6 hours at a chilled pace with a 30-minute coffee stop to stretch my legs.
I've been buying up everything I need over the past 2-3 months. What I did was buy all the important stuff from the UK and all the more disposable stuff from AliExpress. Just as a note, from the 20ish things I bought from AliExpress at the start of Feb, 7 are still waiting to be shipped, 2 were refunded after 4 weeks and I've had 2 invoices in the post from Febex saying I need to pay tax to release the goods for delivery (paid with CC because can never be too safe and be a scam). If I were to start over and have to buy everything again, I would have bought everything from Amazon and eBay in the UK.
So now, I have my gear but all the campsites are closed
What can a man do?
Thats right, camp in the back garden. I picked a nice stop in the bottom corner of the garden and set up my tent, built my wee camping chair and made a cup of coffee on my gas stove while the wife pulled faces at me from the kitchen window like I was a weirdo. I finished my coffee, set up my air mat and sleeping bag and went to the bathroom only to return to find the dog pissing up the back of the tent. I can confirm the tent is water proof after hosing it down. I let the dog inside to check it out and get a smell but he was shedding his coat at the minute so he slept inside with the wife.
I went into the back garden at 5 pm with my 60ltr duffle bag and apart from using the bathroom 3 times, stayed there until 2 pm the next day. Was ok, I mostly cooked a bunch of stuff to test out my cooking gear and watched Young Sheldon on Netflix. It was windy and I could see my breath inside the tent but I have a 4 Seasons sleeping bag on top of a 6cm air mattress on top of a rollup foam thing so was warm enough.
What did I learn?
There were lots of things I never used. It is still winter time so it's wet and cold and sitting outside is not that comfortable so no need for my camping chair, table are tarp that can be used for outside shelter in the summer when it's raining but still warm. The only difference in weather for Northern Ireland in the summer compared to the winter is the rain is warmer. I learned that in winter conditions, I could pack lighter.
I noticed that my feet got very cold and that having a layer between you and the ground was very important. I saw once something like grass or water got into the tent, it was hard to get out. I seen what cooking stuff I used and got to test out both my burner stoves.
The tester was deffo a good idea. The tent held up perfectly, it did rain for about 5-6 hours that night and bone dry. It was nice to be able to put the tent up before heading out and getting to play about with it and see how the features work.
Found 1 open Campsite in Northern Ireland!!
99% of the rest open in April for summer
Booked it right away for 2 days later and started to get prepared. I booked it for a Monday knowing/hoping nobody else would be at the site.
I started to work down my checklist spreadsheet and add anything into my bag to prepare.
House and Bedding
- Tent
- Sleeping bag
- Air bed + Rollup mat
- Soft pillow (not inflatable crap one that sticks to your face)
.
Cooking, Food, Water
- Gas stove
- 2 x Gas cans
- Frying pan, Pot, Kettle set
- Solo complete cook set
- Plates, cutlery, mug
- Cooler bag with all my food
.
Lighting
- 2 in 1 Lamp/Powerbank
- Head Touch
.
Clothing and toiletries
- Insulated cargo bottoms/thick wool jacket
- Thick slipper socks
- Fresh underwear/socks/t-shirt
- Light shoes
- Hand Towel
- Travel toiletry bag
- Wet wets and toilet paper
Fast forward 2 days and it's Monday afternoon around 2 pm and im just done adding my bag to the bike. I ended up removing the top box to give me more sitting room and straped the bag to my side boxes and back plate.
After giving the dog a walk, having a coffee and waving fair well to the wife and kids, I headed off on my solo camping mission at around 4 pm.
It Begins 😁
The site was only 21 miles from home and im very proud of myself for not having to use my GPS to find it. I arrived after about 40 mins, which would have been 30 normally but my gear weighed at least 20kg and it was mostly uphill. Anyways, I arrive and the nice guy shows me to the camping field and tells me to pitch wherever I like. He pointed out where the toilet, shower, water tap and bins were and left me to it. I asked what time I had to be gone and he told me back, "whenever you leave" meaning whenever I wanted. After that, he left me to it and I never saw another staff member again which for me was perfect.
Set up
The field itself was normal and nothing special to be honest. There were nice views of the mountains but the field was high around the edges and dipped lower toward the middle leaving pools of water all over the place as it had been raining. Nonetheless, I found a flat spot and I pitched up the tent. After that was done and all my gear was inside, I still had 30-40 mins of light and decided because I was the only person there, it would be an excellent time to try out my tarp and build an extension to the tent. The tarp is 3m x 3m so I covered the front 1m of the tent and extended it out by 2m for some outside space to cook in. I used 1 pole in the centre and as a 1st attempt, it was ok are so I thought.
Darkness came
When it got dark it got foggy so no views or stars, I went inside, hung my lamp and strapped on my headtouch and started to unpack my bag. I put all my cooking gear and waste bag in the porch area, put all my food stuff/water in 1 corner, put my bike gear, bag and helmet in the other corner and then put on some water to boil for a coffee as I set up my bedding area. The 2 man tent is perfect for 1 person with lots of room to store gear inside and have room to move around. As I had my coffee in my SPI mug with some Scottish shortbread biscuits, I checked in with the wife to let her know I was still alive and she had not got my BTC yet.
Snack time was fun but I was hungry and thought it would be a good time to cook dinner but first, I had to get changed into my cargo bottoms and get my slipper socks on because it was starting to get cold out. So much for the cooking outside idea, I ended up cooking in the porch area. My tent has a cool feature where I can open the main door from the top, this acts like a window that lets excess heat escape. I had looked at 4-5 tents but went for OEX Jackel 2 because it has a 1m porch area that can used to store things or cook in the rain.
Dinner time
On the menu. 6 Cumberland sausages with mashed potatoes, nothing fancy. The mashed potatoes were smash instant mash you add water to. At home, i had weighed out a double portion into small tupperware tub and added a whack of butter, a tbsp of crispy onions, a little salt and a generous amount of black pepper. You add hot water, give it a good stir, wait a few minutes and you have ok mash. The added butter, onions and seasoning make all the difference.
I set up both my gas stoves. 1 is freestanding with a hose that connects to the gas and the other is a screwtop that screws directly into the gas bottle. I used the freestanding one for my fry pan and the screw-in one for boiling the water for the mash. I used both on low settings.
The frying pan was ok, the sausages did stick a little but the skin never broke so cant complain and the mash turned out pretty good. I will deffo be doing the smash potato again because it's tasty and it fits inside a 100ml tub. In the future Ill bring a stream veg bag with me which I could cook in the water I use for the mash. I do like my veggies.
I cracked up a Pepsi and enjoyed my meal while watching Netflix I had downloaded the previous evening knowing I'd have no wifi. After dinner, I cleaned up and washed all my stuff. I was pretty full and ended up falling asleep chatting to the wife on WhatsApp.
Wind and rain
Fast forward 3-4 hours and it's around 2 am. I wake up from the noise of the rain and it's cold and windy outside, even worse I had to pee. The sleeping bag is warm and the toilets are 200 meters away. I manned up and did what any real camper would do and I peed into an empty water bottle. I've never done that before and I felt weird but satisfying. I nearly filled up the whole thing and was getting worried toward the end. I mean I only had 1 bottle and the only other thing within my reach was my SPI mug which was my only drinking cup. I did the dirty and put the bottle outside the tent. I'll deffo be doing that again, it's gross but hey, I stayed warm.
I got back into my sleeping bag and tried to go back to sleep but I could hear a slapping noise on the side of the tent. I thought it could have been the tarp but I lay there for 10 minutes debating if I should check it are not. It was raining outside but the noise got the better of me and I put on my shoes and headtouch and headed outside. A peg had come loose on the tarp and the wind must have thrown it somewhere cause I could not find it around the area so I quickly pegged the tarp in with a peg from the tent and headed back inside. I never got too wet but I was now awake, at least the slapping sound had stopped and I knew my tarp would not blow away during the night.
Over the next 2 hours, I watched Netflix, rolled a joint I smoked while enjoying warm chicken soup. After that, I snacked on nuts, cheese and dried meat. The wind outside was strong and had changed directions from when I had pitched. It was battering 1 side of the tent but the sound of the rain made it pretty chill and relaxing. I guess I fell asleep at 4-4.30 am.
Morning time
I woke up again at around 7.30 am and it was still very windy and raining outside. I lay there watching my breath in the air thinking about the morning game plan. Had to go to the toilet, get a quick wash, get something to eat, get changed back into bike gear, pack everything up on the inside and then take the tent down, get it back onto the bike and get home dry. I set myself a target time of 10 am and forced myself out of the sleeping bag at around 8 am. I was happy to see my motorbike had not fallen during the night. I had it on its centre stand but the surface was thick loose gravel. That was a good start to the day.
The toilets were nothing fancy, very basic, I would not like to shower there, to be honest. They were ok for me but I dont think my wife would say they were useable. I only washed my face, and my pits and cleaned my teeth but it freshened me up and I was awake. 1st thing first...coffee
Breakfast time
The first order of business is to get a coffee so boil up some water. This went well, the rest of breakfast was a mess. I brought a pancake shake bottle with me. All you do is add water, shake it up and pour it into your pan. I was looking forward to these cause I'd got the choc chip ones and had a butter/honey mix to pour over them. I put on the stove on its lowest setting, added a few drops of oil and tried my first pancake. It burned very quickly and stuck to the pan. I thought ok ok, it's the first one, that happens sometimes. I poured another the same thing again, sticking like crazy. I cant be that mad, the frying pan is part of a cook set from AliExpress and is worth it for the kettle alone. Anyways, chocolate chip pancakes covered in warm honey butter was not happening.
Plan B is porridge, also with choc chips. Good filling hearty start to the day. All I need to do is add water. I take the sachet from my food bag to see how much water I need to add and crap!, I see these are microwave porridge that need milk added to them. I mean not very instant!
Plan C is eggs with leftover dried meat and cut-up cheese. I planned an omelette and ended up with something more scrambled. It was delicious after I covered it in HP brown sauce. For breakfast dessert, I had a coffee and muesli oat bar thing and yep you guessed it, it had chocolate chips in it.
Packing up
This was pretty uneventful which was perfect. After cleaning up from eating, I deflated my air mat and packed away my sleeping bag. I use airtight bags so I can squeeze out all the air from anything soft like vacuum bags. Being vacuum means they are also waterproof which is great for keeping a wet tent separate from everything else in my bag. Everything that is not in the tent is packed away in under 15 minutes. I bring the bag outside and bin my rubbish.
The tent and tarp were both soaking. I took down the tarp quickly, give it a good shake in the wind and stuffed it into an airtight bag. I was a little more careful with my tent. My tent goes up the outside part first and then inside part second and taking it down it needs to be inner first and outer second. I chose this style because if it's raining when I arrive, I can put up the outside first while keeping the inner dry. When packing away, I can pack the inner first under the outer to keep it dry. We get alot of rain so pitching outer first is best for me and another reason I picked this tent.
The inner is really easy to attach and hooks to the outer. The tricky part when it's wet is the base of the inner, the side with contact to the ground is wet and the sides of the inner are made of a thin netting mash. Any dirty muddy water touching that will leave nasty stains. The hooks came off easily and it kinda fell into place perfectly on top of the ground sheet. I was able to fold it and roll it up without getting the inner mash part wet. Good result.
The outer part was all wet but I could give it a good shake before starting to take it down. Of the 16 pegs, only one got bent which was ok, the ground was stoney and I maybe forced that one with my foot. The outer came down nice and packed away easily.
Home time
After getting the tent down and packed away, I loaded my bag onto the bike and headed home. I went home a different way, missed a turn I guess so took a detour. It had stopped raining and I had nothing better to do so whatever. Ended up going down a bunch of county roads that were covered in mud from the farmers. Talk about shitting yourself, going around every turn at 15 mph and sitting behind trackers at 25mph scared to overtake cause there might be a patch of slimy mud on the road ahead. By the time I got home, my lovely clean bike was covered in mud, my boots and the bottom of my trousers too! Not happy because I had to bring the bike into the shop the next day (yesterday) to get new sockets and chains fitted. Hit that SOB with the hose when it was still wet and washed all off in under 10 minutes so not to bad.
Anyway, took a little longer to get home but was not a waste. The detour brought me past a Gregs' bakery, I popped in to get a few sausage rolls and meat puff slices so I could surprise the wife with breakfast in bed, lmao.
To Wrap Up
Pretty cool 1st camp. The site itself was not great but now I know camping can be done easily on a motorbike.
I had strongish winds, enough to pull a tarp peg out and plenty of rain. My tent is rated 5000MM water resistant which is pretty good and really required for UK weather. I had too much food (but the right amount of water) and there were a few things I never used. I could bring less stuff and maybe even get a smaller 40-ltr rucksack that I use for mountain or forest wild camping.
In the future when pitching on wet ground, I will use my tarp as a ground sheet to help the ground sheet of the tent stay dry making packing away much better and reduce the risk of getting the inner mash wet with dirty mud water. I had to hang my tarp, and inner and outer tent parts in the garage when I got home to dry them out.
The experience was good and this is the worst time of the year to be camping. It's wet and cold. In the summertime when we get a few weeks of dry weather and it's hotter, camping will be alot more fun because you do things outside. This time round, I spent 100% of my time inside the tent because of the weather outside.
All camping sites will open on 1st April so im looking forward to doing alot more camps around the country. I dont really plan to document them but might do a few videos and edit them together from time to time if im somewhere nice like a cliff top or doing some firepit cooking in the woods.
Wow, 3000 words. Well done if you made it to this point. It's taken me about 3 hours to write so I appreciate your still reading.
Have you ever went camping? are do you still do it now? Let me know below.