Geoff has been busy working on the Troopy – our new adventure wagon – and I have been measuring it up for curtains and mossie nets. But there’s something missing….
They say your home is your castle. Our home for much of the last couple of years has been a nylon fortress – our trusty tent, Chubby Coleman, so named for its significant girth when rolled up.
It is a fine tent and has kept us sheltered from everything the elements could throw at us, from sandstorms to hurricanes.
On a sunny day in the north of England the awning gave us great shade. It was also long enough to park the car under when we needed to pack up in the rain!
Camping in the shadow of Scafell Pike
And it looked pretty cool in the middle of the mountains of Morocco.
One tent, one rock, one mountain
Some of you reading this might scoff at our fondness for our tent, but how could you resist the romance of it?
By moonlight and camp fire
And when the dust smothered any thoughts of romance during a Saharan sandstorm, at least it all stayed on the outside. The $75,000 motorhome camped nearby got sand in through every window and door, we did not have a speck of dust inside!
Trying to shake off some of the dust
We have been talking a lot in the last week about our next adventure – around Australia. And before we have even begun, we are missing our great tent.
We sent it back to the UK with Charlie Charleston the 2CV, because it was too expensive to ship it and other camping gear to Australia. We assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that we could buy the same model here – a Coleman Mackenzie 4.
We haven’t given up looking yet and while we are still searching we are amusing ourselves with a daft video we made a while ago of how to raise a tent in under a minute (well, not really!)
Look and learn!
