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Home, sweet home

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

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

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

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

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!

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A nomad’s life

What does it mean to be a nomad? We have lived for months with no home,  so it seemed fitting to try a real nomad tent for a few days..

The hillside view from our Berber tent

The hillside view from our Berber tent

The Berber tent we stayed in, at the Paradis Nomade campsite north east of Agadir, has a low mud wall on three sides, over which is draped the inner and outer skins of the shelter.

The inner skin – a white cotton cover called a haiti – is overlaid with a heavy woven drape, which comes down the the ground on all sides and is thrown back over the top of the frame during the day, to give access to the tent.

Tassles decorate the down straps of the tent

Tassels decorate the down straps of the tent

 

The down straps are what the front drape lies across when the “door” is down and also help to give tension to the tent. Often they are decorated with coloured tassels and embroidery.

The bowed span, held up with two struts, keeps the classic Berber shape to the tent

The bowed span, held up with two struts, keeps the classic Berber shape to the tent

Rose in front of our Berber tent

Rose in front of our Berber tent

Close up of the woven cover of the berber tent

Close up of the woven cover of the berber tent

A main bed and plenty of day beds means one tent can sleep up to eight people

A main bed and plenty of day beds means one tent can sleep up to eight people

 

Of course true nomads don’t settle for long and even though it was a pure indulgence for us to sleep in a bed and not have to raise our own tent each night, it is nothing like the real thing – which we have seen, shielding families from the sun and wind in the most barren of places.

Berber tent in the desert region

Berber tent in the desert region

Like the Berbers, we too have already moved on.  Check out the story and pictures from our travels in and around Agadir.  

 

 

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More than just frog’s legs

 

We were expecting to see frogs legs on the menu, but we weren’t expecting to see the whole thing happily squatting on the floor of Chubby, our tent.

 

 

It was out first day in France and up hops the little fellow to bid us bienvenue. I’m not sure what kind of frog this is – can anyone help me with that – but he seemed a pretty cheery chappie, possibly even more so when he saw we were having pork for dinner.

You don't see many of those about, do you!

You don’t see many of those about, do you!