Friday 9 February 2018

Camping gear

I have been evaluating what camping gear I should take on the 3 months trip of this Summer and I found out the best solution for my needs.

First of all, I camp only if it is necessary. Necessary means that there is no possibility of having a bed or this possibility is too expensive. Too expensive depends really on the situation, type of trip, etc.
I still have to set up what is too expensive for the next trip.
A big advantace of not camping is that you get more in touch with the local culture, staying in a guesthouse and having a typical breakfast is matchless.

But from what I've been told, in some part of the trip I will have to camp as there will be no other possibility.

Before I've always used a Robens Voyager 2 tent, this brand is really good and their products are really worth the money. If you plan to camp almost every night, then go for a tent like that. As it is not my plan, it is too big: it is very roomy and cosy, all in 2.8 kg packed up in 43 x 16 cm (16 is a diameter).  The tent alone was almost taking up one of my side bags (Amphibious Motobag II, 20 liter each) and in the other I was fitting in the sleeping matress, sleeping bag and other stuff.
This is taking up way too much place for my taste.

Let's make a simple calculation: In the trip to Georgia I was on the orad for 42 days, I've camped 2 days (The too expensive limit for a bed was 20 €, by heart I had an average of 17 € per night).
It means that I took my whole camping gear with me for 15000 km just for camping two days.
The Beast without side bags has a fuel consumption of around 5 liters per 100 km, with saddle bags this goes up to 5.7 liters. So, taking all the camping gear with me costed me the following amount of fuel: (5.7 - 5)*15000/100 liters = 105 liters.
With a very optimistic average fuel cost of 1.2 €, taking the camping gear with me costed 126 €.
I could have slept the two night in hotel and I would have still be in positive.

That's why, for the next trip I don't want to carry the Voyager 2 for all these kilometers.

So I looked for a fancy small tent, I found very good products but they where all very expensive (400 € or more). Then I evaluated  a single person tent, but all not to expensive products (such as Starlight 1 by Robens) weight aound 2 kg and are still quite big.

Then the Snugpak Stratosphere popped in front of me and I thought: this might be it.

I've talked with some people that camp regularly in different condition and they all told me the same: avoid this kind of stuff for simple reasons: I'm a big boy and these products are already claustrophobic for average people, then I won't have any cover for my motorcycle gear.

Then, just by being on the Snugpak website, I found out the Stasha, a 2.44 x 1.63 meters tarp, which weight 370 grams and is packed up very small. I got also a Snugpak bivvy bag for the sleeping bag (300 g) and a mosquito net (80 g, necessary in Siberia). So with  750 g I've got the "tent".

Of course, this is not going to be a very good solution but for the few times I will have to wild camp, it will work fine.
As it is right now, all this gear fits into one of the side bags, so this gives me 20 extra liters for all other stuff.