Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Camping It Up => Topic started by: Kim on 08 July, 2020, 07:50:49 pm
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I've been tidying up. I know. There's a pandemic and it's raining.
Was wondering whether aluminium tent pegs turn into steel ones when left in a random box for long periods? Kind of like the way IEC C13 'kettle' leads breed. It's the only way I can explain owning quite so many steel tent pegs.
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I will be starting a tidying up process when I'm out of this isolation. I may have quite a bit of camping gear surplus to requirements.
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I've been tidying up. I know. There's a pandemic and it's raining.
Was wondering whether aluminium tent pegs turn into steel ones when left in a random box for long periods? Kind of like the way IEC C13 'kettle' leads breed. It's the only way I can explain owning quite so many steel tent pegs.
Definitely. Every storage box, no matter the contents, left unattended also gains one loose steel tent peg of mysterious origin.
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Well I filled both panniers up and strapped my tent across the top of them and went camping. Only to a campsite eleven miles from home but it was great. Haven't been since September. I love getting there under my own steam rather than getting a lift.
Met my Mum there in her little camper van and she cooked us mussels for dinner and we bought a bag of logs and burned them in her firepit. And drank far too much.
My new sleep mat did the job nicely though I bet the whisky helped too.
The ride back was a bit slow but I did it and I'm just about ready, five hours after getting home, to start unpacking the panniers.
I have just remembered that the elastic in the tent poles was starting to look a bit frayed - not bad for a fifteen year old tent. I must order some preemptively.
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Well I filled both panniers up and strapped my tent across the top of them and went camping.
:thumbsup:
I'm preparing to do the same this weekend, now that we're allowed to up here. I've had my tent for nearly a year and not used it yet! :o
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YeaY! ;D
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Can you find the tongs?*
https://www.sporcle.com/games/johncenafan612/camping-items
*Not the thongs, nor the bongs.
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Last week the EldestCub asked if he could raid the camping cupboard as he was off away at the weekend. He ended up coming round and taking a couple of tents from here, along with a spare tarp, a couple of sleepmats, a sleeping bag and a few bits and bobs and then went round to my friend's place the following day to recover the two tents, thick sleepmat, and some odd bits and bobs of kit that she's borrowed for her son to use when he was working as a production runner on a couple of the festivals that she works on, and made a trip to Go Outdoors (where he spent some time perusing trangias before deciding to just wing/pub it) as I'd warned him that one of the tents didn't have any tent pegs.
Yesterday, the EldestCub piled four friends and a selection of kit into the car he bought himself last year, the day after passing his test, and (eventually) took thm all to a N Yorks campsite. I have been getting occasional updates from him. It is hilarious, and he seems fairly perplexed by how useless many of his friends are... they faffed so much that the shops were shut when they tried to buy supplies to take with them, set off hours late. I wished him luck with his cat-herding and he said he herded them into a pub stop before they got to the site so that they could go somewhere while it was still serving and they'd actually be able to eat ("just whatever was easiest, because they were about to close the kitchen") which meant they ended up pitching in the dark by mobile phone torchlight, and at least one person did such a bad job of pitching that this morning's rain flooded the tent.
I think he's starting to appreciate all the work many people put into him having such a good time on so many YACF camps :D
(And yes, this does mean that Sweaty Betty, bought from Woolly and Peli in their house-clearance before they went touring in foreign climes, and the Cub's birthday tent that we bought off Jogler, much missed otp, have gone out to play again)
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Bet they're so rubbish they don't even know about SmallestCub's rule about not pitching your tent on an ants nest...
:thumbsup:
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It's not only Cubs that have slightly clueless friends when it comes to camping.
I went to Blackberry Wood the weekend before last so that Briar the dog could experience her first camp before sites got too busy (though I am hoping now people are allowed abroad again they won't be as bad as they've been the past couple of years). Briar doesn't do well with busy places (much like me as I get older). I asked two very lovely friends who were Briar-friendly.
I knew the nights would be cold and on the whatsapp chat outlined what I'd be bringing to keep warm (quite a lot of stuffs) and one friend agreed that she would also be bringing lots of stuffs.
The other one didn't comment and I was a bit concerned she'd be relying on the same setup that she used when I last camped with her during a heatwave (28L rucksack with summer sleeping bag, uninsulated mat, meshy inner tent etc) but didn't want to assume or patronise her so I didn't say anything more. Sure enough that was the setup she turned up with.
Apparently she spent a painful night freezing; she said her body was ok but her hands and feet were in agony. I said that was probably her body diverting her blood to her organs from her extremities to keep her alive :o and said I wished she'd said something as I'd have done my best to help somehow (maybe a hot Nalgene bottle). She acknowledged she should have taken the cold night a bit more seriously and went home before the second night having written down the various bits of kit she needed to upgrade before another remotely cold camp (most of it). She is basically the opposite of me in that I assume everything will be awful, she assumed everything will be ok, probably somewhere in the middle would be healthiest.
It was however absolutely lovely at Blackberry Wood and I had a go at making a little very amateur video of 'Briar's first camp' https://youtu.be/hICTJe1D4q4 which does not include the stuff about my friend nearly freezing to death but you can see her tent disappears halfway through ;D. I got a new Decathlon tent for the occasion which I ramble on about in what is probably a very boring way for someone who's not a tent geek, but I wanted a tent that wasn't a) the lovely Saunders that Butterfly sold me about 12 years ago and which is irreplaceable and a bit big for one person & dog or b) my ultralight and expensive Vaude that appears to be made of gossamer and possibly wouldn't have stood up too well to the dog (and also flaps a lot which I suspect she would also have hated).
In other news my sleeping bag was just about ok but had a few cold spots so it is currently on its holidays at a professional cleaner.
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the car he bought himself last year, the day after passing his test
Waitwhat?
Anyway, glad that camping training weekend in *checks notes* 2014 seemed to have helped! I trust you'll have sent him a photo of him "helping like a bookworm" already. ;D
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In the evenings Briar wore an Equafleece jumper and a Ruffwear Quinzee jacket, slept on three mats including a Highlander reflective mat and her K9 Sport Sleeper Klymit Dog mat, and had an iEnergie dog sleeping bag plus my Rab Cirrus jacket draped over her on the coldest night.
Sounds like Briar the dog had more clothes and sleeping equipment than your friend!
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the car he bought himself last year, the day after passing his test
Waitwhat?
Guitarists...
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In the evenings Briar wore an Equafleece jumper and a Ruffwear Quinzee jacket, slept on three mats including a Highlander reflective mat and her K9 Sport Sleeper Klymit Dog mat, and had an iEnergie dog sleeping bag plus my Rab Cirrus jacket draped over her on the coldest night.
Sounds like Briar the dog had more clothes and sleeping equipment than your friend!
She absolutely did! I erred on the side of caution on the basis that I'd chosen to be there and she hadn't, so she shouldn't suffer the cold (though she did seem to enjoy camping and even put herself to bed the second night). She was found on the street in north Romania so she should be reasonably hardy, but I've been extra careful ever since we all got a proper soaking when we went to Scotland last year and she was shivering and looking very forlorn indeed.
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the car he bought himself last year, the day after passing his test
Waitwhat?
Guitarists...
One who's got quite a bit older since I last checked!
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the car he bought himself last year, the day after passing his test
Waitwhat?
Guitarists...
One who's got quite a bit older since I last checked!
Bassist, technically. One who has left school, moved out of the Den to live more or less full time at his dad's where he is paying board, works as a builder... Even the littly is mid-teens now and about to sit his first GCSE (he's doing an extra one.in Latin that will be a year before the main batch) this summer.
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It's the 759th of March 2020. We've all got a bit older...
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One who has left school, moved out of the Den to live more or less full time at his dad's where he is paying board, works as a builder... Even the littly is mid-teens now and about to sit his first GCSE (he's doing an extra one.in Latin that will be a year before the main batch) this summer.
tooooooo faaaassssst!
(Please wish the littly good luck for his exam.)
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I've just been looking for a campsite somewhere between Honeybourne and Shipton-on-Stour. Well there's this inflation that there is now, and the compulsory camping craze that we've had for the last couple of years, and there's glamping too, but this is what I found:
https://www.pitchup.com/campsites/England/Central/Warwickshire/Shipston_On_Stour/
£40 per night for a "Non-electric grass tent pitch (wild)" !!! :o
(yeah yeah first world problems but still, finding a field seems might attractive at those rates, grumble moan complain fourpence halfpenny)
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Isn't greed wonderful. >:(
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I pumped up my Downmat last night, it seemed prudent after a couple of years of storage (and, no doubt, the expiration of the warranty).
This morning it was still inflated. :thumbsup:
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Was wondering whether aluminium tent pegs turn into steel ones when left in a random box for long periods?
Mine don't but I do believe that my nice straight skewer type pegs warp and bend whilst in storage.
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Lymeswold update:
Lingering Nerve Symptoms From Lyme Disease May Be Tied to Immune Response
By Leroy Leo
May 11, 2023
(Reuters) - Neurologic complications of Lyme disease such as hand and feet numbness and pain that do not resolve with treatment may be due to an exaggerated immune response rather than the infection itself, a study published on Wednesday suggests.
Researchers found that Lyme disease patients with persistent central nervous system problems have high blood levels of interferon alpha, an inflammatory protein produced by the immune system in response to infection.
These central nervous system symptoms that can also include weakness, facial muscle paralysis, vision problems, fever, stiff neck, and severe headache are known as Lyme neuroborreliosis.
If the findings are confirmed in larger studies, immunity-suppressing medicines might be used to treat patients with persistent disabling neurologic after-effects of the disease, said senior researcher Dr. Klemen Strle of Tufts University School of Medicine.
Each year, nearly 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease, with another 200,000 cases believed to occur in western Europe, researchers said. It is caused by a bacteria carried and spread by ticks prevalent in the U.S. upper Midwest and the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, as well as in Europe and some parts of Canada, especially in wooded areas.
Lyme neuroborreliosis occurs in up to 15% of those who contract the illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and most patients recover after treatment with antibiotics. However, around 10%-20% of patients continue to show symptoms even after treatment.
Earlier research found that Lyme-causing bacteria do not survive antibiotic treatment and therefore cannot be preventing recovery, according to the report in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a CDC publication.
For the current study, researchers in Slovenia took serial blood samples over the course of a year in 79 patients who had experienced Lyme neuroborreliosis during their acute infection, including 27 with new or lasting complications six months or more after treatment.
Patients whose symptoms had resolved by the start of the study had the lowest interferon levels. Those with the most severe and most persistent problems had the highest interferon levels, suggesting that the immune system never stopped responding leading to "low-grade, systemic inflammation," the researchers said.
Other illnesses with prolonged symptoms believed or known to be triggered by immune system over-reaction include COVID-19, influenza and mononucleosis, the researchers said.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Nancy Lapid and Bill Berkrot)
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I've been tidying up. I know. There's a pandemic and it's raining.
Was wondering whether aluminium tent pegs turn into steel ones when left in a random box for long periods? Kind of like the way IEC C13 'kettle' leads breed. It's the only way I can explain owning quite so many steel tent pegs.
Sort of.
Tents have something in common with plants; they aren't self-pollinating.
Instead, when there is a group of erected tents, they 'cross-pollinate' via their guy lines and pegs.
This accounts for why, when you've erected your tent with a full set of aluminum pegs, then carefully taken it down and packed it, within a few days, the aluminum pegs have changed into steel ones.
Once past the flowering stage, the tents 'set fruit'.
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Barakta and I are going to the ALC meet at Kingsbury this weekend.
As it's a little over 30km from here, we're finally attempting the thing that we've never actually managed before: Cycle camping. (Cheating somewhat, on the basis that electric motor hopefully cancels out trailer with massive tent and heavy chair.)
The packing process is unnerving me. My panniers are alarmingly under-full on account of not carrying a tent. I'm trying to prevent barakta from packing too much stuff on the basis that while she's got more volume than she could ever reasonably use[1], excessive mass is liable to result in OwMeKnee, even with electric assist.
[1] Not even for a purple strap-on and a ukulele.
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Pack everything you'd normally take in your panniers, then put it in the appropriate trailer place? As for the purple strap-on and the ukulele, while the former might cause much hilarity round the campfire, the uke should only be used in strictest privacy.
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I've gone with packing the stuff I normally pack in my panniers, minus tent, in my panniers. Barakta is hauling the trailer (because trike) with the Big Tent, a sturdy folding chair (so she can pull herself up on it), and her sleeping bag, mat, clothes, etc. We're currently waiting for a) barakta's digestive system and b) the weather to settle before setting off.
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Have fun. The ukulele should make good kindling for the FIRE…
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(https://www.ductilebiscuit.net/gallery_albums/kingsbury2023/2023_05_19_15_11_54_1.sized.jpg)
No FIRE in the end (just water), so the ukulele wasn't needed.
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:thumbsup:
Don't know where that is but it looks almost as scenic as the route underneath the M32.
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:thumbsup:
Don't know where that is but it looks almost as scenic as the route underneath the M32.
Looks like it is under the M6/Spaghetti Junction.
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:thumbsup:
Don't know where that is but it looks almost as scenic as the route underneath the M32.
Looks like it is under the M6/Spaghetti Junction.
Yep. That was just before the first goose attack.
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So the ASBO geese are still about then. Looks like you both had a good time :)
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The C&CC are doing a survey about the sort of things you expect to find in their site shops: https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/facilities/shops/
Obviously what I'd expect to find would be car-camping tent pegs, hookup cables, a meagre selection of confectionery, the wrong kind of gas cartridges, perhaps the odd local guidebook, plastic tat for the smalls, vegan dog ice-cream and maybe some BEANZ MEANZ HEINZ if you're lucky.
What I'd like to find would be staple foods in quantities that make sense for a backpacker, at least something to make a substantive meal out of, charging lockers, a reasonable assortment of fuels and batteries, tent/mat/bag repair materials, basic toiletries (including sunblock and insect repellent), milk, closed-cell foam mats and towels for times of need, etc.
Anyway, time to SPEAK YOUR BRANES...
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I used the "additional comments" space to add a sixth "item": staff during normal opening hours.
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When Arthur Ransome, he of the Swallows and Amazons, was having a part made for one of his boats, the chandler (if that's the right term) told him how his son had been inspired by S&As to try camping, first in the garden. In the middle of the night he crept back into the house, indignant because:
Mr. Ransome doesn't know anything about camping . . . . He never said a word about EARWIGS!!!