Just before I left the UK on this trip I thought I would treat myself to a new tent. The £55 4-man I had from Halfords was great and we’ve done lots of camping this year but you always thing the grass is greener, don’t you..? Anyway, after alot of deliberation I bought a Eurocamp Cairns 3 with the black inner tent. And to be perfectly honest I kind of hated it right from the first night’s camping. When I was in Sweden I looked to buy another tent but with the exception of Decathlon it was all online shopping so I decided to persevere with the Cairns.
I don’t like the black inner tent because much of the time it’s hard to find anything because it’s so dark, even in daytime or even at night time with your lamp. Also, for me it’s too low, and being in my 60’s, the height – together with the blackness for much of the time – I felt like Gollum slithering around in his cave. Also, the zip around the front door is an utter nightmare to open and close, especially when its wet.
A few nights ago I’d had enough so after doing some Googling, I found there was a large tent shop in Frankfurt so riding between Nuremberg and Bad Kreuznach I did a bit of a detour and visited the shop. Immense. It was the biggest camping shop I’d ever been in. Anyway, I saw the tent and bought it for 95 euro’s.
I went back to the bike, took the cairns 3 off the bike, strapped on the new tent onto the bike and then dumped the cairns in the nearest wheely bin. The new tent is great. About 1 kilo heavier and the same pack-size but loads more space. More importantly, I can stand up straight and it’s nice and bright inside. I feel like a human being again. It’s a German made tent made by a company called Berger, and it’s a four-man, with more than enough space for me, my bed and all my kit, and also enough space in the vestibule to sit and cook or store my gear.
So, a word of warning…. Before you embark on an epic adventure which involves a lot of camping, get your tent sorted out before you go – or at least do a test run with it before you hit the road. Unlike me….
As a comparison – this is the old tent…
