I am mad solo young lady of 63 years, still new to camping, who has decided on an adventure next year - camping in France for up to 3 months, possibly July - Sept. Will start in the north near Lille then amble down towards Toulouse and the SW. I have acquired all the essential camping gear except the right tent and EHU.
I recently borrowed a friend's Quechua 2 Seconds +III and did a 10 day tour of the Trossacks, Perthsire and Fife. It was a great tent because I moved campsites every 2-3 days. The downside is that I ended up with a slightly unhappy back, possibly because the inner is only about 95cm high. I also managed to visit Decathlon in Glasgow and quite fancied the Quechua 2 Seconds XXL IIII which is 150cm height. Having looked at YouTube it looks fairly simple to erect. The only downside was no windows. The larger family Quechua's did not appeal to me.
Having posted before, I'm wondering if the Hypercamp Djakarta would be a as good/or better choice. At 16+kg it's twice the weight of the Quechua, but I think my little 1.2l car will cope with it and the rest of my gear. My main concern is whether I'll end up in tears if I have to keep packing and unpacking it, possibly every 3 days, particularly if it rains a lot and the tent gets muddy and very heavy. Also being a weak female, I'm assuming it's not too great a challenge lifting a heavy canvas tent when putting in the first pole. Finally, is the Djakarta a more manageable size than the larger Eldorado even though it is more expensive!! If only we could order a made to measure tent.
Thanks for any wise words!
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I'm not sure I can help you with your choice of tent but thought I'd answer so you are 'bumped' up to the front so someone more knowledgeable can advise you.
Bon chance en France 2011!
------------- Camping - emotional resilience in action, a triumph of hope over adversity and antidote to virtual reality.
If you are going for that length of time it would be best to take 2 tents anyway. A small Quechua popup for overnights & summat a bit larger as well. If you look on the Kyham website you will see larger quick erect tents that might suit you.
There's also a lot of pegging points in a pyramid tent. Several single females use the Djakarta, so its possible to put up single handed, but if the ground is hard the pegging down could be a challenge.
The idea of having a back-up tent is a good one, especially if you don't fancy pitching the other tent or you are just stopping overnight on route between main sites. We have a small overnight low dome tent, which has proven very useful for this purpose and we just dry/air it inside the larger tent after use by draping the flysheet and inner tent over the furniture whilst out during the day. We use the same footprint for both the overnight and touring/weekend tent, so at least drying this isn't an issue.
A pop-up sounds a good idea, but my concern would be about drying it as it has to expand to its full size or nearly to do so, which unless the weather is good and you pitch it outside to air/dry may be difficult to fit into a small to moderate tent along with your other bits and pieces to dry. Worth thinking about...
Helen
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When I finally manage to escape from my family and go solo camping to Europe I'm either going to buy a little camper van or, more likely, something like a Vango Beta 450, with a tarp to sit under. The Beta is just about high enough for me (It's 145cm high, I'm 5'4" or 160cm) and plenty of room for me, gear, a little chair and table in the porch in foul weather and room for stores etc. It's dead easy to put up too. There are smaller versions..the Beta 350 and the Beta 250. Door on each side and windows. The only downside is the porch groundsheet isn't a riser or SIG one but that wouldn't bother me tbh.
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Topic: Tent for France
