this reminds me of me last weekend.. just bought a new tent - Vango Farhnam 500, the tent had no pitching instruction, so when I tried to put it up, I just had to rely on a video I watched on youtube earlier on, It was suppose to take 15 minutes to pitch it up, well, it took me over an hour until I realized I have two poles in a wrong position ( the video didn't mention the poles are color coded ( I did not notice it either to be honest) so hence the reason I struggled to put it up, I felt like crying, doing it all by myself, I just wanted to burn it on the spot and walk away ;D I went indoors, poured myself some drink and then googled some different instructions, afterwards I managed to put it up withing 20 minutes, but gosh, it was a hard day. I will practise few more times before finally taking it out, but If the kids were not so desperate for me to put the tent up, I would have given up and put it in the loft for at least 5 years before trying again :D
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Hi Gemma, I appreciate that your post was about 6 weeks ago but thought that I would chime in as a new owner of the Vango Orava 500. Like you, we are new to camping, but after just returning from a 5 day break in the Orava, I have to say that I love this tent. We gave it a great introduction as the weather was awful with wind and heavy rain and we felt secure and dry, and most importantly not cramped due to the flexibility of the layout. I loved the heavier than normal fibreglass poles and combined with the material it has a real quality feel about it. Having a built in porch meant that wet jackets and shoes stayed outside, along with kitchen stuff, and kept inside clean and tidy. It suited our requirements perfectly and we cant wait for the next (hopefully dry) adventure. It is the type of tent that works best being put up by 2 people (1 adult and an 11 year old) but once you have the knack it goes up easily in 20-25 minutes. Stick with it, because we are certainly very happy and there was no sign of 'tent envy' from me as I walked around the campsite.
Is the cross method recommended for the outwell bear lake 4 does anyone know and would you leave the zig on the tent to achieve the balloon effect. Bit concerned as a couple of people have spoken about breaking bear lake poles so dont want to risk that but not sure how they did it.
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Topic: Vango Orava Costly mistake advice please
