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Quote: Originally posted by lentrott on 03/6/2008

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Hi Bowerbird, glad you are happy with your Lepelaar! Can I ask did you order your tent without seeing it in the flesh, or visit Uden twice? As I said earlier, we are going to Uden in July and though I would prefer to only go once, i'm not really prepared to order without seeing one first!

Also, I know that the tents are made to order, but apart from adding zigschermrns, varioluifel etc, to what extent can you personalise your tent? I have noticed that on  photo's the curtain that divides the sleeping area are different patterns/colours, personally I would prefer a plain one in bergundy to match the front!  Do you think this is an option?

I will be contacting the store in Uden to let them know we are coming, and also to see if they may have stock, but don't want to sacrifice being able to specify exactly what I want if there are lots of other options! 

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Hi lentrott

You really need to be contacting DeWaard now about the tent you want.  I got mine in May 2000 and phoned them up the previous November about it.  I had been told by my Dutch friends that they make the tents over the winter months.  DeWaard sent me some canvas and curtain samples so I could choose the colours I wanted.

They do hold some limited stock, but if you want to choose your colours get in touch with them quickly.  Most of them speak very good English, but are not so good with written English.

Hello Tessa,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply to my problem. We have used the varioluifel in the ways that you have explained; the thing is we were trying to shut off the entrance completely in gale force winds coming straight into the entrance. With the sides of the vario zipped to the windscherms there is still too much fabric to go into the hole as it were! We made two big pleats but we need something a bit neater. I have had a reply to my query from de Waard about the zonneluifel they said, (I quote) ...

We thought about this several years ago.

To give the zonneluifel more functionality, De Waard introduced the Varioluifel.

The Lepelaar model (of 1996) was the first one to have this.

The zonneluifel is too short to reach to the ground.

Also, to be able to close it, the user depends too much on the right position of the windschermen.

It was our conclusion (and still is) that it would not be user-friendly enough."

(end of quote - I can't seem to change the print back to black again)

So I am back to square one. You suggested four windscherms; I cannot envisage how that would work?

Thanks anyway.

Hello Lentrott,

Very good news for you from De Waard. I hope you can get exactly what you want in July. We have plans to camp in the Malvern area fairly soon but we have two daughters in Scotland who are going to be joining us. In July we will be motoring all the way to Krakow with four one night camping stops, ( eldest son's wedding) but we wont be taking the Lepolaar just our little two man tent. I would not fancy taking the Lepolaar apart and pitching it every day.

Hi Cornerhouse! I've been admiring pictures of your De Waard on Flickr!

Bowebird, have you thought about posting on the De Waard forum to ask advice - see if anyone's got a photograph they show you.  There's an English section.

click here.

Congratulations you are now the owner of one of the finest tents in the world ! Now you have to prepare yourself for all the stares and comments you are going to get everytime you put it up on a uk campsite (I speak from experience).

well done

martin 

Hi Matt

The inner tent is much more substantial than the inners you get with normal tents. It attaches to the top of the main pole and the front face of it zips to the sides of the tent (so the gap between tent and inner is not visible). The floor of the inner is made from the same woolly material that the carpets are made from. Buying the inner tent means that you don't buy the curtains and the carpet so if you minus the cost of those, the inner doesn't cost that much more (well that's how I justified it anyway!).  Also, the extra insulation that it offers will extend our season by a couple of months, although De Waards are classed as 4 season tents anyway!

The quality of the tents is simply stunning, but the downside of this is that they are heavy.  The Lepelaar is also bigger that I expected - I don't know if your concerns about the size of the living area were that it would be too small or too big, but if anything it is too big for 2 adults! We have our Guadeloupe as a quick pitch for 2-3 nights, so the extra space in the Lepelaar will suit us well for 4+ night stays!

The tents are usually made to order and take around 3 months to be ready, although each store does have limited numbers of some of the models available from stock.  If you give them plenty of notice they may reserve a tent for you given that you are travelling from the UK. They explained how to pitch the tent, but it is fairly self explanitory, you just need to put the pegs in in the right order.  We chose a burgundy front and side panels, the other options are green (v.nice!) and blue (not quite as nice!).  We haven't pitched the tent yet so I will let you know about the vario, though it seems really simple - just zip to the tent canopy, add poles and peg out!

I'll write a full review when we return from our trip at the end of the month!

Hi Matt! 

I contacted De Waard at the beginning of June to say that we would be coming, and that I was 90% sure that I wanted a Lepelaar.  They said that because we were travelling almost 500 miles they would be prepared to reserve one for us with no obligation to buy.  Upon seeing the Lepelaar our initial thought was that it may be too big so we asked what else was in stock - they had a Roerdomp, a Stormvogel and a couple of others, although some were ex display (15% off), others had no zips for side panels, canopies etc, so we were glad we reserved one in the end!

I too am a big fan of Deltas, though I don't really think they are required for De Waards - the pegs supplied are very sturdy and as someone on the De Waard forum said: 'Delta's are a solution for a non existant problem - De Waards don't blow down!!!'

The total cost of the tent was 2650 euro's, but having seen the quality I had no problem shelling out for it! I just hope I don't get bored of camping!