By: Blonde Two

Camp chairs are a wonderful thing aren’t they? We would all like to pretend that we are happiest without one, that our backs enjoy sitting at right angles and that our buttocks prefer solid granite to slung fabric, but the truth is that coming back to camp after a long day’s walk is made all the better for the comfort of a chair.

The problem with camp chairs however is that they tend to take up a lot of space. Can you imagine for example strapping your average garage-bought canvas chair to the side of your rucksack as you stride off into the unknown? Probably not, but believe me, ever since Helinox sent us our new Chair One I have been tempted.

The Chair One is lightweight (850g) has an amazingly small pack size (14″ long X 4″ wide X 5″ high) and, despite all of this minuteness, is capacious enough to comfortably fit my not-so-small bottom. So far we haven’t been tempted to take the Chair One up onto Dartmoor for a wild camp. This may be due to the fact that Helinox only sent us one to review and fighting over chairs is unseemly behaviour for Blondes (yes, that is a hint maybe a Chair Zero to compare). However it has been with us to DofE base camp and to a family camp in the Midlands.

I feel that I have given the Chair One a thorough explore by letting most of my family sit in it (Six-Foot-Blonde was envious because he has a less robust imitation version which he shares with his dog Opie), doing erection speed tests and trying out the ‘there’s a chair in my tent bedroom’ scenario (something I decided I liked). I like the Chair One in fact, I like it a lot. It is lower to the ground than a normal camp chair, something that those with worse knees than mine might find difficult, but for a smaller chair it is comfortable and surprisingly relaxing to sit in.

Now my own children are grown I try to be a good Aunty (in rehearsal for grandparenthood) and when I was asked to be the caller at Twister, I knew exactly how to make myself comfortable!

PS I did join in a couple of Twister games but refuse to show you photographic evidence of the fact!