By: Blonde Two
Blonde One and I, as you know usually camp as a pair, we learned early on that two women are warmer than one. We have welcomed Little-Miss-Blonde into our tent a few times, she is great to share with, she sleeps like a baby, takes up very little space and (most importantly) keeps us very cosy and warm. Three however does not happen to me very often so when I went Dartmoor wild camping with some super-outdoorsy girl pals the week before last, I made a point of noting the camping advantages of this triadic number. Here is what my research revealed (cue listicle):
Three is a good number when you are sharing the carrying of a tent. 1 for the outer, 1 for the inner and 1 for the pegs and poles. Please note, if you can’t fit your tent into three rucksacks with the rest of your kit, it is almost certainly too big for wild camping.
Image Ju Lewis Camper Extraordinaire
Three outdoor women means three sets of food treats. We had satsumas, Anzac biscuits, cream eggs, jelly beans, cheese (more about the cheese later) and crisps. Men, in my experience usually bring olives and spicy sausages to tent parties.
Image Ju Lewis Camper Extraordinaire
Three is also a good number for tent pitching and striking. From experience, 1 can be tricky in the wind, 2 is plenty, 3 is optimum and 4 means that someone will get in someone else’s way.
My Alpkit Brukit stove holds enough water for three drinks (as long as I don’t knock it over!)
If you spread 3 sleeping mats out in a 3 woman tent you will fill the space and have no cold tent floor on which to roll. Please note, this does not mean that rolling does not occur but women are good at synchronising!
Image Ju Lewis Camper Extraordinaire
With 3 you get the opportunity to try that unheard of activity… sleeping in the middle. It seemed obvious to me that I would take this spot, to be honest I wanted to try it out. I really liked it, once you get used to a bit of accidental night-time spooning, the middle is the place to be, it is warm, your sleeping bag doesn’t touch the edge of the tent and it is the easiest spot from which to escape for that early morning wee (I appeared to need mine an hour before my companions). The only disadvantage of being in the middle that I could see was the lack of pockets to stow important items in (this was probably why I ended up sleeping on the cheese!)
Whilst I enjoyed my research and have concluded that 3 can be as good as 2, I think I have made an even greater discovery. It isn’t the number of people in your tent that matters, it is their characters. If you camp with people who love the outdoors and have a willingness to put up with a bit of hardship and a touch of the unusual, then you are in for a fun night. Mind you I did once (for warmth) squash 5 youngsters into a 3 man tent, they were all lovely but I am not sure how much sleep they got!
2005 – I walked the GR5 from Lake Geneva to Menton on the Med. with the final option of using the GR52 through the Mercantour Alps instead of the normal GR5 finish. On that last leg I was joined by my old friend Gimmer.
Refuge Nice on the GR52 is in a stunning location overlooking a lake with bare rock pointy peaks behind – your route out next morning, but for sleeping…
…there is a dormitory about forty feet long and nine feet wide. Seven of the nine feet width accommodates a shelf full length about three feet off the floor – that is the sleeping platform. You are then left with the remaining two feet width, full length forty feet at floor level. Everybody sleeps crammed side by side in a line on the shelf (the place was full when we were there.) In the remaining floor level, two foot wide channel, everybody puts their rucksacks so if you get up in the night it is almost impossible to walk down that alley. We made preparations the night before for early departure and made sure we were first to arise, and although this was perhaps the most attractive location on my GR5/GR52 trip we couldn’t get away fast enough.
Photo of Ref. Nice:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4a77drkd70wr4cv/Slide218.jpg?dl=0
Sounds like a bothy but more squashed! My weirdest such experience was in a YHA in Okarito in New Zealand with three tiered bunks, luckily there weren’t very many of us staying.
Anzac biscuits – that’s good – a great tasty biscuit more folk should buy!
These were far superior Anzac biscuits… homemade by one of my fab companions.
Love that green sleeping bag. Is it very heavy? I remember going round H.M.S. Otus at Plymouth Navy Days long ago – the bunks were three deep in the Chief’s Mess – I hate to think how many were stacked in the ratings’ messes, which we were not shown. From one bunk, you could reach out and touch 9 people asleep!
Love the piccie of Refuge Nice, Conrad.