By: Blonde Two
Have you ever spent a Dartmoor weekend in a marquee who’s sole mission in life is to take flight? We Blondes do it every year in May at Ten Tors camp.
We are very lucky to have our Blonde-Marquee, we use to have to manage in Blonde One’s family tent and, believe me, it was a squash when twelve hungry team members and their associated adults all needed breakfast. This year, the Blonde-Marquee has been the home for much fun and merriment; it has witnessed:
Foot binding
Hair plaiting
Bacon cooking
Monopoly
Peg competitions (don’t ask!)
Smiles
Cups of tea
Tears
More cups of tea
More bacon
Laughter (lots and lots of laughter!)
As a home from home, the Blonde-Marquee is perfect; except for one thing – the draughts. When your walls remove themselves from your floor at the slightest gust of wind, things are bound to get a bit chilly around the ankles. This is usually a bit of a problem and in past years has seen us going for walks to keep warm and sometimes decamping to the NAAFI. This year however, we didn’t need to do either of those things, because this year, our Blonde-Marquee had Blonde-Central-Heating!
Here is a picture of our Blonde-Central-Heating. I can thoroughly recommend it! Not only did it warm up the tent; it was surprisingly useful for cooking bacon and boiling my mum’s kettle (thanks Mum!) Shame it won’t fit into my One-Blonde tent!
WARNING: Cooking in tents is really not recommended. There is real risk of death from carbon monoxide and nylon tents burn very easily. Our marquee had plenty of ventilation (too much in fact) and we always had water easily available for emergencies.
Looks like something out of a well endowed Chinese takeaway kitchen.
I do cook in the doorway of my one man tent when backpacking against often published advice. Back around 1960 I saw a guy on the camp site next to the Old Dungeon Ghyll (long ago discontinued) with a brand new Blacks Mountain Tent that went up in flames. He was ok, but the tent just disappeared in a few seconds.
Woke up this morning thinking that I should add a ‘don’t cook in your tent’ disclaimer. Duly done! I remember only one time when Blonde One and I did it in a small tent. It was very late and very wet and we were so worried about fire that we put a knife out ready to cut our way out the back if necessary!
I have to admit to boiling a billycan of water in the porch of my one-and-a-dog sized mountain tent when it is beastly weather outside, but with extreme caution and only on a tiny, tiny cooker, with my water bottle to hand. If it stops hypothermia setting in in the early morning – – –
P.S. I have a German-made “kuchen-zelt” DESIGNED for outdoor cooking. The material is fire-resistant and there is no groundsheet. It’s tall enough to stand up inside and I use it as an awning on the little van.
Just had a look at your tent online. Like it very much, being able to stand up is a very good thing!