By: Blonde One

If you haven’t been to Cotswold’s Outdoor shop at Dart’s Farm, Exeter yet, then get yourself down there immediately! As well as the usual selection of outdoor gear, at the moment there is a fab tent exhibition. There are about 40 tents on display from miniscule to massive, from festival pop ups to polar exploration: they had them all. The selection of tipis was particularly impressive.

I was there with Little Miss Blonde and the 5 Young Leaders. As with all things when I’m with them we turned most things into a game/competition (I’ll tell you one day about the cherry stone game). First we went into the 6 man tipis and tried to work about the best way to sleep more than 6. The tent manufacturers suggested 4 sleeping around the circumference and another 2 forming a diameter. We worked out that if we all slept with our feet to the centre we could probably get 12 people in. Much more cosy and sociable! Upon examination of a couple of the 2 man tents we concluded that they varied in size enormously. There were some that would only sleep 2 of the shortest and skinniest of people with no room for bags and there were some that could accommodate the largest of men with the largest of bags. We wondered how many people would actually fit, so the Young Leaders got in, one by one.

2 very spacious …

3 no problem …

4 no room for bags …

5 squashed ..

6 very intimate and cosy!

6 in a 2 man tent