Camping

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Sara_H

Guru
If camping from a car, something to sit on - those cheap chairs that you get everywhere are fine. I can't sit on the ground for long without getting very uncomfortable - in fact, my luxury when backpacking is a kit to convert my thermarest into a chair.
Other than that, stoves and bedding have been covered already and I don't have anything to add apart from I'm another trangia fan.
I've got one of those chair converters - quite comfy, though I really want a helinox 1 chair.
 

TheBobidentity

My speed is deceptive I'm slower than I look
We found a small collapsable table to be very useful
on our first trips a few yrs ago we tried to use the cool box as a table and it played havoc with our backs and general organisation
you rarely get it all right the first time but as has been mentioned before
"Its got nothing to do with your gear and everything to do with where you go"

best of luck and enjoy
 
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sazzaa

Guest
[QUOTE 3028207, member: 9609"]It is the only way to do it in the summer months, camp lower down and you can be eaten alive. I have known it bad on the tops, but mostly it is OK, just enough breeze to move them on, just look at that earlier photo of me cooking, this was a warm August evening, no wind, and well into the north west highlands, and we were out in the open. We met people the next day who had had a horrendous time in the glen.

One of the funniest sights I have seen was; I was in Glen Etive and had slept in my van, I was having breakfast (windows tight shut as I knew what lurked outside) And I observed this man coming out of his tent, just his boxers on, he looked please with himself doing a bit of stretching and clearly relishing the great outdoors, then it was obvious from his funny little dance the midge had arrived, there was some shouting, then his wife come out of the tent, she soon joined in the strange little dance, the swearing and shouting was becoming quite intense, it was clear they were in great difficulty, there was nothing I could do other than watch and pray for them. They opened the back of the blue ford escort estate car (I will never forget this incident) and they stuffed the fully erect tent into the back of the car, slammed the boot with some of the tent still stuck out the back, climbed in, and with some wheel spinning they sped off - presumably back to the lowlands to think again.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't have thought of camping on a hill to avoid midges but it makes sense!

I used this stuff on hols (Budapest) last year, after getting a few mosquito bites within a few hours of being there, it worked a treat so hoping it would be good with midges... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smidge-That-Midge-Insect-Repellent/dp/B00413715E/
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
[QUOTE 3028217, member: 9609"]Avon skin-so-soft is by many accounts the best product available, no body knows why this works as it is not meant to be an insect repellent, but many people have found it to be excellent - google "Midge and Avon Skin So Soft". Here is an interesting article on the royal marines choice LINK

Of course the only true solution for a full-on midge attack is: adopt a pleasant expression then three coats of yacht varnish on all exposed skin.[/QUOTE]

or start smoking a particularly filthy pipe. Supposedly ghillies on Balmoral estate had a ration of something like 1/2 a pound of baccy a day
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Try "Frosting A Rock".
@Gravity Aided, I assume you know what I mean.
 
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sazzaa

Guest
[QUOTE 3028217, member: 9609"]Avon skin-so-soft is by many accounts the best product available, no body knows why this works as it is not meant to be an insect repellent, but many people have found it to be excellent - google "Midge and Avon Skin So Soft". Here is an interesting article on the royal marines choice LINK

Of course the only true solution for a full-on midge attack is: adopt a pleasant expression then three coats of yacht varnish on all exposed skin.[/QUOTE]

Yeah the local camping shop sells Avon. I like the Smidge stuff though, it seems to work well with the P20 sunblock.
 

Gravity Aided

Legendary Member
Location
Land of Lincoln
The Skin-So - Soft Bug repellant works well, and it uses picardin instead of DEET, so it's hypoallergenic, I guess. Works pretty well. But my opinion is that of a man not surrounded by midges unless I go about 100 miles farther north.
 
If you are a marmite lover, then some marmite every day for at least a week before you go and every day you are there will also keep them from biting. It does not stop them pestering you, they just don't like your taste and won't bite. (Tis to do with the Vitamin B complexes in marmite - just google it. Unfiltered beer in large quantities is also rumoured to help as well.) We used the marmite trick through all of Scandinavia whilst on tour there 3 summers ago and between us had less than 10 bites each despite spending May through to August there, camping wild or even bivvying and cycling through swamp forests at what you would have thought to be the worst time of year! I do find it works well in Scotland as well (but I am not that bothered by them having had a childhood playground just south of Rannoch Moor - guess I have a certain immunity or tolerance to them), but have to say that the best solution of all is simply to make sure you have someone else with you that does not like marmite! Midge (and blackfly) will always bite that person in preference to you. :biggrin:

(PS just remember to make the relevant sympathetic noises to said victim! :whistle: :laugh:)
 
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