Simplistic camping 23


One thing I have discovered is that people become overwhelmed by the amount of “stuff” that they think they need to go camping. I have seen so many people camping with so much of what I consider to be unnecessary gear that it is no wonder  that people get turned off from camping with the kids. For me it is about simplicity, the least amount of gear as possible because lets be honest when it is just me and the kids I don’t want to be having to do more then I have to!

Recently we went on a one night camp to Munmorah State Conservation area and so I took the opportunity to record what we took….. so here it is!

All our gear for a one night camp

Tent/water/camp mats:

Of course if you are camping you need a tent! Over the years we have been through a lot of tents but now we are happily set on our Kathmandu Boreas ( check out our blog post on it here… and our YouTube Video on it here!), in fact we are so happy that we have plans to purchase the 2 person version of it. I always have the poles and pegs packed inside the tent bag as I have learnt my lesson after leaving poles behind in the past! We always take a Jerry can of water (sometimes two!) even if we are going to an established Caravan park. It makes it so easy to always have water on hand rather then going back and forth to a tap and sometimes were we camp where there is no suitable drinking water. We also take Camp mats because they are handy for so many reasons. They form a barrier under the tent, are great to step out onto and are a awesome substitute for camp chairs to sit on. It is very rare that we take chairs or a table, especially on an overnight. We sit on the ground or find ourselves hanging out at the camp kitchen or sitting at a picnic table…and the boxes that our gear is stored in also work well as tables.

Kathmandu Tent, Camping mats and Jerry can of water.

Kitchen Box:

We have a box permanently set up with all our kitchen supplies. We have all our cutlery, plates cups etc sitting in a wash up tub inside the large box. In the box we also have our Trangia cooker, matches and its fuel (check out video here) which is so compact but efficient for those times we are not cooking either on a Barbeque or in the camp kitchen. This box also contains our head lamps (don’t need large lanterns) and travel towels (compact towels) as well as a tea towel, wash liquid and sandwich bags to carry lunches while out and about. We also carry around an old telephone book….so we are always prepared to start a campfire!

Food Box:

The food box is another large plastic box which obviously contains our food! This is semi permanent with some long life items always in there. Tea, sugar, long life milk, cocoa, soup, cordial, noodles, Wheet bix, oats, stock, popcorn kernels,oil, Vegemite, honey, tomato sauce are staples in the box and are always packed and from there we put in what extras we want to take. For an overnight (and often for longer) we take a small cooler bag and ice packs which often fits inside this box as well. Also when there is camp kitchens you will find a fridge so I don’t find that I often need a big Esky. In the picture there is also our wash/bathroom bag… this is also always packed with all our essentials, mostly in travel size, ready to go at any time. Its is not always in our food box but generally in our clothing bag.

Sleeping Gear:

Our sleeping gear is basically a sleeping bag each, sleeping mat and pillow. That’s it. Since our tent is a hiking tent it doesn’t allow room for stretchers so we either sleep on mats (mine is a self inflating one form Kathmandu) or sometimes.. but very rarely, two single air beds pushed together for three people. We do have blow up pillows that sometimes are used and we also have been known to use rolled up clothes (or clothes in packing cube) for under our heads, but otherwise we just grab a pillow from our beds. The sleeping bags we have do their job well, although if we could get our hands on smaller sleeping bags that have a decent temperature rating (possibly from Kathmandu…. hint, hint!) I would be much more happier!

Clothing bag:

Well this is pretty explanatory….in this bag we have our clothes! This overnight we used a (red) environmental bag but most of the time we will use our Kathmandu packing cubes, sometimes with our clothes all together and sometimes individual depending on the length of time we are going. Packing too much clothes is also a killer… I am slowly learning how to pack simplistically and down size our clothes packing… camping means that you can get away with wearing the same clothes a few times so its pretty easy to only carry a small amount! Sorry I have no picture to show but I’m sure you get this part!!!

So that’s that folks!!! …How we pack simplistically for camping!!

If you have any questions about this…. ask away below in the comments!

When you pack for camping do you take everything including the kitchen sink…. or do you downsize?

Safe Travels

Kerrie

 

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