Camping

Living in a Tent

I have some previous camping experience having had some great family holidays at Lake Benmore and Lake Hawea when I was a child but when I decided to bike to Cape Town I knew that camping was something that I would be doing every day and I knew I had to embrace the idea.
In the first two weeks of travelling the camping didnt go so well. I would arrive and pitch the tent with no problems but I found it was taking me 1.5 - 2 hours to get packed up in the morning and back onto the bike.
It was difficult as I couldnt remember where I had packed everything so I ended up emptying all the bags to find what I needed.

Its taken a bit of time but I now know what is in each bag and I changed how I pack my gear to make it easier.

Now I only get out the things that I need when I arrive at a site. There is the cooker, food bag, change of clothes and items required for a shower. These all now live at the top of the bags so its rare now that I have to empty everything.

It now takes about 45 minutes to pack up the panniers and tent and get on the bike.

Its also took some time to get used to sleeping in the tent. There is often people, lights, trains, birds, planes and cars that can either keep you awake or wake you up. Then there is sleeping on a thermarest which wasnt easy to begin with.

I was used to a comfortable bed and sleeping on a 3cm airbed made my legs, hips and neck sore for a while. But after 5 weeks I have got used to it and I now sleep very well. It helps that I am usually tired from the day on the bike too.

The camping grounds in France have varied widely. Many have been fantastic with great facilities, in a great location, friendly staff and good value. Then there are others you cant wait to get out of.

The camping grounds have no cooking facilites and sometimes no toilet paper or toilet seats. Its always a interesting when you arrive as you are never sure what you are going to get.

They all have an area set asside just for tents and bikes so I have always had somewhere to stay. There have been 3 or 4 times when you go to a site and its closed but if that happens you just bike onto the next one how ever far that may be.

Then ocassionally you also come across a campsite that is something special and it makes living in a tent fantastic.

They are also a great place to meet other people travelling by bike. Everyone has a different story about where they have been, where they are going and how they ended up travelling on a bike.