3 Camping Supplies to Never go Without

So, you’re all packed and ready to go. Nice, new and shiny camping equipment, prim and proper backpacks and a fresh, crisp map waiting to be unfolded and explored.

What could be missing? With all the right camping equipment you’ll manage fine, but you might want to note a little advice from someone who was brought up on camping.

I have traipsed around Europe, America, the Far East and Australasia with my camping-fanatical parents; and then, as the seed was sown, I found myself heading out to the wild, old countryside on a motorbike, completely alone, to do the same thing by myself before introducing the wonderful idea to my husband and kids.  I can list canvas tents, bivouacs, camper vans, free camping, family campsites, beaches, woods, desert and the starlight hotel in my conquests.

We all know the obvious camping supplies to take but to be sure you have everything you need check out this camping checklist which will help you prepare and pack everything you need for your camping trip.

Things to Make the Camping Experience Better:

• Tents with bedrooms, insect repelling curtains and built- in storage easy to unfold and pop up (rather than standing in the dark trying to knock in a tent peg with a stone, ie: a makeshift hammer).
• Wearing lightweight polyester keeps you the camper dry rather than lying under canvas in the rain, wondering where the next big wet splodge will hit you.
• Snow tents that actually keep you warm rather than you having to try and ‘harden up’ in the icy conditions.

So, after all the obvious, what would I not travel without in any circumstances?  There are three simple camping supplies that I make sure I always have.

Camping Supplies to Never go Without:

1. Plastic Bags

Grab a big clutch of these. They can be used for just about everything you can think of; scrunched down to nothing, they weigh very little.  Campers usually have to travel light, so whatever your mode of transport – walking, biking or vehicling these little beauts are life savers. Use to:

• Wrap up your damp swimwear and towels.
• Store clean clothes separate from the used.
• Fill with ice to make ice packs for bruises.
• Use as a bucket (if there are no holes) to collect water.
• Make sand bags to wall up a side of a tent in a windy situation.
• Sit on whilst on a wet boat or damp grass.
• Stay dry in the rain (with a really big bag, cut a hole in the end to make a nifty coat).
• Collect edible berries or firewood.
• Collect the trash and take it and your bags home with you.

2. Earplugs

What? Can’t hear you? One man’s party is another man’s noise.
You’ve just found the ideal spot on the side of a lake where there are a few tents already up. Later, you sit by your campfire pondering the universe whilst the balmy evening shows a spectacular starry night, replete with shooting stars. You snuggle down for a good night’s sleep, trusting the universe is safe and wonderful when, suddenly, at 1am it’s party time. Do you go and yell at 15 loud, young people vs. 1 of you? Trust me, you won’t win. Either join in or stick in the ‘plugs’. Use earplugs when:

• The party is raging outside. You can then get a solid night of sleep (the noises of the party muffled) so that you’re fresh and ready to complain the next day.
• Camping on a windswept island so that the experience isn’t quite as ear-blowing.
• You are sleeping alongside a normally charming person in the daytime who turns into a snoring monster in a tent.
• The kids (or you) are screaming because they’re terrified that earwigs are going to crawl into their ears.
• You’re cycling. Not just for sleeping, earplugs can be real ear-savers for this activity as well.

3. Corkscrew

Okay, you’re at your destination, all set up. The steaks are cooking and you fancy a glass of the great wine you’ve brought along that will complete the camping experience beautifully. And: there’s no corkscrew. In the movies, a hero prances in with a sabre and, with one blow, cuts off the top.

Alright, so you forgot the sabre? There are grim ways to open a bottle of wine; sticking in a knife is one, but that only makes you look desperate and leaves you having to spit out bits of cork the whole bottle through. There’s really only one use for a corkscrew, but it’s an invaluable one – don’t go without it.

• And if the corkscrew is attached to a Swiss army knife, it becomes even more valuable!

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Author: Julie Harries

Edited by: CampTrip.com