Why did I buy this bloody tent.
Here is my tale - please don't laugh.
I have been looking around for various forms of
camping gear. I am very new to it but did my research.
I could not afford a Jayco camper or a camper trailer so I decided to get a tent.
I looked around on the net spending many hours looking at comments and getting prices.
I came to the conclusion that the canvas pole tents were a bit expensive and probably did not suit my needs.
I wanted a tent which I could tour with as
well as base my self for a couple of days if I wanted. So I decided on a dome tent.
I looked around and saw some good reports on the coleman explorer 4 tent (there is only 2 of us).
I looked around some more and for some stupid reason I decided to get the coleman riverview 7 tent ($399) - about twice the bloody size of the explorer but still thought it was OK - thinking it will just take a bit more time to put up and did have the sort of things I was looking for if I was based at a spot for some time.
Well today I put the tent up in my front yard to get a bit of experience and to make sure all the parts were there.
I only hope no one was watching or filming this as I am sure it would end up on TV.
I reckon it took me (and the wife) about 1 hour to set up - seemed a lot longer. Granted this was the first time and the instructions were OK but could be better.
There seems to at least 1000 pegs and as many if not more guide ropes that you have to attach. My wife passed a very ponted comment " we will not be travelling late each day". My reckoning is if we stop around 1:00pm each afternoon we should be set up by night fall :). All the posts are colour coded but unfortunately they did not colour code the pins at the bottom and you have a choice of 3 to choose from (only took me 3 goes to get it right!!!)
I would say this tent is a possible marriage breaker! I can see it now, the arguments following the frustration of having to put this thing up every day if we are travelling! and I am trying to convince her this is the best way to travel.
However, in saying this I believe the tent we did buy was/is good for longer stay
camping - it is very roomy and has lots of ventilation etc but as touring tent (which we haven't started doing yet) it is probably not the best but time will tell. I reckon we will end up having to cart a small (very cheap) tent around as
well for overnight stays
If I had the money I would buy a camper, or a one pole canvas tent (with an annex for longer stays). A couple of years ago we went to Africa where we camped in canvas tents and they were great - taking 5-10 minutes in the dark (mind you there is an incentive to get the tent up quick there).
Why write this - humour helps at times like this and perhaps some one who is in the same position as me may gain some thing from my experience.
Any way I am still looking forward to breaking the new tent in for real - which I hope to do very soon and I ask if you see a couple of old buggers trying to put a bloody tent which is way to big for them please don't laugh (there is always motels!)
All the best,
Richard