Summer Festival Camping

Sea of Tents

Festival Camping Gear

It’s a fact that the best festivals always involve camping – and if this is your first festival, you need to go with the right attitiude to camping.  Forget any ideas you have about waking up to fresh country air, calm, birdsong and greenery – this is festival camping.  Its only relation to mainstream leisure camping is that tents and sleeping bags are involved. Remember this and you won’t go far wrong.

There’s a ton of advice out there on festival camping – what to take, where to pitch up, how to arrange your tents in circles, that kind of thing.  And there’s plenty of websites and shops who’ll sell you a complete ‘Festival Camping Pack’ – some of these deals are pretty good too.  But you have to strike a balance between performance and cost because, sadly, there’s a chance your kit might not make it home with you.  If it’s good quality and expensive it might go ‘walkabout’.  Or you just can’t be bothered to pack it away again at Festival end. Or, and this is much more likely, you can’t actually remember where it is at Festival close.  A weekend of heavy festivalling can have a pretty bad effect on the memory.

Given the normal British summer, the nights will either be cold or roasting hot.  If they’re cold you’ll be relying on your sleeping bag to keep you warm.  Waking up cold and hungover is a pretty poor start to the day.  Preferably you need to wake up warm – and hungover. Still hungover, agreed, but you won’t feel quite as bad. A lot of ‘Festival Pack’ sleeping bags are pretty basic and won’t actually keep you that warm but buying a decent bag could set you back as much again as the ‘Pack’ did.

And what if the heatwave continues and it’s like an oven in your tent?  You don’t want to wake up too hot, dehydrated and hungover now do you?

It’s a dilemma but there is a solution.  You don’t need to buy a new, top of the range, sleeping bag nor do you have to sleep exposed to the elements (and bugs) to stay comfortable. All you have to do is buy a lightweight silk sleeping bag liner.

Silk liners are brilliant!

Use one inside your sleeping bag and it will increase the temperature by anything up to eight degrees – as well as protecting your sleeping bag from muddy feet and the like.  If it’s too hot to use a sleeping bag, just sleep inside the liner.  It’ll help keep you cool by ‘wicking’ moisture away from your body, it’ll also keep insects away from you and silk just feels soooooo luxurious against your skin.

A decent silk sleeping bag liner is lightweight and takes up next to no room in a rucksack or day pack.  You’ll easily be able to carry it with you even if you decide to leave the rest of your kit for the Festival clear up team.

The New Zealand made Jag Bag silk sleeping bag liners are some of the best on the market.  They start at only £16 and come in a range of styles, colours and prices.  There’s even a double sized silk liner for those who’d like to share the luxurious experience of silk on skin.  All the liners come in their own silk stuff sack, are hand washable and dry in minutes – handy if you have some kind of Festival ‘accident’. Here’s a few pictures to give you an idea of exactly what the Jag Bag silk liners are like:

Sunset Shades Jag Bag and Stuff Sack

Turquoise Jag Bag

Turquoise Jag Bag Detail

Paua Jag Bag Detail

Jag Bag Size Guide

My personal recommendation for a Festival Camping liner would be the Standard Fine Silk Liner at just £16 (plus P+P).  It offers outstanding comfort and value for money and is small enough to be stuffed into a pocket.  All the Jag Bag silk sleeping bag liners I sell are posted out within 2 days of purchase and they all have a Lifetime Guarantee.  If they ever fail in normal use just send them back for a replacement. Please note – using them to slide across muddy festival fields doesn’t count as normal use.

Silk is an incredibly strong and flexible natural product and treated properly, a Jag Bag silk sleeping bag liner will give years of use.  They’re not just for Festival Camping either they’re ideal for mainstream leisure camping, extreme camping or any kind of traveling.  You can use then in sleeping bags, tents, dorms, hotel beds where you fancy a barrier between you and the sheets or even just by themselves. They can keep you cool, they can keep you warm.  A Jag Bag silk sleeping bag liner is an indispensible and versatile piece of kit.

You can check out the full range of Jag Bags here.

Here’s a selection of all sorts of Festivals which are coming up in July.  I’ll keep the list updated over the summer.

Gather Round

9 – 12	Stonehaven Folk Festival
10 – 12	Dare 2 Festival
10 – 12	Ely Folk Festival
10 – 12	Folkstation09
10 – 12	Guilfest
10 – 12	Lounge on the Farm 09
10 – 12	NASS 2009
10 – 12	Oxegen, Ireland
10-12	T in the Park
10 – 12	Wakestock
15 – 18	Hebridean Celtic Festival
16 – 19	Latitude Festival
16 – 19	Glade
17 – 20	2000 Trees
23 – 26	Secret Garden Party
24 – 25	Wickerman Festival
24 – 26	Camp Bestival
25 – 26	Big Tent Festival

Trans-Siberian Trainspotters on the Mongol Rally

Follow the epic adventure here

Ulaan Bataar or Bust!

How many famous Mongolians can you name?

Ghengis Kahn’s a given as is Kublai Khan but how about Roy Chapman Andrews

Nice Antlers There Roy

(ok an honorary Mongolian and apparently the man Indian Jones was modelled on) and of course who can forget Baron Ungern von Sternberg?

Mad, Bad and Dead

A bit of a nutter who thought he was the re-incarnation of Ghengis, he led a bit of reign of terror in Mongolia in the 1920’s before he annoyed his own troops so much that they captured him and handed him over to the Russians – who promptly shot him.  His book on man management wasn’t a big seller.

Why the sudden interest in Mongolia?  Because, in a small way, I’ve become involved with the Trans-Siberan Trainspotters who have entered the Mongol Rally.

The Mongol Rally

This is an annual event where basically you set off from Goodwood near London on July 18th and hope to arrive in the capital of Mongolia sometime later.  To make life interesting, the organisers don’t issue a route and they absolutely insist you make the journey in a car with an engine capacity of less than 1 litre.  Apparently they regard the rally as an adventure more than anything else.

Given what can only be described as slack approach to organisation, teams have to plan their own route and so can drive anything between 8 – 10,000 miles to reach Ulaan Baatar.  Apparently there’s no motorway linking the 2 capitals and satnav coverage is sketchy to say the least.  Interestingly there’s nothing on their website that mentions getting back home again.  I hope those that make it get a better reception than Baron von Sternberg.

The Trans-Sib Trainspotters consist of John, Niamh and Cillian and they’ll be making the trip in a Dhiatsu Terios.

The Mighty Trainspotter Terios

They have a very entertaining blog here which hopefully they’ll be updating as they go.  Don’t know what they’ll find in the way of internet connections in Azerbaijan though.

They’ve also organised a Mongol Disco

Mongol Disco Flyer

on the 27th June at the Orphan Girl in Ballymoney which will be absolutely THE must goto event in Ballymoney this year.  Money raised by Disco will go towards the Christina Noble Charity and the RNLI.

Talking of charity, if you want to sponsor the Trainspotters please go to their donations site here and give, give, give.

To guarantee that they make it to Ulaan Bataar the Trainspotters will be using Jag Bag Endura Silk Sleeping Bag Liners which will help them keep warm during those long, lonely, cold nights out on the Stepp.  While the silk will stop you being bitten by mossies I’m not too sure how it stands up to wolf bites.  Better take a big stick to be on the safe side.  Or some pepper spray.  Or both.  Or just don’t get out of the car.

Ulaan Bataar on a Sunny Day

Das Boot

Old Meindl Shoes

Sorry if you were expecting a post about a WW2 German U-boat but read on anyway,  only don’t expect much in the way of depth charging and torpedoing.

5 years ago I bought a pair of Meindl walking shoes ahead of an epic trip to Vietnam and Laos.  I’d never heard of Meindl before but they fitted well and were comfortable and weren’t too pricey at about £90.  In 5 years my Meindls have been all over SE Asia, from the hell hole that’s Phuket to jungle trekking in the very wet and muddy Cameron Highlands.  As an aside, let me tell you that jungle trekking tends to be hot, sweaty, muddy, humidy and insecty.  You hear the birds but never see them or any other wildlife.  All you can be guaranteed seeing is the back of the person in front of you.  Jungle treks – just say no!

Every winter the Meindls have had daily treks over the Edinburgh cobbles to and from work.  They’ve seen a lot of action.  In December last year I was wandering around Hanoi when a Vietnamese guy tapped me on the shoulder, pointed to my Meindls and said ‘I fix’.  I was about to just say no when I realised he had a point.  Despite having a comfortable, world traveller look about them the soles and heels were pretty worn down. My new friend gave me a pair of incredibly small flip flops to wear and set about my shoes.  He carried everything he needed in a plastic basket.  He pulled out a sheet of some thick, rubbery material, looked at the heel and then cut out a perfectly shaped patch.  Once the heels were done he then set about the worn out inner lining with a big needle and thread and just sowed them back up.  So, within the space of 5 minutes and at a cost of $4 my Meindls weren’t as good as new but they were good for a few more miles of trekking around.  Just another example of how profligate us bad Western folk are – throw it away rather than repair it.  Sermon over.

Stitched Up

Falling to Bits

Patched Heel

Meindl Patched Heel Godd as New

Back to my normal workaday life in Edinburgh I kinda forgot about the Meindls, just used the as required.  BUT then, as I was wandering around Blacks during the sale, I saw a pair of Meindl boots with a big SALE sticker on them.  Reduced from £99 to and unbelievably there were in my dinky size 7 too.  Briefly I considered the eco apect of using my old Meindls for ever and just repairing then until there was nothing left to repair.  Like I said, briefly……………

These were brand new boots at a knock down price!  Do you know how often I ever see sale stuff that actually fits me?  Never!  Sod the constant repairing – this was brand new, comfortable, CHEAP kit.  And 5 minutes later, the Meindl Magic Boots were mine.

Mr Meindl makes every pair of boots by hand

Land of the Meindl

Meindl Bargain

Virgin Meindls

Virgin Meindl

Alpine Walking and the Red Yeti

It’s been pretty quiet on the travel front recently.  I did make another trip to London on business and did consider taking the Caledonian Sleeper…………………………. for about 5 seconds!  As I wasn’t paying I flew and despite the hassle of packed airports and the frustrating delays caused by the power crazed security screeners, it was still better than listening to someone snore for 6 hours!

But onto the Red Yeti.  Red, as I like to call him, has a pretty good travel blog here which is full of great stories, pictures and advice.  He’s also been good enough to recommend my Jag Bag Silk Sleeping Bag Liners totally unprompted more than once.

A couple of weeks ago he published a great article about summer walking in the Alps.  I didn’t even know you could walk in the Alps!  But Red has written such a great, enthusiastic, article that I’m well up for it.  These walks make Scottish Munro Bagging (look it up – but don’t expect anything pervy) look like a gentle meander through the park.

Sorry,  Munro Baggers, I don’t indulge but I fully respect your right to pursue a hobby which is distantly related to train spotting – “……and that’s another one ticked off the list…….”

Anyway, back to Red Yeti and the Alps.  Check out his Alpine Walking post here.  Here’s one of Red’s rather good pictures to end on……….

I Give You Taxi At Special Rate My Friend

I’d just flown in to Bangkok from Phnom Penh and wanted to get to my hotel in the city.  I walked down to the very ground level and,  as usual, was approached by several folk keen to offer me a a ride into town.  I normally just mutter ‘No thanks’, carry on walking and the touts give up.  Not this one though, here’s how the conversation went:

Tout:  You just arrived sir?

Me:  Yes

Tout:  Where you from?

Me:  Scotland

Tout:  Yes, the men wear skirts?

Me:  Only the ladyboys

Tout:  You want hotel, sir?

Me:  No thanks.  I’ve already got one

Tout:  You want taxi?  I give you taxi at special rate my friend?

Me:  How much to Asoke station on Sukhumvit Road?

Tout:  Special price, only 600 baht.  We go?

Me:  600 baht IS a special price.  Meter taxi is only about 230 baht, the airport bus is only 150 baht and the local bus is maybe 40 baht.  I think 600 is special price for you only

The tout just looked at me and burst out laughing.

Tout:  Yes, special for me only.  If I were you,  I  catch  airport bus too.  I go and find farang who does not know the right price for taxi.  Goodbye my friend.

You know he was such a nice friendly guy I was almost tempted to take his special price.  But I didn’t, cheapskate that I am I took the excellent value, 150 baht airport bus.

A bit of local sculpture in the airport

Annoying a big snake at Bangkok airport

Don't play cards with this guy

After 3 - Heave!

The Caledonian Sleeper – A Sleep on a Train

The caledonian Sleeper

I had to be in London for an early morning meeting and I didn’t fancy the idea of getting up at 4am to get to Edinburgh airport to fly down.  I didn’t really want to be hitting London at rush hour anyway, the tube at 8am isn’t my idea of fun.  I could have flown down the day before and stayed in a hotel but that would have been waaaay too expensive.  The only viable altenative?  Why, the Caledonian Sleeper of course.  Leave Edinburgh at 11.45pm and arrive in Euston station at 7am next morning having had a restfull night’s sleep on the train.

You have a couple of choices regarding accommodation – share a 2 berth cabin with a complete stranger or buy a 1st class single berth all to yourself.  As I was travelling on business I went for the 1st class single option which cost an eye watering £161.00!  What price privacy.  Still, as it was 1st class I expected to be travelling in utter luxury.

Sleeper Corridor

I arrived at Waverely Station at 11.30pm and was met by a nice man who took my order for breakfast and showed me which was my carriage.  First thing  noticed on boarding were two toilets.  Second thing I noticed was just how narrow the corridor down the train was.  Had I been hauling a big pack it would have just wedged between the walls.

My berth was about halfway down the carriage and when I opened the door I couldn’t actually believe how small it was.  It was so small that even with my camera set to wide angle, I could only get a bit of the cabin in shot.  It was about 7feet long and 4 feet wide.  The bed was down the left hand wall with the

1st Class Sleeper Cabin

bottom of it disappearing under the shelf at the end.  To the right of the shelf was the washbasin, covered in a fold up lid, and above that was the window.  Along the right wall were inbuilt hangers for your clothes – and that was it for luggage space.  Everything else had to be on the floor – so again, happy I was only travelling light.

The bed was pretty narrow but the sheet and duvet covering it were absolutely spotless – no need for one of my Jag Bag silk sleeping bag liners.  Anyone over average size and height could be in for an uncomfortable night given the bed’s dimensions.  Also, I realised that this single berther could easily be transformed into a double berther by releasing the upper bunk from the wall – you can just make it out in the picture.  Here’s a tip for all you claustraphobes out there – do not, under any circumstances, share a berth on this train – you’ll only live to regret it.

There was pretty good aircon and all the lights were controlled from a panel by your head.  If you wanted anything in the night you could press a buzzer and the attendant would come and get it for you, berth as opposed to room service.  There was a buffet car on the train and I guess that’s where non 1st class passengers had to go and get their own refreshments from.  Food and drink prices seemed pretty reasonable.  Sadly no matter what class you travelled, you had to use one of the public toilets onboard – no private facilities for anyone.

So – how was the journey?  Did I sleep like a baby?

The cabin was roasting hot when I arrived but the temp soon came down once I’d adjusted the aircon – which was a bit loud but.  Then I heard the guy in the next cabin cough and I realised that the walls were paper thin.  The he coughed again………and again……..and agan.  I decided he had a cough.  The bed was prett firm but ok.  I think any careless, violent, turning over action would see you on the floor quite easily.  The train set off smoothly on time.  I cleaned my teeth as quietly as I could but ruined all the effort by letting the wash basin cover fall down twice – sorry guy next door.  I read for a bit and then switched out the lights.  It was total blackness!  Then the train went over what felt like bumps and started swaying and banging about.   I was being thrown around in the dark like some weird fairground ride.  Actually, I quite enjoyed it.  The turbulence ended and I started to drift off………..

But not for long.  Coughing guy next door had metamorphosed into snoring like a pig guy.  What a racket!  I banged on the wall a couple of times but all that did was get rid of some frustration.  This guy was in a snoring world of his own. I can’t really describe just how awfull the noises were but he was clearly wearing some sort of restrictive gimp mask – no human could make sounds like that without some outside assistance.  Anyway, despite being convinced I’d never dop off, I eventually did – only to be woken up by……….silence.

No snoring, no coughing, no aircon noise, no train moving over the rails noise either.  I decided that someone had snapped (probably a claustraphobic), broken into the berth next door and thrown the gimp mask snorer off the train and we’d stopped to look for him.  Obvious really.  Thiry seconds later I was shown the error of my reasoning when the train suddenly started with a huge jerk, the aircon roared into life and my next door neighbour once again joined in with the general racket.  I looked at my watch – it was 12.30am, hours to go.  I felt my heart sink.

The rest of the night passed in a series of stops, sudden starts, snoring, being too hot, being too cold, carriage swaying and fitful sleep.  I couldn’t quite believe it then when I was actually woken up by my alarm.  Somehow I’d managed to sleep.  Eventually managing how to work the window blind I opened it and saw we were parked in Euston station on a very grey day.  It was 6.20 and my breakfast was due at 6.45. I dressed and went out to use the toilet noticing that my neighbours door was open and his berth empty.  He’d either been silently disposed of during the night or had left as soon as we arrived.  I know which option I prefer.

Bang on 6.45 there was a knock on my door and I was handed my breakfast tray and free copy of The Scotsman.  Breakfast was pretty good and consisted of  hot bacon roll, tea, orange juice, yoghurt,

Caledonian Sleeper Breakfast

fresh fruit salad and a traditional finger of shortbread.  After a leisurely read of the paper I left the train at about 7.15 and wandered off into Euston Station.  There are no showers on the train but apparently 1st class passengers can use the facilities at the Virgin Trains lounge on the station itself.  I looked in there but it was very busy and decided to rely on deoderant to keep me fragrant for the rest of the day.

So, would I use the sleeper again?  I guess overall it was ok, had it not been for the next door neighbour from hell I would have arrived feeling a lot fresher.  Not having to get up early for a flight was a big advantage as was the lack of hassle with airport security and the sheer awfulness of using the rush hour underground.  If the business is paying, then yes, I’d travel 1st class sleeper again but if I have to pay out of my own pocket then I’d choose a cheap flight or maybe daytime train travel.

Forgot to say that there was a pretty good complimentary washbag in the cabin which had lots of toiletries, eye mask, flannel, tootbrush, razor and socks (?) – but sadly no ear plugs.

Terrevista Trails Website – Construction Work!

If you’ve come or gone to or from my blog from my website at www.terrevistatrails.com (THE place to buy silk sleeping bag liners BTW) can I just appologise for the state of the site at the moment.   The web builders are in, hopefully improving things, but work seems to be taking a bit longer than expected………………..    But hopefully not as long as the Edinburgh Tram Project.

Anyhoo, please don’t let the mess put you off – the online shop is still working perfectly.

Standard sunset in Sihanoukville

AirAisia – Still not as bad as Ryanair

Several people have pointed out to me that Ryanair ony let you have 15kg hold luggage too.  And now they’re talking about charging people £1 to use the toilet in flight. What next?  Coin slots to activate the drop down oxygen masks?

Needing Luggage?

If you’ve bought a Jag Bag silk sleeping bag liner from me,  thank you very much.  Now, if you’re looking for some serious travel luggage to put it in, let me point you to www.adventureavenue.co.uk.  They’re a friendly, Edinburgh based company who’ll be able to fix you up with just about any kind of travel bag imaginable.

Just let me say that I haven’t been paid to plug them!  I’ve used them a few times in the past year and the service has been brill and that’s why I’m happy to recomend them.