Tents and Cars

The acquisition of a new tent provoked me into digging out images of old tents - and it also turned out be an automative history lesson too.

First Tent. Summer 1966.

I'm claiming this as first tent - and I did spend a few nights sleeping in it mostly in the back garden or alongside my parents caravan.

Wouldn't claim it was very weather-proof - single layer of thin canvas, no ground sheet and wooden poles.  Was more often pressed into service for summer picnics - this particular picnic was somewhere in the Sperrin Mountains in Northern Ireland.

Lovely looking Hillman in the background - my parents first new car.

In case you're wondering, I'm the little chap in the Aran sweater with back to camera.





First Real Tent, Summer 1983

Spending too much time in the mountains as a student meant needing to find a little back-pack-ready tent.  I had (I think) a Pheonix Phantom - it's the brown tent on the right of the image. Storm proof synthetic fabric, proper inner tent, aluminium tube A-frame.

And in the background - somewhere in North Wales, I believe - an array of Ford Fiesta, Ford Capri, Morris Traveller and a Mini. I think I'd arrived in the Fiesta.

[UPDATE] And in breaking news - my brother has just confessed to still having the Phantom - hidden in the cupboard under his stairs.

Latest Tent, Summer 2014

Another generation of tent technology - and I've probably missed a few innovation cycles over the years too. The wee brown one was pretty weather proof, lets see how the new one (a Vango Tempest 300) does. Properly separated inner, curved tensioned poles, wind-proof inner tensioning.   It gets it's first outing in a couple of weeks.