I was camping the other day and realised that someone needs to speak up about fire safety while camping. Guess it’d better be me. My qualifications for this subject are that I’m a Guide leader of fourteen years’ standing, I was the fire marshall at my last job (and I wrote our fire procedures manual… More Fire safety while camping

In this series, I’ve covered how to choose and buy a tent, how to look after it, what kit to take, how and what to cook and quite a few of the basics of camping. It took until a Twitter exchange this morning (by which I mean last Monday because pre-written and scheduled post!) for… More Why go camping?

As I may have mentioned in my last post, I went camping in the heatwave and made some errors in judgement. But those errors were caused, in part, by the lack of any information whatsoever about how to camp in hot weather. People talk a lot about how to camp in the cold – I’ve… More How to camp in hot weather

I’ve covered quite a lot of the basics of camping – how to buy a tent, pitch it, repair it and how to cook while you’re camping but I’ve never done a camping packing list. Well, here it is, my list of camping essentials, broken down into categories. “Camping essentials” will vary from person to… More Camping for Beginners: Camping essentials

I’ve covered everything I know about tents and now it’s time to think about what you’re going to eat. Welcome to Camp Cooking for Beginners! What should I cook on? You’re spoiled for choice on that these days. Let me give you a rundown of your main options. Others exist but these four are the… More Camping for Beginners: Camp cooking

As I write this, I’m lying in the porch of my tent in the garden, having spent the morning making repairs and while I’m doing the Outdoors 101 and Camping for Beginners series, it seemed it would be a good idea to do a post on how to repair a tent. You’ve bought it, you’ve… More Camping for Beginners: How to repair a tent

I meant to do this last year but apparently I never did: a beginner’s guide to how to pitch a tent. It’s all very well to decide you’re going to try out this camping thing, to go to a shop and buy a tent, but how do you put the thing up? Tents come in… More Camping for Beginners: How to pitch a tent

Perhaps you’re here because you can’t fly off to your sunny summer holiday and you’re beginning to think people might be right about this camping thing, at least until the plague is well and truly gone. But you’ve never camped before; you don’t even know where to begin. Never fear, I’m here to help! Camping… More Camping for Beginners: how to buy a tent

As a veteran now of three “winter survival camps” with various Rangers and Guides, I’m going to share what I’ve learned. With travel off the table at the moment, maybe you’d like to try a brand new small adventure like camping in your own garden in winter. 1) Minimise time spent camping in winter At… More How to survive camping in winter