camp lighting

Fairy-lit trip

/ embraceyourinnergoat / 2 Comments

Second trip of the year for Nessie, but first for the two goats together, was to our old favourite Stoneywish campsite. We love it there – it’s easy to get to for us after work, the campsite is relaxed without to many rules and you can easily go for a walk on the downs or just mooch around the local village. Facilities are few, but fires are allowed!

We always enjoy people watching at Stoneywish, it’s a firm favourite with those living the van-life, so there are a wide variety of semi-permenant set ups, with people going to & from work, as well as families and groups of friends. Our favourite was when we happened to be there over Beltane and were pitched next to a group of witches – watching their ceremony was our evening entertainment, while we cooked our dinner in a cauldron over our own fire!

The neighbours we were people watching this trip had fairylights up… so not to be out done, we got ours up too!!

Fairylights are an excellant car camping accessory – not only do they make your pitch look magical, they are great for finding your way back to your tent in the dark. If you string them down the guy ropes, you can also help prevent people tripping over them – a hazard that can be genuinely dangerous as one of our friends discovered a few years back.

We had two sets of fairy lights with us, both of which are solar powered and both of which wind into their own little round plastic case making them suitable for outdoor use. Both sets were gifts, so I can’t actually post you links to either as I don’t know where they came from! The ones in the photo are very pretty and will also do different colours, if that’s your thing. The others have just a few lights, but you can turn them up so brightly that I can happily cook by the light of them under our gazebo.

An extra bonus of our stays at Stoneywish is that we are often joined by a local friend for a meal over our campfire. It’s quite fun to ‘host’. This time we cooked up Martin’s cheesy balls, spaghetti bolognaise and chocolate brownie pudding with chocolate custard.

Stoneywish has a nature reserve, but we’ve still never been to it!! This time we walked up the south downs and turned left, coming across the pleasant surprise of the pink pit stop – a drinks van with a customer portaloo! We then came back down through the agricultural college where we had our packed lunch in the churchyard and then back through the woods where we were treated to a wonderful display of bluebells. We had to get some good steps in as we were training for Isaacs Tea Trail in Northumberland… but more of that in due course!

L & R

PS thanks to our friend who has already replied and sent me a link to the fairylight birthday gift!

Caught in the head lights!

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I’ve never had a headtorch that I’m really happy with.

Having a headtorch when you’re camping makes life so much easier.  Not only can you see where you’re going, but if you are cooking or eating or pitching your tent or searching for your toothbrush after dark, it’s useful to have both hands free.  It makes a trip to the compost loo in the middle of the night less scary and when you’re not wearing it you can use the elastic to strap it to your tent pole like a little hanging light.

I’ve owned both Petzl and Black Diamond ones, but never been very satisfied with them.

The other goat recently left hers behind on a trip to a youth hostel, so she purchased some new ones to try out.  Headtorch purchasing is always a bit confusing as you can pay anything between £4 and £40 and not really understand the difference.

The assistant manager in our local branch of Blacks was very helpful and tried his best to explain about checking for the battery life as well as the lumens.  Apparently ‘CREE’ is a good word to look out for.  We would add that the bulky ones are annoying to wear and if the button sticks out too much you can easily accidentally turn it on in your bag and waste your battery!

Is red light worthwhile?  Possibly – it can allow you to read without attracting insects to your lamp.  It can also be handy if you want to read while your tent buddy is trying to sleep as it is less bright.

Anyway, on this on this occasion the little goat got overwhelmed and ended up buying two – on the justification that our camping guests never remember their torches, and so a spare would be handy!

Purchase 1:  Eurohike 6 LED headtorch20200110_202114

Only 30 lumens, beam distance 10-12 metres battery life of about 8 hours.  White, bright and red settings and a bargain at only £4 (in the sale, normally £6).

So far it’s only been tried out in the loft – need a camping trip to try it properly, but so far so good.

 

 

 

 

Purchase 2: Technicals 150L CREE head torch

This one cost £10, which is still reasonably priced. It has an optional strap for top of your head, but this can be removed.  However, when turning the torch around to try and fit the straps on for the first use, a little nut dropped out!  It’s from the hinge which allows you to move the angle of the torch…  Needless to say, we will never find out how this one performs as it is going straight back to the shop!

R

What was the surprise gift?!

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If you read the last post, you’ll know I went on an early morning adventure to collect something exciting, but couldn’t say what for fear of ruining a surprise!  Well here it is:

 

Shepherd’s hooks for hanging lanterns…. made especially for us by James at Black Barn Forge!

We’re very please with his attention to detail – an elegant hook, good depth to the hook to accomodate a lantern, pointed ends to make it easier to put them in the ground, and nice and tall to be a good height for a lantern!

The other bit of the surprise was something to hang on the other hook:

These hand-crocheted candle holders are available for sale at the Fayre and Square shop in Wimbledon.

Will tell you more about our camping trip in our next post.

L

Embrace your inner goat