Wild Country Vehicle Annex

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my ongoing quest to find the ideal shelter for my particular needs. I had just bought a Wild Country annex on special from Rays Outdoors and was excited to see how it would go.

Well, I have to say I am quite impressed with this little unit! I was a little unsure how it would cope with the wet weather we were expecting up at Corowa, because after all, it IS only advertised as a 'wind and shade' shelter. We had some very decent downpours over the long weekend, plus a good day of constant drizzle. I had almost resigned myself to the idea of bundling a soaking wet shelter into the back of Red to be dried out at home and stored away until summer comes around again, but it held up very well, no leaking through the fabric itself, nor through any of the (fully taped) seams.

Setup wasn't quite as straight forward as I had anticipated, it was a little fiddly to get everything pegged out square, mainly because one of the poles seemed to be a little warped, which must have been to do with the way I put it together. I'll pay close attention to that part of the setup next time I use it. However, once the 'tent' poles were all in place properly and the back (err, or front?) was attached to Big Red it was pretty straight forward to get the corners pegged out. They have elastic loops to peg through rather than eyelets, possibly not as durable as brass eyelets, but it does save you needing extra elastics for every point you peg down. The attached guy ropes are neat too, never going to pull the shelter out of its bag to find I've lost the guys!

The above picture should give you a bit of an idea just how roomy it is inside, with plenty of headroom in the main area. Having the rear flap extended out makes it feel like a little base camp in itself with lots of room to cook etc while keeping the drizzle off. The sides also roll up (although on a bit of an odd angle) to make it fully open, probably very useful in warmer climates where you want as much breeze coming through as you can get. However, not being in that kind of climate last weekend, I found that even when fully closed up it still felt very roomy, I'd say you could easily have two chairs in there, possibly with a small table as well (but I just use the 'MPTG', Multi purpose tail gate :P )

Pack up was a breeze, the ground was wet and getting a little muddy, so I didn't bother packing it all up properly, I just loosely folded the shelter and stuffed it back into its bag (must remember to dry that, sometime...) while the poles and pegs I just put in the bag I keep my other pegs and annex poles in. Quick, easy, no fuss, no extra hands needed.

So, my verdict? It's GREAT! Not quite a 30 second job like the Oz Tent, but a heck of a lot more compact! Probably designed for a wider bodied vehicle, like say a Land Cruiser or Patrol, since the locking suction cups that attach it to the roof are spaced fairly widely. On Big Red this meant they were attached a few inches down each of the side windows (you can see the white dot in the pictures), which actually worked out well for me, it meant the front seam of the shelter was pulled tightly across the roof of the car, directing water down the side windows, rather than letting it run under and on to the tail gate. It also meant that the suction cups could attach to the windows, rather than the textured fibre glass roof, which they might not have been able to grip so well in the wet (and modest wind). It probably wouldn't be suitable for a regular family car, it seems to be designed for vehicles with a roof line at least 180cm or higher, so 4WD's and Kombi's are in luck. At $48 (on sale), you definitely can't go too far wrong! The only aspect of the shelter that I didn't get to test was just how it would fare as a self standing (albeit three sided) tent. I'll make a point of trying this out next trip and let you know. I'd also like to see how it holds up in higher winds, although last weekend was wet, it remained fairly still. Something else I'll have to report back on.

So, if you're in a Rays store and happen to see one of these (like I said, I've only actually seen them in store the once, and even then there was only a few), especially if they're on special, grab one, you won't regret it.
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Roman Global Sub-Zero Sleeping Bag

After surviving years of camping trips, interstate moves, insane sharehouses and the odd bout of homelessness, not to mention being shredded by an ex, it was finally time to retire my trusty old OzTrail sleeping bag.

I think my favourite day of the work week would have to be a Tuesday. Why? Well because that's the day that I open the Sun to find a tresure trove of bargains. Yes, I'm talking about the Harris Scarfe catalogues! As much as I love wasting a whole Saturday afternoon looking through aisles of gear in an outdoors store, sometimes you just can't beat Harris Scarfe on a sale day (I always follow their products through a number of 'sales' though, as they can be a little dodgy by embelishing their 'rrp' just a touch). A couple weeks ago they had a good sale with lots of cmping gear, and yes, sleeping bags heavily discounted. Having poured over the catalogue and compared prices and reviews on a couple of my favourite sites (here and here for example) I thought I had decided which bag I wanted, however, seeing them in the flesh was another story! One bag (a '-5' Caribee I think) was HUGE! Packaged up it was easily twice the size of my current bag, and weighed in at nearly 3Kg! Now, I know that seeing as I do mostly vehicle based camping, size shouldn't really be of too much concern to me, but I do still think of myself as a backpacker on wheels, so traveling light is still a priority. The giant bag threw me in to a bit of a spin, and I set about reading the labels on all of the other bags, comparing and re-comparing specs. There were about three different -5 bags, a couple 0's, and even a selection of +5's (What?! At THIS time of year???). Eventually I found, tucked away in a dark corner (something that Harris Scarfe stores seem to have plenty of, if you look hard enough) a very small Roman sleeping bag. At first I looked straight past it because it was the same size as their +5 kids bags (which there were HEAPS of), however, on a second look, it wasn't quite the same colour, so I dragged it out.

What I found was a fairly compact -5 Roman Global synthetic bag. I've used an older one of these before and was impressed at its warmth, considering how this it seemed. What's better, it had a tiny little tag with a price tag stuck on it, far, far below the rrp that was underneath. It must have been left over from a past sale as it was the only one in the store, and wasn't mentioned on any of the sale posters hanging around (which all of the others were). The only concern in my mind before deciding to rush up to the counter before some ever-vigilent manager (who am I kidding, this is HS!) saw it and took the stickers off, was whether it would be long enough. It's only 210cm tall, including the hood, whereas the others I had been looking at were 230-250. What the hell, at this price it was a bargain no matter what, and besides, HS has always been fairly loose when it comes to returning goods.

I gave the bag its initiation last weekend camping up at Corowa, on the Murray River. I was a little dubious at first, but in the end I left my trusty old bag at home, hoping that the Roman would do the trick and I wouldn't need to double up. I'd been watching the wether all week ad had seen it get in to the minuses up there, so I was a little nervous to say the least! However, it was fantastic. Firstly, the rip-stop nylon outer is a great idea, usually one little nick will end up in a long tear, but not in ths bag. To be honest, the extra height probably wouldn't hurt, I did feel a little exposed at times (I'm about 6'1", which is, err, 185ish), and with the hood pulled tight the opening naturally wanted to fall over my chin rather than my eyes. Oh well, just snuggle a little deeper! One thing I miss from my old bag though, is the drawstring around the shoulders so you can REALLY trap the heat in, being a little narrower than the OzTrail probably makes up for it a little, but I really liked that extra drawstring. Coupled with my silk liner this bag was a great performer. I probably would want to exceed -5 with it though, I felt like I was getting pretty close to its limits on the coldest night away, without the liner I definately would have been a little less than comfortable.

So, now for the big question: What do you do with a used, slightly torn and rather soiled sleeping bag? Answer: I'm going to cut it down, and turn it into a sleeping bag for Zeke! When we've been in really cold places he's wanted to burrow down inside my bag with me (rather than just on his bed with no coverings), but this bag is a little more of a snug fit, so maybe its time the boy had his own.

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Kathmandu Rip Stop Silk Sleeping Bag Liner

I've been in the market for a new sleeping bag for a while now. My current one is getting on a bit, it's nothing fancy, just an Oztrail one from Harris Scarfe. It's probably a good twelve years old now, it was lived out of exclusively for the first two or three years I was in Melbourne and even managed to go through a washing machine once or twice (NOT by me!) which managed to make a bit of a mess of the outer shell. However, even though it's nearly black on the inside, and there's gaping wounds on the outside, it has still served me well.

The thought of shelling out decent dough to get a good bag was a little daunting, I would definitely want to do my research to make sure I got a good one, and then definitely make sure that it lasts a long, long time. through this process I read time and time again about sleeping bag liners. Now, I thought they were just something you used to keep your bag cleaner longer, or to stop you catching nits or something if staying in a hostel. However, I kept reading reports saying that a good liner can add anywhere from 8 to 15 degrees to your sleeping bags comfort rating! Wow! Maybe, instead of spending big bucks on a -15c bag, I could get away with just a 0c bag and a liner, and still be better off in the wallet region. I ran the idea past my brother who travelled a lot through India and Nepal, including Everest base camp and he confirmed the notion.

As fete would have it, Kathmandu was having a sale about the same time as I was coming to this realisation. Usually that would not be my first stop for camping gear, not by a long shot, but their prices were just too good on this particular occasion. I ended up getting one of these rip stop silk liners. I have to say, it's been the best money I've spent in a long time. I usually travel with two sleeping bags (both as filthy and destroyed as each other) so I can put one inside the other if it gets particularly cold. There were a couple nights in the Flinders where I usually would have had to do that, but with this liner in my bag, I was more than comfortable all night. On a night when I would have gone to beg in thermals, I was absolutely fine in just my undies.

So there you go, a sleeping bag liner definitely did add to the comfort rating of my bag, as well as the silky softness being very comfy to sleep in! I've run it through the was a couple times and had absolutely no drama's whatsoever, just remember to turn it inside out so the little bag (its carry bag is attached at the feet) is in the inside, just in case. Oh, and one other thing I learnt, which only one out of five sales people I asked could tell me, the difference between a standard lined and a 'hostel' liner, is that the hostel liners either have an attached pillow slip, or a built in pillow (usually only the cotton ones). So if you're getting a 'hostel' model, make sure you factor that in when you're looking at its length.

Happy travels, and warm nights!
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