Excited it’s been years (bar the odd event) since I’ve been camping but off to Coed y Brenin this weekend for 3 nights, 4 days of camping/riding and getting quite excited. however need to buy a few bits! have the trangia, so I’m thinking about all I need to buy really are saucepans and a kettle (got plastic plate, cups, cutlery etc already). Am i missing something fundamental? (got the bin bags, washing up liquid etc). feel like I need more? Trip to Go Outdoors Thursday day time I feel (except Tesco have a great deal on 2 saucepans, frying pan, 2 plates and cups for £15 .. which is cheaper than others even though I don’t need plates).

OOOOO excited .. sorry a bit of random waffley thread.. can you all do the sun dance for me.

Oh and I thought whatever I buy we can take to chamonix when we go in June and do a little self stylee camping there too.

doesn’t your trangia have pans already? They usually do…

Trangias come with pans?

You’ll be needing fuel.

Presume you’ve got a sleeping bag and sleeping mat?

Cider for round the camp fire and plenty of munchies and some more cider.

Beer!!!

Something extra to tie the thing down, it’s been mighty windy.

P.S. Our camping days are over, as mr.b.h bought a caravan, oh the luxury 😉

A decent light for the evening?

Camping by LED light by j.buckle, on Flickr

A torch. Lots of people forget torches for the first camping trip. A light to hang up in the tent in the evenings. A lighter/box of matches.

EDIT: Bugger you coffeeking!

oooh eck!

Bugger you coffeeking!

Something to do for the evening, personally i just take a book but each to their own.

OO I’d forgotten matches and torch! Thanks. We have tent, sleeping bags (or double duvet!!) and roll mats already. We have never had pots the trangia came from a friend…maybe it’s not a trangia, it’s similar to this one (is that called something else!?)
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.200-3031.aspx

I’ll have nibbles and beer (someone else is bringing pud and others the BBQ stuff!)

A pillow.

They’re not pillows!!

*snigger*

Expanding on the torch subject…headtorches very handy 🙂

Insect repellant and anti-hisatamine for when you do get bitten.

Oh and I thought whatever I buy we can take to chamonix

The wife and I stayed in Chamonix last year for a few days. Fantastic.

We stayed in THIS campsite and would highley recommend it, if it’s the sort of thing you were after. We set our tent up so we had an great view of Mont Blanc. Plus you get free bus / train rides into town. I’d love to go back there with my bike.

PS. I realise you weren’t asking for campsite recommendations 😉

Coolbox/Coolbag?

Freezing cartons of juice is an excellent alternative to those freezable blocks you get.

Kitchen Roll
Marshmallows

We loooked at that campsite but we decided on this one probably:
http://www.campingchamonix.com/

Oh I can’t wait not been to Chamonix before, so camping for 5 days will do some cooking (once i’ve purchased bits for this weekend).

Never thought of freezing cartons of juice .. best get on it! Marshmallows funnily enough I found some in my “baking” cupboard yesterday.

Assuming you’re car camping:
sachets of tommy sauce/brown sauce, available from cafes/restaurants, often for free.
some washing up liquid decanted into a small container (boots do some little bottles which are ideal for camping quantities of stuff).
Dishcloth for drying your stuff before you bring it back to the tent.

Tupperware type container to keep all your edible stuff in or better still a coolbox.

A couple of spare tent pegs for when you bend one and lose one.
Small dry bag, keeps your stuff dry (obviously) and doubles up as a pillow.
But better than that would be a real pillow.
A few metres of 3mm cord. useful as a clothes line if stuff gets wet but can also double up as guy lines etc.

Bacon. Nothing better than frying some bacon in the tent porch.

MuppetW sounds like you are seasoned, most of that was on my list! mmmm bacon and egg butties in the fresh air before AND OR after MTB (or all!).

If car camping; chairs. Saves rolling around on the floor.

mmmm bacon and egg butties in the fresh air before AND OR after MTB (or all!).

I swear that sometimes that is the only good reason to go camping. I do like that sunday morning smell around a decent camp site.

Another good easy cook food is the tinned steak that M&S sell, heat that up fry some sliced potatoes add a bit of veg and you’ve got a super quick sunday (ish) dinner.

Get tooled up. You never know. My last camping trip:

Electric hook up for your tv and digi box, hairdrier and drinks fridge! Yep people really do! 😆

Trangias are awful. Avoid.

Okay Oxboy since you started it NO I won’t be taking my hair straighners however I do have my dry spray shampoo (although it does have showers). I say trangia Molgrips but is that what I put in that link? what’s wrong with it? what do you recommend then?

Electric hook up for your tv and digi box, hairdrier and drinks fridge! Yep people really do!

no tv or digi box, but a leccy hook-up is a massive bonus if you’re staying somewhere for a few days. We have an electric cool box – cool beer and wine, milk and other perishable stuff. Why suffer? 😉

sachets of tommy sauce/brown sauce, available from cafes/restaurants, often for free.

Free? only if you nick ’em. 😆

Electric hook up for your tv and digi box, hairdrier and drinks fridge! Yep people really do!

a little inverter for the car so you can charge phones, cameras and music players is a good idea, though.

And if you really want to get comfy, a double air mattress, fitted sheet, pillows and a duvet! Some airbeds are awful, but the aerobed ones are great: http://www.aerobed.co.uk/pages/rangedetail.asp?type=Mattress&range=Outdoor

Small washing-up basin to keep all the washing-up stuff together – wash-up liquid, scourer/sponges (don’t fancy using any old ones lying about) – and chuck all the dirty pots, plates, etc. in it to take it to the washing-up area, rather than trying to balance it all, especially if you’ve had some aperitifs.

m-c: trangias are special campy sets which nest together with pans, kettle, base and burner. they run on meths.

yours isn’t one of those. Def make sure you can get spare gas for yours, or make sure the right type is available en france.

or make sure the right type is available en france

+1, they don’t do Calor Gas in France (not that I ever saw, anyway)

We love our storm kettle too (or kelly/volcano/ghillie kettle, they’re all the same). Excellent piece of kit, satisfying to use, and you can wrap bits of banana and rolos in tinfoil and stick them in the embers. Yummy. Or once the water has boiled for a cuppa, stick some bacon on a rack across the base for bacon roll to go with the cuppa. Yummy too.

Maybe not essential, we always take it camping though, or for day trips out.

Just asked Mr MC and was corrected as to what a “trangia” was appears I’ve used it for many years as meaning generic camping stove for cooking with a few pots. I am corrected I DO NOT have a trangia, I have the thing I posted above (similar) then I’m heading to Tesco tomorrow to buy a 2 saucepan, frying pan, 2 plate and 2 cup combo for £15!

Oh yes, sorry didn’t read your post properly. Trangias are unpressurised meths stoves with two settings – burn your food to the bottom of the pan or do nothing.

No reason to use one in this day and age 🙂 Gas stuff is much better. Those large rings are good, if you can turn them low enough to simmer 🙂

MC we have a two ring petrol coleman stove if you want, in Cardiff.

We once borrowed a couple of those stoves you have from my mum , lets just say they aren’t too cracking . Maybe you could try them out before you go see what you think.

One thing we wouldn’t be without are our Thermarest mats , not cheap but in 15 years they haven’t let us down. There are cheaper versions that are almost as good , our 6 year old has a Vango one that only cost us £15 it just doesn’t pack down as small as the Thermarest.

if you can stand the wind afterwards instant mash and a Beanfeast savoury mince make a great speedy shepherds pie.

Take ear-plugs, unless you’re going to be the ones up all night enjoying your bbq.

Don’t be tempted to go for lightweight aluminium (or whatever) frying pans. Just get a cheap throwaway non-stick one from Tesco. Much easier to clean 🙂

Will see you there then, going up Saturday morning, back Monday afternoon 🙂 can’t wait, not been up there for nearly two years. We will be in a motorhome though, glamping I believe it to be called 🙂

I like my Trangia but I’ve got the gas burner for it – ditching the manky uncontrollable meths thing transforms it into a good, stable, controllable stove.

+1 for getting a non stick pan, especially if fried eggs are on the cards!