Keeping it clean
I bought the roof tent for my planned (but still uncompleted) trip to Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. The websites talked about feral dogs and not really wanting to be ground camping around villages where the problem is worse. The roof top tent RTT was duly purchased as a cheap, lightweight, possibly 2 year option. The model that I purchased is designed to fit on cars and even small cars so I figured that I would be able to sell it on pretty easily.
Fast Forward 3 years and still the RTT is firmly bolted to the top of the L200. I have enjoyed having it,. grudgingly enjoying it most of the time but really enjoying it for the longer static camping trips like Le Mans. So why not take it to Morocco I hear no one ask. The one big drawback is the soft cover.
Clambering around on the rear wheels, tailgate and ladder to wrestle a reluctant plastic cover back into place each morning is a ball ache. Its 15 minutes these days, hardly a lifetime, but it means you start the day dusty and sweaty as you lean on the truck to balance as you pull it over the tent, reaching around with the straps.
Last year in Spain when we deliberately tried heat and dust for a week it was far from ideal and bordering on a problem.
To get a lightweight RTT at less than £3K you have to have a soft cover. The Clam Shell models that hard tops and two clips to open and close are no effort but are double the price and double the weight. Neither aspect is ideal for me and certainly not at the time I was thinking about a 2 year solution.
And so my packing list for Morocco has had notes like boilersuits and a far more serious focus on extra clothes and clothes washing than a 8 hour per day sitting in an air conditioned truck should warrant.
When planning for Morocco I always intended to take the ARB Skydome swag. Videos of the trail show windy days especially at the bottom of the Sahara and being able to hunker down beside the vehicle with the swag has always proven to be its strength. I suspected that the swag would become the transit option with the roof tent providing a more comfortable “rest day” option, a sort of cheeky 5 star upgrade for hour 36 hour pauses along the trail.
Wandering around the internet desperately trying to avoid work (again) I came across what the Australians call a “stretcher”
This is more than the two poles and canvass that you find on a St Johns Ambulance first aid course and a bit more than the beach of sun bed. When I first saw these at a 4×4 show they were almost £200 and that was an expensive bed by any measure. The Helinox version, super lightweight and the choice of many army chaps is closer to £350.
The odd thing about an Australian stretcher is that its not just a bed but you put your swag (tent) on top of it. – Why would you do that I thought and moved on. I already have my OzTent which has seen me right for many years and is actually still the fastest of my three camping options to set up. Poor old OzTent is a bit neglected these days despite taking me all around The Alps, Pyrenees and Scandi.
Last week while sitting in the sun, waiting for the L200 to get the new clutch I was surfing the net and there is an almost half price Aussie Stretcher. With little else to do I wandered back down that dangerous road of “what if”. I checked out cheaper options, really cheap, medium cheap. Could I put the swag on a camp bed? – A camp bed is not a stretcher though – Or is it?
Pretty soon the “buy it now” fairy was whispering in my ear and – the rest (as they say) is recent history
This weekend I took the swag camping for the first time. Its heavier than I thought it would be 12KG but it feels heavier. As usual the bag is one size too small – why do they do that !! But it certainly is VERY robust. This is not a camp bed but a matrix of interconnected bars that looks more like the forth road bridge than a sun bed.
After a bit of head scratching and trepidation that the swag would fall off the bed in the night it was all set up. Slightly inebriated as is the norm for a Friday night camping I rolled inside the swag and fell asleep. Unusually for me I had make a little 2am night walk (too much info? – probably) and getting out of the swag rather than climbing up and out was very nice. An old bloke feature to like for sure. The stretcher was solid, it didn’t squeak or creak like a cheap sunbed and it was wonderfully comfortable.
The stretcher was so comfortable I am considering not taking the big Exped inflatable matrass to Morocco. The Exped is a thermal matrass, a base camp matrass they call it to protect from -20C below your body. Its super comfy when the Swag is on the floor and in realty only takes 5 minutes – but I could just take the foam matrass and save another set up process. This weekend I will do some garden camping and test the options. Its 30 degrees in the day and about 10 at night ideal for a dry run – litterally
The stretcher only has one rather hopeless strap which is disappointing. It confidently says that one strap at the foot end will be enough but I will order 3 bungees from Amazon just for peace of mind.
So with 9 weeks to go I am more than half way to leaving the roof tent at home.
