Advice On Camping Abroad/Traveling Light

[dazza]

Hi Everyone,

Has anybody here ever been camping abroad or has any advice on general camping or how to travel light? I will be doing it for the first time in June and I am really worried about how I am going to carry everything that I need in one bag, especially as the weight limit for the flight is 15kg.

I do not not travel light at all and if you had seen me on my recent trip to Jersey, anybody would have thought that I was there for two weeks never mind a weekend!

We will be staying on a campsite near Bern, Switzerland for 10 days and should be there for most of the group stages of Euro 2008 (had originally planned to go before England failed to qualify! ).

The tent weighs 3.5kg, the sleeping bag takes up quite a bit of space, and I am really struggling to work out how I am going to do this.

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

Dazza

[martindn]

Hi Dazza,

Well, we have been camping abroad for many years, but I can't say we ever travel light these days. Usually we take a three and a half tonne motorhome, and when the kids came with us tents and bikes as well. But with over 60 years of camping experience, I can probably make some useful suggestions anyway.
Switzerland will be fine BTW, a beautiful country that we have visited in our travels.
I have done lightweight camping in my youth, and the secret is not to carry anything you can buy easily where you are. Also, don't take too many clothes, something we still seem to do even with the motorthome. In facton just about every camping trip I have ever done, I have taken far to much. So don't carry lots of food or clothes, and plan to eat out if you can.
Actually 15Kg is a huge amount. I recently went to America for a week with a third of that, and most of that was stuff I took for work purposes.
So what do you need? One change of outer clothing, waterproofs, a few changes of underwear, toiletries, money and documents and your camping equipment. You won't need any heavy clothes unless you are going high. You may or may not need cooking equipment, depends if you can rely on eating out. I would still take a torch, even in June when it is light most of the time. A rucksack might be a good idea, since these are often designed for carrying camping gear, tents, sleeping bags etc.
It is actually surprising how little you actually need to carry, even for much longer periods than 10 days. . There are books and magazines on backpacking that might give you some advice, but you probably won't need to be THAT light.
Oh, and get an ipod, so that you don't need to carry all that essential Hayley music in the form of CDs!

Have a good trip.

Martin

[postscript]

Sorry I can't help, Dazza. I would love to learn to travel light 'travelling light, travelling light, ever so light' (grandpa in ChittyChitty Bang Bang but I'm, one of those who takes the kitchen sink with him when going to the supermarket! I look with interest on other future (or perhaps already posted as I am catching up) posts.

Peter S.

[Nordly]

don't have me pack! lol

Don't bring every Hayley album or anyhing like that- it seems great having them, but they weigh a lot I think