We arrived in Scotland around 7:00 pm after an easy train tide from London. When you are tenting you should expect your travel days to be a little longer to account for taking down your camp and packing your gear correctly. We chose a campground in Dunbar a little seaside village a 30 minute train ride from Edinburgh. After getting off the train in Dunbar our first order of business was to find dinner, and we always take the advice of the locals. We were directed to a small hotel called The Royal Mackintosh on the main drag (almost always called High Street” in these parts) , and we enjoyed some traditional local food which included Steak Pie and Haggis. The next morning we headed into Edinburgh for a day of site seeing. The architecture in Edinburgh is really detailed and ornate. It definitely gives the idea of a gothic mystery novel. The castle dominates the city and has been looking down on it since the 12th century. It’s funny what can be a personal highlight on a holiday.... I was over the top with excitement when I got to visit the grave of Greyfriers Bobby, a little dog who kept vigil at his owners grave for 14 years back in the 1800’s. I had seen the story on Sunday night’s Disney when I was a little girl and had told myself at that time that I would someday visit his grave... and here I was! And of course there are many things to buy in the UK that we don’t see in North America very often. We spent our second full day in Scotland right in Dunbar. It is a beautiful village right on the coast of Scotland with an ancient castle, fishing harbour and a beautiful sea trail we hiked from town to our campground each day. These are not postcard images but actual photos of the beautiful place we found ourselves in. The campground itself where we stayed in Dunbar, is called Belhaven Bay Caravan Campground. https://www.meadowhead.co.uk/parks/belhaven-bay/offers/ The facilities were very clean and offer both electrical and unserviced sites. Toilets and showers were extremely clean and there was a nice kitchen with sinks, microwave and toasters if you wanted to use them. We were not able to get an electric site and so we simply dropped off our rechargeable batteries for Murray’s CPAP machine each day, as well as a charging bank for our phones. People travel with all kinds of unique units here in Europe, including this one we saw which was very well equipped for extreme weather. And Murray was delighted by the full Scottish breakfast that was served at the golf course just a short walk up the road. Today’s camping Key... How to choose a bagOne of the main questions people ask us is... How do you transport all that camping equipment? It’s an important question, because if you don’t have the right bag, or it’s too heavy, your trip will be spoiled. Now I will say right off the hop that it is a very personal decision as to how much equipment you choose to bring with you on your trip. If you are twenty years old and super fit you may be happy sleeping right on the ground, and only want to pack a change of clothes, tent, a blanket and your bag can be very small. A 35 Litre backpack may do. As for me, I remember clearly a conversation that I had with a guy who worked at our local MEC camping store just before our first trip to Europe. I was telling him about my goals for the trip and asked him for his advice. He responded by saying “Well my best advice is that you do not need to be primitive just for the sake of being primitive. I have seen people get caught up in that to try and prove something and they are not that comfortable. “ He went to suggest that I set my goal to be as comfortable as possible, while keeping total weight to a manageable amount. We personally love traveling with our portable tiny chairs and table, therma-rest cots, and air layer for our beds. We are willing to carry the weight of these items knowing that over a two month period they will enhance our quality of life greatly. However, I have come a long way since my first trip to Europe where I packed an iron and a pair of high heels! On our last trip we had our equipment divided between four people, although we did have more equipment of course, but overall we were each carrying a bit less than we are this time. On our last trip we packed all our clothes in our suitcases, and stored our camping equipment in four bedroll duffle-type bags. The suitcases we chose (we used these again on this trip) are National Geographic brand, which have many built in features, such as hidden back pack straps, a dedicated waterproof section for wet clothes, a divided interior with a zipper to separate the sections, and heavy straps to tighten everything down. These bags also expand a lot so even though they are compact, they hold a lot of equipment. Unfortunately this exact model is no longer available, but I have included the photos below so that you can get an idea of the features that I suggest you look for in a good travel bag. Since these are no longer available I would recommend a similar one sold by Samsonite here: https://shop.samsonite.com/backpacks/wheeled-backpacks/samsonite-encompass-convertible-wheeled-backpack/117551XXXX.html?dwvar_117551XXXX_color=1175511010&cgidmaster=backpacks-wheeled Or Osprey here : https://www.ospreyeurope.com/shop/gb_en/sojourn-60-1 We don’t know if it is my age being six years older than on our last trip to Europe (now 54), or the bit of extra equipment we brought this time, but within the first day of our trip I realized that I was experiencing too much strain on my arm pulling my bag with the way it is set up in the photo above. Our total equipment is about 43-45 pounds each. So to solve this problem we decided on day two of our trip to ditch the duffle bags and switch to backpacks. This would allow me to about 20 pounds on my back, (mostly clothes) and keep the heavier items in the suitcase (up to 25 pounds), which was very easy to carry when divided this way. The backpacks we chose are high quality, and this is not an item I would encourage you to go cheap on. You want it to fit correctly and place the weight firmly on your hips and you don’t want to have straps breaking off in your hands. Our favourite North American brand for backpacks is Osprey. https://www.osprey.com but as we were in England when we purchased our backpacks, we ended up going with a comparable UK brand called Lowe alpine. https://lowealpine.com A good quality backpack will come with multiple storage pockets, and a built in waterproof rain cover. Here is another hint, the employee who helped me choose my backpack told me that the difference between a 45 litre and 65 litre in pre-loaded weight is very minimal. The 65 litre compresses down to almost the same size as a 45 litre. It just has extra width of fabric, which ultimately makes it easier to load. (So I tried them both on and found this to be true, and bought the 65 litre pack. Don’t be afraid to ask the store employee to adjust your pack to the right settings for you. At good quality camp stores the staff is trained to do this. Once adjusted to my frame I find it easy to carry about 20 pounds for the 20-60 minute walks we find ourselves on during this trip.
My husband Murray chose this Lowe Alpine waist pouch. A good waist pouch will have multiple zip-able inner pockets and locking mechanisms such a this one does. It has room for his passport, train pass, money, camera and sunglasses. These type of security bags become particularly important once we get to countries where there is a lot of pick pocket activity in the train stations and tourist areas. Here is a link to this bag: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lowe-Alpine-Fjell-hip-bag/dp/B07G39598M The final pieces of baggage we carry are ultra-light foldable day packs which were very inexpensive on eBay, fold down to the size of a pack of cards, and only need to last the summer for us. I sewed Canada flag patches on ours, and we keep the stuffed in our larger packs and pull them out when we want a day pack, or we want to separate out some items from our luggage for a train trip. We picked them up on eBay for less than $11.00 each, and have found them to be very durable for the money spent.
In my next blog I will detail our time camping in Ireland and talk about how to choose a sleep system.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Wendy Peter is the North American Director of Events for the Women on the Frontlines Organization.
Archives
May 2022
Categories |