Part 1 – Sleeping
This is the first in a series of blogs I plan to write about my trip to Roverway – if you are lucky I might even write about what Roverway is – probably should have started with that one huh? Anyway here is a brief summary of my current planned sleeping equipment for Roverway.
Tent
I have a Terra Nova Coshee2 (which cost about £100 when I bought it!) It weighs just over 2kg and is a great entry tent. Its a bit small to share with someone else, but I mostly use it on my own. However I can’t sit up in it without brushing the top, so I wanted a taller tent for a two week trip. My friend has an MSR Hubba Hubba which is pretty spacious but expensive. However, I found this Fjern Gokotta which is similar, on sale for half price. There isn’t a footprint available for it, but I usually pitch my tent on a cheap plastic table cloth – might even treat myself to a new one for Roverway.
I am a little nervous that the rainfly on the Gokotta is only 3000mm hydrostatic head is the minimum recommended for northern Europe. If it looks like a wet camp then I might look at taking extra shower curtains (lighter than ground mats, still waterproof) and work out some system where I drape them?? – any suggestions welcome. Or I could take my bivvy bag so that at least of the tent fails I will have another layer round my sleeping bag? I am also considering adding extra guys and tent pegs just in-case its a windy camp – I’m going to test the Gokotta a few times before Norway so hopefully will know the tent better by then.
Sleeping bag
I have an Alpkit Skyehigh 500 which packs down to about 9ltr, so I am using that. I probably wouldn’t buy this again because I am quite often chilly using it even though it has a 1 deg comfort rating. This is in part because it is very spacious. I usually always use it with a liner, for Norway it will be my SeatoSummit thermolite Reactor liner. I have used this frequently over the last 11 years, including a couple of years of every night use. If the temperature is forecast to be below 0 overnight I might also take my fleece or a silk liner (what do you mean you don’t also collect sleeping bag liners?)
Sleeping mat
I am planning on taking my incredibly lightweight Alpkit Numo inflatable mat. I find it very comfy, (you can just see it in the left photo above). The disadvantage is the combo of my tent, sleeping bag and this mat is incredibly slippy and I slide around. I previously solved this by using my microfiber towel, so I might take a couple of microfiber clothes to put between the mat and tent floor – don’t want to slide into the sea! I am also considering taking a folding foam mat to bump my thermal rating up and also just in-case my Numo punctures!! Alpkit do one that looks like it folds fairly small, but I will be tight on space so this idea might get ditched.
Pillow
I bought a feather cushion for about £8 from John Lewis a while ago for a craft project and I think I’m just going to take that – possibly wearing it on the flight as a hat due to luggage space constraints! I had a quick look and they don’t seem to do one that small any more. Just got to make myself a pillow case for it – any design tips? – thinking a tissue pocket might be useful. Talking of things to make, I need to make a new fleece skirt/bum warmer – then I can have one for sleeping and one for wearing during the day.
Adventure Most Ordinary 