What's your preferred shelter when camping?

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What is your preferred shelter for bushy camping?


  • Total voters
    156
  • Poll closed .

Shewie

Mod
Mod
Dec 15, 2005
24,259
24
48
Yorkshire
I'm just curious what folks use, so let's have a show of hands for your favourite type of shelter for bushy camping ...

Bivvy & Tarp
Hammock & Tarp
Tent
Natural
Other ..?
 
Sep 21, 2008
729
0
55
Dartmoor
I'm just curious what folks use, so let's have a show of hands for your favourite type of shelter for bushy camping ...

Bivvy & Tarp
Hammock & Tarp
Tent
Natural
Other ..?

I'm a tenty sort of bloke really, but I am interested in this tarp stuff. But, why a bivvy and tarp? Just a tarp and GS, surely?
 

pauljm116

Native
May 6, 2011
1,456
5
Rainham, Kent
Hammock and tarp, but recently used a tent and loved it. All depends where Im going and how far I need to carry stuff in, I do sometimes take a fishing bed chair in too and use it with a tarp.
 

widu13

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 9, 2008
2,334
19
Ubique Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt
Walking: Tent; lighter than tarp and hammock, better weather protection, quicker to set up.
Bushcraft meet by myself: T&H
Bushcraft meet with the brats: Tent
Wilding: Tent
Stealth bushcraft: Basha, sometimes with a bivi bag, often without.
 

bilmo-p5

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 5, 2010
8,168
9
west yorkshire
But, why a bivvy and tarp? Just a tarp and GS, surely?

I use the bivvy & tarp setup and regard the bivvy as effectively an inner tent for a tarp. The tarp provides overall shelter and the bivvy deals with the condensation which is often a feature of tarp rigs without a through draught. I also move about a bit whilst asleep and sometimes end up outside the tarp umbrella. Without a bivvy (bag) this can result in a wet sleeping bag.
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
It really depends. For "summer" (May-September here) overnights the hammock is quick, easy and very comfortable. If I have the time (and permission) a natural shelter just has a better "feel". Then it is generally some sort of debris hut or leanto with a log fire. If it is late fall or winter I like the tarp setups, except for open and windy country when a tent is the most sensible choice. And in true winter, in particular cold winter a heated tent is the best choice. Long term? Yurt or tipi/lavu with stove.

So I put natural, since that is what I *prefer*, even if a solid stretch of 63 nights in the hammock is comming to an end on Sunday morning (sob).
 
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Dave

Hill Dweller
Sep 17, 2003
6,019
9
Brigantia
Im a stomach/side sleeper. I use an Exped Comfort pillow, and a thermarest, or Exped UL, in a tent, hilleberg, or, more recently a lightweight custom bivy, extra wide at the shoulders, with tarp, which I much prefer to a constricted bivy. Im a sprawler, arms and legs, and need the space. I only zip up fully in the bag when I wake up cold, and never sleep well the first night out.
I'd love to get comfy in a hammock, but have only used the group buy ones, and can never lie comfortably, diagonally flat in it. Dont like sleeping on my back, and on my side, feels like im wrapped in clingfilm.

** also not a fan of mummy shaped liners. Prefer the square foot, like the DD, which i use upside down, so the bit where you slip your pillow in, which is supposed to be under you, is pulled up over me like a cover.

Im a fussy Tw@t and value the comfort. :eek:
 
Last edited:
Sep 21, 2008
729
0
55
Dartmoor
I use the bivvy & tarp setup and regard the bivvy as effectively an inner tent for a tarp. The tarp provides overall shelter and the bivvy deals with the condensation which is often a feature of tarp rigs without a through draught. I also move about a bit whilst asleep and sometimes end up outside the tarp umbrella. Without a bivvy (bag) this can result in a wet sleeping bag.

Now that's quite interesting, Ian. Depending on air temperature and RH it's possible(often) to get condensation on the outside of your bag anyway. Many, apparantly breathable, bivvies can't shift the moisture either and still generate condensation (inside) from a hot body on a cold, damp, night. I do use a bivvy, but as protection from my dogs so they don't get cack all over my bag :). I had some mesh panels cut and stitched into one bivvi so that it could breath. Now I use a flimsy (but ultralight) pertex bivvi bag - it keeps the worst off my bag and breathes so much better than GoreTex or eVent.
 

Imagedude

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 24, 2011
2,004
46
Gwynedd
Surely it's only bushcraft if you build your own shelter, otherwise it's just camping in the woods.


I use tents or bivi bags, I used tarps when playing soldiers.
 

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