Hi,
Just a quick note as I've registered and posted elsewhere in the forum.
I used to camp regularly in the '80s and '90s but have done less in the last few years (camping with the missus is a quite traumatic experience), though have just taken the opportunity to load a little gear into the car and do a whistle stop tour of Scotland with our 14-year old lad.
Tents wise, I'm fortunate enough to have both a Phoenix Phortress and Phreespirit Superlight for 1/2 person camping and also a Coleman Weathermaster 8/12 person for when the 3 of us head outdoors.
The Phortress, bought in 1989, was my first proper tent and has served me well. It's accompanied me on a number of trips to Europe, and has kept the worst of the wind and rain off in the Highlands of Scotland on many on occasion. This is the tent that has just done Fort William (peaceful couple of nights), Ullapool (peaceful night again), Durness (screaming gales all night, virtually no sleep) and Blair Atholl (constant, relentless rain) and kept us cosy and warm.
The Phreespirit Superlight was bought on a whim a couple of years later, but has proved invaluable when travelling by (smaller) motorbike and also proved the to be perfect for putting over the boy's travel cot when we started family camping. I'm sure that's probably illegal, but he survived ok.
And despite my reservations, the Coleman has been excellent too. The other half isn't big on camping, and it's ended up that if we go away as a family, we take the Coleman or we don't go. It's heavy and awkward to transport (though oddly it would fit in both the boot of a Citroen AX and Saxo, but not in a Skoda Octavia estate without me dropping the rear seat), but has proved itself in some truly dreadful conditions.
So why am I here? I suppose the easy answer is that having driven the 470 miles home from Aviemore yesterday, I had a glass of wine, felt all dewey-eyed at what we and our brave little tend had achieved and typed "Phortress" into google and followed the links, but I guess a better answer is that I'd like to discover what tents are around these days that are light, resistant to the worst that Scotland can throw at them, but are sufficiently big that a somewhat portly ageing gent can move around in comfort on his airbed (stop giggling at the back) rather than bouncy-shuffling about like a drunk seal and here seemed a good a place to ask.
Just a quick note as I've registered and posted elsewhere in the forum.
I used to camp regularly in the '80s and '90s but have done less in the last few years (camping with the missus is a quite traumatic experience), though have just taken the opportunity to load a little gear into the car and do a whistle stop tour of Scotland with our 14-year old lad.
Tents wise, I'm fortunate enough to have both a Phoenix Phortress and Phreespirit Superlight for 1/2 person camping and also a Coleman Weathermaster 8/12 person for when the 3 of us head outdoors.
The Phortress, bought in 1989, was my first proper tent and has served me well. It's accompanied me on a number of trips to Europe, and has kept the worst of the wind and rain off in the Highlands of Scotland on many on occasion. This is the tent that has just done Fort William (peaceful couple of nights), Ullapool (peaceful night again), Durness (screaming gales all night, virtually no sleep) and Blair Atholl (constant, relentless rain) and kept us cosy and warm.
The Phreespirit Superlight was bought on a whim a couple of years later, but has proved invaluable when travelling by (smaller) motorbike and also proved the to be perfect for putting over the boy's travel cot when we started family camping. I'm sure that's probably illegal, but he survived ok.
And despite my reservations, the Coleman has been excellent too. The other half isn't big on camping, and it's ended up that if we go away as a family, we take the Coleman or we don't go. It's heavy and awkward to transport (though oddly it would fit in both the boot of a Citroen AX and Saxo, but not in a Skoda Octavia estate without me dropping the rear seat), but has proved itself in some truly dreadful conditions.
So why am I here? I suppose the easy answer is that having driven the 470 miles home from Aviemore yesterday, I had a glass of wine, felt all dewey-eyed at what we and our brave little tend had achieved and typed "Phortress" into google and followed the links, but I guess a better answer is that I'd like to discover what tents are around these days that are light, resistant to the worst that Scotland can throw at them, but are sufficiently big that a somewhat portly ageing gent can move around in comfort on his airbed (stop giggling at the back) rather than bouncy-shuffling about like a drunk seal and here seemed a good a place to ask.
