So come talk to me about minimalist camping...

[YellowDinosaur]

So anyone who knows me will do a double take when they see i'm the op of this thread. I'm about as far from minimalism as its possible to be, although admittedly nearly all my stuff is functional.

But i'm thinking a slow move over the next few years to minimalism that will mean as the boys get bigger and can carry stuff we might be able to walk and camp. And it would be nice to go away for the weekend and it not take longer to pack up, pitch, strike and put away than we're actually away for.

I like to be comfortable when i'm sleeping. I also love love love cooking outside, in fact a large amount of my functional-but-not-minimal kit is various methods of cooking and storing food (Cobb, Landman tripod for campfire cooking and a Camping stove plus Iceytek and pans / utensils / herbs and spices etc).

Any tips gratefully received!

[Laquila]

I'm not convince that minimalist camping is even a thing, but husband would certainly have me believe differently. To him, all that's really needed is a can of bitter and a convenient hedge to sleep under.

What kind of tent do you have? Our most minimalist camping thing is actually our tent - it's a Gelert Mercury, which folds up small and is pretty lightweight, and it's been brilliant. We've taken it on cycling holidays, in rucksacks/panniers, and it doesn't take up much room/weight at all. Bought a few years ago though so don't know what the more up-to-date version is.

Actually thinking abut it, our cooking set-up is pretty minimalist - we have one of those little meth burners stoves that fits inside three tin (?) saucepans, like Russian dolls. It has a detachable handle that also fits inside the whole set-up - it's brilliant.

[fossil971]

I have an old Guardian camping guide with a great piece in it about no frills camping. It's more or less what we used to do pre-dc when motorbike or small car camping.

Tent - just a small dome/tunnel.
Sleeping bags, mats
Stove set, kettle, mugs, bowls, sporks.
Swiss army knife
Clothes and wash kit, towel
torch
Cold bag and iceblocks

Apart from a few bits and bobs like your first aid kit and book to read, that was it! Why overcomplicate? Everything doubles up - coat = pillow, sleeping mat = sit on it outside while cooking.

[YellowDinosaur]

We have several tents. Our most minimal one that us big enough for me and the boys plus dh at a push (but boys and I often go away without dh) is an Outwell fusion 400. Which will be fine for in car minimal but if need to but another if we're going to need to walk with our kit. Realistically though given that they're 7 and 5 that's at least 5 years off so i'm less worried about minimising our tent, more all the kit.

I'm liking the sound of a stove that fits inside pots. It will be a new cooking challenge to make tasty stuff that will fit inone pot!

[YellowDinosaur]

And sporks! I was looking at these in go outdoors the other week - they look pretty flimsy. Do they really work?

[fossil971]

Sporks are the business! Better as spoon and fork or for takeway meals IMO. I would not want to make 8 rounds of sandwiches with the spork knife IYSWIM, I take a normal table knife too. But we love them for breakfast and for "fork" meals like chilli and pasta. Try one and I bet your DC will be fighting over it.

I looked out that Guardian thing (It was 2007 so perhaps I need to address my hoarding problem )

the man said NOT a swiss army knife but an opinel knife ! And he said also a picnic blanket which is of course a MN camping must-have.

[FannyBazaar]

DS and I carry all our stuff, a little hiking, public transport or bikes. I have the tent, cooking gear, my clothes and my sleeping stuff in my pack/panniers/bag on wheels, DS has his sleeping stuff, clothes, cup, bowl/plate cutlery.

I have a meths burner (trangia style) like Laquila, I also take a tiny gas burner so I can use them together but also cover the fact that sometimes meths is hard to find and sometimes small gas canisters are hard to find. I should have at least one cooking method available all the time.

Sleeping stuff is SIMs, I did try a stretcher bed but that was 3kg and not any more comfortable than the SIM.

I have this as my cool bag/seat/table. It goes flat in the pack/panniers for travelling.

Look for multi functional items for your kit. When you're carrying everything, a small camping pillow is not actually small compared to just using clothes as a pillow!

I never take iceblocks from fossil971's list as once they've defrosted, you still have to carry them back! Freeze juice, wine, milk or even water and save space and weight on the way back.

[YellowDinosaur]

Ooh liking that knife!

Liking the idea of a couple of different cooking options in case of not being able to get fuel although dh will probably blow his stack at that given how much cooking equipment we already have

I love my pillow but I'd thought about taking pillow cases to put clothes in to use. Would that work do you think?

[FannyBazaar]

Sometimes I take a pillowcase but TBH a t-shirt works just as well.

The meths burner stacks into the saucepans, I bought my set from Lidl a few years ago and actually thought it was just a set of saucepans! The gas one is just this.

[MinimalistMommi]

Marking place.

[nkf]

Loving this thread. I don't have a car, so am a bit hampered with camping. But, as kids get older, I think we could manage with all three of us carrying things.

[Laquila]

I cannot rave enough abut Opinel knives! We buy them cheap when we're in France and keep one in the car, one in my handbag, one in the camping gear, one in the big rucksack etc. I've also got a tiny one on my key ring which is v useful too. IME it's amazing what you can rustle up food-wise on a camping trip with an Opinel, a plastic spatula of some kind, a tiny chopping board and a couple of dessert spoons.

Although be warned: if you accidentally leave your practically-machete-sized Opinel in your hand luggage on the way back through airport security, they will not take kindly to you saying "but it's just for cheese!" and they will confiscate it and you will cry...(blame post-holiday blues).

[Laquila]

Our meths burner is similar to this

[nkf]

I like the look of those Tangia cookers etc. I've used a single ring burner but I have to take separate saucepans. If you have one of those nesting sets, what can you actually cook in them. And for how many people?

[nkf]

Trangia. Have just been googling them. They look so tiny.

[nkf]

And if you travel light, do you avoid tables and chairs. Or is there a minimalist way of doing that too?

[Startail]

The magic lightweight stoves are called trangias

DSIL has lent us hers, it's magic and I'm not keen on camping.

[Laquila]

And our pan kit thing is a bit like this but deeper, with I think two deeper pans and one frying pan shape one that sort or serves as the lid. Then the meths burner and detachable handle fit inside the whole thing and we wrap a strap round it.

FannyBazaar WHY is it so easy to find meths when you're not looking for it, and then when you are, everything in every shop that you'd think wuld be meths actually turns out to be lemonade, or nail varnish remover or somesuch.

[nkf]

What do you cook in them? How many people does it feed? And, when you say you can buy meths anywhere, do you mean anywhere? Supermarkets? Garages? Or specialist camping shops?

[Laquila]

nkf we only ever really cook for two adults in those pans, really, but I'm sure with a bit of imagination you could feed a couple of kids from them too. Lends of course on what you make - if you're doing bacon butties, for example, then with a bit of forward planning and foil you can do enough bacon for four, or you could probably easily make a risotto stretch to four with salad and bread etc. TBH I don't know why it's never occurred to us to take another meths burner, so that we don't have to wait until we've made dinner to boil water for tea!

If travelling light, we never take tables and chairs although I often wish I had setting to support my back when cooking on the ground, we tend to take an old bit plastic sheeting to sit n and cook on, in case the ground's wet, and I also often take a very light cheap roll-up bamboo mat for sitting on (useful for lying on on the beach too).

Side note to inventors: I would very much like someone to invent a sort of chair-back that folds away to practically nothing (like an umbrella fold, maybe), so that you can sit on the ground but have some back support. Thank you!

[Laquila]

nkf we do things like sausages (fried in the frying pan bit with onions and apples) tucked into bread rolls, or maybe served with boiled potatoes (the sausages keeping warm under foil whilst the pots boil), or pasta dishes with tomato/chorizo/onion type sauces, or risotto, or tinned soups, or tinned cassoulet (in France, where they have so many good things in tins mmmm). Or we've fried little fish in it, or boiled gnocchi, or fried burgers or minute steaks. Also good for doing eggs any which way. Basically you can cook pretty much anything that you can cook in a small saucepan or frying pan - it's just a question of being a bit careful with the timings and keeping things warm.

To b honest though, if I had a hungry husband and kids to feed I'd probably sacrifice something else for a little two-ring gas burner or similar, but depending on where you are and at what the of year, it's perfectly possible to have happy holidays with a meths burner!

For buying the meths, we generally find it in supermarkets, garages, DIY/home stuff shops etc. We've never struggled so much that we had to eat everything raw for a week (even in Turkey where everyone came to watch us putting up our tent in disbelief that we were going to sleep in it, outside, overnight).

[pictish]

The Triangia stove looks scary.

[claraschu]

When I was a kid, we used to climb mountains in the US and sleep out. All we took was a sleeping bag, something to start a fire with, and food that can be cooked directly on the fire (can of beans, open it and heat it in the tin on the embers, hot dogs to roast on sharpened sticks). We had no tents, sleeping mats, cooking apparatus, etc. This was the best fun I have ever had, but I don't remember any serious bad weather.

[Pootlingalong]

Yes, Yellow, definitely did double take, but sure you won't have a problem rehoming the lovely Icey tek!
These guys must have it sussed when it comes to packing light, they have cycled all over Europe with 4 kids and still seem to be on the move, inspiring stuff! The Miller Family

[Pootlingalong]

Ooh look at the picture of beautifully compact cooking kit here
pictures of camping stuff

[YellowDinosaur]

Oh don't worry i'm not getting rid of my Iceytek this would be a different way of camping not a replacement for all the stuff for longer trips!

Thanks everyone lots of food for thought and much fun to bree had researching and shopping!

Regarding chairs I've just bought an alite mayfly - see Slubbers thread