The Sleeping Kit

 

A Good Night's Sleep

First and foremost, let's look at what will keep my tired bones off the cold, hard ground. The sleeping pad.  

I haven't used one of these before. As a younger man I tended to travel light, although the gear itself was heavier then, so my pack probably weighed about the same, but with fewer items in it.  So I became reasonably adept at digging a hip-hole and sleeping well simply through fatigue. Back then we had the option of a thin foam yoga mat, but no self-respecting bushwalker would be caught dead with one of those slung beneath his pack.

Later on I engaged in considerable off-road camping, and so to win the favour of my fair lady, we either had a full-height Coleman air mattresses for static camps, or a thick foam mattress at the base of a roof-top tent mounted above our 4WD vehicle.  So sleeping pads are new-tech for me.

Another way of reaching the great outdoors

I did my homework, read many blogs and gear reviews, and decided on the Thermarest  NeoAir  XLite Regular Wide. I know I could have chosen a narrower and shorter model to reduce weight by a few grams - but there's no point slipping into self-delusion. I'm wider than I used to be, and if my feet hang off the end, my calves will cramp. So facing hard facts, this is, I believe, what I need. 

I bought the FlextailGear tiny pump to inflate it, which will save all my heavy breathing for the trail. It weighs just 90g so it's a concession I'm happy with. When I tried it out for the first time, I found it a bit fiddly, selecting from a plethora of nozzle combinations, but it was fast to inflate, and once I've done it a few times, that should be fine. It also charges up from my phone charger by USB and doubles as a tent light, so it promises to be a valuable piece of kit.

I usually just bundle all my clothes into a stuff sack and use that as my pillow. This time I've elected to take an inflatable pillow. This one is a Quechua brand from Decathlon. It's a small indulgence - but I'm making quite a few small indulgences, so let's see if this makes the final cut.

The sleeping bag has been part of my kit now for about 15 years. I have never had anything less than superb performance from this bag, from outback mountains in Australia to summer camps in England that suddenly turned Arctic without warning. It's a mummy profile, but with a baffled double zip arrangement that allows it to open completely into a quilt. It's a Mountain Designs POD 700, which is a down-filled, box-wall construction bag encased in water-resistant rip-stop nylon and rated to -9C.

The sleeping bag liner I have was released by Mountain Designs, but I'm not sure they're available any more. The closest I have found is the Ferrino brand.  I swear by these liners. In warm weather, this is all I need. I slip into this silk liner with my sleeping bag beneath me for extra comfort, and it's enough to keep away any pesky mosquitos that might have sneaked into the tent and ward off any errant breezes that might disturb my sleep. In colder environments this will add another 5 degrees of warmth to the sleeping bag. And the sheer pleasure of sleeping in silk sheets at the end of a long day is a simple indulgence. As a bonus, when sleeping in strange beds along the way, in BnBs or gites (and most especially in any dormitory context), this will shield me from any bed bugs that haven't been adequately treated. Very compact, easily washed and fast to dry, it makes hygiene on the trail all the more manageable.

My final indulgence is a handful of citronella T-lite candles. I wouldn't normally include this in my kit, but this time I'm walking through the Camargue, which is Europe's premier location for breeding bulls, beef cattle and horses. It has a widely acknowledged reputation for its mosquito population, and so forewarned is forearmed. I've coped with environments like this before, and you'll see that in some of my other gear choices, but lighting one of these candles near the vestibule of my tent (outside) while I set out my bed-roll inside might make for a much more comfortable night.