[Ansteorra] GW camping in cold/hot weather tips

[Elizabeth Crouchet]

Three  bits.

It can get cold a night, in addition to what everyone else has said: wear a
cap on your head at night. A ski cap works great and the fleece ones are
nice and soft and comfy. This keeps more of your body temperature in you.
You can also pull it down over your ears and your eyes and still be able to
breathe. This cuts down on light and noise as well and can help you sleep.


Tents, floors: If you make yourself an indoor floor like a bathtub to keep
the water out, what you get is a bathtub. It only takes on little leak to
make this a bad idea (been there).

Set up everything in your tent as if there were always 2 inches of standing
water inside. This will not be the case but in case of any sudden temporary
flood or major leak, most things will stay dry. Sleep off the ground, keep
covers from touching the ground, keep clothes in tubs and even keep your
shoes in a small tub so they don't get soaked. Have a change of dry clean
clothes on the seat of the car. Change in to these just after you leave site
at the end of the war. They also act as an emergency back up in case it all
goes to pot.

Floors: I have a tent with no floor. We use those woven plastic mats from
the chinese grocery or the dog show area. The water goes through them and on
into the ground. The ground absorbs water quickly there (except on the
roads) and the mats keep you above the damp. They do not prevent flooding as
can happen with downpours and lots of runoff, but they do not hold water so
they dry out quickly. Then you do not have a wet rug for a floor or a nasty
wet rug to take home.


One more thing: Nothing will dry out. If you think your thing will air out
and be dry by morning, it won't. It is humid there. If it is not possible to
get to the laundromat in town you can spritz it down with rubbing alcohol.
It might dry out some but it also won't grow funk. Linen rarely grows funk
but it is hard for even linen to dry out much there.


Claire