What you’ll need to wild camp will depend on the weather and how close you want to get to nature. It also depends on how long you’re out for but let’s assume it’s a single overnighter and you can extrapolate from there.
Your basic needs when you stop for the night is food to recover from all the adventurous activities you’ve hopefully been doing during the day and to fuel up for all the more tomorrow. You’ll also need some degree of shelter from the elements in order to recover and get a good night’s sleep. I’ll deal with food and cooking soon but for now let’s look at shelter.
The greater the degree of shelter and comfort the greater the weight I’m afriad. Less of a problem when you using something like a canoe or kayak (or car) but if you’re trekking into your campsite or parachuting in and weight is an issue then you do not want to be carrying the equivalent of a fruit machine on your back. Let’s start with the most accommodating but heaviest – a tent. (more…)