After much research and soul searching, we’ve bought ourselves a swag. The swag is big, bigger than the little pup tent we used when first camping when only 25 years old. In fact, you could easily mistake this swag for a small tent.

As we’re nearly 45 years older than we were when we first used that little pup-tent, you would be forgiven for wondering if this little venture isn’t a bit of a mid life crisis. I’m not going to lie to you, it has crossed our minds as well. Only time and experience can answer that question. If the reality isn’t what we’re hoping for, at least the planning is proving to be lots of fun.

We’ve experienced lots of different tents and camping set ups, so we had a pretty good idea as to what’s important to us. Heavy canvas is a must. Good canvas insulates well against all weathers and temperatures, and it feels sturdy and homelike to be inside. When packed up it needed to be light enough in weight to be carried around by two old codgers with relative ease. This ruled out a lot of full sized canvas tents. We did however weigh up buying a small tent as opposed to a big swag. For those of you unfamiliar with what a swag is, it’s an enclosed shelter with a mattress inside. It all rolls up together into one bundle. A tent requires a seperate mattress to be carried. We decided on the simplicity of the swag with its included mattress for ease of set up. Then, last but not least, was that whatever we chose had to have good ventilation. Good ventilation is important for minimising any condensation. The 23 Zero Outbreak swag fitted all our criteria perfectly, and especially in relation to the ventilation. Nothing compared to the ventilation options in the Outbreak.

It arrived last week, less than a week after having placed our order. Coming all the way across country and with free delivery, that is amazingly quick. We had expected it to come across country on a truck, but 23 Zero air freighted across.

Living in a unit we don’t have a garden, so having just a small patio we moved things around as best we could so as to be able to pitch the swag. It was so easy to erect, taking us less than five minutes on our first attempt. Pitching it on our paved patio though meant we couldn’t peg it down, so that’ll take an extra minute or two when camping in the forest. My biggest concern had been as to how easy it’d be to get in and out of. I have to say, it was really, really easy.

Tills thought it was pretty good, however he won’t be included in our camping trips. He’s prone to anxiety, so when away from home life with him becomes a bit of a chore.

We had a bit of a trial run on Friday night. It proved to be spacious, yet cozy, and the mattress comfortable, but not quite as comfortable as we would have liked. As we hadn’t been able to peg the swag out properly we also couldn’t open the windows for ventilation correctly. This meant we ended up with some condensation forming under the mattress. We had been debating what, if any, ground sheet we’d place under the swag, so last night’s trial run has determined that for us – we’ll use the clip together heavy foam mats that campers often use. This should add that tiny bit of extra cushioning for our hips when sleeping on our side.

We had hoped to fit everything into our small Yaris Cross hatchback, so on Saturday we had trial run at loading the car with the exception of the gazebo which hasn’t arrived yet. Whilst we plan to be relatively minimalist with our set up, and although everything will fit inside the car, we think it’ll make life much easier to tie the swag and gazebo onto roof bars, even though it’ll affect fuel consumption a bit.

As soon as we get a couple of days forecast without any rain on the radar, we’ll drop Mr Tilly at our friends place, get some wood for a fire, and head down to the forest near us to try it for real. Each day I get up and look at the forecast for the following seven days. Showers everyday so far, so we watch and wait. Will let you know if a few nights in the swag is ‘pleasure or pain’, just as soon as I can, watch this space….