Cheap and cheerful camping is hard to beat. All you need is find yourself a bit of wilderness. Trouble is, our little island is crowded. Even in the expanse of America, it’s impossible to be further than 107 miles from the nearest branch of McDonalds. The first step towards escaping McCivilisation for a night or two involves taking the least amount of stuff with you. If you travel light enough, you can sleep wherever and whenever you choose.
Cheap and cheerful camping 2015
Glamping in a frontiers-style tent or yurt might cost £600 for a weekend, but true adventure means getting back to basics. military surplus equipment is tough, well-tested and you only need to spend £20. You don’t have to travel far or spend much money to reconnect with nature and have your own micro adventure. Pairing down on the amount of gear you carry makes it easier to travel comfortably on foot or by kayak or bicycle.
The more remote the area, the the more stuff you need to bring, but bringing too much gear is a common mistake that adds expense, weight and hassle. Trying to turn a campsite stay into a home from home is a hiding to nothing – when it comes to creature comforts, life under canvas is always going to be an inferior alternative to bricks and mortar.
Even the smallest tents ad unnecessary weight and bulk if you want to travel light. A bivy is a like a glorified grow bag – a plastic sack big enough for you to crawl into and with enough room for your gear. What they lack in terms of luxury, they make up for in weight and size.
Soldiers use bivy bags because they pack down to a tiny size, weigh only a few hundred grams and offer a very discreet option for sleeping in the open. If you are wild camping, pitching a tent can arouse unwanted attention unless t is pitched under cover of darkness, but you can unpack a bivy bag and settle down to sleep unseen in a matter of minutes. Although the bivy concept now includes designs that are part sleeping bag part tent, we think basic is best.
An unused military compression bag costs about £8 and allows you to dramatically reduce the size of your sleeping bag when its packed. Using a compression bag squeezes a sleeping bag and bivi bag into a about the size of a shoe box. A sleeping bag suitable for summer trips can be had for around £10.
Bivy bag bonanza – Win your own
We have five bivy bags to give away. Lightweight and waterproof, the folded bag weighs only 240 g and when unpacked measures 180 x 90 cm. Use the comments section below to
Nothing much to look at, but a bivi bag costs only £5 and weighs next to nothing
The ethical choice
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Eric Ludlow
Gimme gimme gimme
That bivy bivy bivy
Neil Woolford
Bivvy? Yes please…
Jane Collier
In a bivi, you’ll be asleep in a jiffy
Luke O’Donoughue
I approve of this article, would love to win a bivy
Bill/wusta
Bivvy Bag? No thanks. Lightweight tents are much better and one can sit up and read in comfort and store all of your stuff under cover. Also passing foxes/Badgers cannot pinch your food while you are asleep!
Wai Mun Tsang
Would love to give one a go
Phil
Givy a bivy
Jamie J
Am wanting to go wild in the country…
Jen Jen
Make my day with a bivi?
Richard Newman
Veni, vidi, bivi.
Jamie
To bivi, or not to bivi, that is the question.
James Russell
Bivvy, bivvy, bivvy.