2016 We decided to make up for our lack of camping the previous year and made a concerted effort to get on the road as much as possible. Of course, our wandering spirit also resulted in another year of tent free sidetrack travels:-
Haltwhistle and
In between these adventures, we did make plans regards camping and our first plan involved purchasing a Daxara trailer. We were fed up with cramming all out camping gear into the back of our car and it was becoming a dangerous place for our dog Sam, who was going to be squashed to death one of these trips. We invested in a hardtop lid for the trailer complete with roof bars and a roof box. Finally, we were able to pack the majority of our camping equipment into the trailer and roof box. Sorted!
This camping business suddenly seemed more expensive than we had thought it would. ‘’FFS we could have spend a week in Spain all-inclusive with the money we’ve spent!’’ was a regular rant.
We also decided to research a new tent. Not that our Kampa was giving us any problems but now that we had the storage sorted, it seemed that we needed something else to get right in our never-ending quest to find the ultimate camping experience that would be the perfect combination of storage, transport and stress-free tent erection.
Meantime in between our tent research, we had some camping to do and off we set to Nicholaston Farm south Wales then back up to Scotland and off to Inver caravan park Dunbeath
We knew we could manage one last big camping excursion before the season finished and this focused our minds in finding that elusive tent that would make our camping experience even better. We decided to buy an inflatable tent. We did our research and bought an Outwell Vermont 7 berth. 
This would eliminate the need for a separate bag for poles, it would go up quickly and would be the answer to all our small issues. At least it had better! It cost a small fortune.
Truth be told this tent turned out to be the wrong decision. Yes it was big and had a well thought out interior but it was too big and as for space-saving with no poles – the air beams and the tent combined just created a big mass of tent that had to be squeezed into a large bag, all the time trying to squeeze out the air. Its dismantled bulk was heavy and now our small trailer was full. Our tent was too big!! We quickly realised that we had also limited what campsites we could go to but we had no choice. It had cost a lot of money and we would just need to accept it and be aware of where to camp.
Our first outing with our new tent was to Fields end water caravan park Cambridgeshire. We managed to squeeze it into our pitch but it stuck out like a sore thumb. This was a perfect tent for a family who wanted to go on holiday for a week or two but not for a couple with their wee dog who just wanted to stay a few days then move on to another site. It was too big, too much hassle putting it up and packing it away and took up too much space in the trailer. It had to go! Just not yet.
