Another Poly Jobby - Tepee Meadow tent

EUROHIKE

Tepee Meadow Floral Tent

 

 

Milletts have a sale on, so it would have been rude not to get one of their poly tepees.  Reduced from £300 (not worth that) to £120 (ok) I can stick it in the tent warehouse as another 'if I have to lend a tent they can use this one'. 

 

OK I admit I had a couple of ciders and pressed the buy it button in a stupor

 

Now the actual spec on the Milletts site doesnt give dimensions, so it was a bit of a shot in the dark, but was ok for a small poly quick pitch.  Arrived within 24 hours and I got round to taking it into the garden today

 

Laid it out and it soon became apparent the mini tent wasnt so mini, and a trip to the park was required

 

 

So dragging it out the car and past the local Albanian community, playing crap music at stupid levels in the car park, from a non insured, non MOT'ed heap of junk car, I had a lovely summer afternoon (well half hour) pitching it

 

It was pretty windy which made it more interesting

 

Same principle as the bells - peg all around the base, insert the pole and guy

 

It was soon up and pitched

 

 

Decent adjusters on the base

 

 

Adjustable centre pole - choice of 3 options to screw into

 

Windows closed in this pic

 

 

Windows open and looking up at the separate poly hat at the top (not a problem pitching, unlike the indian lake one which was a right b&!*ard....)

 

 

Mesh interior door

 

 Rear view

 

 

No instructions whatsoever supplied for the tarp.  As i had already pitched the main tent, it was lucky the centre pole drops down - as you actually velcro strap it to the top, just under the hat

 

 There are then 2 clips on the side, 3 guy ropes and a centre pole (there is no centre/entrance pole in the main tent)

 

Mesh panels under the 3 windows

Close up of the fabric

 

 Good Points

 

• quick pitch
• Spacious
• Tarp included
• Plenty of windows
• Plenty of ventilation
• pretty!

Bad Points

• Poor pitching instructions
• A lot of ventilation may be draughty with all the mesh in colder weather - strictly a summer tent
• usual crap pegs, throw them in the bin
• thin material
• Although a 5m footprint, there is no more room than the 4m bell tent due to the tepee shape
• Centre pole isn't very substantial, I would take a spare section of pole, and cable tie it to the original, to reinforce if its windy

Overall, you pretty much get what you pay for. Fun for the summer, quick enough pitch. In honesty I prefer the mucky brown teabag poly bell.  Purely as its simpler to pitch and has less to go wrong. It won't stand much adverse weather as the strength isn't there 

 

Specifications on website are as follows:-

 

Hydrostatic Head:	3000mm
Material Feature:	185T Polyester
Pack Dimensions:	87 x 25cm
Pitching Time:	10 mins
Repair Kit Included:	No
Rucksack Frame Material:	Steel
Standing room:	Yes
Weight Kilos:	10.5kg
Additional Notes:	Large, spacious Teepee. Front large tarp for extra space or sun canopy
Aesthetics and Special Features:	Quick and easy to pitch. Large PVC windows for excellent views
Berth:	10
Brand:	EUROHIKE
Colour:	Multi
Colour Coded Poles:	No

Out and about...Nantcol..again...last but one part...

After dragging my eldest daughter and Rocket Banger up the hill in the morning in their pj's, we decided to visit the local beach at Harlech, and Harlech castle

Rocket Banger got her first visit to the beach

 

 

Homer decided to do a spot of fishing - I'm not sure he has the right techniques though...'here fishy fishy'

 

 

The beaches were stunning...Barley particularly liked them

 

 

 

even had a family photo shoot...

 

 

Moving on, we drove up to Harlech Castle via a route very similar to the Snowdon one. The car would have benefitted from crampons getting up the hill.

 

The sign at the entrance was very welcoming for any would be suicidal maniacs

 

 

Fully in fairy mode I wanted to be a druid and proceeded to haunt my way round the castle

 

 

I set a challenge to the others that they had to get a picture of the painting that an artist on the steps was doing....Christie being as weird as me had already taken exactly the same picture so it wasnt much of a challenge

 

I'm not sure it will be for sale in the gift shops any time soon...

 

 

Harlech Castle

 

again...

 

 

So after climbing every one of the turrets, inestigating every nook cranny and hole in the walls, we were finished

As a reward for not only exercising but doing something educational, we drove to Knickerbockers in Barmouth.  Big decision time choosing which combination of ice cream to have :)

I'll have a scoop of bubblegum, rice pudding and branston pickle flavour please...

A random bear minding his own business on the sea front

 

 

Barmouth lifeboat, but no major disasters happening at the time, so it was a bit disappointing

 

 

Back to the campsite and waved goodbye to eldest daughter and rocket banger...

 

(don't worry it's nearly over now...)

 

Another dysfunctional family photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

More mountains castles and stuff ...Part 2

As usual there was quite a lot of alcohol drunk over the week at Nantcol, but I am very happy to report that everyone kept their decorum very well (cough splutter)

Round the campfire on the first night everyone was just unwinding and in a nice drunken haze when Rach appeared. It's amazing how stone cold sober everyone suddenly became once Rach crawled amongst us over the tripod with a bottle of red wine in her hand.  Lack of chairs wasn't a problem as Rach snuggled up on everyones laps/backs/floor

Hiya Rach!

Within 5 minutes she had asked us all if anyone would like to see her tits? (the women all said no, the men were suitably quiet with their fingers crossed hoping she might do it anyway).  We managed to persuade her they were much safer in her nice woolly cardy, but she didnt give up lightly.  She agreed to keep them in as long as she could have a full body paint the next day.  So we all agreed, although after 3 days of Rach on a bender it would make more sense if she had been body painted as a bottle of red wine from the start

Being relatively sober I offered to walk Rach back to her tent (not a lot of choice really as Rach was convinced her tent was in the opposite direction).  Walking back I came across another group of our lot snuggled round the campfire.  I had 2 options...

1. Do the honourable thing and introduce Rach quickly and walk her back
2. Introduce Rach quickly and run in the opposite direction, so passing on 'Rach duties' to the next group

I chose option 2.  Well I tried to.  Until Margo caught me up and pleaded with me not to leave the rach time bomb there.  Hmmphhh...  So with some new recruits we walked  Rach back and dumped her quick

In fairness she wasn't the only one to crawl round the campsite. Cathys partner Alan was a very quiet character and only actually joined us round the campfire after a few days had passed.  I think he found the whole prospect a bit daunting and had a few beers in the day to relax him.  By the time he got to the campfire he was so 'relaxed' he fell off his chair after 10 minutes and just crawled off down the field in a blur

We even had musical accompaniment on one night

In the days we were all pretty sober though and did actually manage to get up and out

Me, my daughter Christie and her BF Matt decided we were going to go up Snowdon. So up nice and early we drove the 30 mile to the bottom off the mountain with our newly purchased walking boots, a packet of blister plasters and enough food to feed a Everest expedition

and we're off..

 

 

The problem we had was although i have done the route a few times, it was very misty.  After the lakes you hit a bit where you have to climb the boulders, and on looking down I did suggest we take a sort of compass reading to make sure we came back down the same way...But we all agreed we just needed to get our bearings from the lake and would be fine

A quick rest on the way up at the 'bus stop'.  We managed to catch up with the man with the prosthetic leg here, who had overtaken us a while before

The moment when we realise the summit is just over to the left - the views obviously made it all worthwhile...

At the top...hooray!!

Once at the top I invested in some new gloves and a sweatshirt.  Bliss! warm and toasty coming down.  Which was just as well, as we got lost again.
The lake where we were supposed to take our bearings wasn't there anymore. There was mist. Everywhere.

So we tore down at a very impressive pace, even though we hadn't actually got a clue where the path had disappeared to.  We managed to regain a trace of a path and after 10 mins I realised we were on the pyg path, as opposed to the miner one we had come up on.  I dont like the pyg path :(.  So sort of having my bearings went for a bit of a mooch to see if there was a way to traverse down to the miners...
As I went lower, yayyy, the mist cleared and I could see the path below that we wanted, it was just a matter of getting down (and convincing Matt and Christie we weren't going to die.  Although we had the conversation several times on the way up of who we would eat first once the jelly babies ran out, so we all knew where we were in the pecking order)

 

The mist clears, and we are supposed to be down there...

 

 

Christie was easy to convince that it was a doddle just getting down to the other path (bear in mind she has inherited my warped genes...)

 

 

A pic taken when I walked up snowdon in the summer, showing the route we went and the route we should have taken....

 

 

 

Safely at the bottom, we drove back with a short detour to Beddgelert to see Gelerts grave (is more of a annual pilgrimage, I have visited this dogs grave more than my dads i think)

Bggry Snowdon when the mist cleared

My other daughter arrived with Rocket Banger that evening, so we had their company for the next couple of days...