From Globetrotter to Globetrotter: thoughts on camping gear

This post is all about gear, the camping gear. If that's not your thing, then this post ain't for you.

Unfortunately, not all of our equipment has lived up to promise and hope. As previously mentioned, the draughty double-wide synthetic fill sleeping bag was cast off in Brussels. Despite my attempt to seal up the drafts with buttons and toggles around the hood, the Big Agnes Dream Island did not provide the promised dreamy sleep. You'd be hard pressed to convince me again that I would find comfortable warmth in a sleeping bag insulated only on the top and relying on the thermal performance of a mattress slipped into a nylon pocket on the bottom. Maybe in the tropics… but I'm not keen on taking that chance.

[A cat: frequent fixture of the European campground]

Alas, the replacement down-filled Deuter bags with their -10ºC rating just haven't been warm enough for me either. No more stealing warmth from Adam who runs hotter than I and likes his mummy bag just fine. The polyester liner sack feels like a dream compared to the inner nylon lining of the Deuter bag but the liner comes nowhere near to adding an additional 15º as suggested by the promotional material. It will go a long way to keeping the sleeping bag cleaner however. I am beginning to wholeheartedly subscribe to Uncle George's notion that sleeping bag ratings are a fallacy and that, rather than representing the temperature at which I will be comfortable, are a better indicator of the temperature at which I will actually perish from hypothermia.

Our Primus stove has also been a nagging problem from the outset; the jet regularly clogged and the plunger on the pressure pump deformed at each use until Adam permanently re-built it using a rubber O-ring to reinforce the leather. The final straw however was the permanent deformation of the outer burner ring. The metal just didn't seem sufficiently robust to deal with the heat and it grew so distorted that the fuel wasn't burning clean, leaving the base of our pots scorched in black soot at every use. I replaced every part available with the maintenance kit and was babying the stove, but the time came to accept reality – the Primus would not see us through this journey. Some of my MEC brand gear has also let me down, okay… all of my newer MEC branded gear has been a disappointment. My merino shirts dissolved into tatters making me look unkempt and homeless (the homeless part being a little too close for comfort, though Adam reminds me that I now live with my parents – technically speaking). It's hard enough to tidy up for a restaurant with only sportwear available but the task is insurmountable when the hem is hanging off your shirt which is also filled with tens of little random holes. There's no pretending my shirt was a Rodarte masterpiece.

[Not photoshop, some campsites just look like they belong in a calendar]

As we entered Germany for a stretch, and as if knowing that the gear situation was becoming critical, the zipper on my MEC sweater, my only sweater on this trip and one that was seeing daily use, failed unutterably. And so it was that we discovered Globetrotter. Initially, we wandered into an outlet, near the end of the day, cranky and tired and looking forward to easier evening meal preparation with acquisition of a new stove only to discover the outlet stocked solely with last season's footwear and clothing. So we hunkered down in a nearby campsite, made do with the soot-belching Primus stove for another night, and planned an incisive foray into Globetrotter Stuttgart. Wow. What a palace of outdoor equipment. Storeys of gear beautifully arrayed around a central atrium.

Our haul included reflective foil-faced rubber mats to boost the thermal rating of our air mattresses (at 6€ each these have been the best investment of the trip to date), and a lightweight rectangular sleeping bag into which I can cocoon in the down bag, an arrangement which now keeps me warm and cosy while I sleep. An Icebreaker merino sweater and shirt were acquired to return me to respectability, and a new stove bought at last. Bummer that the old fuel bottle isn't compatible so a new one of those was purchased too. Icebreaker… accept no substitutes. From here on out, I'll be sticking to Patagonia and Icebreaker clothing as they seem to withstand my hard wearing ways.

By coincidence, or by result of good design, we've discovered that MSR hardware is best living up to expectations. The four-person Papa Hubba NX tent comfortably houses both of us and our stuff which seems to triple in bulk once out of the panniers. The tent has two doors on opposite sides so we don't have to crawl over each other getting in and out, something I was not particularly thankful for until this morning witnessing the awkwardness of sharing a tent with a single vestibule and door. The Papa Hubba is remarkably lightweight and packs down quite small for a four-person affair. As with all tents however, honestly speaking, the only way four people are cramming in here is with narrow shoulder-width mattresses and a plan to sleep alternately head to feet. Three people without gear might be accommodated on 'standard-width' mattresses. I daily use a 4 litre Dromedary bag to collect water for preparation of dinner, and it effortlessly pairs with our MSR water filter when we are wild camping or find ourselves without access to potable tap water. I have just realized that my travel towel is an MSR model and it has been doing good duty for years. The stainless steel dishware is merely doing a job, but then the solder on the handle of my no-name stainless mug has just given way so I am again filled with appreciation for the MSR brand plates and bowls about which I cannot offer complaint.

With our growing fondness for MSR, we decided that one of their stoves would be replacement for our Primus. I considered the XGK-EX but Adam pointed out that it has a burner design similar in style to the failing Primus, though it appears to be more robustly built, but in any event Globetrotter had none in stock. And so it was that we walked out of the store with the MSR Whisperlite Universal. It was a delight to cook dinner that night – so much quieter than the Primus that we could actually carry a conversation while it was lit. Like the Primus, we are running the Whisperlite on petrol as we always have gasoline on the bikes and having a spare litre of fuel for the bikes can't hurt. The shine quickly wore off the next morning however when the rubber plunger on the pressure pump came dislodged and then ripped. And so it was that I was dumpster diving for the old Primus, feeling lucky both that the old stove had not been buried beneath great gobs of stinky garbage since the previous night, and that the failure had occurred while retrieval of the old Primus was still possible.

[The chef hard at work, luxuriating in all the space available to low season campers mostly alone in the campground]

Onward then to the next Globetrotter located in Ulm, to exchange or return the MSR stove. Inadvertently however we ended up in town on the Saturday holiday commemorating the reunification of East and West Germany twenty-five years ago. Only a few cafes were still open but definitely not Globetrotter, so the Primus would have to see us through a few more days until we could get further south and in to Munich the following week. The staff of Globetrotter Munich were very kind to Adam – he was in and out in a flash with a replacement fuel pump and I am pleased to report that in the weeks since, the Whisperlite has given us no bother and that MSR is once again held in high esteem.

The Big Agnes insulated Q-core SL air mattresses have been another great disappointment, especially when considering their cost. We've each got three patches on our mattress now and grow tired of choosing campsites with otherwise unwanted (and now freezing) swimming pools only so we can take the mattresses for a dip and locate the pinhole leaks. The compact size and light weight of the mattress are appealing but leaks aplenty, particularly around the valve, have been a real annoyance. Though 'insulated', we find that alone, the mattresses do not offer sufficient insulation to be thermally neutral – we lose heat to the ground on cool nights. The addition of foil-faced rubber mats improves the arrangement though these have stressed my carefully edited personal gear pile and I have had to jettison my second pair of trousers and second dress. So if I seem to be wearing the same thing in every photo from now on, you know why! Good sleep trumps fashion.

[Soaking in some rare evening sun while setting up camp for the night]

Before leaving Canada, we both picked up collapsible canvas and aluminum camp chairs. Nothing like Grandma's folding lawn chair, these disassemble like a tent and fold up to the size of a one litre water bottle. Adam's Helinox One sits a little higher than my Alite Mayfly – I look downright awkward rolling out of mine and returning to my feet – but I prefer the less hunched seating position of the Mayfly and besides, mine offers a better ground level perspective on the cookstove. Picnic tables are few and far between at European campsites.

The final piece of gear that has improved my lot significantly is the Sanifem Freshette. It makes relief possible at any roadside stop, regardless of the variety or downright absence of formal toilet facilities. I thank the many ladies who took the time to review this product on MEC's website – those who suggested that the hard sides that would not collapse under use, and the generous outlet would not be overwhelmed by flow, were entirely correct.

[I should note, out of some vestigial loyalty, that some of the older MEC-brand stuff is holding up great. Adam's duffel and fleece cardigan, and my dry bag, are doing the job they were meant to do years after purchase. And so is the brand-name gear that I purchased at MEC just before the trip, like the Smartwool socks and Patagonia undies.]