Land Rover Explorer, Land Rover Camping, Tents, Green Lanes and Video » Landrover Camping

Howling Moon ‘Tourer’ Roof Tent

kevin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:15:11 +0000

Manufactured and designed in Southern Africa where off road means long expeditions in the african deserts, savanna and jungles, Howling Moon have been leaders in Roof Tent production for over 30 years. Their website features a great section on roof tent owners photos and stories from around the word – really whets the appetite if you’re thinking of going on an expedition yourslef, but also shows these great tenst in real world scenarios – (see http://www.howlingmoon.co.za/Tour.html).

Fantastic image of a Land Rover Defender with HM roof tent set up in Egypt, from the Howling Moon On Tour pages - click for LARGE image

The latest variation of their ‘Tourer’ tent features 2280 gms/sqm Polyester/cotton ripstop material, Fluoro carbon coated with a lightweight vacuum laminated composite base construction with Zip operated, ventilated and insect screened windows.
Aluminium mounting extrusions, 2 Piece ladder with internal ladder access to tent, flysheet and 75mm thick high density mattress come as standard. The tnet also features useful internal storage pockets and maintains space for bedding when the tent is folded. A unique bungee cord system helps when packing up the tent.

Howling Moon Tourer roof tent - cick for LARGE image

Also a zip integrated annex tent with built in groundsheet provides large living room space for lounging around the camp after long days on the trail, whatever the weather. The tent comes in several size configurations as well as different size annexxe tents. This is a staple roof tent and one you should consider when choosing a roof tent for serious expeditions. Available in the UK from trekoverland.com

Happy Valley: North Wales Greenlaning Adventure!

kevin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:24:36 +0000

Just got the video edited from our wild-camping off-road trip in the mountains for North Wales. It was an awesome adventure, as good as it gets in the U.K. I reckon! With fellow members of the North Somerset Land Rover Club we drove Happy Valley and several other excellent lanes just south of Snowdonia National Park. We drove my Defender Hi Capacity pickup, a ‘proper’ greenlaning Discovery 1, and a classic Series IIa. All vehicles were more than up to the challenges and proved that Landy’s really can “Go Beyond”… Here’s the story of the trip, including 2 out of 3 Land Rovers taken out by a nasty axle-twisting gulley!

Happy Valley Adventure: Part One:

Happy Valley Adventure: Part Two:

Land Rover Camping: Safari Tent…

kevin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:44:08 +0000

The options for Land Rover Camping are endless of course, but a few designs are of special interest:

The OzTent from http://uk.oztent.com…

The OZ Tent - collapsible framed tent

the CaranEx… (see ukcampsite.co.uk/tents/ )

The CaranEx as Land Rover Tent - shown with Defender 110 CSW

and of course Roof Tents:

Australian Land Rover Roof Tent

There’s a new option from specialist tent, tipi and tarp manufacturer “Green Outdoor” called the “Campfire Tent”. It has some advantages over the Oztent (won’t fit in a 90 when folded down at 2M – won’t even fit on most 90 roofracks except diagonally which takes up a lot of space) and the CaranEx (lacking in features and still fairly expensive) and Roof Tent (hugely expensive and can’t be used as free-standing tents, also they take up all the roofrack space generally. I’ve been testing the Green outdoor offering and am enormously impressed – at £499 (currently on sale) it’s well worth looking at as it makes a fantastic Land rover tent as well as a perfect “safari-style” free standing tent. You can even pitch it in front of the campfire (hence the name) and have the heat reflect around the tent for maximium warmth as well as that true “fireside” experience.

The front opens out to give you wide open views of whatever country you’ve driven so hard to get to, whether it be Morrocan mountains, the African Savanna or the Welsh hills. The tent is very well featured in terms of doors, windows, full mozzie netting, full inner tent, as well as a modular design in terms of side wings, front awning etc. On top of that, and the killer feature for me is that it’s cleverly made out of natural materials – Chinese Hemp Cotton canvas specifically, in a beautiful soft brown colour that at the same time both stands out and blends in with Nature. The material is also waterproofed so the canvas can remain thinner than traditional cotton canvas, and therefore it’s doesn’t have that heavy weight, especially when wet that puts so many people off canvas traditional tents. But it retains the look (and feel, and even the sound) of classic “safari tents” of old, and that really adds something to the experience when you’re out in the bush.

Here’s some pictures of the tent set up with my Land Rover 110 HCPU, where it fits perfectly at the rear of the vehicle, allowing easy access through rear, with use of the tailgate for kitchen duties, and yet you can drive off easily and close the front of the tent up, or move the vehicle during the day and shelter form either the sun or rain under the big awning. Side doors and wings zip on or off easily making it very flexible. You can of course put the tent side-on to the vehicle as well.

I’ll be using this set up a lot now as it’s proved perhaps the perfect 4×4 tent, with some real advantages over the other options, and at a very reasonable price you get something unusual, fit for purpose and really a thing of great beauty, as well as a solid piece of gear that will last a lifetime or close to hopefully. So, in short, I’m impressed!

…

The Tent with one side-wing zipped off, showing the inner tent and mozzie net etc.

The side wing left on, with the side door and mozzie net zipped open.

The side doors also have a ventilation flap which can be opened slightly for air, OR rolled up as a full window - very nice feature and the attention to detail is very high, as is the manufacturing quality.

A view into the interior space and inner tent.

Tailgate Kitchen!!

The Campfire...

The awning fits snugly over the top of the 110 HCPU pickup - it is the right height for most landrovers, and has a single centre guy rope which secures the awning to the vehicle.

The Campfire glows into the night....

Winter Landrover Camp

kevin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:24:03 +0000

A quick Get Out & Stay Out trip up to the Mendip hills in Somerset, driving some excellent greenlanes along the way. It was the first week of February so pretty cold, but we used Australian “swag bags” (like a ‘bivvy’ bag, with sleeping bag inside) and the “campfire tent” which stays open to the campfire and so we were pretty warm. Highlights were seeing some Roe deer up close, and cooking some fantastic local rump steak on sticks over the fire.

The tent used here is a special beast: hemp cotton canvas “Campfire Tent” based on a traditional North American “Baker Tent” design, but built with modern materials and fittings, and a fantastic modular design that’s ideal for Land rover camping, with front or side entrances, mozzie net covered windows and ventilation flaps and comes with a full inner tent and various configurations of poles etc. Easily attachable to any Landy either at the rear or side, but works free-standing too. With a campfire out in front it is THE camp experience tent as far as I’m concerned- who wants to be locked away in a plastic, noisy dome tent, missing all the wildlife and views abround you. It’s available from the manufacturer, specialist tent, tipi and tarp designers “Green Outdoor” and they have a big sale on curently so well worth checking out. I’ll be featuring the tent here rigged up to my Landy shortly.

Australian Swag – a perfect 4×4 companion…

kevin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:24:12 +0000

The Australian swag is a tough durable bedroll that can hold your sleeping bag and blankets and has a built in mattress. It can withstand heavy rain and simply rolls up to go – perfect for Landrover camping without the need for a full tent. although made for the Australian bush as demonstrated by Ray Mears here, it’s just as good in our climate and conditions, we just don’t need the scorpion-proofing as much, and thankfully so – one of the great delights about UK camping is the complete lack of dangerous insects and animals! No excuse not to Get Out & Stay Out as much as you can then. But the thick, solid canvas serves to keep out windy and rainy weather, and we have just as good a night sky as the southern hemisphere, and this is the way to enjoy it – for almost 3 seasons if the weather’s clear a swag can get you sleeping out under the stars in style and comfort – it’s THE way to go in my opinion. Just throw it in the back of your Landrover and your ready to go anywhere, stay anywhere! Here’s a video of a test of a genuine imported Australian swag from www.theaussieshop.co.uk:

Landrover-Exploring with Canoe and Defender!

kevin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Just got back from a short but great trip on the River Wye – The Landy coped perfectly well when carrying the 16ft Canadian “open canoe”. The canoe was strapped to the Rollbar and then to the rear hoop and then front and rear with ropes to the towbar and front tubular bumper: Rock solid and it’s a very aerodynamic shape so in fact made the Defender Hicap somewhat more stable in a straighline! It sat directly over the army issue desert tarp cover I use on the back hoops – I use this instead of the standard canvas or PVC hoods – I prefer this as it’s open to the elements but still provides enough cover even in heavy rain. It’s also easy to remove in seconds with a system of loops and ties using paracord – the real stuff taken from an army parachute which is incredibly strong, not the fake ‘paracord’ you can buy – important as this needs to take some strain at 50-60mph!

The hicap pickup flat bed obviously had more than enough room for any gear and paddles, life vests and my australian ’swag’ bedroll (whose native home is in the back if a pickup (or “Ute” as the aussies call them…) of course.

…

Minimal gear this time - swag and 2 bags ready on the tailgate.

Arrived at the put-in point at Kerne Bridge.

"Hawkeye" Rich - describing all the the wildlife he's seeing up front

"Campfire Kev" steering in the back.

Gathering firewood at dusk

LOTS of firewood...

Morning at the Camp, Symonds Yat Canyon

Using the half-burnt logs from the previous nights fire to get it going again - a spark from a firesteel and a bit of blowing till it glows, then drop on some dry grass and it's away...

Getting the fire going again... Rain in the air...

And here's the rain....

"do you think it'll last?" "it's just a shower, let's wait it out..."

Really Big Rain kicked in about 9am... we waited for the Kelly to boil from under the shelter...

Hot Coffee... out of the rain... no problem...

Caption Not Required...

Still Raining... more coffee on...

The Shelter rigged to the canoe, propped with a paddle, simple and effective: only needed a single peg into the bank to stay up as the canoe provides the support.

The Crusader mug in use....

"hmmm, this rain is lasting for a while, lets have some breakfast..."

A cup of Oats...

Porridge cooking in the Crusader mug... straight on the fire.

We were a bit short of water so collected water running off teh shelter to top up - a litre gathered within about 10 minutes.

We'll move when the rain stops....

It didn't stop so we got back on the river....

Stopped under an old iron pontoon bridge, 'WWII style' and got the Kelly fired up again, wet-through, we needed more hot tea....

Getting the Kelly Going....

approaching the get-out point at Symonds Yat West

Thoroughly soaked, but completely invigorated.

Loaded up, the end of a great trip on the Wye.

Let's Go.

Back over the Severn Bridge towards Bristol, the rain finally did stop!