We have started planning this year's camping trip, and I wanted to start a thread where more and less experienced campers can share ideas, tips, and dreams. Are you planning any longer or shorter trips this year? Do you have dreams for when you are FIRE'd? Where did you have the best camping experience of your life, and what happened when things didn't go according to plan? What type of gear do you have, and what do you leave at home (or didn't buy at all)? Do you prefer to camp in tents, campervan, caravan, or a gigantic offroad bus?
Our setup is an Nissan eNV200 (electric) that we use as a campervan in the summer time and normal family car the rest of the year. We did Iceland and the Faroes last year, now we are dreaming about Sweden, Åland, Finland and Sapmi (the Sami territories in the north of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia). The car is small, and my husband is not fond of long camping trips, so it will be the girl's and me.
-Cooking: We are using a cheap propane stove. The principle of using fossil fuels, when the car is fossil free, irks me. Also, the stove we have is very inefficient. Until we pass the polar circle, there will be plenty of wood around us, and I would love to use something like a rocket stove or TLUD. The biolite (
http://www.biolitestove.com/) is beautiful, but very pricey and gadgety. There are plenty of DIY recipes online to make these, and DH is sketching some plans based on a stove pipe elbow. I'm a bit unsure about the safety or the homemade solutions, but that could probably be fixed.
-Sleeping: The three of us are sharing a 120x200 cm matrass. It is snug, but not uncomfortable. We would however love to test a hammock for the oldest child, I think she would really like it. But good hammocks are expensive, and with the nordic weather she needs a mosquito net and rain cover. I'm looking at the Hennessy, or Dovrefjell Wilderness, but I really don't know enough about these things.
-Planning: 5200 km, when we have to stop every 100 km to charge the car, is a long trip. And there is soooo much to see! Lofoten, glaciers, Finland - the land of a thousand lakes, Nordkapp, saunas, Tromsø, the Sami parliament, the old town in Stockholm, Moominworld, etc.