Camping and Outdoor Gear

While touring without camping gear is much easier (a nice soft dry bed at night, and much less equipment to carry), you never know the true feeling of freedom until you have cycled with everything you need to survive packed into a few bags on the back of your bicycle. Although we often do try to find an official campground, and will treat ourselves to a nice shower and comfortable hotel room occasionally, some of our most wonderful stories come from the unusual places we have slept along the way. REI donated two great tents for our world tour. Anya and Yvonne are sleeping in their cozy two man "REI Half Dome Plus 2", while the parents have a slightly larger "REI Taj 3". Since the start of the trip, two months ago this arrangement has worked perfectly. The Half Dome is small and very simple to put up, so that the kids manage set-up and pull-down in minutes by themselves. The Taj is large enough to store all our bags (and Paula and Lorenz :)) for a rainy night. The Taj is also big enough to allow all four of us to read Harry Potter together at night or eat breakfast inside if it is raining in the morning. So far we have stayed perfectly dry and comfortable! Thank You REI!

• 2 tents with gear lofts, side pockets and full length waterproof tarps
• 2 ground cloths
• skewer stakes (they bend less easily and are great for hard ground)
• lightweight sleeping bags with 0 degree rating or lower
• We chose to bring 4 inflatable Thermarest TM sleeping pads. The slight bit of extra weight is well worth it in light of the comfort we have experienced sleeping even on slabs of rock in Greece. On a sixteen month trip comfort does matter if one plans to finish the trip.
• Matches and lighter
• Compass (it may the only way we can figure out where we are in China)
• 2 headlamps--see cycling equipment (leave the hands free when working in the campground, and can be worn as a headlight for our bicycles when cycling in rain or the dark)
• Batteries
• Rope (essential for drying clothes, hanging bear bags, tying down gear etc.)
• Bungee cords (who can do a bicycle tour without them?)
• Bug repellant
• Small plastic shovel

Updated: July 12, 2003

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