Essential camping equipment

· TORCH

Obviously a torch should go without saying. No fool would go camping without this essential smidgeon of equipment. A tube with batteries and a bulb, what genius! Torches are extremely handy for late night trips to the toilet/bushes and fumbling around in your tent for wet wipes or a spare jumper. In fact, I could dedicate a whole subsection of this article on different types of torch and the different situations that they come in useful. This brings me to my next point.

· WET WIPES

Another camper’s essential, wet wipes come in handy not just for cleaning yourself but for wiping off muddy wellies, sticky torches and grubby tent porches.

· A TENT

Yes dear reader, I know what you are thinking but believe me, people have done it before and they will do it again. It usually involves being very tired when packing the night before or forgetting that you broke your tent at the last festival you went to, leaving yourself with a sorry looking half-tent. We have all been in that situation before; the one where we desperately need to open the entrance to our tent to escape the morning heat/bulging bladder/searing thirst/person lying next to us, but for the life of us, can’t figure out which way to pull the layers of Alcatraz like zips that bar our escape.

· A PORTABLE BARBEQUE

Excellent form of functionality and entertainment, the portable barbeque comes in many different sizes and is available from most supermarkets and petrol garages. Just remember to make sure that you are allowed to use them in the campsite that you are staying in, or if you are in the wilderness do remember to clean up your mess and make yourself a nice , flat, safe little cooking area. Along with a barbeque, other essentials such as knives and forks, plates, napkins, food and tomato ketchup should not be forgotten and thus rendering the barbeque useless.

· FOLD AWAY CHAIRS

Fold away chair if there is only yourself. These nifty little things are a great way to prevent backache or repetitive strain injury on the thighs. Versatile and can be used on both sand and grass. I myself prefer the roomy chairs with cup holders in the arms and a back rather than those of the scoop seat golfer style variety.

· A REALLY GOOD SLEEPING BAG

If you are going camping in a hot country I always find it is better to take a sleeping bag that you can unzip completely to make it into a duvet. This way if it is hot you can sleep on it or escape out of it easily without finding you have sweated to the inside to be parted nevermore. If you are going somewhere colder then go with one of those North Face sock type get ups that have no zip. Similarly if your partner always insists on sleeping curled up together and then steals all the quilts.