Gearing Up

As you may have read in my previous post, I have recently arrived in Australia with no cycling equipment bar my set of Oxford Panniers. Since arriving I have bought a bike and some basic bits of equipment for day to day cycling (see last post). I am now ready to get out there and do some overnight cycling and so I need the necessary equipment. Most of it I have bought online and have either received or am waiting to receive it. In this post I will explain what I ordered and my thinking, albeit perhaps not good thinking, behind my choices. Feel free to add your own comments!

Tent

This is obvious, but the first bit of equipment I decided I needed before I head off is a tent. I know plenty of people go cycle touring and stay in B&Bs or hotels, but to me half the fun it to end your day by setting up camp and fending for yourself for the night.
Buying the tent ended up being trickier than I first thought. Initially I thought it'd be pretty simple, I'd order the tent from Amazon and a few days later I'd have my lovely tent in my hands, but alas, Amazon is in Australia. No problem I think, I shall go to a camping store and get a tent there. This is even better in fact as I'll be able to see the tent before buying it.

Nope.

It isn't that there aren't tents in Australian camping stores, of course there are, but the tents available are big heavy tents intended primarily for the glamping market. Designed to be thrown in someone's car boot until they arrive next to their pre-assigned site, then carried the 13 yards to where it is set up by the family. These tents were totally inappropriate for any sort of touring or hiking. I couldn't find anything in any store I went to, so I had to resort to option 3 - Ebay.

I love Ebay. I think for certain things it is hard to beat. I tend to limit those sorts of things to £2 screen protectors for my phone or a pack of half size M5 nuts for £3.25 including postage. The problem is, that is about as much as I trust Ebay with, so the idea of buying a tent for around $100 on there concerned me. It wasn't even that I thought I wouldn't receive the item, it was more that the quality of the tent couldn't be checked before receiving it. But I had no choice to I took a punt on a $79 Darche Hybrid 1 Person Ultra Light Hiking tent. I have to admit, I clicked the 'Confirm to buy' button with some trepidation. It was listed as weighing 1.5kgs and have a 5000mm PU coating.
Well...... the tent arrived yesterday, and I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed. It is a single skin tent so it will never keep me dry in a full storm but the skin material feels thick and of decent quality, as do the seems. I did however buy a tarp that I will carry with me until I trust the tent in the rain. I just hope my actual experiences with the tent are in line with my first thoughts of it.

Sleeping Bag

This item I was less concerned about than the tent as I am in Australia and for the majority of the time I am here it will be either summer or autumn so it won't get terribly cold. For the sleeping bag, I just ordered a cheapish one from Ebay. It is
listed as weighing less than a kilo and is 40x20x20cm when packed away. I havent received it yet but I'm sure it'll do the job.

Camping Stove

Getting a camping stove ended up being trickier than it needed to be. This one I can't actually blame on Australia, but instead on my friend's lack of knowledge of camping stores.

Back home, I have a great wee gas stove that screws on to a gas cylinder. It weights something like 100g and is fairly powerful. I hoped to get much that same thing here. Without my first port of call, Amazon, being available, my friend took

Similar to my home setup

me to a few outdoor stores to see if I could get one there. The only stoves they have were large 2 or 3 burner stoves that took large cylinders that take 2 men to carry. Nowhere seemed to have anything smaller, although a few sold the small cylinders for portable stoves. It baffles me as to way they wouldn't stock the stoves as well.

The only thing I could find the the stores was a Hexi-burner so I bought one for $10 as a back up stove for longer trips.

In the end I was able to find a store that actually stocked not just one but maybe 4 or 5 hiking stoves and so I was able to buy one with a built in ignition for less than $40. It isn't quite as small as I was hoping but it will do the job well.

Cooking Pots

Just as with the camping stoves, in the majority of stores, the only pots and pans available for camping were again for glamping and were big and heavy. This sent me back to Ebay. I initially saw these:

I thought they seemed like they would do the job well. They weren't too expensive but as they were coming from China, I wasn't too confident of the quality so I ended up buying 2 mess tins as a safe back up.

Conclusion

As you can see from what I purchased, buying light, portable camping equipment in Australia isn't as easy as in some other countries. Overall I am quite happy with what I have ordered but only time will tell. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to add a comment below.