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  1. #1
    New Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
    Posts
    0

    Greetings from Trinidad & Tobago

    Greetings to everyone on warm & sunny day in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

    Here in Trinidad there are few homes that don't have a hammock. Everyone has a hammock.
    They hang on verandahs, in back yards, under mango trees... everywhere.
    They are our childhood swing. I have fond memories of fighting with my brother and sister for my turn.
    There are hooks in strategic positions around the house. I can even hang in the kitchen. In fact everywhere except the bedrooms.

    I work as a tour guide and photographer and although I specialise in birding tours, I regularly take visitors camping. We use hammocks. No tents!
    Traditionally, our hammocks are heavy; made of strong, beautiful, but heavy materials. This year I've been trying to lighten the load.
    Some of the places we go camping involve a boat ride. When the sea kicks up we often have to land quite a distance from our camp site and hike through some rough terrain in the rain forest. So as age takes its toll I'm lightening the load! We have moved to light silnylon hammocks!

    The next mission is to move to silnylon tarps. We have hundreds of material shops here. Everyone sews! Needless to say no one has heard of ripstop or silnylon. They look at me as if I have two heads! I recently discovered Ripstop be the roll. Fantastic company! Getting things to Trinidad can often be a challenge. A friend of mine was going to Miami. I gave her some money. She ordered my silnylon for the Winter12 kit. Justin at Ripstop expidited the order, it arrived the next day, in lots of time for her return flight. Thank you Justin!

    This is a long story to explain how I ended up at this forum. I now have all the ingredients to make my winter tarp. Yippee!
    I want to do the cat curves. Ripstop has a link to Xtrekker's cat-curve generator which took me to this site.

    For those of you wondering why I need a winter tarp in the tropics.... so I can close the ends when it rains. Our rain can be so heavy we call it "bucket a drop". I'm really excited about making my own tarp. Admittedly once I've worked out the best gear for our scenario I might go the easy route and buy ready made gear from the mighty “amazon” to use for our visitors, but I wanted to make my own

    Finding information online for hammock camping in the tropics has been almost impossible. Lots of information for temperate and freezing cold conditions! I'm open to any advice anyone has as to how to make the camping experience better for our visitors. I'm sure you all have a lot more experience of this than I do. I'm still experimenting with different configurations of bug net.

    We are into our rainy season at the moment so the camping trips have slowed down and I have a few months to get the gear sorted and the list refined before the dry season starts in January which is when my next camping booking arrives. I've attached a few photos so you can see what we get up to here. I hope I got the attchment window thing right. 1. My hammock on our last camp a couple of weeks ago. You can see my heavy plastic tarp, soon to be replaced! 2. A Leatherback Turtle hatchling on its journey to the sea. 3. The view of the sunset from my hammock. Hammock hanging at GT.jpgLeatherback hatchlings at GT.jpgSunset at GT.jpg

    Phew! After writing all that I'm feeling a little tired now. I think I'll go hang for a bit... in the back yard with the dogs this time. If the rain comes I think Ill hang in the kitchen

    Happy hanging everyone Ally (Occam)
    Last edited by occam; 09-17-2016 at 09:45. Reason: Photos the wrong way around

  2. #2
    Senior Member johnspenn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2016
    Location
    Marietta, GA
    Hammock
    DIY TCF Sage Green
    Tarp
    Noah's Tarp 12x12
    Insulation
    MAMW TQ, UGQ UQ
    Suspension
    webbing/whoopies
    Posts
    3,203
    Images
    1
    Hello and welcome from Marietta GA. I'm jealous of the beautiful spots you get to hang in! Happy hanging!

  3. #3
    Senior Member TrailSlug's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2015
    Location
    Huntsville, AL
    Hammock
    Warbonnet RR / BlackbirdXLC
    Tarp
    SimplyLightDesigns
    Insulation
    Lynx / LocoLibre
    Suspension
    webbing/buckles
    Posts
    7,730
    Images
    1
    Wow. You are so blessed to have such a beautiful island home. This just shows that it's a small world when in comes to hammocking. Welcome to the hammock forums.

  4. #4
    alt.thomas's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Tokyo
    Hammock
    Blackbird (Single layer)
    Tarp
    Z-Packs CF w/ door
    Insulation
    Quilts
    Suspension
    Whoopie / Cinch
    Posts
    496
    Welcome! Awesome intro and I look forward to more posts from your neck of the woods.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    New Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
    Posts
    0
    Thank you all for your welcom messages
    We are in the middle of a very unsettled rainy season right now so it's looking like no more camping until December if we are lucky!

  6. #6
    dakotaross's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Chamblee, GA
    Hammock
    SuperiorGear or Dutch netless
    Tarp
    custom pentagon
    Insulation
    down hammock or UQ
    Suspension
    Dutch Mantis
    Posts
    3,081
    Images
    19
    Welcome! Can I come visit!!??! I have this fantasy about hanging on a beach between two palm trees while emptying a cooler that's reachable from my hammock. There are other parts to this fantasy, but I won't get into that right now.
    "I wonder if anyone else has an ear so tuned and sharpened as I have, to detect the music, not of the spheres, but of earth, subtleties of major and minor chord that the wind strikes upon the tree branches. Have you ever heard the earth breathe... ?"
    - Kate Chopin

  7. #7
    Senior Member hk2001's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Upstate, NY
    Hammock
    DH Raven
    Tarp
    UGQ - Printed SilP
    Insulation
    Loco Libre/UGQ
    Suspension
    Multibuckles
    Posts
    3,287
    Images
    335
    Yea.. Add me to the people on the waiting list to come visit. It's dropping near freezing here now.

    Glad we were able to get your order out in time!

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