Hey everybody,
My name is Lewis and I'm 40 years young.
I live in Wales, in Britain, not England and it is the only country in the World that has a complete coastal line walk and probably the coolest flag in the world with a big Red Dragon on it.
I am up in the Llynfi Valley surrounded by hills and sheep, where everybody knows each others business and no secret is safe. It's lovely.
Anyway I have always been into camping and the outdoors but as the years have passed I'd found myself doing less and less as friends and family, grew up, got married, moved away etc till I was only camping once in a blue moon. Then I was watching a Youtube dude who was saying whats the point in tents, if it is raining and you are stuck in a zipped up tent you may as well be back at home in your living room. Get under a tarp he suggested, the benefits, being one with nature a bit more, to see what makes the noises in the night and to basically have nicer views. Now I never minded camping rough so I thought that's it and I went and bought a DD 3x3m tarp and a bivvy and I was away. I started to camp out more regularly again. Once I got the bug I started to do a lot more research about hiking and ultra light load outs etc(in my youth you would use a 80 plus litre bag filled with very heavy equipment and you would then lug this 25 kilos to the camping spot, nightmare) and became slightly obsessed by it all. I began to gather lightweight equipment.
One of my mates said lets start hiking, so last year we did a few miles down the coast as a trial run. I had to buy a new lightweight tent for this and my friend who has quite serious back problems had to buy a lightweight bed to carry. this all worked and we enjoyed ourselfs but knew we could do better.
In the meantime another of my friends also injured his back and was forced to sleep on some stupid inflatable thing that went down every few hours and couldnt fit in a tent.
Watching Youtube I saw a guy saying how although he loves to camp he can no longer sleep on the floor as his back, kness etc were shot so now he sleeps in a hammock! A hammock says I, hmmm always fancied sleeping in one of them but I thought aren't they bad for your back as you have to sleep like a banana? This guy certainly didnt think so, and so began my hammock research and what I found out was wonderful.
Not only does the diagonal lay put you flat and give you an amazing night's kip but there are these things called underquilts which make you as snug as a bug in a rug with the benefit of still being under a tarp. I knew I had to buy one.
I spent peanuts on a snugpak 8.5 foot jungle hammock to try it out and used a mat, the next morning I was a convert and proceeded to(after plenty of research) to purchase a Dutchware Chameleon as Dutch seemed like such a top bloke who listened to his customers and had a genuine love for his product and making it better. I also ordered an Elightened Equipment Revolt Underquilt (**** the inport fees I want the best) and I was ready. I have added to this equipment now and have still more on the way and regret nothing.
Both of my friends are converted as well now and have also invested and love how great hammock life really is.
I go up the local woods now nearly every weekend I am not doing something just to sleep out in it reagardless of weather.
Good to be on here whether you read this or not. Looking forward to gettting some great ideas and help and learning a lot from the experts.
Lewis.
Between tree and tree, it's a hammock-life for me.
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