CrystalsCampingGuide

A Review of Portable Toilets and Toilet Accessories for Camping

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:59:00 +0000

Whether you have been camping regularly or you are new to the world of outdoor living, one of the most important considerations you will have is what to do about the whole “toilet situation” while you are away. Long term campers will tell you that trying to find your way across a campsite to the toilet blocks in the middle of the night with a storm raging around you is not an experience you will wish to repeat twice.

There are portable toilets that you can buy though and they have as all things in life do, their pros and cons. You can only take them camping with you if you are going in a car, most of them, although there are lighter options I will discuss later. You have to have chemicals with some of these toilets to dissolve the waste products and that whole process does not come up smelling of roses I can assure you. On the other hand if you have a car there is no chemical smell or weight in the world that makes up for being able to go to the toilet in the night without getting soaked to the skin and scared out of your wits!

For all of the portable toilets you can get little tents that the toilet sits in giving you privacy and keeping the whole toileting situation away from the rest of your tent which is very useful. You can get other accessories as well that make the whole toileting experience more palatable, such as hand wash, tiny fold up towels and special toilet roll that is designed to be dissoluble by the chemicals in the toilet.

So let us have a look at all the different option in outdoor toileting to see what they can be used for and how much they cost! We will start with the smallest and cheapest options and work up to the big chemical toilets and toilet tents!

Outdoor and hand held Urinals.

A lovely subject to talk about and I know I covered this on a previous review, but this is especially for the ladies who find it harder to answer calls of nature standing up there are now some very handy little devices you can buy that make simply going for a wee much easier.

The Whiz Freedom/Shewee

This is a handy little device that makes it possible for ladies to urinate whilst standing up. Discreetly places they direct the stream into a nearby bush and prevent all accidents that are caused by trying to crouch down whilst dealing with clothing and balance at the same time. The Whiz Freedom is about £7.50 and can also come with a discreet travelling pouch. They also come with attachments such as disposable bags for if you just need to go during the night whilst camping. The Shewee is about £5.90 and comes in a range of different colors! You can get other brands of this kind of device such as the “Go Girl Female Urination Device” and they all cost about the same and can be used for the same purpose.

The Uriwell

You can get these equally useful devices for both male and female adults and children. These are similar to the Whiz Freedom and Shewee in that they are only for urination, but they differ in that they are enclosed and so therefore store the urine. This makes them really useful for whilst camping in a tent during the night if you only need a quick wee and do not want all the bother of using a chemical toilet or struggling to the campsite toilet block. The adult ones are just blue tubes with the relevant fitting at the top for male or female, whereas the children’s ones are funny little characters, making it easier to teach children something that may be a little difficult for them to come to terms with! These are slightly more expensive with the adult ones at about £11.50 and the children’s ones at about £17.50.

Toilet stools.

These are folding tripod stools, such as those discussed in my camping chairs review coming soon but with a slight difference. They come with a hole in the middle and disposable bags that attach underneath to hold the waste products. Coupled with the urination devices above these are very useful for if you get caught out whilst on a hike miles from any toilets as the disposable bags are a lot like dog waste bags and are designed to make them as hygienic and pleasantly scented as possible. They are also useful for camping if you do not have the capacity for buying a big, heavy chemical toilet. You can get a little pop up tent, such as might be used for changing at the beach and use that as a toilet tent with one of these toilet stools in for a much cheaper and lighter alternative to the chemical camping toilets. The stools cost anywhere from £19.99 to £29.39 and the pop up tent you can get from Amazon from about £23.99.

Chemical Toilets.

These are very bulky portaloos that you can use in your tent or caravan. They rely on certain chemicals to break down the waste products including the toilet roll and need to be emptied and have the chemicals replaced regularly. These toilets come in a large variety from the very basic, to ones with inbuilt toilet roll holders to the Royal Deluxe Portable Potty! Prices range from about £20 to about £150 for a 20 litre high camping toilet, which in my opinion does sound a lot just to spend a penny!

Toilet tents.

Again these come in a variety of ranges from the simple pop up tent mentioned earlier, to really big toilet places with room for a toilet and a camping shower. Some of the toilet tents I have seen are actually bigger than some of the living tents I have seen! It is worth mentioning that whilst campsites may charge you extra for an additional tent for the children to sleep in, if you value your privacy, they will not charge extra for toilet tents, so I guess you could get one of the super big ones and make the kids sleep in there if they misbehave! Looking at prices for these tents you can spend as little as £23.99 for the pop up changing tent up to about £100 for all singing, all dancing changing gazebos so there really are toilet tents to suit every budget.

In Conclusion.

So it is possible to get an in camp toilet arrangement that is portable and easy to use if you are just backpacking and wandering around the place with no way of taking a huge portable toilet with you. If you have a car and enough space you can take toilet facilities that are of top standards with comfort, privacy and ease of use. To suit budgets of all types with all manner of arrangements you could easily be spoiled for choice, something you really do not expect with such a product! It seems that these days, even if you cannot afford a camper van or just prefer to sleep under canvas that camping can really be a home from home experience,

Happy Camping everyone!

All items mentioned in this review and lots of other toilet solutions can be found in my Camp Shop under toilets.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Spring!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:52:00 +0000

In the UK here we have a whole mixture of weather conditions with some parts still swamped with snow and others are having the delight of seeing crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops peeping up through the hard ground. Where I live it is still cold but often clear and bright and things are taking a very optimistic turn for the better. Of course in terms of camping it is still far to cold to be able to enjoy it in this country if you are in a tent, but caravaners could have a reasonable time if they stuck to the warmer southern areas.

So how was your Christmas? Are you already sick of the amount of Easter eggs there are in the shops. Were you among the people who booked their summer sun holidays on Boxing day eager to get planning and have something to look forward to? We are hoping to camp in Sweden to visit friends as our main holiday this year, but also have several trips to the Netherlands planned and at least one week camping somewhere in the UK. We are not sure if it will be London again for the whole week, or if we will take the kids there for a long weekend and go up to Norfolk for the week together when the nippers are away doing other things.

We did find a wonderful campsite near London in a place called Bexley Heath last year and we know that we want to go there again. Keep an eye on this blog for a review and for information about the Camping and Caravanning Club that we became members of. It was this membership that gave us access to this wonderful site, so we will definitely be renewing the membership on a yearly basis.

As for now, in this cold and chilly time of the year it is a really good time to go over all your kit and check that it is all okay, again I will do a checklist about that in a future post, this is more in the nature of a welcome to 2013's camping news.

I have some exciting things planned for this site this year, the introduction of a newsletter being one, lots more product reviews, campsite reviews and competitions and things so do sign up to the email list, or the feed for more information.

Readers of Lenses at Squidoo may have already seen their camp host posting a couple of lenses there including one about camping and I will be putting up a link page for all my lenses for if you are interested in a minute. This will be updated every time I have a new lens, it is another exciting project that I am enjoying. Since last I spoke I have published 2 e-books on Amazon and have another that is nearly finished. I just want to get a good collection of well written active lenses on Squidoo before finishing that book and working on other in the series and a new series that is in the pipeline.

So without further ado I will wish you all a very peaceful and prosperous New Year and look forward to chatting to you all as the year progresses!

Bright Blessings, Nici xxx

Review of the Week - The Pop Up Gazebo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:45:00 +0000

Now if you take your family camping space can be somewhat at a premium and often you need to take extra smaller tents to fulfil other functions, such as the obvious toilet tent (who likes slogging across a Camp site in the middle of the night to use the loo after all?). Another important consideration is where are you going to eat? A lot of the larger house type tent offer a central room that is spacious enough to put a table and chairs in and have a little kitchen area as well, but sometimes I think it is nice to keep that area as a living space and make a separate dining space outside. After all you have come camping to make the most of the fresh air and outdoor living, so why spend the whole time inside. This is where the Pop up Gazebo comes in!

The Pop up Gazebo is much like other garden Gazebos only much easier to put up and take down, water proof with a built in wind-bar and comes in many lovely sizes and colours. I have shown the images in white, but have also seen it in red, blue, black and green at least. This wonderful invention has 4 sides that you can take on and off very easily allowing you to have it as a wind-shield, a fully enclosed room if the weather does get bad or simply just as a sun shade for safe dining and playing for the kids.

As you can see from the above picture there is no fiddly messing around with poles, one tug from the middle and your Pop up Gazebo is ready for the cover to be put on! It is super easy to put both up and down and would make an ideal extra room for your family camping trip. Coming in sizes from 2x2 metres upwards you can also use this at the local beach or park, as somewhere for everyone to meet for a meal, or drinks. Take all the sides off and pop a kiddies paddling pool underneath in the back garden for a shady place for them to splash about! Even put it up over your own garden hot tub, or make it into an outdoor living space at home, the Pop up Gazebo is extremely versatile and fun!

In this picture you can see the Pop up Gazebo with no side on, showing the guy ropes that give it extra stability in the winds, but it is possible to get very heavy gazebo leg weights to stop if from blowing away if you are pitching it on very hard ground or even on your decking or patio area. It is therefore not only waterproof (shower proof - I wouldn't recommend using one of these as an actual tent, but the kids could cheerfully play in it with all the sides on during a summer shower) but also very wind resistant too.

You even get an extra free wind-bar to clip inside to prevent the canopy turning inside out like an umbrella during especially high winds!

As you can see there are many uses for this great extra room, both while camping and at home. We shall be getting one to use as a kitchen diner while we are camping, a great place to have the portable kitchen and the barbecue, the fold up table and chairs and the washing up area as well! This will leave the middle of the tent free for the inflatable chairs and sofa, fold up coffee table and places to put the stereo and work on the lap tops - nothing like getting away from it all is there? Now all I need to find is a nice reliable energy generator to power all the equipment and we are good to go!

If you have a Pop up Gazebo like this, I would love to hear what you think of it, what you use it for and how often you use it, so feel free to leave a comment!

Happy Camping,

Crystal xxx

We'll Weather the Weather... or Talking About Tents!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:58:00 +0000

Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold, or weather the weather be hot.
We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

This old English poem will be familiar to many of a certain age and will certainly apply to the lives of many who are keen campers. But in order to "weather the weather.." their are a great many things to know about to survive while Camping in the Great British countryside. And it is not only weather you need to think about when you come to consider buying your first tent, unless you wish to be quickly contemplating your second tent of course!

The first thing you need to look at if we are talking about weather is the hydrostatic head, which is a very fancy way of saying how waterproof is the tent??? There are guidelines that show what kind of tent you would need to purchase for what type of camping you intend on doing. If you are only taking your tent on Camping trips along the Mediterranean Sea for example you can probably get away with one that is shower proof. If however, you anticipate Camping in the wilds of Scotland a completely waterproof one is an absolute must. Shower proof is measured at a hydrostatic head of 1000 with 1500 being potentially okay for summer camping (providing it doesn't rain of course!). The most waterproof you can get is a hydrostatic head of 5000 which will keep you completely waterproof except at doorways and windows. You may be able to get away with one that has a hydrostatic head of 3000, provided you can persuade all users not to touch the edges (or have anything touching the edges) of the tent after any kind of rainfall, but 5000 is much better. You also need to consider how safe your tent will be in strong winds and little detail like what kind of ground you are Camping on and will your tent pegs bend in half as you bash them in with the rubber mallet or not. It is always a great idea to have spare normal tent pegs with you, spare heavy duty tent pegs with you and certainly spare guy ropes with you!

This also means that not only do you need to shop around for your tent, with especial care paid to the hydrostatic head level but you also need to learn how to pitch it well so that the doors and windows do not leak!

I have found when looking into the tent I am going to buy for this years Camping season that reading the customer reviews on Amazon is really very helpful. For example I was originally really impressed with the Skandika Korsika 10 man tent until I read a number of reviews both on and of Amazon. This is how I first heard about the importance of the hydrostatic head and while the Korsica is a great tent for summer camping and camping on the European Mainland, its hydrostatic head of 3000 is not what we are looking for, with a view to regular camping trips in England! On the other hand, its cousin, the Skandika Milano does have a 5000 hydrostatic head and the one we are most interested in, the Skandika Hurricane has a hydrostatic head of 5000 and sleeps up to 12 people which would be great for us with the amount of children's friends that have expressed an interest in camping with us!

The second thing to consider is what I have discussed above and that is the size of the tent. A one man tent will more often that not fit exactly that, one man, no extras including equipment. Okay if you have your car close by to store all your stuff in, but useless if you are hiking or cycling, unless you intend to get another tent for your gear! One person alone really needs a 2 man tent and for a couple you really need to get a 4 man tent in order to have enough room for both of you and all your stuff. The ratio works out the same all the way up really with experience, that you need to double the amount of people you will be taking with you to find the size of tent that you need. As mentioned before the Hurricane is a 12 berth tent (berth means how many people will fit in it) and as there are 5 of us just in the family, not counting Jess's boyfriend, or the potential of a large dog in the future we are going to get this one I think. I like the Skandika range as they seem to have a very transparent selling policy and they tell you if the tent has things you need to watch out for.

I am not going to go into very much detail about equipment for tents in this article, although look out later today for a review of a sweet little Camping gazebo that is great to provide extra space for dining and other social activities in our must have section. The only other thing I wish to talk about now is the ground-sheet situation. There is a simple rule with ground-sheets which is where ever possible always ensure that your new tent has a built in one before you buy it. If you buy a tent without an integral groundsheet and it rains, you, your family, your dog and all your belonging are going to get wet! The Skandika tents as well as tents from other manufacturers like this eight person Gelert tent all have a double tent system. This comprises of an outer tent which is just the basic structure and a second inner tent that has the rooms and floor all sewn into together for extra warmth and security. Most of the big ten manufacturers have this kind of system now, particularly for the larger family ones, but do have a good look around and check the specifications to see if the tent you are choosing has everything you need it to have. After all it will be your home from home, hopefully for many years so make sure it is perfect for you and your family in every way.

If you are looking for tents or any other Camping equipment, from back packs to sleeping sacks and everything you can possibly put in the, pop along to our Camp Shop to get everything you need in one place!,

Crystal xxx

Happy Camping

Camping in Days Gone By

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:20:00 +0000

What is it that you think of when you remember camping as a child?
Were you scared of the dark and the sounds that you could hear, so different from those your familiar home made?
Do you remember being soaked to the skin, having no dignity as you stomp around in jeans, wellies and bright yellow plastic ponchos?
Or was camping one of the really good things you remember about your childhood, waking up to the sound of Green Woodpeckers in nearby trees and the smell of the traditional camp site breakfast wafting through the air?
As a child I went camping very regularly and it is one of the most incredible memories of my youth. I was one of a big family at the time as my parents fostered 5 other children and also had myself and two of my sisters.

We had a tent that was about the size of a house, the tents in Harry Potter held nothing compared to this camping monstrosity and it was a rare time of relaxation and fun in an otherwise hectic, busy family.

I remember getting into huge scrapes with my sister, the next one down after me, including getting scared to death by a close encounter with a large four legged creature mooing right in my ear and almost drowning while getting stuck in quicksand trying to cross a little stream-let. Creatures from the black lagoon is the only way I can describe how we looked when we were rescued!

I fondly remember the smell of breakfast cooking in the mornings, full English breakfast with black pudding, it was here that I developed my love of the controversial sausage. I remember meals cooked in billy cans, that consisted of tin after tin being opened and heated up, often in the same billy can. I recollect hot sweet tea, drunk from enamel cups and midnight trips to the communal toilet block with only my sister and a torch for company!

I also remember having the life frightened out of me in the gloaming of the dusk one evening. I was sat on the floor with my legs in front of my at that time of day when the sun is about to set and everything appears to be either jet black or brilliant white, the trees stark monsters across a gleaming horizon. So wrapped up in the spectacle was I that I had no idea I had picked up a tenant, until I glanced down and saw the huge black spider on my white denim clad leg. To say I screamed would be like saying the Pope is slightly religious, talk about understatement of the century! With hind site I doubt very much that the spider was actually all that big, but it seemed a huge pulsing mess of dark evil energy against the pure white of my leg. Poor spider was no doubt far more terrified than I was and is now no doubt famous amongst her people for writing about it on the SWW (spider world web!).

I have so many fond memories of camping as a child, that I am determined, now that I am in a position to do so (my new partner drives and we just bought a car), that my children experience the same freedom and fun as we did as kids. I hope that your memories of camping are as fond as mine and that your children also get to experience this very different style of living in an age where being without electricity and WiFi connection seems to most youngsters like a capital punishment. I have a feeling that for all they may moan about being dragged willy nilly into the back of beyond, years from now, they too will look back at these experiences with fondness and delight.

Review of the Week - Whiz Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 07:39:00 +0000

Now this little gadget is something every girl who intends to go camping, hiking or fishing (or indeed any outdoor pursuits)should keep in their backpack. I will absolutely be investing in a couple for myself and Serph for when we go on our camping trips and I am gobsmacked that I have not discovered them sooner.
Finally a level of equality between guys and girls when it comes to answering the call of nature in the middle of nature.
For as long as I can tell, ladies have been bemoaning the lack of toilet facilities, deep in the wilds of nature, particularly when their masculine other halves have been relieving themselves up trees, down rabbit holes (alas poor bunny), or just generally any where the urge takes them.
To add insult to injury they have also been laughing themselves to tears at our attempts to balance whilst squatting, holding our clothes out of the way, holding the toilet roll and trying to avoid anyone seeing us in our state of great indignity.

Well worry no more ladies with the Whiz Freedom, the balance of nature has been restored.

The Whiz Freedom is a handy little device that enables us girls to respond to nature's call the same way as the guys do, by allowing us to go standing up and directing the flow exactly where we want it to go. No more struggling to balance, no more hiking with slightly damp clothes, no more nettle rash or poisoned oak on our nether regions.

So why not give this amazing little gadget a try and let me know how you get on with it! I would be fascinated to hear about your experiences particularly if it involves surprising the man of your dreams by proving that you can "do it like a man!"

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Hi and welcome to Crystal's Camping Guide.

I am Crystal and I will be your guide through many different aspects of camping throughout the year.

I am talking here about camping in tents, not caravans or motor homes, you lucky people with them probably already have all the equipment you need and will know all there is to know about that kind of camping (actually truth to tell I am clueless about that kind of camping myself!).

I am going to make an Amazon store to accompany this site, partly because my own experience of finding things on Amazon has been so haphazard, but also because I think that a camping site that is reviewing items and gadgets, should give people a gateway from which to purchase said items and gadgets.

I have found myself, with my new camping experience just beginning that finding what you are looking for on Amazon is a bit of a luck of the draw situation so am going to endeavour to make it a lot more organised.

In this blog I will be doing reviews of various different types and brands of camping equipment, from tents to toilets, energy to lack there of, knives, sporks and moon chairs, you name it, I will be reviewing and examining it.

I will also be posting articles about past camping experience, nostalgia from childhood and telling you about the camping trips we go on this year.

I hope you like this blog and if you have anything you wish to contribute I will be more than happy to hear it!