Camping

[smee]

2 people, 1 dog, 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags, a lot of camping gubbins and camera gear.

And it's a big old tent. Camp sites not really my thing but elise not that good at off roading and didn't fancy abandoning it in the wilderness. Was funny t see peoples reactions as they saw all the stuff coming out of one wee car.

[undone]

That's some great scenery in the second pic. Was hoping to do some camping this summers with my elise - I'm glad to see it's possible to take all the stuff I'd need!

Whereabouts did you go?

[heds]

Looks great It is amazing what you can fit in a Lotus really. Carrier bags are the answer

[r055]

so... where did you fit it all?

thats exactly the load I will be taking to 050709 im my S1 - tent looks similar size to mine

[dezzy]

so... where did you fit it all?

Last year, we managed to fit in 2 weeks worth of clothes, a tent, sleeping bags and the roof into Heather's car. You shouldn't have a problem for 050709 Ross

You should be able to get the tent and roof behind the seats, although we actually found the tent fitted okay in the boot. You can get one sleeping bag in the passenger footwell and it doesn't really get in the way unless your passenger has really long legs. The other sleeping bag can go behind the drivers seat between the headrest and window (and doesn't really block the rear view).

For clothes, rather than take 2 big bags, pack them into small vacuum packs or the less expensive option we chose: as Heather says, carrier bags You'd be amazed just how much you can fit in the boot when you squeeze all the clothes into carrier bags and then squish them into the nooks and crannies in the boot. You then just leave yourself a bit of space for one rucksack in the middle of the boot and use that each day when you get out the car. Just put that day/nights clothes in it as you need them.

The small inflatable roll mats are also great as they take up far less space than a traditional roll mat.

D

[Dominic]

Hey Andrew,

Nice shots!

Sent you a message about this weekend

[fd]

Elise camping is great, good car to drive, minimal room to take unecessary things . . . we have done lots of long trips to europe and pack things thus :-

waterproof jackets : in a stuff sack next to the heater/battery (this is an S1 - you may not be able to do this in an S2)
tent and 2 x thermarests (inflatable sleeping mats) : behind the seats
clothes : in stuff sacks which double as pillows down the side of the seats / behind the drivers seat
sleeping bag, water : pax footwell
sleeping bag, camera stuff, cooking stuff, roof, everything else, boot

This gives loads of room in the boot to get the roof in and out quickly and some extra space to carry food/wine, etc as necessary

The tent we use is smallish . . . we bought it mainly for travelling in the car and travelling by foot/plane, etc so it's specifically small and light . . . and very stormproof (camping in the mountains in the US/Canada we have had very bad weather before and the extra expense was well justified and I've seen friends tents blown way in Scotland before) . . . we also use down sleeping bags as they pack down to about 1/4 the size of an equivalently warm man made fibre filled one, about the size of a bag of sugar, and still keep you warm even when it's freezing outside (we camped at the first Doune this year and the tent/cars were frozen solid over night) . . . again useful if you are travelling with a rucksack, or an elise . . .



For us we could travel indefinately in the Elise with the kit we can carry if we had the time to do so

Fd

[BiggestNizzy]

so... where did you fit it all?

thats exactly the load I will be taking to 050709 im my S1 - tent looks similar size to mine

Have you got a new tent ? the last one I seen you with was more marquee than tent

[Scotty C]

2 people 1 dog?

Must be a handbag job and not a real dog

[graeme]

I know I've posted this pic about 500 times, but I'm quite proud of the effort



From a 2 week jaunt Victoria and I did down to Chamonix and back where we bumped into Fd and Nicky rather randomly! Got a few packing tips from Fd while we were there.

Did you know you can get the roof in the front compartment of an S1? Or a couple of stuff sacks full of laundry.

[fd]

That was a bit random, wandering down the main street and seeing you sitting in a bar . . . . . . did we not do huge steaks in that restaurant in the evening ? . . . good times . . .

Fd

[graeme]

Yeah, we had a good raclette and a bottle or two of red. Shame you'd just got there and we were leaving the next day. Good times indeed. I'd go back this summer if I had a snazzy motor to do it in...

EDIT: Just remembered ranting about being given the menu printed in English, so proceeding to translate it back into French when we ordered just to prove the point.

[smee]

Its not a handbag dog it's a real dog.

Good to see so many other adventurers out there, although I don't think you can call a scabby caravan site in Boat of Garten an adventure?
Who's up for an elise camping weekend? I know a great camping beach near achiltiebuie

[Scotty C]

2 people and that very cute dog in an Elise, good effort.

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... =8&t=19003

[r055]

2 people and that very cute dog in an Elise, good effort.

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... =8&t=19003

yup - a stunner...

<<<mine could probably be classed as a handbag dog in the elise: