I have worked out a set-up for my Darche camp shelter.

Sweet set-up — Darche Safari Extended canvas touring tent with Darche camp shelter

I have set up my canvas touring tent standard, but without the awning poled out.

On the Darche camp shelter, I have used two double guy ropes with springs from my camping kit on the pole ends of the camp shelter. I have also run a 4 mm rope as the ridge of the shelter. The poles and ridge rope will stand on their own without the camp shelter up (that is, the set-up is not relying on the shelter cover for any of its structural integrity.) This set-up means that I can tension up the ridge without the risk of tearing the camp shelter. In the above photo you can see that the shelter is slightly crinkled along the ridge indicating that the rope is holding the tension, not the shelter. Perhaps I am underestimating the strength of the shelter, but I am not keen to put too much tension into the shelter cover.

The double guy ropes are attached with a lark’s head knot over the top of the poles and shelter. The ridge rope is tied to one pole (under the shelter cover) with a hitch.

Pole, double guy rope and ridge rope set-up

Note the clear blue sky in the photo? This is the middle of winter in sunny Queensland, Australia. I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Nice!

I have looped the other end of the ridge rope around the pole (again, under the shelter cover as shown above) and tied it off with a slip hitch that I can easily tension without having to re-tie the whole set-up.

Slip hitch allows me to easily adjust the tension in the ridge rope

I have then used the two poles from the tent awning to lift up the front of the camp shelter to give plenty of standing height and an area for a couple of camping chairs and a stove. The set-up also does not provide anywhere for rain water to pool on the camp shelter.

In my opinion this is a good set up with only the addition of a couple of ropes to the basic tent and shelter kits.