How to make a simple camping shade shelter

Sometimes less is more when camping. This simple shade shelter is easy to erect, took up little room when packed in the car, and is stable in moderate wind. The best part is, the shade shelter cost me nothing as I made it from gear already in my camping kit. Like many other campers, I have a gazebo and other shade structures in my camping kit. I only have a limited space inmore »

Tent peg graveyard — get yourself decent tent pegs!

The number of bent tent pegs left on the ground surprised me when we recently camped at Adder Rock Holiday Park on Stradbroke Island — or Straddie as the locals call it. When we were at the Adder Rock Holiday Park the ground was relatively soft, but it still it seemed like a tent peg graveyard! As you can see from the four tent pegs on the right in the photo, many tent manufacturers skimp on tent pegs —more »

Surviving a wild and windy night in my BlackWolf Turbo Plus 300 tent

We recently stayed at Adder Rock Holiday Park on Stradbroke Island — or Straddie as the locals like to call it. We pitched our BlackWolf Turbo Plus 300 tent on the foreshore facing the Pacific Ocean, and survived a wild and windy night. The first night we spent at Adder Rock Holiday Park was fairly windy. We contemplated moving camp site, but my wife was adamant that she wanted to be right on the beachmore »

Holidaying on Stradbroke Island

We recently had a rather adventurous weekend on Stradbroke Island — or Straddie as the locals call it. In many people’s eyes, Stradbroke Island is a stunning and beautiful holiday destination. Some of the Straddie holiday attractions are: beaches sea life — whales, dolphins, turtles, manta rays sand four wheel driving beach camping beach fishing. And all this only an hour from Brisbane by vehicular ferry. We took my Toyota Prado to Stradbroke Islandmore »

Chicken breeds — Australorp, ISA Brown and Leghorn compared

Backyard chickens make charismatic pets and lay eggs. We have two ISA Browns, an Australorp and a Leghorn chicken. Each breed has unique characteristics. My wife, in her wisdom, decided to buy two chickens for eggs and as pets for my daughters. One of them grew so quickly that everyone told us it was a rooster. My wife, again in her infinite wisdom, decided to buy two more chickens so that when wemore »

How to stop kids tripping over tent guy ropes at night

No matter how many times you tell children to walk around the guy ropes on a tent, sooner or later they will trip over them — usually at night. An inexpensive and easy solution is to place children’s bracelet glow sticks around the end of each guy rope at dusk. During the day, most children will see guy ropes and walk around them. Unfortunately, at night, the guy ropes disappear into the darkness andmore »

How to fit your family’s camping gear in your car — storage drawers, plastic crates or bags?

You are taking your family camping, but you just can not fit all your gear in the car. How can you maximise the gear that you can take? First off be realistic with what you need to take — after all, camping is about living outdoors for a while, not living it up in a 5-star hotel. See my my camping gear checklist for my view on the essentials for car-based camping. Next, whenmore »