THE CAMPER'S KIT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 135, 4 December 1909, Page 13

THE CAMPER'S KIT.

"What do I carry?" said an enthusiastic lady oycle-camper to a Daily Telegraph representative. "Well, I bring just as little ac I can, and that of the lightest. The men campers are able to reduce the weight of their equipment to 6lb if they care to do bo, but the woman who goes camping cannot reduce it so much as this, as she generally takes a 'cottage' tent instead of a 'gypsy,' to have more 'head room' for dressing in the morning. A ground-sheet of rubber-proofed lawn (to keep out damp), a ground-blanket of ft woollen material, _ a 'sleeping-bag' of a olose-woven material, an eiderdown quilt with a valance to 'tuok in,' and an airpillow are the principal part of the kit. A wind-screen to prevent a breeze when cooking, a stove, an aluminium, 'cuisine' of threo 'nesting' saucepans, a mug and plates also of aluminium, a 'condiment' box, a proofed lawn food-bag, and a canvas bucket and bas>in, and one or two other things are also carried. All' this sounds a good deal, but it takes up very little space, as our campers are always' busy inventing new device? for economising weight and" space, and on a ball-bearing bicycle you hardly feel a kit, if you have it well balanced, heavy though it may appear,, and then you can always get off the oyole going up a hill. The Swedish oil stove we carry on tho handle ball, and refill it at each stopping-place. The great point is to divide your kit into two nearly equal parcels, tho heavier "one on the front carrier and the other behind, otherwise the bicycle •will stand on its back wheel and kick. Once you have started with a definite end to your day's journey, the weight and appearance of the kit ceases to trouble you, and the pleasures of the country are your only thought."