Buying a tent | page 3
Cath insists on separate sleeping areas for children. We had a conversation about this recently when I was looking at the tentipi tent, a hybrid between a tent and teepee that you have a fire in the centre of, and therefore camp all year round. Teepee tents are fashionable. Vango have developed one for festival goers. In a teepee everyone sleeps in a circle around a central fire. There are no separate bedrooms and therefore no privacy. While I’m attracted to the communal and cooking promise of the teepee, Cath will have have none of it:
“A teepee is a big triangular advert that says ‘We are not having sex on holiday.’”
“But with tents there is only a thin piece of material between you and the world. It’s hardly private.”
“Yes. No. Maybe. Sure, a tent does not prevent eavesdropping but it does help against spying.”
“Do you think sex is a major consideration for people when they are buying a tent?”
“A teepee says we are not having sex and intend never having sex while we are camping. I think people like to have a shag on holiday.”
“OK. How do you think the native americans managed to reproduce?”
“They went out into the desert?”
“There you go. Teepees are for people who want to have sex outdoors.”
“But you can’t really pop out in most campsites for a shag. They have signs up forbidding everything. Do not wash shoes in this sink. Do not dispose of rubbish in this bin. Recycling only. No music after 7pm. No barbecues on the grass. And, you know, no shagging in the bushes.”
We didn’t buy a teepee. Sex aside, I don’t think they’re even a good idea for festivals. It smacks of everyone-back-to-mine after a night out. The great thing about festivals is that you never need to go back anywhere. You can just keep going.
