Mountain Camping with my £21 Tent • Staying Warm & Dry with Questionable Shelter

Oh, hello old ones. It is mid-February, and I'm out in the mountains today with my little £21 tent, because I want to see how it does out here. I have tried it before in the woods and it's a bit questionable. It's probably not a tent that I would recommend for backpacking, but with the right precautions in place, I'm willing to give it a go. So I've got my bivvy bag and I'm not far from my car. This'll be fun. My God, it's awful in there. It's just a bit of a hell hole. Here we are. Couldn't quite get it into its stuff sack from last time. But, uh, yeah, beautiful pitch. We'll see how we go. Nice and simple. Poles just go across like that. I remember this being a pain in the plumb. Trying to get that in there. Oh, it's going, going, going, going. Ah, no. God damn. It'll be dark soon. Yes. OK. It's in. Oh, look at it. Get this baby in. Wow. It looks really bad, won't it? No, look. It's just fluffy as anything. But it's up. Look how dinky it is. I think it's only like 1.45 kilos or something like that. Oh, right. Just get set up in here. Blimey, look. My mat barely fits in it. Where's my sleeping bag? A nice red sleeping bag to match my nice red tent. So this is a two man tent, believe it or not. I've brought my friend Frank today. So let's have a little look inside and we'll see what room we've got. Go Frank. So that's the two of us together. We're pretty cramped in here. And Frank's on the skinny side, so. I mean, if I scooch my mat right to this side, there would be room for two mats in here. Just that's all there would be room for. There'd be no space for all your gear. Bear in mind, it's going to be all your wet gear because there's no vestibule. Everything's going to be in here with you. Oh, yeah. The booby bag is going straight on. This, of course, will protect me from condensation, which I'll probably have a ton of on the inside of this tent because it's only a single wall tent and it's very cramped. So I'm probably going to be rubbing up against the sides of it. I feel like there's a bit of order to the chaos now. Nice and chill. It's just under eight degrees. And yeah, I am pretty Marvin. I'm going to get some tea going. We pitched about three hundred and fifty meters here. So not too high. This is another problem with no vestibule. She's going to blow me gas out if I put my rucksack here. That was delicious. It is half past seven. And this thing is proving to be a screaming nightmare. Condensation wise already. My down puffy. As you can see, it's damp already. This is the problem in such a cramped little space. Like you're always touching the sides. So it's just a bit. Icky. So while we're just sitting here with nothing much to do, kind of a look at the sky tonight, there's no stars or anything like that. I thought we could have a look at what retailers say about this tent. The Eurohike Toko 2. Let's have a look here. Go outdoors, say a cozy place to rest. Certainly cozy. Apart from all the water everywhere. For festival goers or camping couples. Camping couples. Could you imagine being a couple in this tiny wet space and an easy pitch design? Oh, it's gone, gone, gone, gone. It says here Eurohike Toko is a handy little tent for couples or singles looking for a bit more room to stretch out. My mat barely fits in it. OK. Two person tents can often become stuffy and uncomfortable. But the roof ventilation system on the Toko ensures airflow for a comfortable sleeping environment. Blacks or blacks are selling it for 20 pounds. Looks like I got ripped off paying 21. So blacks say an ideal festival companion or short camping trip tent. And the mesh door panel keeps unwanted pests away. Yes, it has got a lovely mesh door panel. But because you don't want to actually be in the tent locked away in it. You're not really going to use it because you just want to sit in a doorway the whole time. Millets. Millets are selling this tent for 28 pounds. More expensive millets. So again, it says perfect for festivals. Extra storage. Yes, it would be good for extra storage. Like a shed, a gear shed next to a really big tent. And then Amazon. Amazon is selling it for 26.25 at the moment. And it says on Amazon recommended uses are camping and hiking. Oh, yeah. And then they've called it a festival tent as well. And then underneath, they've said it's a compact, lightweight tent. It is compact and lightweight because it's so small and because it's single skin. That's perfect for backpacking and festival adventures. So reading the descriptions sounds all right. Sounds like a nice little tent. But yeah, it's just not practical. Really. It does have taped seams though, so should keep the rain out. A bit of rain. Get back in the hole. I've taken to wearing my raincoat at all times now. It's just easier that way. It was pretty eerie up here now in the clag before I could see car headlights and stuff going through the valley. Now I can't see anything. Frank and I feel very cut off from the world. It's lovely, actually. We're getting pretty tired now, so I think I'm going to snuggle down. We'll see if we'll have a nice, cozy, restful night in our budget shelter or if we'll be questioning our life choices. Hi, guys. Oh, wow. It's really nice. Morning. I somehow managed to have seven hours of sleep, so I'm well rested. My God, it's awful in there. It's not long enough for me to lay straight out, so my feet were pushing on the door area. I think that's let a load of rain in. Christ, look at this. I don't know if that's condensation or if it's leaking somewhere. That was dripping. I don't know if the door's leaking, maybe. There's a little pond down there. Oh, I don't think that's condensation or a leak. If I sit up, which I can only do right in the middle, my head's touching the roof of the tent, which is, of course, wet because the condensation is horrendous. So it's giving me a bit of a neck ache. And because there's nowhere for the condensation to go, it just falls on the floor. Puddles of condensation. It's crazy. And then if I get sick of being in there, I want to have the door open. The rain just comes straight inside the tent. The doors, which are all wet, hang inside the tent and drip rainwater inside the tent. And then because there's no vestibule, the stove keeps getting blown out. You get wet just trying to make a cup of coffee. Gone out again. Quite honestly, it's just a bit of a hell hole, really. I paid £21 for this tent, which I think is overpriced, actually. Actually, I think Eurohike should pay the customer sort of as an apology. But in all seriousness, I have seen people refer to these little tents as dangerous. All camping can be dangerous. All shelters can be dangerous. Even my most expensive tent can be dangerous. Top camping can be dangerous. The act of sleeping outside in weather is inherently risky. Happy, happy breakfast time. But I think the real risk is not the shelter, but complacency and unpreparedness. I think it's more dangerous to go out with like a really expensive hilly thinking, oh, yeah, I'm completely covered. It's not going to break. I'm not going to have condensation. You know, not having backup gear, not having a backup plan. I think that's more dangerous. In fact, going out in a tent like this and having all the backup gear that you need to be absolutely fine. I mean, I've done a lot of moaning about this tent, but that's because it's inconvenient and uncomfortable and it's not particularly enjoyable to be inside it. But I'm completely fine. I'm warm and I'm dry and I'm well rested because I'm well prepared for the issues that I might face. So I would just say that regardless of the price of your shelter, it can still have terrible condensation. It can still leak. It can still break. The poles can still snap. So always use a bivvy bag. Always use a dry bag over your stuff. Always have some sort of cloth or towel or something to mop things up with. Have a backup plan and don't put all of your trust in one form of shelter. This bivvy bag is absolutely essential, in my opinion. I mean, I've got nothing against cheap gear. I started with the cheapest gear. I think my first tent was a Vango Sol and it was about 50 quid. And I loved that little tent for the kind of camping I was doing when I first started world camping. It was fine. And I have some amazing memories in that tent. There's some of my stuff now, like this little stove. Cheap. I've been using it for years. Absolutely love it because there's cheap gear that's cheap, but it's good and effective. And then there's cheap gear that's just a bit rubbishy, really. So, yeah, read the reviews, I guess. See what other people are saying about it before you buy it. And just because it says it's a hiking and camping tent doesn't necessarily mean that it is. It might actually just be a shed. Frank's well and truly had enough, look. Look, all packed away in there, all dried up. I'm really grateful for this tag this morning. It's kind of disguising me from you. That's about as subtle as a porcupine and a noob is following me, isn't it? All right, let's get this away. Let's go. Interesting. And I would say if you were looking to get into a wild camping and you're on a budget, I would save up for a bit longer and get yourself something a bit more suitable, something that's going to make it a more enjoyable experience for you. I mean, I don't believe there's such thing as the perfect tent. My most expensive tent, my hilly, I love my hilly, but it's heavy, has condensation issues also. My MSR Hover NX, it's expensive, but it broke in the wind. My land shans, let all kinds of water in and fall down. So it's never going to be perfect, really. Well, it might be in summer and really nice weather, but I think if you're just starting out as well, dealing with that, it might be a bit overwhelming having wet weather outside and then being so wet inside as well. Just make it easy on yourself. And you know what? If I had just 20 quid, I'd buy a tarp, I'd buy a cheap tarp. Tarp camping is a great way to learn about camping safety, actually. It teaches you pretty quick. You need a booby bag. You need to be prepared. Right, I'll be back down to my car in a little while. So thanks for watching this little video, you guys. And I'll see you again soon. Bye!