CheapTents Outdoor Gear Blog

Located on the south west coast of India, Goa is a well known holiday location due to its beautiful, golden sandy beaches. Yet there are also many hiking opportunities in Goa for people who like to explore the countryside on foot. Take a journey inland in this tropical region and the terrain becomes mountainous. The mountainsides are green, covered by moist broadleaf deciduous forests that support many species of flora and fauna. Goa is an area that is world renowned for its biodiversity.

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Following the cold snap at the beginning of the year, our roads were left full of potholes, causing a nightmare for cyclists and drivers alike. Fortunately help was at hand, the Fill That Hole website being just the ticket for reporting potholes to your local highways agency. Using Google maps the exact location of the pothole can be pinpointed and reported. Fairplay to my local highway authority who have patched up a lot of potholes since the big freeze. Not everyone has been so lucky, however. The roads in East London have not had their potholes filled in a timely fashion, leading to a spate of gardening in the streets. In a protest over the lack of remedial road care by his local authority, the mysterious pothole gardener has taken action. Sporting a safety vest and armed with a trowel, some soil and flowers, he has taken to the streets and literally filled that hole!

Before...a pothole

After...a mini garden

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It is fast becoming apparent that unless we want to exhaust all the resources on our shared planet, sustainability is the way forward. With an emphasis on re-use and recycling we thought it would be fun to come up with some ideas for re-using old camping equipment. Here are some ideas that we had…

Tents

Tent Flysheet or Groundsheet protector

- sail for a sailing boat
- curtains

Tent Poles

- wind chimes

Tent pegs

- cooking / kebab skewers

Tent mesh inner

- bee keeping hat
- light boxes for photography

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Berghaus have launched an online rock climbing flash game to give the general public a virtual taste of a major climbing adventure.

For most of the year the fjords on Baffin Island are filled with frozen sea ice, but for a short period in the summer the ice melts and with 24 hours of daylight the area becomes a climbers paradise with mile high granite walls and amazing scenery.

Last year, sponsored climbers Leo Houlding and Carlos Suarez tackled the Asgard Project, an ambitious expedition to climb the mile high Mount Asgard (named after the realm of the Norsk gods) on Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle, and then BASE jump from the top.

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The UK has around 7,700 miles of coastline and features many different types of landscape. These include high, rugged cliffs, gently sloping sandy beaches, shingle embankments and marshland. These different types of landscape support a myriad of wildlife, in particular many species of birds. So it is no surprise to find that there are plenty of opportunities for excellent walking along the many coastal paths in the UK.

Pembrokeshire Best Coast Path

According to a readers poll in the BBC’s Coast Magazine The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is the best coastal path in the UK. The 186-mile walking route is located inside the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, in west Wales.

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Recently, when opening a copy of Summit magazine, out popped a flyer on which was a scenic photograph showing fields, trees, a lake and mountains. Printed at the top was a bold proclamation: “keep beautiful places safe.” Usually flyers that pop out of magazines are lucky to even get a cursory glance before going straight in the recycle bin, but this one piqued my curiosity. It turned out to be advertising the Campaign for National Parks (CNP). Not to be confused with NCP, who like to cover place with over priced car parks, the CNP is an organisation that aims to protect our National Parks. Being a regular visitor to National Parks such as the Peak District and the Lake District, I was surprised that I had not heard of this organisation before.

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Adventure racing is gaining popularity. Worldwide there are more and more events that combine multiple disciplines such as trekking, running off-road, sea kayaking, mountain biking and road cycling.

Scotland Coast to Coast

Taking place on the 18th and 19th of September 2010, the Nokia Coast to Coast journey starts off on the North Sea, crossing Scotland along the sides of Loch Ness, Loch Oich and Loch Lochy before finishing up on the Isle of Glencoe and Ballachulish.

The starting point of the race is Nairn, north east of Inverness. The stages are as follows:

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