Not exactly a new purchase, just something I spent money on to improve my camping experience, at least I hope it will.
I have a one man Marmot Pulsar 1 tent and I have to admit I like it a lot. Its very spacious for one, I can easily sit upright in it and its easy to erect.
As a camper I have always wanted to find a way of getting a better appreciation of whats outside my tent when I am wild camping, until recently I had to rely on sound only and then make a judgement as to whether I unzip my outer tent to properly make sure what's there.
So I went to a sailmaker and he has cut, sowed and waterproofed four 3" x 6" see-through panels about 4" from the base of my outer tent, two on the front and two on the rear of the tent.
My inner tent is mesh so I should be able at least to see, if I hear a noise that bothers me, if it has two or four legs and how close the individual or beast is to me!
I never worried about this until 2015 when wild camping in the Pyrenees. I was rudely awakened by what at first I thought was Wild Boar! It wasn't, it was a group of large domesticated sows who tried to get in my tent with me! I first heard them grunting, then a couple of big snotty snouts tried to lift my outer tent from the ground and I then had to jump out of my tent to confront them! All very exciting but since them I've thought a few times that it 'could' have been Wild Boar. I wonder what I would have done or coped if it was?
