Hey all,
Forum newbie here (hi!) looking for some last-minute advice.
I'll be heading off to do a farm internship in rural Australia in a couple weeks, and will be camping out for ten weeks on the property to do so. Unfortunately I flogged all my camping gear last year during a move overseas, so I have to get new stuff for the trip.
Not a huge fan of tents (all that bending over, crawling about, and hiding in cramped spaces just ain't really my thing - much prefer high, open places), so I was just going to buy something cheap online and get by how I could...until a few days ago I remembered my first hammock camping experience last autumn in the mountains outside Tokyo. Used my friend's old HH Expedition (or Scout?) and had an awesome time, excepting a bit of cold butt syndrome at night (didn't use a pad or UQ, and probably shouldn't have set up right next to running water). Have been flurrying to research hammocks since and stumbled across the amazing resource that is this site.
I've read a lot of info here (including the newbie hammock setup thread) and watched a bunch of youtube videos, and I think I'm getting close to a decision, but I wanted to ask y'all's opinions first if I could, since (1) hammock tech seems to be evolving extremely rapidly, so I don't know to what degree reviews and such from a couple years back are already obsolete, and (2) I haven't seen many comments about using a hammock as a stationary set-up for an extended period of time.
My constraints are:
-Durability and relative comfort (break-down mid-stay would be unpleasant)
-Warm down to 40-50 degrees at night deeper into the Oz autumn (w/ relatively cold sleeper)
-Probable mosquitos
-Comfort for hanging around (e.g. doubling easily as a chair)
-Not exactly an ultralight hiker, but prefer lower weight/bulk if possible
-Some kind of stuff storage solution would be nice -- one place I can foresee a tent being more useful than a hammock when staying put in one place for a long time is that you can take your gear out of your bag and spread it around inside the tent so you don't have to live out of a bag for 2.5 months
-(Less important/optional) Possibly some privacy (there'll be other interns around the same campsite)
-I don't mind spending a few hundred bucks if it's an investment I'm going to enjoy for a long time...but $400-500+ starts to get a bit steep for me
-Not a lot of time before I have to leave - order/delivery needs to be reasonably quick and/or DIY things reasonably simple
Other info:
-Have okay sleeping bag (a bit old - probably 3 season?)
-5'8", 175 lbs, no particular issues with sleeping position comfort as long as I'm warm
-Have an open 13'x8' platform w/ roof at campsite if I feel like using it, but not required to
I was initially thinking about an HH Expedition with the SuperShelter thing, since it was closest to what I had experience with, but as I read around, I started leaning towards the WBBB double (lots of good reviews; like the storage shelf thing; like the built-in pad space; but have to get tarp and pad separately - though that flexibility may be good?) or the Clark NX-150 (seems to come with most things already; love the multitude of storage pockets; think weathershield cover thing might be nice for a newbie cold sleeper; but expensive, probably still need a pad, and I can't decide if I think it's slightly goofy-looking or not).
What do y'all think? Would greatly appreciate any advice on setups (hammocks, tarps, pads...probably can't afford UQ at this point), or other considerations for hammocking in one place for a long period of time.
Cheers & thanks,
Figs
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