Basic wild camping gear setup for light and car packing - a comparison

Andrew's camping setup if for camping by eBike whereas Mary gets to camping spots by car. On a joint wild camp in Donegal we recorded this discussion about the basic gear you need for wild camping and the differences between our two requirements. Andrew's bicycle based camping setup is much light and more compact than Mary's car camping but as you'll see from the video this means spending a lot more money on a setup that is going to be less conformable in practise.
We looks at tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, cooking pots and bowls and of course what to sit at where the gap between the two styles is most extreme.

[@pauldenney7908]

I get it that wild camping allows you to stay overnight in some amazing places and I can see the attraction in that, but I find it rather odd that some people will spend a small fortune on camping gear and then grumble about spending a relatively small amount to stay on an official camp site. I'm not skint by any stretch and I think it's important as a tourist to spend money in the places you stay so that the locals see a benifit to tourism. Call me picky but I also like a hot shower, a flush toilet and somewhere to plug in my E-Bike charger and phone. Don't see this as negative, I very much enjoy your videos, they are entertaining and informative, keep up the good work.

[@Ebiketouringlife]

I’m fortunate to have a good enough income at this point in my life that for me saving money over a campsite isn’t really a consideration although I would resent paying 35euro for a pitch just because of the being ripped off annoyance. But not everyone is in that position, for some being able to do long tours is totally dependent on crushing costs to a minimum. Obviously there’s a need for locals to see a benefit from tourism but too often that gets mistaken for shaking down every tourist to the maximum amount. If you check out the other videos in this playlist and my touring ones this is a theme I return to but essentially a healthy tourism ecosystem has space for the penniless backpacker eating out of corner shops as well as the rolling in cash US tourist on their trip of a life time. At the most basic level the first category are often where guides start off from that the 2nd category then hire. Also a lot of campsites are not set up to be compatible with cycle touring, eg they may have quite an early check in deadline, they may not want solo campers etc. For me though the other major attraction of wild camping is you can be very spontaneous, I’ve had many evenings where I continue to cycle quite late without much of a plan beyond some potential spots saved into my Google maps.