I haven’t been out camping a lot this year, and the last overnighter I had was in September.

I’ve been longing for the outdoors, but things have come in the way.

Last weekend I finally got out again, on a short overnight trip with C. She too had been longing for some time in a tent, and it was nice to get out together.

It’s became a rather sudden decision, so when we finally got out to our “secret” spot north of Växjö it was already dark. But the sun do set early in the winter up north.

C had fallen asleep in the car, so I set up camp before I woke her up. I had decided to film this trip, and the darkness provided some difficulties to the filming. But filming in the warm light of a candle light or a storm lantern gave its own feeling to the shots.

With darkness already upon us, and a cold windy weather C and I stayed in the warm tent.

With trial and error I’ve finally seemed to have managed how to keep the stove relatively warm for a long period without using up too mush wood.

We made a dinner of fried vegetable , pepper steaks and rice. Sort of out usual dinner while hot tent camping. But it is delicious.

After dinner C kept playing with pine cones. “Mommy pine cone and baby pine cone” She also “found a map” in the magic red light of her head lamp. It was a map of England and Beach Land, that she studied in the red light against the tipi wall.

We had Christmas porridge (rice porridge) before we went to bed.

I used the Exped Synmat Duo UL LW this time too, and I truly love it. It is such an improvement to my sleep. It’s super comfortable, and C always crawled up on my sleeping pad before. This way we can share a 130x200cm pad with lots of room. For camping with a kid this is really an awesome piece of gear.

For other gear I also used my Frost River Isle Royale Jr pack. For hiking I’m a light weight backpacker, but I do love traditional canvas- and leather gear, and for car- and canoe camping like this, I prefer them.

I had aligned the sleeping pad in a different angle than I use to, so when I woke up the next morning I first had trouble figuring out where the door was in my sleep drunken state.

I had chopped up small pieces of firewood last night to quickly get a hot fire burning. We then fried some breads for breakfast that we ate with salamis and cheeses.

C didn’t want to go home, but unfortunately it was time to go home after breakfast. We stayed in the tent while the stove cooled down, and packed down the rest of the gear.

As usual we had a nice time camping. There is less hiking nowadays, but I love camping with C. She longs for the canoe again, and so do I. I can’t wait to get out on a canoe camping trip with her again.

The video from the trip is up on YouTube. Both filming in the dark and filming with a tree year old was challenging. But I’ll try to film more this year. The editing is still rudimentary, but hopefully it’ll improve the more I do it.