Dave Cornthwaite

I’ve been four months fallow, scraping together memories from one expedition, tidying up long-lost words from another and turning them into a book, and then looking to the future in a slow, measured process to decide just what is right for 2012.

When rubber stamping plans for a new journey I consider two things:
1) Will I enjoy it?
2) What’s the value?

More often than not 2) naturally follows 1), enjoyment equals passion and happiness, which means I work harder, it’s not a half-hearted ‘career move’, the enthusiasm I have for my journeys is my foundation. And I can best sum this up by saying that from all the wonderful things I’m lucky enough to experience in this random vocation of mine, the thought that makes me happiest is that soon enough I’ll be waking up in a hammock again, staring out over a desert, jungle or a flowing river, feeling totally and utterly at peace with everything. Without further ado, here’s a review for my hammock of choice:

*

As I’ve been paddling along the Mississippi River I’ve had a million and one campsites to choose from, and two options of camping to opt for, too. Alongside my tent I’ve been carrying a Sky Tent by Hammock Bliss, which is proving to be a blessing now my journey is taking me into the hot southern States of Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The video below shows only a few of the Sky Tent’s features, so this written blog is intended to pad out the video with some finer points of the Sky Tent’s suitability.

Separate Hammock Bliss Hammock and Sky Tent means that in the afternoons when bugs aren’t a problem I can pull over to the banks and lounge in the hammock on its own. At night when mosquitos are out the double hammock feeds inside the sky tent, ensuring protection from both rain and biting animals.

Gear hanging inside the sky tent means I keep my bags dry. It hangs under the rain fly and inside the bug night from the main attachment points at each end.

Sky Tent on its own. Some nights where suitable trees/ posts aren’t available I’ve set the Sky Tent up low and slept on my sleeping mat inside the net and under the rain fly, much cooler than being inside my tent!

There have been some severe storms in the Mississippi River region in recent weeks and I haven’t managed to wake up wet when I’ve weathered one in my Sky Tent. The fly covers the hammock sufficiently and as long as the hammock isn’t strung too low beneath the fly it’s an effective cover even in heavy rain.

I’m carrying two extra long tree straps from Hammock Bliss, which makes finding suitable trees much easier. If the tree is thin, I wrap the strap around twice.

Set up time is very short for both the hammock and Sky Tent. I’ve used other hammocks and the versatility of the Sky Tent is worth the (very) slight pack size and weight difference to other expedition hammocks. There’s no room for a chair on my paddleboard so the hammock doubles up as one, and from bag to resting I take no more than five minutes.

What makes the Sky Tent from Hammock Bliss so versatile is that in the absence of suitable trees to hang from you can use other fastening points, discard the hammock itself and effectively use the Sky Tent as a tent. On a humid night this is a preferable option to a proper tent, as the mosquito net allows a greater draft inside. So, to sum up, yes, I will be taking my Sky Tent on the next expedition, it’s perfect!