Camping when you’re disabled can sound like one of those ideas that is brilliant right up until you start thinking about the practicalities.
Sleeping on the floor.
Walking across fields.
Getting in and out of a tent.
Finding a toilet at 3am.
Keeping medication safe.
Staying warm.
Charging essential equipment.
And, perhaps most importantly, somehow getting the tent back into a bag that appears to have mysteriously shrunk since you took it out.
In this episode of 3Spoonies, Karen, Jo and Claire talk about their very different experiences of camping while disabled and chronically ill.
Karen has years of camping experience through Scouts, Jo spent years camping at LARP events before becoming too unwell to continue, and Claire recently took the plunge and camped at Download Festival.
So, what have we learned?
Quite a lot, actually.
Is Camping When Disabled a Terrible Idea?
When Claire booked Download, she hadn’t entirely considered the camping in a field part of the plan.
Once the reality set in, so did the panic.
Her original camping area could have meant a 45-minute walk between the campsite and arena. When a second accessible campsite opened and she got a space, that dropped to around 15 minutes, with a shuttle service also available.
When you’re managing limited energy, that difference isn’t simply about convenience.
A 45-minute walk could use the energy you needed to actually enjoy the festival.
That’s something all three of us have experienced in different ways: when you’re disabled or chronically ill, you have to think about the energy cost of the bits other people might consider incidental.
Your Accessible Tent Might Be Bigger Than You Think
One of Claire’s best decisions was getting an eight-person tent.
For two people.
That might sound excessive until you think about what they actually needed the space for.
They had a double air mattress at either end and a communal area in the middle, with enough height to stand up properly.
Before the festival, Claire had seen people online suggesting you shouldn’t buy a tent larger than you need.
But what does “need” mean?
If you’re disabled, you might need room for mobility or medical equipment. You might need a larger bed. You might need somewhere to sit. You might need to be able to stand rather than crawl through a tiny doorway.
The number printed on the side of the tent doesn’t account for any of that.
Sometimes accessibility means taking up more space.
And that’s absolutely fine.
Don’t Let Putting Up the Tent Use All Your Spoons
There’s another important consideration before you’ve even spent your first night under canvas:
How are you getting the tent up?
Claire chose an air tent, which they managed to put up in around 15 minutes.
Jo had previously used air tents before eventually moving to a heavy but extremely sturdy canvas tent. Pop-up tents can seem like an obvious accessible choice too, although Karen pointed out that what goes up easily doesn’t necessarily stay up easily when the weather turns.
Whatever you choose, it’s worth practising at home first.
Check you’ve got all the poles.
Work out which pole goes where.
Label them if necessary.
Make sure you physically can put the thing up.
Arriving at a campsite tired and discovering you’re missing a crucial pole is probably not the relaxing outdoor break anyone had in mind.
Your Sleeping Setup Is Worth Investing In
If there’s one area where trying to tough it out probably isn’t worth it, it’s sleep.
Jo’s camping setup evolved considerably over the years, from questionable sleeping bags and sinking airbeds to self-inflating mats and a proper four-season sleeping bag.
Claire discovered on her first night at Download that the sleeping bags she’d thought would be warm enough were very much not warm enough.
Cue an emergency duvet purchase.
Karen, meanwhile, has what she calls her “executive camp setup.”
That includes an insulated picnic blanket as a tent carpet, an old-fashioned raised camp bed, a self-inflating mat for extra padding and different sleeping bag options depending on the temperature.
Because if you’re already managing fatigue, pain or mobility difficulties, a terrible night’s sleep isn’t exactly going to improve matters.
Think About Getting Down – And Back Up Again
Sleeping close to the floor creates another problem:
You have to get down there.
And eventually you have to get back up.
A decent camping chair can be surprisingly useful here, not only as somewhere comfortable to sit but as something sturdy to use for support.
This is one of those places where seemingly tiny adaptations can make a disproportionate difference.
Your camping setup doesn’t just need to be comfortable when you’re sitting or lying down.
Think through the movements required to actually use everything.
Can you reach the tent zip?
Can you stand upright?
Can you get off the bed?
Can you find your medication without crawling around in the dark?
Can you get your shoes on quickly if you need the toilet?
The less unnecessary effort your setup requires, the more energy you’ve got for the things you actually went camping to enjoy.
Create a Camping Survival Bag
Jo and Ben used to have what they called their survival bag.
It contained the things they couldn’t afford to be without: medications, painkillers, Tiger Balm, sunscreen, electrolytes, toilet roll and, at one point, a TENS machine.
As Jo’s needs changed, more went into it.
The exact contents will obviously be different for everybody, but having your essentials together and easily accessible makes a lot of sense.
Camping isn’t the time to discover that the thing you desperately need is buried underneath three sleeping bags at the bottom of the car.
For some disabled campers, power is another essential consideration. The episode touches on power banks, solar panels and people using larger power solutions to keep equipment such as CPAP machines or wheelchair batteries running.
Make Things Easy to Find and Reach
Karen uses collapsible fabric storage boxes beside her camp bed to keep things like glasses and medication somewhere predictable.
Because trying to find your glasses in the dark when you need your glasses in order to find your glasses is not an ideal system.
The same principle applies to lighting.
Rather than relying entirely on a torch that inevitably won’t be where you thought you left it, consider hanging a light inside the tent, using a head torch or putting lights somewhere you can easily reach them.
And think about the tent itself.
Some tents have entrances that require you to bend right down to reach the zip. If that’s difficult, extending the zip pull can make it easier.
Accessibility doesn’t always require an elaborate specialist solution.
Sometimes it’s a coat hanger attached to a zip.
Festival Accessibility Can Completely Change the Experience
For Claire, discovering the accessible viewing platform at Download made an enormous difference.
Being in the crowd was great when she had the energy to stand.
But when she didn’t?
She couldn’t easily sit down or get out.
The accessible viewing area meant she could sit when she needed to, use a picnic blanket, stand when she wanted to and still experience the performances.
She was also permitted to take a larger bag into the arena as an accessible customer, meaning she could carry medication, extra water, snacks, sunscreen and the other things she and her group actually needed.
And that taught her something important:
Taking the extras you need to make yourself comfortable isn’t a bad thing.
You don’t win a prize for struggling unnecessarily.
Mobility Aids Belong at Festivals Too
Claire didn’t take her walking stick to Download this time.
But seeing how many other people were using mobility aids helped challenge some of the discomfort she still feels about using one herself.
So next time?
She’s planning to find a funky one she actually likes.
Jo had a similar experience when choosing crutches. If she was going to need them, she wanted something that fitted properly and looked good rather than feeling stuck with something she didn’t like.
Mobility aids aren’t a failure to camp “properly.”
They’re equipment that can make the experience possible.
And if you’re going to have one, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making it fabulous.
The 3am Toilet Trip Requires Planning
Then there’s the inevitable camping problem:
You wake up in the middle of the night needing the toilet.
You consider going back to sleep.
You convince yourself you don’t really need to go.
Half an hour later, you definitely need to go.
Except unlike at home, you now need to find your shoes, get out of the sleeping bag, get yourself upright, locate the tent door, find some light and trek across a field.
Having slip-on shoes beside the bed, lighting within easy reach and everything arranged so you can get out without unnecessary faffing can make the whole experience considerably easier.
Because when your bladder has already given you the final warning, nobody needs an escape-room challenge between themselves and the toilet.
Prepare for British Weather Doing British Weather Things
Camping in Britain means accepting that the weather may do whatever it feels like.
Possibly several different things within an hour.
Staying warm overnight was a big part of our conversation, but overheating can be just as much of an issue.
Claire found her tent became incredibly hot once the sun was up. Opening the ventilation and mesh windows made a noticeable difference.
Karen also recommends thinking about things like rechargeable hand warmers and a hot water bottle when it’s cold.
Essentially, don’t assume that because you’re camping in summer you’ll be warm — or because it was freezing overnight you won’t be roasting by breakfast.
You Don’t Have to Do Camping the Hard Way
Perhaps the biggest lesson from the episode is that there isn’t a correct way to camp.
You don’t have to squeeze into the smallest possible tent.
You don’t have to sleep directly on the ground.
You don’t have to cook every meal over a stove.
You don’t have to carry everything yourself.
You don’t have to leave your walking stick at home.
You don’t have to prove anything.
If buying coffee at the festival saves you the energy of walking back to camp and making it yourself, buy the coffee.
If an eight-person tent gives two people enough space to move comfortably, use an eight-person tent.
If you need a proper bed setup, take one.
If accessible camping means packing considerably more than everybody else, that’s what it means.
Claire went into Download worrying about how on earth she was going to manage camping.
She came home having already booked to do it again.
And perhaps that’s the best endorsement of accessible camping there is.
Final Thoughts
Camping when you’re disabled may require considerably more planning than simply grabbing a tent and heading into a field.
You need to think about your energy, mobility, sleep, medication, food, toilets, power, temperature and the accessibility of the site itself.
But making adaptations isn’t cheating.
Accessibility is about giving yourself the best possible chance to actually enjoy the experience you’ve gone there for.
Take the bigger tent.
Pack the survival bag.
Bring the comfortable chair.
Use the accessible campsite.
Take your mobility aid.
And for goodness’ sake, practise putting the tent up before you leave home.
Although when it’s time to pack everything away, Karen has one final piece of advice: don’t waste your remaining spoons trying to force the tent back into the impossibly tiny bag it came in. Get a bigger waterproof bag, shove it in there and go home.
Listen or watch to 3Spoonies: On Camping When Disabled here
What adaptations or bits of camping equipment have made the biggest difference for you?