Camping when you’re disabled can require a little more planning than throwing a tent, sleeping bag and toothbrush into the car and hoping for the best.
What happens if your medication needs to stay refrigerated?
How do you transport everything when “packing light” isn’t really an option?
And how do you keep phones, lights and essential devices charged when your nearest plug socket is several fields away?
Following our main episode on Camping When Disabled, we returned to answer questions from the 3Spoonies community — and this time things got practical.
How Do You Keep Medication Refrigerated While Camping?
Our first question came from Davina, who wanted to know how to keep medication refrigerated when camping.
The first thing to establish is exactly what your medication requires.
Some medications are extremely temperature-sensitive. Others can safely remain outside the fridge for a limited period, although doing so may shorten their usable lifespan.
Jo has medication that normally needs refrigeration but can remain out of the fridge for up to a week. That means her solution for a short trip may be very different from somebody whose medication must remain within a specific temperature range.
So before planning anything else, know what your medication actually needs.
Ask What Facilities Are Available
Depending on where you’re camping, there may already be a solution.
When Claire went to Download Festival, there was a secure refrigerated area specifically for people who needed to store medication. It was locked and monitored by a member of staff.
Other possibilities might include first aid facilities or, at places such as Scout campsites, access to a kitchen fridge.
The important thing is to ask before you arrive.
Contact the campsite or event, explain what you need and find out what they can provide.
As Karen pointed out, giving organisers notice makes it much easier for them to put something in place. Even if there isn’t an official medication fridge, they may be able to arrange a safe alternative.
For some medications and shorter trips, a cool bag may also be sufficient — but again, that depends entirely on the storage requirements of your particular medication.
How Do You Carry All Your Camping Stuff?
Then we came to James’s question:
What’s the best way to carry everything?
And the answer is probably slightly annoying:
It depends.
A good camping rucksack can hold a surprising amount. Jo used to have a large rucksack containing bedding, pillows and sleeping equipment, with separate bags for their kit and survival supplies.
They’ve even managed camping by train using backpacks, a sack truck and bungee cords.
But how you’re travelling makes an enormous difference.
If you’re travelling by car, suddenly you’ve got considerably more options.
Sometimes the Answer Is a Van
At Download, Claire spotted a group who had rented a van for the week purely to make transporting everyone’s equipment easier.
Some of the group travelled in the van, others went by car, and all the camping gear could simply be loaded into the back.
For a group travelling together, that could make things considerably easier — especially when accessibility needs mean you’ve got more equipment than the average camper.
It isn’t going to be the right solution for everyone, but that’s really the point.
Accessible camping is about working out what makes the physical logistics manageable for you.
Rucksacks, Wheelchair Bags, Trolleys… and Wheelie Bins
Karen pointed out that there are sturdy bags designed to attach to the backs of wheelchairs, while a properly fitted rucksack can distribute weight more comfortably than simply carrying everything on your shoulders.
Other people may find pushing or pulling something easier.
Jo has seen plenty of people using large festival trolleys.
And then Claire introduced us to another option:
A wheelie bin.
Before Download she’d seen people online being advised not to transport their camping equipment in wheelie bins and assumed nobody actually did it.
Then she arrived.
She saw at least four.
Karen has also seen people at festivals near supermarkets using shopping trolleys.
Are we officially recommending nicking a supermarket trolley?
Absolutely not.
But the wheelie bin campers apparently knew something Claire didn’t.
Pack So You Can Actually Find Things
However you transport everything, organisation matters.
Lots of pockets can be incredibly useful because you can give essential items a predictable home.
Medication goes here.
Spare socks go there.
Torch in this pocket.
Phone charger in that one.
That’s useful at any time.
It’s considerably more useful when you’re standing in a dark field trying to remember which of your seventeen bags contains your medication.
And when you’re packing clothes?
Roll them.
Apparently, this is one subject upon which all three Spoonies are united.
Jo and Claire have also both reached the point in their relationships where they’ve watched their partners pack and decided:
No.
I’ll do it.
If you’re using a rucksack, Karen also recommends putting heavier items towards the bottom and close to your back to help balance the load.
How Do You Keep Everything Charged?
Our final community question came from Emily:
What’s the best way to keep all your gadgets charged?
Jo’s answer was immediate:
Power bank.
Get the biggest, best one you can reasonably afford — and make sure you’ve actually charged it before you leave.
How much power you’ll need depends on how long you’re away and what you need to keep running.
For some people that’s simply a phone.
For others, there may be watches, monitors, lights or other devices that also need regular charging.
Be Wary of Tiny Solar Chargers
Karen has experimented with a variety of solar charging options over the years.
Her assessment of the little handheld solar power banks in Britain?
Don’t bother.
They may sound perfect for camping, but her experience with them hasn’t been particularly successful.
Larger fold-out solar panels can be more useful. These can potentially be placed on top of the tent and used to trickle-charge a power bank.
But there are safety considerations too.
Karen recommends keeping the power bank itself shaded rather than leaving sensitive electrical equipment sitting in direct sunlight, and using a fireproof LiPo bag.
Because setting your tent on fire while trying to charge your phone would rather undermine the whole relaxing camping experience.
Check What the Festival or Campsite Provides
It’s also worth investigating charging facilities before you go.
At Download, Claire and her group took two power banks and then rented another on site. The rental system allowed them to exchange it for a freshly charged one each day and take one home at the end.
There were also lockers where people could leave devices to be charged.
So, just as with refrigerated medication, don’t assume you need to solve everything yourself.
Check what’s available at your destination first.
Stop Your Phone Wasting Battery Overnight
Karen also had a particularly simple tip:
Put your phone into aeroplane mode overnight.
This can be especially helpful when camping somewhere with poor signal.
Otherwise your phone can spend the night repeatedly trying to connect to a network and draining its battery in the process.
And apparently one particularly prepared Download attendee brought 32 power banks.
Which seemed utterly excessive…
Until people started arriving having forgotten theirs and he began lending them out.
As Jo concluded:
It clearly wasn’t his first rodeo.
And Don’t Forget the Cable
Having enough power is completely useless if the cable you’ve brought doesn’t work.
Test your cables before leaving home.
Make sure you’ve got the correct connectors for everything you’re taking.
Check that your devices charge properly from your power banks.
And consider taking a decent long cable to give yourself more flexibility.
Finding out your only USB cable is broken when you’re already halfway through a five-day festival is perhaps leaving the accessibility planning slightly too late.
Final Thoughts
One thing becomes very obvious when answering questions about camping while disabled:
There isn’t one perfect accessible camping setup.
Your medication might need refrigeration. Someone else’s doesn’t.
You might find carrying a rucksack easiest. Somebody else might need a trolley, wheelchair bag, sack truck or car.
You might only need to charge your phone. Somebody else might have several essential devices that need reliable power throughout the trip.
The important thing is to work backwards from what you need, rather than from somebody else’s idea of what camping is supposed to look like.
Ask about facilities before you arrive.
Know how your medication needs to be stored.
Think realistically about what you can carry, push or pull.
Take enough power.
Test your equipment.
And if all else fails, apparently there’s always the wheelie bin.
Listen or watch 3Spoonies: On Camping When Disabled – Community Questions here
What accessibility hack makes camping easier for you? We’d love to hear the things you’ve discovered that other disabled campers might not have thought of.