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I recently got hold of a new type of tent – a Stingray, made by Tentsile. Tentsile make ‘tree tents’ – a design inspired by the Ewok villages of Star Wars – tents suspended like equilaterally-triangular hammocks between trees. The advantage of them is, of course, that you can pitch over any ground – soft sand or snow, rocks, mud or water – even concrete. the uprights don’t need to be trees either – posts, vehicles, in fact any vertical load-bearing structure will do, if it’s strong enough to take the tension of the erect tent. I think they are a great idea and I’ve been after one of the tents for a couple of years, but getting one into Egypt proved almost impossible, thanks to avaricious Customs officials. However the move to the UAE made it possible. The tent arrived, thanks to Aramex couriers, a few days ago.

Heading back to Cairo, my pal Gregg and I pitched the tent in a desert wadi with a stand of scrubby trees, using Stella the Land Rover (in her last desert trip with me) as one of the three supports for tent. As you can see (above) it worked very well. The tent is excellent – really well made to an excellent design. I’m very impressed.

I’m heading back to the UK net week, via Saudi Arabia, so watch this space for another trial of the tent in temperate woodlands!

Tentsile can be found at http://www.tentsile.com. If you fancy buying one, use the discount code Swatson10% at the online checkout and you will get a 10% discount – not to be sneezed at!