Gear

james mcleod wrote (see)

We had a nice Blacks Octane 3, but sold it. Great tent but need two porches, one for cooking/storage and one for getting in and out. The wife is tall and on the large side, the dogs are cute Jack russells. Have looked at the Vango Chinook 300, ( has any one seen a review on this tent).

It might well be worth looking at tents with large, single porches. Given that some of them are marketed at people who'd like to fit an entire bike in the entrance to their tent, you may well find that there's enough space to cook and store your bags under there without having to squeeze past when you want to get in and out.

Its pretty tricky trying out the interesting Hillebergs for size in the UK (unless you visit somewhere like Alpenstock), but more reasonably priced tents can be seen set up all over the place.

You do have to "bet the postage" on occasions to be able to crawl around something before committing.  As we did on our Kaitum 3, but no regrets. 

Pete.