Here is a long overdue entry about the latest Baker Tent development we made together with Wild Canvas. So far we had made two versions: a small one person Baker Tent which we called the Mini Campfire tent, and the large one we called the Land-rover tent. We have been asked by a customer of Wild Canvas to make a family size of the smaller version (mini campfire tent), one that has a larger “bedroom” to sleep the whole family. We would like to show case it here, because in reality it seems to us the ideal Bushcrafty outdoors size tent.

Land Rover Tent

Above you can see the Landrover tent which was made to mate with a Defender, height wise. It is of course the same stand-alone campfire tent, but this time you can tie it into the back of your Defender to create an outside kitchen space with an open fire, together with a small family sized bedroom. If people are happy to sleep by the fireside (who isn’t?) it can sleep 5-6 people. This larger Baker tent (Land Rover tent) also features zipped sides, so either side can act as the door for the back sleeping area, or both sides can act simply as …. sides.

Zipped Sides

The one man Baker Tent is a small enough for one person to be very comfortable: it is 4ft high, the bedroom is 4ft deep, and is 7ft wide like all the other versions. This is a very sweet size, and also very portable but it to weighs too much to be carried for too long, but great for a one man expedition with a canoe or 4×4.

The open fire,  like always, is a winner: it never ceases to amaze me how many people don’t understand the added magic of being in a tent in the weather by an open fire. This is truly the king outdoor experience and why we love these tents so much.

The smallest Baker tent – the mini Campfire Tent

The only Issue with this last one was that sometimes you want to go camping in the forest with a friend or if you are lucky with a wife or husband. This is what brought us to make the double size bedroom, slightly higher at 5ft high, and almost 7ft deep, and like both its predecessors its 7ft wide. This was the winner in our view.

We took ours to a lake we love in the mountains of mid-Wales. It was late afternoon and we made a fire and cooked a lovely dinner by the lake side, a quick jump into the calm water before sorted us out. We were  just relaxing to go to sleep, and got disturbed by a dog walker that decided he needs to confront us for camping there. Apparently the ‘no camping’ sign we drove past disturbed him, and the fact that we jumped in the water was really too much, as it was kept for nature only. Nature ……….and……… his dog.

The calm water of the mountain lake

Late afternoon dinner in Baker Tent

Still view before sunset

We decided to treat it as an omen that we were not welcome after all, and packed the tent down in record time of 5 minutes. It was getting dark so having to let go of a perfect camping spot seemed strange. Yes nature is preserved for dog walkers to enjoy, but we did not feel like fighting, sometimes the universe speaks to one in strange ways.

It seemed like there was no chance of a camping spot, so at the last minute we snuck past a forest gate, and down a little forest road, and viola we were amongst the trees. The tent went up in less than 5 minutes, including the fire and was even better than the last spot. The tent was in its element and we fell asleep to the smell of woodsmoke. Having slept in those amazing tents now in hot weather and in howling storms, I can say for certain you don’t know what you are missing: it’s a different experience to see the sunrise under canvas.

The morning after

Front view

And no, it does not need a mosquito net like plastic tents provide (although we have made them with too) because insects avoid the fire, and the smoke smell. I’ll bet you could take it up to Ranoch Moor, where a midge machine (yes they do exist) can fill a 5kg jar in one evening with dead midges, and not get one bite.

Top view of baker tent

Side view showing the depth of the sleeping compartment

Water for coffee

Hopefully the customer will get to make a Youtube movie showing this tent one day (he promised) so we can put a link to it here.