An intent and uplifting Sunday morning mission for JP and Anita, helping Mortlake Guide’s unit leader Lynn check-out some recently donated second-hand camping kit.

With only minimal assembly instructions, progress was initially tentative but once we had worked out the shape and enormity of the task we set to work, first assembling the 7 long fibre poles and then threading them through the outer fly sheet. One by one the poles were anchored at one end, tensioned into arcs and secured in place on the opposite side. As the 3 central poles went into place the whole structure rose up, filling much of the hall.

The end result? Pitch perfect ( give or take missing pegs and the odd stain) and probably big enough to shelter the whole Guide unit.

Deconstructing the tent was a much easier task and we were impressed that such a huge tent could be folded down to fit in a single holdall.