What I’ve learned so far from camping on my own

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Nathanael’s Outdoors Journal

9 min readNov 5, 2023

After five solo camping trips I’ve learned and iterated on a few things. As an agile coach I use retrospectives on myself and my experiences to identify waste, opportunities for improvement, and the outcome of experiments.

So far I’ve solo camped at these five locations over the past year:

The first thing I learned was my tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat were not suitable. I bought them all several years ago when I first planned on camping but I had anticipated camping on hikes, not at campsites, so they were ultralight equipment. The tent was too small, the sleeping bag too snug, the mattress too slippery. I didn’t sleep well that first night.

Inside a small tent just big enough for a sleeping bag, with a lamp hanging from the roof — My first tent and sleeping bag

So the next camping trip I had a new and larger tent (Coleman Instant Swagger 2P), a new mattress, and a new cotton sleeping bag, and I took my contoured memory foam pillow. Apart from the awful din of the Channel-billed Cuckoos the trip went much better, apart from my poor choice of campsite and being submerged in two inches of water.

Inside a tent with a sleeping bag and pillow. — Much more comfortable sleeping arrangement

I’ve since upgraded to a luxurious EXPED MegaMat Max 15 LXW so I can sleep on my side, which my sleep doctor recommended given my sleep apnea.

I’ve also changed how I pack things many times. I now have several bags permanently packed and ready to go, each with a purpose and an inventory.

Organiser trays

First I have two Stanley organiser trays to hold all the small stuff I seem to never be able to find including insect repellant, medication, scissors, matches, pegs, tissues, wipes, batteries, USB cables, dressings, and sunscreen.

With this setup, it’s easy to see when I’m running low on certain things or have taken them out of the box.

Kitchen bag

Then I have my Tool Tote from Homecamp which has everything I need to set up camp and includes lanterns, a hammer, tent guy lines, Alton 3x3 tarp, windshield, and mozzie zapper. The idea is once I’ve set up camp the tote can go back in the car.

I have a big canvas bag from AOS. I believe it’s their small size but for me it’s huge. In the main compartment, I have all my fire and cooking stuff including butane, pots and pans, utensils, oil, backup alcohol stove, plates and bowls.

In one side pocket of the same bag, I have all my water stuff including my GRAYL water purifier, collapsible nylon bucket, Andy Handy shower head, and some spare bottled water.

In the other side pocket, I keep biodegradable detergent and scourer, Firebox spray bottle, rubbish bags, and clothes.

This is basically my kitchen bag. Everything I need to cook, clean, and drink.

Bedtime box

My bedtime box has sleeping bag liners, air pump, tent lantern, lip balm, toothbrush and toothpaste, a power bank and USB cable, a spare pillow in case I forgot my main pillow, moisturiser, and XL body wipes. I switched to a box so I could sit things on top of it like my CPAP machine or Bluetooth speaker inside the tent.

Other bags and boxes

I have a canvas bag in the car that has things I’ll either only ever need while driving or as a backup, for example, more butane, Ground Dog auger pegs (I got mine from CAOS) and 18V impact drill, MREs, plastic sheeting, saw, spill mat, spare tent pole, and bolt cutters. I also have a box with maintenance gear and tools including tent patches, rat traps, glue, tape, zip ties, and my tool roll.

Yes, rat traps. I had a really bad experience with rats in Budawang National Park at the Long Gully campground where rats got into my car multiple times through the firewall near the pedals (as far as I can tell) getting into food locked in the boot, chewing up mats, and worst of all, chewing rubber hoses in the engine bay including the coolant reservoir hose, which scared the hell out of me when on the drive back along Clyde Ridge Road smoke started coming out from under the hood from coolant dripping onto the engine block.

Finally my food box, a 55-litre Expedition134 weatherproof box.

Additional things I pack

That was all my stand-by gear. Then I pack clothes, tent, CPAP, backpack, Bluetti power bank, cooler or 12V fridge, fishing gear, camera, binoculars, trail camera (for campsite security), wood, solar panel, sleeping bag, glasses, maps, blankets, book, pillow, food and drink, Biji Barbi or cast iron hotplate, Winnerwell stove or Solo stove, jackets, and boots.

What else I’ve learned and changed

Apart from changing how I pack and organise things to make it easier to set up camp, cook, eat, light fires, and go to sleep, I’ve also improved on:

Organising the car so it doesn’t descend into unmanageable chaos.
Making sure my lower back isn’t exposed to mosquitos when setting up camp.
Packing all the coffee things together including ground coffee beans.
Having a foot mat outside the tent.
If it doesn’t have handles, it’s useless.
More water.
Mirror to help with removing ticks.
Andy Handy and bucket for helping wash hands especially when cooking with meat.
Preparing for inclement weather (hail in Namadgi, flooding in Bungonia, strong winds in Kosciuszko).
Rats are the worst.
You forget things like medication when your routine and environment are different.
It’s amazing how you can gently place coiled tent guy lines in a bag but next time you look they’re all knotted up.
Have a backup plan for your backup plan. When I went to Capertee Valley I couldn’t get to my primary campground, nor my secondary campground. Luckily I had a third campground booked.
Make it easier to charge everything that needs charging, like a power board in the garage with a USB charger so you can just run cables to everything in-situ without pulling things out of bags.
Always need eye drops, lip balm, and tissues close at hand.
If taking solar panels, pay more attention when booking a campsite because you want shade from the midday sun but also sufficient sun to charge your power bank.
How to make rubbish bag rodent-proof?
Store-bought kindling is still too thick; in fact need about four different sizes of wood from chopstick thickness up to wrist thickness for building up a fire and ensuring it’s always hot enough to burn clean.
Having a reliable vehicle is the most important thing. No point packing everything you need to camp if you can’t get to the campsite. My car kept overheating on my last trip, even after I stopped at a mechanic in Oberon. Hopefully after getting the thermostat replaced back in Canberra it should be ok, but I’m anxious …
Even with all the organising trays and boxes and bags I still need a place to dump stuff temporarily while going about camp, departing for a hike or arriving back and unloading my backpack.
I struggle to rouse in the night so unless I have a blanket unrolled at my feet ready to pull up, I’ll freeze. I couldn’t wake up enough to close tent windows.

The checklist

After every trip I write up notes about what worked well, what didn’t work well, and what I’d like to try next time. My camping checklist is a comprehensive 9 pages and covers everything I have in my ready-to-go bags, things I should or might want to pack depending on whether I can have a campfire, if it might rain, or what activities I have planned.

My list annotates everything that is a consumable or needs charging, but I also have separate lists of things I need to check I have enough of and things I need to charge before going. There’s also a bushwalk list in there for packing my backpack, and an empty checklist I can write last-minute preparations like “Phone”, “GPS”, “Pillow” etc. And lastly a page on what to do when I get home including drying out tents and tarps, recharging things, seasoning cast iron cookware, updating OpenStreetMap, logging geocaches, and uploading sightings to NatureMapr.

The big picture lessons

I think some of the big lessons I’ve learned while camping are about being comfortable with not doing anything, and not having anywhere to be. I tend to cram a lot of walking in and spend little time at the campsite but I’m starting to get more comfortable with being around camp and that being an activity in itself. Being ok with being alone, and sitting with the anxiety and sometimes even fear of being in the middle of nowhere with not a soul for miles. I don’t like the sound of animals moving through the bush at night near my tent. I don’t like silence. Heck, I just don’t like the dark.

Another thing that camping has challenged me on is my rigidity and the need for predictability and planning. Anxiety, CPTSD, ADHD, something else— we don’t know why I am like this, but I can’t fight my nature. I don’t like when plans change, and solo camping has taken me out of my comfort zone. Things go wrong, whether it's the weather, road closures, car trouble, or injuries. I need to keep exposing myself to these situations so I can learn to lean on my resilience and creativity and not run away from frustration and hopelessness.

Too much?

Yes I pack a lot of gear. Too much. But that’s how I feel safe. I’m a prepper at home, I was brought up expecting Armaggedon, and now I’m out of that cult and yet still live in fear of a nuclear war and societal collapse. So it’s a comfort to have everything I need for any situation. Tape to patch the chewed radiator hose. A backup stove if there’s a total fire ban. Water in case I can’t collect any.

And I like to be comfortable! I like having a tent I can move around in, a mat I can stand on while I take my boots off, a chair, a table, plenty of lighting, a fan if it’s hot, power, beer, and snacks. And there’s no reason for me to go without those things unless I was going to a walk-in campsite where every kg matters because you have to carry it.

I don’t want to eat MREs. I want to ear fresh fruit and vegetables, steak grilled over coals, fresh bread, nachos, pizza, and hamburgers. That’s part of the appeal of going camping. One day maybe even freshly-caught fish.

Where to next?

So, hopefully, in the next few weeks, I’ll be heading further afield up to Warrumbungles National Park. I’m worried about the drive, worried about whether 3 nights is enough, and worried if I have the fitness to do the 13km 600-metre elevation gain loop up to Breadknife and Grand High Tops. But I’m going anyway. I may not enjoy it but it will be a valuable experience regardless.

Photos from my last camping trip in Wollemi National Park

I wish I had started this sooner and not left it till my 40’s but my life took an unusual path, growing up in a fundamentalist cult and being homeschooled, my journey through therapy and treatment for depression and now ADHD, becoming a father of a kid with autism and ADHD. I do feel like I’ve lost years of my life and there is little time left, but better late than never and I still have plenty of things I want to do and see, including multiday hikes like the Overland Track in Tasmania and the Kepler Track in New Zealand. I want to explore the coast of Western Australia, get to Kakadu, visit the Daintree, and rappel the canyons of the Blue Mountains. I want to do some of these with my family, but I also can’t wait until the stars align for that to happen. We’ve tried camping as a family once. We will try it again.