As we head into the warmer summer months, many of us will be thinking about getting away from it all, and whether you are thinking about a quick bank holiday weekend away or a full two-week holiday, camping is a popular option for many people.
Whether you are a hardened camper who prefers to sleep under canvas or own a caravan or motorhome, then one thing you should remember to take on your camping trip, and something that is very often forgotten, is spare batteries. In fact, there is a good chance that no matter how often you remind yourself to put them on the packing list, there will be a point during the trip when you will realise that you left them at home.
What battery power items might you need on a camping trip?
Whilst modern caravans and motorhome offer many of the mod cons you would expect, some items will still require batteries – just as they would at home. These include items like alarm clocks, smoke alarms, and if you have a TV the remote control. If you are holidaying abroad then you may have things like battery powered insect repelling devices, and you would certainly not want to run out of batteries for these.
If you are camping in a tent, then you may choose not to have electricity on your pitch and only use gas and batteries to power your appliances and equipment. Battery powered lighting will play a big part of your set up, and you may even want a battery powered radio to provide you with some entertainment.
The importance of batteries when camping
Depending on where you choose to camp there is one thing that most campsites have in common and that is that once the sun goes in, they have limited lighting dotted around. This is true whether you are staying on a very rural campsite, one on the edge of a town or simply camping in a field. This lack of artificial light at night offers some incredible star gazing, but does also make it difficult to get around. A torch is an essential piece of camping equipment if you need to visit the toilet block in the middle of the night when you need to avoid guy ropes, tent pegs and anything else that has the potential to trip you up. If you don’t have any spare batteries for your torch and it runs out, then your middle of the night trip to the toilet could become even more treacherous!
With many campsites situated in more rural locations, you may find that popping out to get replacement batteries could be quite a lengthy journey. Some campsites do have small shops with a limited range of supplies and whilst you might be lucky enough to find replacement batteries in their stock, they are more likely to stock the essentials like bread and milk.
Batteries take up very little space when you are packing for your camping trip, even if you are backpacking, so adding a couple of spares to avoid being caught short really does make sense. Make sure that you know exactly what sort of batteries all of your gadgets take so that you have spares for everything.
One thing that you may struggle to manage without a proper electric hookup in a tent is being able to charge a mobile phone, but there are now a number of ways that you can do this using battery power. Some camping lights which work on battery power can also be used to charge mobile phones which can make them a very handy item to have – and one that you will definitely want to have spare batteries for.