Spinifex Cape Otway Tent

So far, so good – They (Anaconda) didn't have one set up on the floor and I wasn't allowed to... so I purchased it sight unseen and set it up (by myself) when I got home. It's pretty heavy at 22kg, the carry bag has two inbuilt luggage casters at one end and a reasonably sturdy carry handle at the other. Given the weight I thought it might be made of some heavy duty nylon but noooo. The weight is in the poles, thick fibreglass jobs, a bit overkill in my opinion. A nice surprise were the pegs, all 54 of them, 4mm dia steel jobs, way more sturdy than I was expecting.

Back to the tent... the fly screen mesh was a better quality than I was expecting as well, it is a smoother/finer weave than I was expecting. The zippers open freely and are generally snag free. I liked the 2 x zippered power cable inlets and I really liked the ventilation designs in the roof and lower wall vents in the back corners. All four vents and the main side windows can remain open for ventilation during periods of precipitation. The floor was a lighter/thinner type of material than I what I've had in previous tents of this size, I'd be careful setting up furniture inside, camp chairs etc.

The poles are colour coded as are the pole sleeves on the tent. The poles attach to tent via a pin on a ring which slips into the end of each pole.... a tricky system indeed if you're putting this puppy up by yourself. I use a bungie prussik loop and micro karabiner to keep one end of each of the (2) main poles in contact with it's pin while I locate the other end onto it's pin. The other four poles were pretty easy.

The fly was a good fit. I clipped most of the fly onto the same pegs as I used for the floor of the tent. The guy rope attachments are pretty sturdy and well placed. There's four guy ropes on each side, six if you include the guy ropes attached to the window covers.

Won't be actually camping with it for another four weeks yet... but I am looking forward to using it. I may consider sourcing thinner/lighter aluminium poles to replace the heavy fibreglass jobs in the future.