Bushwalk Australia

In discussion around the campfire ,the subject of our first sleeping bag experiences came up.
It was almost unanimous that the dreaded green sleeping bag( with a red tartan inside) was the culprit of causing a
freezing first experience to camping,whether it be in a tent,caravan or hut during winter.
The insides of these bags had a sort of cotton waste fill.
I just could not fathom how people could survive in a tent in a sleeping bag in the winter time.
I am a cold sleeper so my current down bag with silk liner and thermals top and bottom is a vast improvement.

how many other members experienced those old bags?
or does it only apply to those over 45

Yeah, I had a red one with a red tartan lining much the same. My brother had the green one.

I don't think I remember being cold in it, but then we only used it on car camping... or, hang on, I think I might have used it on my first overnight bushwalk, but that was Friendly Beaches during summer... sure to be warm there.

I remember them. I had a blue one and my brother had the red one.

Don't remember getting all that cold when young and in tents but I don't think I'd cope as well now.

Yep, mine was green with red tartan too.
Used it for Scouts. I grew up in Queensland so don't remember being freezing in it.
I do remember its size though

I had a green one with the tartan inner; usual cotton outer and inner with a filling of mattered cotton looking threads.

I can remember going on my first Army Cadet camp to Mount Douglas north of Maitland NSW. The temperature dropped to minus 5 and I thought I was going to freeze. Luckily this other kid I was sharing the hoochie with – Beetle Bailey – was kind enough give me an hour in the down bag his father had given to take on the exercise. It was amazing how warm it was compared to my budget bag. From this point I started to understand the advantage of investing in good quality technical equipment!

I have a green one with a black/grey/yellow tartan inside. Love it - still use it all the time in summer!

51 years ago mine was just like that the filling was called Kapoc and it had a waterproof bottom ,on a really cold Scottish night you needed to wrap yourself in your kilt for it to be effective in a floorless tent,great memories from the old days
Gees I must be a big Sook now with hightec this and that ,all meals back then were cooked in a tin billy or steel fry pan ,tinned beans, bacon,snags,tinned corn beef and real porridge all over an open fire

Thanks for dredging up the memories. Can't remember the colour but I can recall a cold night on the Pelion Plains as a teenager when there was a heavy frost. Even got a black and white photo if you're getting nostalgic. Twas 1974.

..

I have to thank the "responsible" adult - my father - who selected the campsite.

The tunnel tent was a marvel of invention back then. Even had a sewn in groundsheet.... which proved to be really useful when I split a cup of milk inside.

I'm pretty sure that this was the trip that the bottom of our billy blew up while on the primus stove. Ok, "blew up" might be an exaggeration, but it sure looked like a round from a .22 had gone off inside and punched a 4mm hole near the bottom of the billy thereby rendering it useless. We blamed one of the dried peas that we were trying to rehydrate before eating.

Isn't it funny how things go in circles?

That tent on the right bears a stricking similarity to those new uber-light TarpTent models...

Hey MJD the sewn in groundsheet was available in Blacks of Greenock Tents back in around 1960 when they produced the Gilwell Hike Tent (they are now Vango I believe) single skin Japara proof type from memory, heavy as by today's comparison and if my recollection is accurate very similar in design to WE first arrow.

Nuts is stirring that's not Scoparia and to the best of my knowledge it does not grow on Pelion Plains ,close by yes but not there

True it was only on the button grass.

oh the memories ...my brother and I joke about how our parents tried to kill us with those sleeping bags...remember hiking in the Flinders Ranges as a kid (over 35 years ago) in scouts with the tartan beast...decidedly unpleasant on 0 degree nights....and when they got wet- they weighed a ton and never dried! Dad had one of those kapok jobbies and he reckoned we were 'weak messes' to complain about our sleek cotton numbers. In retrospect, we did give those bags a beating though...sleeping bag fights and the like...you know that's where you get into the bag and zip it up and hop around trying to hip and shoulder the other guys over as spectacularly as possible....mmm ..guess you had to be there!!