Sleep site

sleepytime

This stay on Koshima I’ve been sleeping in the tent since it hasn’t been raining, but I’ve been questioning this decision so I made a list of advantages of each.

Hut:

-       Quiet – you don’t realize how much noise walls block until you are sleeping without them.  High winds are especially loud. 

-       Greater sense of security.  Security from what, I’m not quite sure.

-       Easy to get out of to pee in the middle of the night

-       No extra travel at bed time, and since all of my gear is stored here, so I can’t forget to bring something with me

-       The floor is level*

Tent

-       Does not contain trash with rotten food or fecal samples

-       I don’t breathe moldy air in the tent

-       More natural lighting

-       Monkey-proof

-       No cockroaches

I’m still not sure which is superior…maybe by the end I’ll have a preference.  I think noise is the biggest disadvantage of the tent so I’m giving it a few days to see if I become habituated.

*When we first pitched the tent we picked a place that had a slight incline so water wouldn’t puddle under it.  It was actually quite a process – we used machetes and shovels to hack down some shrubbery in a place that was not too steep and in an area partially guarded from wind.  At one point I was even designing a moat for water flow either around or underneath the tent, which would have been completely unnecessary had I followed through.  Since it is no longer raining the incline isn’t as relevant, but I realized the flatter areas don’t have as good wind blockage, which is still relevant.  Also, last time I went to a store I purchased some non-slip sticky pad things to stick under the sleep pad – whoever designed tent bottoms, sleeping pads, and sleeping bags all out of slick materials clearly wasn’t thinking about people sliding down their tent when they sleep. I think the sticky pads help a bit, though having part of the sleep pad lined with rubber would be ideal.