There is a great deal of variety out there with regards to equipment. You will already have the equipment you need for a day walk, and you will naturally need all of this, so I will just cover the extra equipment you will need for camping out.
Tent
This is obviously a critical piece of equipment as it is going to protect you and keep you warm through the night. Make sure you buy a tent that is going to do the job you need it to do, and be very wary of cheap tents that are too good to be true. There is a large variety of tents available to you.
My advice would be to stick with a classic double-wall design. These come in three parts. The inner tent has a waterproof floor that extends some 3 – 4 inches above the ground and has some kind of roof that is not waterproof. The outer tent is a waterproof roof that covers the inner tent to protect it from rain. The third part is the poles; these are attached to the inner or outer to give the tent it’s structure. If you’ve ever done any camping, then this is normally the type of tent that you will have used.
Beyond this, it comes down to personal preference. If you spend 100 pounds on a tent from a well-regarded manufacturer, then you will get a tent that will be suitable for rain camping. If you spend any more than this, then you will get a tent that is lighter, and may last longer.
Pitch-Time
Most tents will advertise the amount of time it takes to put the tent up and take it back down again.
To be honest, this is fairly meaningless. However, if it is raining it is important to minimise the amount of time the tent interior is exposed to the rain. This depends partially on the advertised ‘pitch-time’ , but depends much more on how well practised you are at putting your tent up and collapsing it again.
To explain, the roof of the inner is not waterproof. When erecting a tent you will normally put the inner up first, and then put the outer tent over it to protect it from the rain. There is a crucial period of time here when the inner tent is exposed to the rain. During this time, any rain is going to fall straight in to the interior, so that when you are getting in to your tent there will be some water in there. It is important that you know and adapt the pitching of your tent to minimise this period of time.
For example, my tent requires me to lay the inner on the floor, there are 8 pegs to place, two poles to secure, and then I can place the outer tent over the structure. Rain will get in to my tent while I am doing this. However, I know that I only need to initially use 4 pegs for the inner, insert the poles, and that this will be enough to enable me to put the outer tent on over the top. I can then go back and place the other 4 pegs.
Peg Placements in Stony Soil
You have to remember that finding good peg placements in stony soil is not always easy, and I actually save a lot of time in only using 4 pegs initially. This isn’t always possible when it is windy as well. This may sound trivial, but when you’ve been walking all day in the rain, you want to be able to get in to a tent that is as dry as possible.
This means that the advertised ‘pitch-time’, or the amount of time it takes to pitch the tent is not that important. However, the period of time when the interior is exposed to the rain is crucial. A good specialist shop will demonstrate to you how to pitch and take down a tent.
Practice Putting Up and Taking Down
Continuing on this same theme, make sure you practise putting up and taking down your tent. It’s old advice, but make sure you can quickly and confidently put up your tent, and take it down again. When you practise in your garden, you are practising on flat, level soil that is free of stones; you are pitching in optimal conditions. Wild land is rarely flat, level, or free of stones. It may take you a couple of attempts to find a good piece of soil to completely push each peg in to the ground.
Also, make sure you know how to pull your tent down quickly and fold it up. This may not seem as important, but rain will be getting in to the interior of your tent in exactly the same way when collapsing it and to a reduced extent, when you are folding it up. Your tent is not going to dry while in your bag, so getting water in your tent when collapsing it will mean that your tent will be wet for the following night.
Pegs Materials
It may sound like too much attention to detail, but also check what material the pegs are made out of. You are not going to want to carry a mallet with you camping, so the likelihood is that you will push the pegs in to the ground with your foot. Cheap pegs made out of mild steel will bend. Go instead for galvanised steel or aluminium pegs (or equivalent), these are not going to bend if you use your foot to push them in to the ground. Make sure you also check there are enough pegs for all the guy ropes, some tents will only come with enough pegs to use half the guy ropes, whereas you will need a full set. This isn’t a problem, as you can always buy more pegs if you need to. It’s just something to be aware of when buying.
Common Mistake
When inserting a peg in to ground, the common mistake is to drive it vertically downwards. The problem here is that if it is windy enough, you can actually pull the peg out of the ground. It is much better to drive the peg at a 45 degree angle in to the ground underneath the tent. This means that any attached guy ropes are going to be pulling perpendicularly on the peg, making it much less likely that they will be pulled out.
The roof of lightweight backpacking tents is normally made out of mesh. Make sure that the mesh is fine enough that midges are not going to be able to get in! I have woken up in the past to find my tent completely covered in midges (so much so that it sounded like it was raining, there was that many of the falling on the tent), but they weren’t able to get in because the mesh was fine enough to keep them out.
Size of Tent
The size of tent is normally a fairly easy question. If there is two of you wanting to camp out, then it makes sense to get a two-man tent. However, not all two-man tents are the same size. If you are only planning on camping out for one night, then a small sleek tent will serve you fine. But if you are planning on spending a little more time in your tent, then you may appreciate a little bit more space.
I own a two-man tent, and have used to camp with somebody else, and have also camped in it by myself. It is for two people, so I try to minimise multi-night stays when using it in this way. However, if I am camping by myself I tend to go for a minimum of 4 days, and I very much appreciate the extra space it provides. It is also possible to get 1.5 man tents. I find that space for gear storage is never a problem; you are camping lightweight, so you are not going to be carrying that much equipment.
Develop Rules
You will develop your own rules and routines for camping out, but one I always obey, is that any wet equipment stays outside the (inner) tent, and only dry equipment in to the tent. The only exception to this is wet clothing that you want to dry. Dry clothes left out inside the tent will become damp – put them in a dry bag.
Wet clothes left out inside the tent will dry to the point where they are only damp. If you have a wet base layer (for example), then it is worth spreading it out inside the tent where it will be merely damp by the morning. Clothing like waterproof coats/trousers however should stay outside, as they will only end up getting everything else wet. When I mean outside, I mean in your rucksack outside, probably placed between the inner and outer (or porch if your tent has one).
Sleeping bag
It is important to buy a good quality sleeping bag as it will keep you warm in the night, and it can get very cold in the night, even in the summer. Sleeping bags have four temperature ratings, the most important one is the ‘comfort’ level. This is the lowest the temperature can drop to before you aren’t able to enjoy a good night’s sleep.
I would recommend that you buy a sleeping bag that has a comfort temperature of 5 degrees (or thereabouts). If you like to be very warm when sleeping, then buy one that has a lower comfort level. You should also remember that you will have a base layer and at least one fleece that you can wear to sleep in if you are not warm enough. But I would not recommend buying a sleeping bag that has a higher comfort temperature and compensating by wearing more.
It is of vital importance that you keep your sleeping bag dry. I talk more about this in the rucksack section.
Sleeping mat
However, a camping mat will also insulate you from the ground, which is why it is vital that you take one. The ground is very cold and will drain the heat from you if you are not on a camping mat. There are more expensive camping mats you can buy, but you will find a cheap foam one to be absolutely fine.
If you are going to be staying in a bothy, you will appreciate a better sleeping mat. A bothy has wooden platforms as places to sleep. This is much harder than the soft ground you might camp on, so you will appreciate a better sleeping mat much more.