One of the best ways to camp in the jungle is by using a hammock with a tarp over. The hammock keeps you off the ground, away from the wetness of the rain and creepy crawlies. Personally, it is by far the single type of shelter that is practical and jungle friendly.
The biggest challenge in using the conventional ground tents in the jungle is space. In the dense tropical jungle of Malaysia, finding a suitable ground space that is big and flat enough for a tent is almost impossible. Every inhabitant in the jungle is always competing for a piece of the ground. Plants grow on every patch of ground available and animals like ants and centipedes swarm the jungle floor for food at all time.
The hammock approach solves many of the challenges in trying to use a tent in the jungle. All that is needed are two good size tree, strong enough to hold your weight and spaced just right for the length of the hammock. The two trees act as the main ‘posts’ for the hammock and the flysheet that will later go over it. One can even setup this type of shelter at uneven ground and there is no need to chop or clear ground bush unnecessarily.
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| The 'guys' I brought for Fitness Adventure Challenge at Mount Ledang |
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| My 'home' |
The tired knotted back muscles relax extremely well sleeping in hammock curve, and after getting used to it, you will prefer it. You can elevate your feet above your body, it helps to reduce the swelling that sometimes happens overnight after a good hard day of hiking. Besides supporting you back, relaxing your body, and reducing foot swelling, there is the gentle rocking that can lull you to sleep, as well as the lack of mystery bumps like rocks and roots that you think are not there until you lay down to sleep like there is sleeping on the ground.
Hammocks are actually some of the lowest impact hiking systems out there. Instead of grooming a flat spot or compacting earth, a hammock keeps you above all that. Tree bark can be protected by either flat straps or by using a rope system that uses multiple wraps to distribute the load that keeps the rope from digging into the trees.
The benefits to hammock camping besides comfort and low impact are quite a few. The main ones for me are site selection, weight, and flexibility.
The number of camp sites when you use a tent or tarp are limited to the places where you have flat ground, no pooling of water, clear of bush, clear of rocks and roots, and many other little things to make your sleep enjoyable as well as just supporting the structure. Many times you must either crowd into a limited number of spots with others, go to designated sites, create a site (increasing impact to environment), or take a less than perfect site. With a hammock, it's almost all good.
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| Enjoying every moment inside 'the home' |
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| Feel asleep while the dinner served |
When you have a hammock, your campsites are limited by imagination. All you need is a couple of trees the right distance apart. What is under you may not matter at all. I have personally can set the hammock and slept on the side of a mountain. There are things that make better camps than others, and some safety things to consider, but unless you are camping where there are no trees, then the hammock will increase your camp sites.
I also say weight because I select hammocks that are lightweight. There are some hammock models out there that weight a lot more, but that is your choice as what to carry. But the absolute lightest camping hammock with bug protection and rain fly is less than a pound, the absolute lightest tent that gives bug protection weighs twice that.
And as for flexibility, well my hammock serves as, chair, lounge, gear loft, solo tent, and of course - a hammock. A tent is always a tent.
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