So I ordered a Terra Nova Voyager which is of course geo, with a non-mesh inner, but has only one porch, front entry was a little over 2kg and cost £270. Of course when I tried it I thought it was a bit big so..........
........ I decided to look at the Terra Nova Laser which of course is side entry, less than 2kg but not a geo and has only 1 porch!!
I decided to return the Voyager and ordered the Laser instead and it arrived yesterday. I have to say I was surprised at how light it was, 1.25kg or thereabouts, even more surprised by the tent pegs which are small to say the least. A few question on Outdoors Magic forum and I'd been sufficiently reassured so nothing to do but pitch it up. It went up with relative ease, inner and outer together, given that it was a bit windy and I was trying to read the instructions stitched into the stuff sack, keep the stuff sack from blowing away and hold onto the tent all at the same time.
The next thing was to throw in my sleeping bag and try it for size. Very good indeed, loads of space and very easy to move around/get in/get out. It has a good usable porch too with plenty of space to cook even with the fly closed. Of course I had to test it last night, turned in about 1.00am (early for me) made a quick soup drink using the EK Kombi meths back-up as a stand alone stove, had a quick read of TGO by the light of an 'Osram Dot-it' 3 led light. A nice little tent light, very compact and can be used with 3/2/1 LEDs lit. It has a magnetic base so I cobbled together a holder out of a screw on jam jar lid with a piece of para-cord and a bulldog clip. Finally switched off at about 2.00am, slept to about 5.00am then to around 8.00 when I made a quick brew.
There was a fair bit of condensation on the inside of the fly but as it was still and just above freezing I'd expect that, the inner was totally dry. I had the end vents fully closed as I hadn't at that stage figured out how they worked, I'd pegged them down by the shockcord loops.
All in all I'm happy with the tent, there are a few little mods that I want to make, some/most of which I read about at blogpackinglight laser-comp-mods
I ordered some Vargo Nails and a ZeRo +1 Guyline kit from 'team io', I was tempted by the Laser footprint but opted to make my own out of PU coated Ripstop which weighs in at 120g per linear meter. I'd previously ordered some Camcleat 'Y' pegs which also arrived yesterday so together with the Vargo Nails and the supplied ti wire skewers I should be sorted.
I need to pitch/strike it a few more times and get things sorted pretty quickly as I intend to use it not next week but the following in the Cairngorms.
Porch Space, Stove and Mitymug
End Fly Vent Opened
Osram Dot-it Light with screw cap and paracord hanger.
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