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Search for a Tarp Continues

Search for a Tarp ContinuesWhen tramping I often rig up a tarp to use as a tent. I find that this is a lighter, cheaper, and almost as effective way to carry your shelter upon your back. I simply put rope through the tarp’s eyelets and tie up one half of it to two trees, [...]

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Search for a Tarp Continues

When tramping I often rig up a tarp to use as a tent. I find that this is a lighter, cheaper, and almost as effective way to carry your shelter upon your back. I simply put rope through the tarp’s eyelets and tie up one half of it to two trees, a fence, or and tie-able vertical supports, and then pull it out so that it looks like half of a roof and put rocks down on the opposing corners. It this way I give myself a lean-to shelter that I can snuggle up into. This really works, and I have remained dry many times I the rain under tarps.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Hondonin, Moravia, Czech Republic- July 1, 2008
Travelogue Travel Photos
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Tarps also have the added benefit of being disposable when you reach a stretch of traveling where you know that you will not be camping often. I find this to be very effective, as I do not like carting around travel gear that I do not use regularly. The best part is that tarps are cheap enough to be semi-disposable, as they often only cost around three to four dollars in any country.

But I am a week into my bicycle journey and I still have neither a tarp nor a tent of any kind. I packed a tarp with me to the Czech Republic, but ditched it at the airport in Prague when I was trying to trim down the bulk of my bags. My thoughts then were that I was going to step out of the airport and board a train for Turkey; I had no idea that I would find myself in the Czech Republic a month later riding a bicycle. I also figured that if I was in for a round of camping that I would just walk into the nearest Czech hardware store, shed a few dollars and walk out with a tarp.

This was a big misassumption.

Since the day that I conceived the bicycle journey to Turkey, I have been scouring every hardware, home, and grocery store in the Czech Republic for a tarp. I have not yet found one. I am beginning to conclude that the Czech Republic is a tarp-less land.

I still face the long Road ahead without shelter.

Previous Travelogue Entries:
Private Room in Czech Republic
Camping on the Sly in a Wheat Field
Photos from Prague Czech Republic
Czech Republic Bike Trails

Search for a Tarp Continues
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Filed under: Bicycle Travel, Czech Republic, Eastern Europe, Europe

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3699 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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