It may not be cheap, but £115 for total sleeping comfort is worth every penny. I love camping, there’s nothing I’d rather do that get way out into the countryside in the middle of no-where and sit staring at the stars. But when I crawl into my little tent I do actually want to sleep.
There’s a glut of cheap ‘simple’ sleeping mats on the market – in fact there are also some pretty expensive ones – things like the thermarest – but does anyone else think that they’re just the biggest things ever!? I mean… who is going to pack one of those on the back of their bike?
Sure, the small one is tiny, but it’s so thin that even my little 10 month old kitten would find it uncomfortable. So enter the king of sleeping mats – the Exped 7 DLX!
The thing you have to understand of course is that this is no ordinary mat – oh no – it’s actually filled with down – and because down compresses so damn well it packs up really really tiny – much smaller in fact than the smallest thermarest. Having said all that when you inflate it – it’s wonderfully comfortable – even my large frame doesn’t touch the floor and it’s toasty warm on the coldest of nights.
It’s also quite clever – none of this just leave it inflate and then top up with your breath (which actually puts water into your mat and shortens it’s life) no! You use bag it comes in to inflate it! Amazing!
There are some funky videos and stuff over on their website over here – but I can’t link to them directly thanks to silly javascript and frame funniness.
In short this thing is amazing – and I’m beginning to feel that I’m cheating on this whole ‘roughing it’ trip.
I rate the thermarest highly – packs small and is comfortable – mine also converts into a campsite chair with an easily packed away and small frame – Just right for me – but each to there own…
The Exped comes with a chair conversion kit too – just like the thermarest, and it packs up much smaller – but you gets what you pays for…. oh and I forgot to add that the carry case turns into a pillow which you can secure to the top of the mat – it’s frankly amazing…. !
Indeed you get what you pay for and with the Pro lite available for less – you get good value for money.