Many people prefer hiking and recreation in the bosom of nature. But some are annoyed by the problem of lack of hot water and washing in the field. A way out of this situation can be a camp bath. Today we will tell you about its device in this article. Content:
- Appointment of a camping bath
- Bath requirements
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Construction of a camping bath
- Frame with awning
- Sauna stove
- Field use
A long stay away from civilization is not a reason to abandon its achievements. Inveterate bathers can do without breaking their tradition, since the outdoor bath is almost the same as the usual bath. You need a steam room - a closed room for procedures, as well as a source of heat. In stores of outdoor goods, collapsible camping baths are sold, even equipped with stoves. But to show a special chic is to organize it with your own hands.
Appointment of a camping bath
Mobile camping saunas are ideal for tourists during long transitions, summer residents who have a site at the stage of development, construction teams that are on the road and tied to their facility.
Such baths, in addition to their health-improving effect, allow in difficult conditions to maintain the purity of the body, contribute to its rest and relaxation. A visit to the bathhouse in field conditions will bring a healthy night's sleep and energize the body for the coming day.
The closed space of the bath, which acts as a steam room, is provided with a fabric or film awning that wraps around a rigid frame made of improvised or factory materials. There is a stove inside this tent. It can be metal or made in the form of a miniature fireplace made of stones that accumulate the heat of its hearth.
Adequate heating of the stones is a prerequisite for obtaining steam for the procedures. To avoid heat leakage, the camping bath must be airtight.
Requirements for the bath in field conditions
For the construction of the structure, you will need a sketch or drawing of a camping bath, the necessary set of simple tools and compliance with certain conditions on the spot:
- Availability of water … It will be difficult to wash without it. Therefore, to place a camping bath, it is worth choosing the bank of a river, pond, lake or stream.
- Presence of stones for a stove or homemade hearth … Their selection must be thorough. It is advisable to choose a material of the same rock with rounded shapes - pebbles or boulders. One bucket of stones for the stove will be enough, and there should be more of them for the construction of the hearth. Non-uniform, chipped, flat and layered stones are not suitable for the bath. When heated, they can burst and scatter into fragments, injuring vacationers.
- The presence of thin young trees … Their large branches will be needed to make the frame of the camping bath. The diameter of the finished poles should be 3-4 cm. You need to think carefully about their fastening to each other. In order not to destroy nature, it is better to stock up on stands and crossbars in advance. It would be correct to use aluminum elements from stalls. They are compact, quick to assemble and lightweight.
- Availability of firewood for kindling the tent of the camping bath … A lot of them will be needed, since the fire will be maintained for at least three hours to heat the stones. The diameter of the logs should be 10-15 cm, in this case they will completely burn out and give off heat to the stones.
Construction of a camping bath
The procedures can be started immediately after the installation of the structure, which will not take much of your time. Let's consider how to make a camping bath.
Frame with awning for a camping bath
The prepared racks of the future camping bath with the stove are tied at the ends until a cube-shaped structure is obtained. For dressings, you can use rope, tape, etc. The ends of the stakes should be wrapped with cloth, otherwise they will make holes in the awning when it is pulled. If you connect the corners of the roof with poles, then these rigid diagonals will increase the stability of the structure.
The covering of the frame must be taken care of in advance, it can hardly be found on site. As a covering material, you can use an old awning from a "Soviet" tent, tarpaulin or a piece of plastic film 6x6 m. Modern tents cannot be used as an awning for a bath, because the material of their manufacture does not withstand high temperatures.
When installing the awning, the places of its joints are glued with tape, and the lower part of the canvas is pressed with stones and sprinkled with soil. This will ensure the tightness of the structure.
The entrance is carried out on the side opposite from the stones, but with an exit to the reservoir - after the steam room, you can dive there and rinse. The frame is ready, you can start building the stove.
Sauna stove in field conditions
First of all, a stove is needed to heat the collected stones. In the presence of its finished frame, it is lined with large stones from opposite two sides with minimal gaps between them. The two sides remain open, they will support traction when burning wood. Then, smaller stones are placed on top and on both sides of the furnace. This will be the "heart" of the steam room.
Now you can start kindling. First, small chips are placed inside the stone-lined oven. With their constant and even burning, the entire cavity can be filled with wood. The oven flame should be continuous and strong for at least 2-3 hours, ideally all day.
In the absence of a ready-made frame, a platform of large firewood is laid in its place. A layer of stones is located on it with small gaps. A fire is kindled, and in the course of its burning, the alternate laying of firewood with the addition of stones is repeated many times until a dense flame envelops all the boulders. Such a bonfire can burn for up to four hours, judging by the video and photo of a camping bath with different options for heating its stones.
There is another way to heat the stones for the bath. A large boulder is located in the center of the proposed stove, and the rest of the stones are superimposed and poured around it. On the resulting pyramid, all the firewood is stacked at once so that they no longer need to be added. When the fire burns out, you can put a frame with an awning and steam.
The stones can still be warmed up over a fire in a bucket or a pre-prepared metal box, and then brought into the bath.
Using the bath in field conditions
A ready-made camping bath can be taken in black and white. The main difference between these options lies in the location of the frame. Black baths are located above a stove or a fire, and white ones contain only stones heated on it, which are rolled into a bath-tent with improvised means.
Let's consider in more detail the features of taking procedures in a walking bath:
- Smoke bath … In such a camping bath, ash and coals are raked out of the stove, and the surrounding space is filled with water. The finished frame covered with awning or foil is installed over the hot stones. Tanks with hot and cold water are brought into the tent. Water can be heated on the same stove. You should not enter such a bath without shoes, since when cleaning the firebox, small coals left on the ground can burn your feet.
- Bath in white … In this bathhouse, the fire takes its original place, and hot stones from it quickly roll along the prepared path into the frame of the bathhouse. Then an awning is very neatly thrown over it, while it is important that a person is present in the bath, watching this process in order to avoid damaging the canvas with hot boulders.
For a good rest in a camping bath, you can stock up on a couple of brooms in advance; in the field, they are not steamed, but simply soaked in cold water. When heating water to moisten hot stones, you can add plants for aroma: juniper, pine needles or lingonberry leaves. They add a pleasant invigorating scent to the wellness effect of the hiking bath.
Finally, some useful tips:
- Hot stones should be poured with hot water, as cold liquid can cause their destruction.
- The camp bath has a drawback - the lowered temperature of the soil. Therefore, the base must be covered with a rug, a layer of dry earth or pine needles with leaves. At the same time, you can put a sunbed, bench or stool in the tent.
- The readiness of the bath for the procedures can be checked by splashing water on the stones. If the steam has filled the space with fog, this means that the stones have cooled down, it will not be possible to steam. The rise of the pair upwards suggests the opposite.
How to build a bathhouse in field conditions - watch the video:
It is unlikely that it will be possible to assemble a camping bath with your own hands without the help of friends. After all, it is difficult to single-handedly install and fit the frame, drag water, stones and chop wood for a fire. While relaxing with a company, you can simply define the responsibilities of each team member for such an event, and things will go right away.
