Our Fat Airics have arrived and while a full review will have to wait until we've used them in the wild I just thought I'd mention that they do in fact inflate all on their own. Self-inflating mats do exactly what it says on the tin. Brilliant!

I was a little sceptical I have to say, having never used anything like this before, but our Fat Airics have gone from wafer thin as packed by the factory rolling machine to fat and comfy in about an hour (see the picture on the left, the bottom one is inflated, the top one has just come out of the packaging). All we did is take them out of the packaging and undo the valves. It's true they could do with a bit of a top up but apart from that they are more or less inflated. No pump needed. What a revelation!

We've rolled them up (which took about 2-3 minutes) and re-inflated them and they filled much faster the second time. They are really quite comfy to lie on, although that's just trying them in the lounge, a full night under canvas might be different.

Unfortunately the Ready Beds we've bought the kids still need to be inflated so I'll still need to pack a pump, but it'll be nice throwing the Airics into the inner and letting them get on with it on their own while we sort other more important things, like that first cup of tea.