One problem we always have when we go away is keeping stuff cold. Well in particular keeping the beer and wine cold. This may seem odd, we have a Campingaz Cool Break 23l coolbox and what seems like hundreds of freezer packs so what's the issue? Well we're rubbish at remembering to keep recycling the freezer packs. Taking the defrosted ones up to the campsite freezer, retrieving the frozen ones and putting them in the coolbox. It's just not our top priority and to be honest it doesn't really matter. The only thing in the coolbox that really needs to be cold is the milk, which we tend to buy (cold) each day and use it before it's had a chance to get  warm. The beer and wine on the other hand tend to be bulk purchases which sit in the coolbox for days, so even if they were cold when they went in they're not not when they come out. Once they've warmed up then no amount of freezer packs can get them back to a nice chilled temperature.

So what's the solution to our problem of warm beer and wine? On our last trip the solution was to camp 1/4 mile from a rather pleasant pub with a playground (The Smugglers Inn in Osmington Mills Dorset in case you were interested). That option limits us to a rather small sub-set of campsites though. So a more generic solution is required.

The next option is an electric coolbox. No more freezer packs having to be taken to the campsite freezer and swapped. Just plug it in and there you go it's just like the fridge at home. This option then ties us to sites with electric hook-up (EHU) which is something we're not really that keen on. Firstly it limits the campsites we can use to those that tends to those with defined plots, rather than 'camp where you want' campsites which we prefer. We could plug it into the car of course but having seen and heard several cases of people flattening their car batteries I'm not really happy with that solution.

Another possibility is a solar powered coolbox. This is like the EHU coolbox but instead of plugging it in it has a solar cell that keeps it cool. In theory this is a great idea. After all what you're trying to keep things cool from is directly of indirectly the heat of the sun. So the time you want the most cooling is when the sun's out during the day in the evening and at night the temperature drops and so there is no need to cool things down. So having the sun power the cooling makes perfect sense. Unfortunately there a re few problems with the theory. The first is that it's quite hard to find a solar powered cooler, in fact the one the left is the only one I could find and is only available in the US. The second problem is that solar cells are quite expensive, the coolbox on the left is $250. So I don't think the solar powered option is sensible.

I don't really know what the ultimate solution to our cooling issues will be, it certainly won't be something we'll solve this year. I guess that gives us all winter to research the various options, expect lots of 'cool' blog posts to come.