First night (in my new hammock)

First night (in my new hammock)

Viking Lars | Saturday, 6 July 2019

I've been looking for an addition to my tent - not as such, but in fact an alternative in the shape of a hammock for some time. I've spent many nights in my cheap garden hammock, and nothing beats sleeping under open skies. Unless it's raining, of course. Hammocks seem to have had quite a revival over the last years, and new developments have sparked my interest - not least after I looked into it and saw all the hammocks that come with dedicated tarps.

My choice fell on the Amok Equipment Draumr. Amok Equipment is Norwegian and in Norwegian, Draumr means dreamer, which in short is a very suitable name for this very corfortable hammock. I'm not particularly tall, so my version is the standard Draumr - it also comes in an XL-version for taller people. It's a different hammock and it's generally very well thought out, and I'll try to cover some of the details here.

First of all, what really sets it apart is the fact that you lie perpendicular to the hang-direction. In other words, draw a line between the two trees you hang the hammock from, and you sleep perpendicular to that line. This enables a flat lie, which is imperative to me as I most often sleep on my side. Another thing that sets it apart is the need for a mattress. Amok supplies a mattress that of course fits perfectly, and to me at least, some sort of insulation in a hammock is always needed, at least here in Scandinavia. The mattress also gives some lateral stability to the hammock. From what I can read online, the you can use other mattresses as long as they 1 - fit the hammock, of course and 2 - have the airchambers running the length of the hammock, not across. That means that for instance Exped matteress should be good.


The hammock is fast to pitch - it took me only around 10 minutes the first time and that includes inflating the mattress, which comes with a nice "bag-pump". I think there were only around 2,5 meters between the posts where I hung my hammock the first time. This is another added benefit from lying across the hang-line. I might have gotten away with slightly less, but not much.

Apart from a very comfortable sleep, I think the most important feature is the built in bugnet, which is very easy to deploy. Simply take it out of the storage pocket and zip it around the hammock without getting out, and you're secure from bugs. There were plenty of mosquitoes where I slept. An elastic cord keeps the bugnet away from you and gives plenty of room inside the hammock, making it feel almost like a floating tent. The head- and foot ends are raised up to near vertical by cutting a couple of sticks, placing them in dedicated, small pockets. This prevents compression of the sleeping bag, and adds free space inside the hammock, which is just one of the cool, well thought out features (check the first picture, where the stick is visible in the foot end).

Up in the corner, where the hammock hangs, you'll find the pocket for the bug net on the left side, and a storage pocket on the right side, with plenty of space. Below these, close to you, are small pockets on both sides for wallet, phone, tablet etc. And on the left side, between these two, is a bottle pocket.

Below - mouse-over for a vew of the opposite side.



As mentioned the hammock also comes with a tarp, but I didn't pitch that since I, as you can see, was hanging under a half-roof (surrounding a reconstrcuted iron age farm). So I've yet to try that, which I'm looking very much forward to.

Have a great weekend!

Lars