among other smaller purchases we bought a new tent which hopefully serves us well as home for the next tour.
the big agnes slater UL3 seemed like a good compromise of a free-standing tent and a luggage friendly tunnel tent. i previously used a big agnes jack rabbit 2 for my solo-long-distance-bike-rides and shorter 2 person hikes. i liked the jack rabbit durability and design (it is about 20cm longer then most competitors like MSR, which allows me to have a big pillow and still not touching the tent limits). in scandinavia and some parts of north america i used a tunnel tent, which was great to hide out a rainy day, enough space to store all my gear and even cook inside the vestibule. the slater UL3 is a 3 person tent, which should give us plenty of space inside and store all our gear in the vestibule.