The joy of camping

Having been put off camping by the one guide camp I attended in my youth (sorry!), I was eventually persuaded to try it again once our children were around 9-11 years old - and suddenly loved it! I'd been worried about how to manage cooking, washing up, keeping the smalls occupied etc. but discovered that with the use of a spacious family tent (complete with porch!), camping stoves, sites with washing up facilities etc. everything I'd dreaded wasn't an issue. A few years after we stopped camping as a family, my younger teen was keen that the two of us should go camping together, so off we went with our tiny tent and a gazebo for a weekend. That went so well we bought a sensible sized tent (my condition for going again was that I needed a tent I could stand up in), and that - as they say - was that!

Within a couple of months we had a set of three stacking boxes which contained just about everything we needed: pans, cutlery, chopping board, kettle, first aid kit, torch, fairy lights, mini tables, and goodness knows what else! It was absolutely perfect, and made packing for future camps unbelievably easy. We even had a coolbag stocked with pasta, a couple of tins of soup, a jar of pasta sauce, and small pots with salt and some seasonings so that we only had to buy fresh things. The summer of 2019 was wonderful - our first camp was in late March with frost overnight (brrrr!), and last was in September (a very blowy south Wales), and we loved every moment of it. Teen was adept at getting everything out of the cupboard and ready to load into the car once I was back from work so that we could set off on Friday evening for our weekend's adventure. And then I got ill. And Covid happened.

All in all, we haven't managed to go camping since that Welsh weekend three and a half years ago. So you can imagine my delight when a few weeks ago Teen suggested that we should go camping this summer, and sent me links to a bunch of potential sites! I didn't need asking twice, and shortly thereafter had booked a site for the late May bank holiday weekend. The weekend before our camp I got the tent out to check it was all in good condition still - the original plan was to pitch it in the garden, but as it's the size of our lawn, that didn't quite happen. Still, I made sure that the poles were there and hadn't been damaged in either of the house moves since it was last used, found a mallet to put in the tent bag, and checked we had enough pegs with it. Yay!

I can guarantee that last Friday, in the hot sticky late afternoon slow-moving start-of-half-term, bank holiday weekend traffic, I was the happiest person on the entire M6; I did not stop smiling for the 2 1/2 hours it took me to do the 1 1/2 hour drive to collect the Teen. And off we went! We were later arriving at the site than we'd intended, but got there just before sunset, and the tent was up and sorted within 25 minutes of our arrival. Less than 20 minutes after that, the campfire was burning. There may not have been any opportunity for Teen to practice her campfire-starting skills over the past few years, but she's even better with a flint and steel now than she was last time - and takes great pride in scorning such things as matches!

What a weekend. Perfect weather, wonderful company, a beautiful peaceful site, lots of relaxing, and a bit of walking. We lay outside stargazing on the first night, and I actually had my first proper night under the stars ever, as I slept in my hammock and Teen had their rollmat on the ground next to me. We were woken just after 4am by the sunrise and the wodnerful dawn chorus, but neither of us had any regrets - just a nap later that morning!

One of the things we always do when camping together is walking: often a short walk one day, and a long walk the other. So Saturday afternoon we found a 3km circuit which went along the south Lancaster Canal past some locks - and having spent most of Sunday feeling very lethargic and lazy, we decided mid-afternoon that actually a walk would be good. Teen found one which sounded good, albeit slightly longer than my stated maximum of 6km, as it said 6.4km in the description. I decided I could probably manage the extra 400m, so off we went to White Coppice to do a lovely circular walk with some little waterfalls. To my astonishment, although the first couple of kilometres were difficult, once we'd got past them I coped absolutely fine, and the stunning scenery more than made up for the exertion!

Saturday afternoon walk

Saturday sunrise

All too soon the weekend was over, and it was time to strike camp. We pride ourselves on being considerate and tidy campers, and as usual the only sign that we'd been there was a slightly flattened area of grass from the tent, and a couple of patches of somewhat singed grass where the firepit had been standing. Leave only footprints, take only memories as they say - and what wonderful memories they are!