Considering I moved house, again (about 16 months after my previous house move), in August I actually managed to get quite a lot of camping done in 2018. I also had a busy year this being my second year of freelance and so the pressure is on and work comes first. The upside of self employment is that I can sometimes skip off early on a Friday and as long as I have some of the camping gear already prepared I'm good to go. Self employment is great though, yes there is pressure but I do every day what I love, which is Land Surveying, making maps and exploring old buildings, measuring them for the customer to carry out their project be it development or for restoration.
2018 was the year I was asked to 'cut the ribbon' and open a campsite. I think I was asked to do this on the basis of a very large Facebook camping group I set up a few years ago and perhaps for my blogging. A lot of campers and caravanners do seem to know who I am, people come over when they see me setting up at a campsite to say hello and they often recognise the Bell Tent as much as they know me. I did not think that that anyone from the tourism industry would know who I was and so when I was asked to officially open the campsite I wondered if they'd got the right person and I was a little embarrassed but chuffed to bits.
In September I gathered a few of my camping friends and we went to Hillfoot Campsite near Limavady. I elected not to blog about it for once, I'd taken hardly any photos anyway and also when you are with other people they are not necessarily comfortable being mentioned on a blog. However it was a brilliant weekend camping and having a few glasses of wine and we even had a sing-a-long. I took the Quechua Base Seconds again which is the tent that looks like a large green egg. I took it because rain was forecast and it, being all polyester, is much easier to dry than the Bell Tent.
Looking forward to 2019, I bought this a few years ago from Ebay as a retro tent from the mid eighties I think. I have yet to use it. So my first plan is to use this tent and give a review on it. It is a officially a three person tent so it should be perfect for me and the dog.
My intention is to go to new places in Ireland. I am keen to go to the mid Ireland region and have singled out Battlebridge Campsite as a good base. I think the Wild Atlantic Way is getting a bit too popular and now suffering from overuse. The lakeland regions of Mid Ireland have a different type of experience to offer and may be the next 'big discovery' - I'll slip in before the hoards start going and have the place to myself. This might take place at Easter.
In July when I more or less have to take two weeks holiday in line with others in the construction industry, I am hoping to go further afield, while still staying somewhere in Ireland. I also hope to get lots of weekends in too.
In my new house (which is a permanent move THIS TIME) I have designated Bell Tent storage space and I hope it will be much more efficient to just pull out the camping gear and go on impromptu trips, which is my favourite type of travel as I do like to look at the weather forecast and it it is nice, just go.
I will go through my camping storage in a future blog post.
Happy 2019!
