Last weekend we had a Northern Ireland Campsite Forum Meet with some faces new and old. We met for the first time the lovely ladies Melanie and Mel, with their beautiful daughter Brook. John, Claire and her husband Stephen, and Stevie made up the rest of the small meet. I managed to get out of work a little early and drove the hour and a half to the campsite. We were staying at Hillfoot Campsite between Dungiven and Coleraine. The weather was great with beautiful blue skies showing Benbradagh Mountain off at it's finest.
I brought my gorgeous Bell Tent and had it up in no time. I had a fairly stress and effort free set up as I had been careful with the amount of things I brought. I did however, go a bit heavier on the glamping this time as I wanted the tent to look nice for visitors. I went for a Native American type theme with Navajo printed fabric and bought a new duvet cover to match various throws and scarves that I already had. The cushions are from my sofa at home.
On the Friday evening the beautiful warm day transformed in to a beautiful cold evening. Luckily the campsite has a cottage for campers to use which provides a living room space with a wood burning stove. I had devised a Table Quiz of 8 rounds with a music round provided by yours truly on the guitar. I sang and played the first two lines of 10 songs including Bob Marleys Three Little Birds, Adeles Someone like you and Leonard Cohens Hallelujah. Half a point for the name of the song and half a point for the artist, and I accepted cover artists.
The 'craic' was mighty, the quiz went down a storm and afterwards we did some singing with me playing guitar and various people having a go at singing.
On Saturday John, Stevie and myself headed up to Portstewart for a walk up the promenade and a cheeky drink in the Anchor Bar at the head of the town. Grabbing a Chinese takeaway on the way 'home', we took to the cottage again for another night of music, singing and craic.
The weather turned bad overnight between Saturday and Sunday but we were aware of the coming rain with John giving us regular updates from his phone, and so it was possible to choose a slightly drier half hour to throw the camping gear in the car even though I'm home with a wet tent.
Even with that it truly was a great weekends camping trip and I am looking forward to my next camping trip which is our annual 'big' holiday, which this year is in the Lake District.
