First trip of the season

The car is half packed and the spag bol is made, and tomorrow, straight after the kids get home from school, we're heading off to go campin. It'll be interesting to see how my new tent works out!

I test pitched the tent last week and was really disappointed that there was a little bit of damage to the groundsheet. I considered going through Vango to get a replacement, but the reply to my email was to take it back to the retailer. I rang the Scout shop and they said the process could take weeks. The damage is small, so i'm going to repair it myself.

I'd like to take enough things with me to be comfortable this weekend, but at the same time I don't want to take too much. It's always the same old quandry. I'm only going for 2 nights, but our needs are the same as if we were going for a fortnight. Food, warmth and entertainment!

My sister and co are joining us for an afternoons walking followed by a takeaway, so I really only need the suitcase stove for heating up the Spaghetti Bolognese for the first night, and heating the kettle. We won't have EHU which is a pity because I'd have liked the use of the heater. We have got a gas cartridge heater but you can't leave it even for a second, never mind go to sleep with it going.

Of course we need beds and bedding. It's April so we'll need extra blankets and warm things to wear in bed, as well as socks and hot water bottles.

We need chairs to sit on and I'll only take one table which we can use to cook and eat on. I'll not take the cupboard because I'll only find things to fill it with.

I need to buy Washing up Liquid.....and I think.....that's all!

introduction

I always have to start somewhere. It might not be the most informative post but at least it gets me going. Apparently I can add photo's and video to my new blog, but I've no idea how. (I'll get there though)

I've been camping for 6 years, but it's more accurate to say I've been camping on and off since before I was able to walk. In days gone by, camping took place in a huge canvas tent with brown and orange curtains that took two people turning the air blue to put up, and needed a trailer for transportation. I hated the process of 'going'. I prefered it when we'd got there and everything was in place, then I could start the serious process of widening rabbit holes with my plastic spade in the hope of catching sight of one or two of them.

Camping nowadays take place with two fairly reluctant male children who would rather stay in a 5 star hotel. Now they have a radio instead of games consoles, and the loo is a five minute walk away. If it rains (which it invariably does) they're miserable, bored and hyperactive.

This year, camping is going to be a whole new experience. We've got a new tent on order from the Scout shop. It's a Vango Icarus 500, part of Vangos new weekend range but for me it will serve as a longer stop tent.

We've also got new sleeping systems in place. No more sleeping on a cold, flimsy Readybed. It's double height, stable edge airbeds with layers underneath and sheets on top and a 2 season single XL sleeping bag on top of that again! Well all that is for me. The kids are on new 73cm airbeds, with mats underneath and new Royal Mummy sleeping bags. Elan might be in his own 'teen' tent too, in which case there'll be all the more room inside for all the camping gear which seems to be on the 'must have' list this year!