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Camping

Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

Original poster

A glass of wine sat around the campfire...

951 replies

SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion · 30/06/2011 14:49

so I am fed up with the rest of MN (this whole mamazon shite really is the ,last straw), so I am assuming that if any of you are trolling you are showing extraordinary persistence by delving into the thrills of iceytec and are worth chatting to.

So anyway, hi, I am SeaShells, I have 2 dc and have been camping and trapsing through the Great Outdoors all my life. I hang out here as my love of camping is more a love of the countryside and life, and you lot have a similar outlook.

< admires well made fire and tastefully arranged logs with throws>

OP posts:
Slubberdegullion · 02/07/2011 08:37

Morning!

We are going camping today. LOOK at that sky

Slubberdegullion · 02/07/2011 08:37

Bad luck about the cold scary.

Slubberdegullion · 02/07/2011 08:39

Salome, funnily enough I have had far more relaxing tent pitching experiences doing it wil just another woman. I wonder why that is?

RantyMcRantpants · 02/07/2011 08:53

Morning all :)

Sat having brekkie with the 2 littlies. DH and eldest are still in their pits. Though DH didn't get home from work last night till 11.30, so he has an excuse, left home at 7am.

Lost sounds really brilliant. Would love to do something like that, could handle 1 night without EHU Grin

Salome What a fantastic idea for fundraising. How did it work? Did everyone pay so much for camping? Looking for fundraising idea for our school at the moment. Did they have to have a liscence for camping at all?

BorisTheBold · 02/07/2011 10:12

Morning all,

Am gutted we're not camping this weekend, the weather is brill down here. But on the bright side, we're going to a bbq later today and dh is marinading the lamb and making a cheesecake as I type .

Waves at SeaShells - thanks for the tip. We quite often walk the dogs around the edges of the Roundhills site, as it's only five mins away by car. The kids are really excited about going, I'm a bit meh as I've got my return to work from ML between now and then Sad.

Funtime woohoo any Wynnster owner, was starting to think I was the only one!

Lovecat - Weils not good, but am jealous at your Decathlon visit and intreguied about the Base Seconds. I'm quite keen to get one, but haven't found anywhere local ish which stocks them so I can have a look.

Salome - what a great idea. Wish our school would do something similar, I'd be up for it.

Scary - hope your cold improves.

MisSalLaneous · 02/07/2011 10:16

Good morning. Such fabulous weather for all of you off today!

Salome, that camp and fry-up sounds great. I read the newsletter of ds's school (next year) a while ago, and it mentioned that they couldn't repeat the annual camp-fundraiser on the grounds due to something like health&safety /insurance. How sad, but then I guess you get some weird people sue-happy leading to this.

scaryt · 02/07/2011 10:34

Thanks for the lemsip kitten and the well wishes ladies.

Enjoy your camping slubber would be jealous if it didn't feel like I was swallowing razor blades.

So, if you had to choose what's your FAVOURITE (singular) thing about camping?

Funtimewincies · 02/07/2011 11:05

I WANT TO GO CAMPING TOO Sad!

Dh is going abroad with work at lunchtime and won't be back until next Saturday, so 2 more weekends missed Angry.

And it's sunny which has been a rare commodity here the last few weekends.

lostinwales · 02/07/2011 11:19

Morning everyone ooh that's better I was bursting Grin.

Had a lovely lie in which I wouldn't have had if we were camping, I'd earnt it as DS1 had his taster week at secondary school and I had to get him to the bus by 8am every morning and I am NOT a morning person.

DS3's spots are going down and he's in a better mood (thank god!) so we are going to spend our not camping weekend getting the kit perfected for our big adventure in a fortnight. I may be weird but I'm really looking forward to going to Boots and putting my first aid kit together, what do people think are essential items? (bite cream/insect repellant/calpol etc?)

ScarletOHaHa · 02/07/2011 11:21

Got tent ready for 2nd camping trip in summer hols. DH has bought me a plastic glass that you have to assemble a bit. Problem is I like drinking out of glass but don't like washing up. Is is bad form to drink out of the (large) wine bottle?

Oh got smores ready - caramel digestives with melted marshmallows.

lostinwales · 02/07/2011 11:22

Salome I'm fine pitching with another woman but pitching with someone elses DH always makes me feel a bit rude I think it's all that inserting poles business Blush.

Lovecat · 02/07/2011 11:34

Yes, I am looking at the sky and fighting the urge to sling the tent in the car and GO!!!

DH has only just got back from being pampered in 5* luxury at his conference in Windsor, and is leaving tomorrow night to go and do the same in Normandy, the house is a tip and I need to do washing. But would still rather be camping.

Lovecat · 02/07/2011 11:35

Ooh, x-postings - what are smores and how do you make them? That sounds wonderful (in a very calorific carby manner)....

Funtimewincies · 02/07/2011 11:35

Steri-strips lost Blush.

Funtimewincies · 02/07/2011 11:38

Smores! I've not them in years! Toasted marshallows squashed between the biscuit of your choice lovecat to make a sort of sandwich.

Called smores because you always want s'more (geddit Grin?).
Chocolate Hobnobs work for me!

lostinwales · 02/07/2011 11:42

Thank you Funtime, I sense a story behind that one?

Can I have smores even if I'm not camping?

Funtimewincies · 02/07/2011 11:50

Grin lost. Yes, I have a 4 year old who will find the sharpest/highest/hardest/most stupid thing to injure himself on. I used to be a qualified first aider and he's keeping my hand in Hmm.

Smores can be grilled or BBQ'd too Grin.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 02/07/2011 12:10

My favourite bit about camping is when dd has gone to bed and its me and dh with a bottle of wine sitting outside whispering or reading in the light of our lantern. lovely.

spray on plasters are great for camping grazes. also antihistamine cream for bites and stings.

scaryt · 02/07/2011 12:49

Spray on plasters, seriously? How did I not know these exist, they sound like magic. Grin

Ah that evening drink whilst taking in the night air, lovely.

scaryt · 02/07/2011 12:51

Just googled spray on plasters - brilliant!

Funtimewincies · 02/07/2011 13:00

Another vote for a first evening drink. I also like waking up and looking at my dc sleeping. We don't co-sleep at home but are all in the one room in a tent and they look so gorgeous and snug. True, I am talking about 5am as they're usually awake by 5.30am Confused.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 02/07/2011 13:00

they are genius! especially when you've got a child with a wriggly knee.

MisSalLaneous · 02/07/2011 13:04

scaryt, have been thinking about it, and my reason is spectacularly sad and not even something specific - the "thing" I like most about camping is being forced to go back to bare basics, away from all the things we "need" at home.

We're a very (extremely) high technology use family at home, and I like camping where we don't have that temptation. No quick solution to / urgency to do things. No need to answer phones or panic if WIFI down (oh yes, that's you lunatic dh). It's easier to switch off from work stress etc completely when the scenery so completely different. I don't take my BB camping, whereas as home I check if e-mail notification.

I like being able to just climb over tree trunks, look for bugs, eat around the campfire, bleary-eyed morning coffee with scruffy hair. Slow days.

The problem with all of the above is that there are only so many tiny campsites where I can go an pretend I'm a wild woman in the woods...

scaryt · 02/07/2011 13:05

There is nothing as sweet as the sight of a sleeping child.

Do the spray on plasters really just gradually wear off? It almost seems too good to be true. We never have plasters in and DS is more of a bruise and graze kind of child. But the one occasion he got a cut at school the plaster was so welded to his skin after a week that he now will do anything to not have one!

lostinwales · 02/07/2011 13:13

What MisSal said Grin

That's exactly what I love about camping. Unplugging the children from the mains and sending them feral. That amazing sense of relaxation when there's no TV/laptop/mobile signal. In our field by the beach I relax so much I can't even be bothered to read, I just sit in my chair smiling benevolently out to sea (and that's before wine!) And the stars, I can sit for ages just staring up at the milky way. My bestest friend and her husband have just bought the field two fields up from the campsite, right on the edge of the beach so we can camp whenever we want without unknown (or even known but not particularly liked!!!!!) children spoiling the peace.