The Glass of Wine, The Campfire and The Awfully Big Adventure

[notwavingjustironing]

We've all blethered on pleasantly on Seashells' lovely previous thread and, with the school holidays approaching, lots of us are about to start our summer adventures( not all of which are in tents....!) This thread is for us all to check back in and generally keep in touch. So we've packed up our Icey-Teks and our Tarps and our Death Socks, gently doused the burning embers of our planning campfire and rinsed out the wine glasses.

We're ready for our Awfully Big Adventure.

Come and talk about yours here (even if you're staying put!)

Popping back in to pass wine round.
Am sad in a way that I am the other end of the country, as the thought of seeing slubber in her death ensemble will remain a mystery until we're invited to the post-holiday slide show a la nuts in may. Come along now Candice Marie

I have the tent quenelle mentioned last week. It is fab and so quick to pitch and sim in order to get on with FUN. Better still when the children are trained to cook food whilst tent primping is done.
I have two canoes a sevylor Colorado two person inflatable and a tec sport sea kayak which holds an adult with small person in the dry sack pod. :)

Hoping to paddle out early one morning to see the pod of wild dolphins.

Chuffing hell lovecat - words fail me what a set of twats. Fucking nora. Photos are lovely

at world travels by Sal et al. We just keep going back to France over & over again

pmsl at smelly toads & muffs. Speaking of which I need help with bloody mozzies. Admittedly I didn't take any anti-mozzie stuff since I couldn't find it during the packing panic so I have half a dozen bites. No-one else suffers. Tis a family standing joke that this is why they invite me, as it stops anyone else getting bitten. Any tips? The last stuff I bought was mosi-guard since its supposed to be safe for kids, but the tube is unopened (wherever it may be languishing). I'm a bit wary of spraying my skin with loads of shit & chemicals whilst bf the youngest every two hours, day and night

Happy holidays yellow, chippy, lost Le Lavandou really rings a bell but I have no idea why.

We have discovered the joys of camp fires at the weekend . Hoping for good weather so as I can air the sleeping bags to remove the stench. Worked out well as we could pack off a small party of granddad + grand children on wood foraging jaunts a couple of times a day.

Still managed to be inappropriately dressed

JetLi, they don't (the mosquitoes, not the weirdo note campers, though might apply too if you're lucky) like lavender. Either get a good (as in containing proper lavender oil) hand cream, or otherwise add a drop or two to a pot of unscented body cream / butter and apply regularly. If nothing else, you'll have a smooth skin...

I used to think eating garlic and vit B also repel, but I think latest studies said it wasn't actually true.

Here's a link showing recommended repellent essential oils.

Avon Skin So Soft dry oil spray is the business for myself, DD and my horse where midges are concerned, but it doesn't work for DH, so it may not for you. If nothing else you'll have a nice pine foresty smell going on...:)

I was trying to remember the name of the moisturizer that worked, thank you lovecat for putting me out of my misery :)

Another vote for Skin So Soft (must stock up - ebay is my normal source, though elsewhere - yes yes, I'm sorry to mention Elsewhere - on MN people have been extolling the benefits of Avon mineral makeup, so I might have to get a catalogue). It out-foxes Scottish midgies, and that has to be worth something.

Am enjoying tales of seals and kayaks, and quivering in indigation at Lovecat's scary campsite. Makes me resolve only to book site that have a single, cold, standpipe. Am stuck at PIL's all week with DSs while DH is at a conference nearby, so I'm doubly enjoying this thread as a decent bit of escapism!

Hello again

I'm back. From Spain, the country that rains in July. Harrumph.

so now I'm counting the days until my proper next holiday, camping in Wales, well Bala Lake to be precise.

Tell me that I'm not so unlucky that it will rain there? Surely there's Karma in enduring rain in your only overseas week's holiday?

Have been catching up sporadically with you all, Lovecat you're a braver woman than me to drive all that way to Cornwall for abuse about your tent! Did you not drag them in and show them your tealight chandelier?

Am enjoying tales from abroad too.

With regard to mosquitoes, I am the queen of getting bitten, only for the first time ever this year I came home without a bite. I bought a wristband on the plan going out on the recommendation of a friend which I thought I would give a go to, nothing else ever having worked.

It was brilliant. I came back chomp free. I'm assuming you can get them here, but there is a website too

this is the page on Amazon

Bet this link won't work.

It was weird packing for a beach holiday. There just wasn't enough on my list . Camping gives full rein to my list making abilities.

I will don the full Palpatine suit upon my return. I may even wear it on the school run, socks tucked into trews so you can see it 'in motion' in the playground.

Jet, as you may have gathered I have been reading up a bit on repelling biting insects . I thought this link was interesting. I even found the product in Holland and Barrat....mm...possible just slightly less expensive than liquid gold.

The bits about colours and perfumes that attract insects I have taken on board. I ALWAYS get eaten alive and dh is left untouched. I wonder if some of that is down to the perfumed products I wear (shampoo, body wash, moisturiser etc etc) where as dh just does soap . Am also going to try to pack light coloured non floral clothes.

I am only taking Simple (no perfume) products with me, some LifeSystems non DEET repellents and of course the death clothes and a treated mossie net. Will feedback on how much I get munched!

Hi notwaving

Totally SUCKS the rain in Spain.

You will SO have a hot and cloud free holiday in Bala. Oh yes. The gods of camping karma will hear your prayers.

Slubber < waves madly> I am currently sitting in the middle if dutch cool tent heaven. The one a couple of pitches down from me has so many guys it looks like it has tassels! I have a question though, if I went to the Nethelands now would it just be one deserted wasteland? In the Alps everyone was Dutch, all the people in Italy were Dutch and you can't move on the roads for cars with NL on the licence plate. Have they all abandoned the country?

We were just near La wotsit on the French coast until this morning, just round the corner in Sauney sur Mer, stunning area. We are in Mersault now at a beautiful campsite in the middle of vineyards just us Welshies and apparently half of Holland! We are on the homeward stretch, should be in the UK at the weekend. I'm torn between staying on holiday and the temptation of my own bed!

I think the Netherlands must be empty right now because all the Dutch who aren't in Italy, France or the Alps are in our offices right now, doing weirdy time/motion studies to help us to do better... Not sure why all the project peeps are Dutch, they're very lovely, but we can't help muttering about them as we know there'll be redundancies coming out of this...

Notwaving, you will definitely get camping Karma and have a lovely sunny time in Bala. We endured four days of monsoon weather at Latitude but had a week of gorgeousness in Cornwall. It WILL happen :o

Oh yes notwaving, you will have an amazing time in Bala and the sun will shine all day, we might come up and join you! Karma will work, we had planned this holiday fir two years and the night before we set off DH and I got a sick bug which proceeded all around the DS's as it poured for about the next 7 days, once we got to Italy we were in the only bit with glorious weather and it has stayed with us. You'll get your good bit.

lovecat - love the tent. some folk have no taste.

bramblechooks - where are you kayaking? The DC and I were ogling a sevylor hudson on the beach today, a 3-seater, it looks the business.

losty - tis lovely round these parts

DS2 got a few bites, but I have a horrible feeling that the culprits were bedbugs in our overnight stop rustic B&B. It's put me off a bit, might stick to chain hotels on the way back, for their superior fumigation regimen.

Hello all!

I used to get eaten alive by midgies. I had the good fortune to marry dh who seems to be preferred by all manner of biting insects and I now escpae relatively unscathed . Now the insect chomping karma will surely bite me on the arse in the Lake district after sniggering at dh!!! Sorry JetLi that doesn't help you a lot as I am not prepared to lend you dh for your next camping trip to stop you getting bitten - selfish I know - so maybe the other suggestions will help!

notwaving sorry about the rain. I fear we are going to have a similar fate as so far Wed is the only day showing without rain. Although admittedly in the Lakes that is less unexpected and also given that the forecast changes everytime I look at it I will not be banking on anything too heavily!

We have just come back from a truely fantastic day at Longleat. Not sure if any of you have ever been but if not I would highly recommend it. I was dubious before because it cost £75 for the 4 of us which is probably more than twice any other day trip we have had plus it was a 2 hours each way trip from my parents. But there was so so much to do and see and the boys had a fantastic time. Well worth it.

Anyway I'm shattered so off to bed soon as tomorrow we have our last day with my parents and sister and her family before heading off camping!!!! Yippee! (although I will be sad to leave my family of course)

£75?! I heard Legoland is really expense too, I've got to make use of my free dc admission whilst they are so young

Lost-if you happen to pass through NL and they truly are all in France can you do a smash and grab raid on obelink and nab me a bell, tarp and inner before hot footing it back to blighty tell me if it's worth a trip?!

Bramble I saw that saveyor kayak today outside a shop-it looked good! How manouverable are they?

Kayaking is the new camping LOL

Seashells, I prefer my hardbody for maneuverability but am hankering after a shorter one. Will report back properly if tomorrow's planned coastal oddessy comes off ok.
Dinner at posh restaurant tonight - himself got to have spacedust as part of his pud.
Keep bumping into india knight who is holidaying here. Have kept schtum. Don't want her to think I'm a stalker.

I really want to get the sevylor kayak in decathlon that's reduced to £99 at the minute. Trouble is dh will throw a fit as we already had to buy a high side kit for the trailer and I'm rapidly filling it up.

bramble, where are you holidaying again?? Off to search upthread, I feel as if I should have brushed my hair before typing here!

My spelling was awful in that posts, sorry, made worse with autocorrect!

I look forward to reports :) I used to whiter water kayak but live in the perfect place for sea kayaking...

Is Kayaking suddenly hip? It's just that every car we passed in Coirnwall and Devon seemed to have one or more kayaks attached to the roof/on the back/in a trailer... DH seemed to be pining for one, at one point...

Although given the issues we had with the roofbox when in transit, I'm fairly certain DH doesn't want anything strapped to the roof again, ever. The damn thing whistled like someone blowing a descant recorder shrilly in your ear when we went over 50mph. However it stopped when we went over 100mph (I know, I know), so DH started treating the trip out like some middle-aged version of "Speed"... we gaffer-taped the beggar on the return journey and it was much reduced, but there was much muttering and swearing in the interim... bizarrely enough we were stuck in traffic going home so had rolled the windows down when a car-with-roofbox went past on the other side of the road whistling like a kettle... we must have sounded twice as bad to passersby!

We are in sw Cornwall
Our sevylor is the Colorado - chose it as it as different air sections and is double skinned. Don't forget you will need paddles too - a whole new range of kit options is openig up!
No canoeing today, just drop knee surfing on lovely polyurethane laminate boards, dressed entirely in rubber

our childhood holidays were similar as we had a boat on the roof (imagine a tortoise with wheels and that's what we looked like) and off course it would whistle like mad once we were on the motorway, especially if dad forgot to put the bungs in!

Re kayaks-they are everywhere down here. More than surfboards I'd say. Everyone seems to sail/kitesurf/surf etc PLUS have kayaks for fun. I think Ds is too young still but can't wait to get him on one :)