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!)

5ofus can you possibly wait till next Sat ? I have the perfect,delightful and not remotely crap setup to tell you about but my brain might just combust if I try to tell you about it on a kindle in a foreign country with a bottle glass of wine on board ........

Thanks Seashells .

scary - we go here every now and then. It's big enough that you can phone up once you know the weather report, toilets and showers and plentiful and clean and pitches are flat. There's a playground and shop and bar, although we don't bother using either of the last two so deliberately stay at the other end of the park and couldn't say what they're like, quality-wise. Most importantly, there are loads of things to do in the area . Good, basic, child-tolerant site.

'are plentiful' . And I've not had any gin yet !

Mmm, smoky chicken. You can buy sachets of applewood chips to smoke stuff with in the (normal, kitchen) oven, from Lakeland. Always wondered about them.

Am procrastinating because, having put DS2 down upstairs (i.e. NOT on my lap, downstairs), I am meant to be making the most of this temporary calm to buy my tarp. In Dutch. And if that fails, I'm getting the Tatonka one.

Thanks notwaving. Next Sat will be OK. We aren't off until 12th Aug! It had better be a good 'un for the build up

I'm overdosing on German campsites. I have a large list of places around Lake Constance and they ALL look incredible, They offer all sorts of awesomeness like massages and horse riding and childrens' bathrooms with itty bitty low down sinks.

I'm normally not a facilities person but bollocks to simplicity. I want a camp site with a special DOG SHOWER (despite not taking the dog).

Smoking on the cobb is tremendous...even works if you use fewer chips (therefore reducing the signals sent!). YUM

Have ordered shiny new campingaz bivouac kit. Saw one in Decathlon today (£44 without the pan) and it was lovely...came home and ordered off ebay for £22 with the pan. Yay. With that and the cobb I am sorted for the festival.

Thanks for the campsite recommendations, they both look like just my kind of thing. Will definitely try and do a couple of trips in August. And possibly the NM camp.

notwaving - hope your weather improves immediately.

Slubber - dog showers gosh, they are posh sites. I'm more likely to get giddy about massages and horse riding.

Been out in the garden testing out borrowed airbeds and putting tent and tarp up again. I know it's just a crappy tipi but I do love it and it's so easy to put up.

Yay for bivouac kit, Scary! I admit to not having tried mine yet, but we're meant to be going off for a night to break the DSs in this week, if the weather holds. Maybe we should have a separate thread for Clever Ways with One Saucepan?

Well, I have ordered my Obelink tarp in Dutch! I think I prefer WinkelWagon to shopping cart. This is the tarp that Obelink denies all knowledge of in English, but it miraculously reappears in Dutch, French, Spanish and German. Since they didn't actually say 'you can't have it, you're a Brit', I filled out the order on the Dutch site, and I've had an email back from Mr Obelink, addressed to Mvr. Reshape, confirming my order. So. Let's see if it actually turns up.

The whole Obelink not selling to us (because of Belltent if I'm right - they have the UK right?) is most annoying but loving all this multilingual-ordering-whilst-crossing-fingers-legs-and-toes and the arrival of covetous canvas. Marvellous.

Clever Ways with One Saucepan sounds like a fab thread. One that I would glean wisdom from rather than contributing though. Being the total camping numpty that I am.

Yes, it does add a certain Russian Roulette feel to placing an order. I can see how easily it would be to order a tent just to see if it turned up. Canvas Roulette.

I'm a bit anxious about camp cooking for DS1, because he's a fussy little beggar and doesn't like pasta sauces, or 'mixed up food' . He's only 3. He'll cope with pesto on pasta but that's about it. What he really likes is a hunk of unadulterated Meat. Not sure I can run to that while camping - certainly not on one gas ring!

DS went through something similar at three, I can sympathise. Refused granary bread because it had bogies in it. I thank the lord every day he got past that!!!!

Canvas Roulette...brilliant.

Bogies! DS1's been picky since he got over the whole 'BLW baby will eat anything' phase. How smug I was. And now I'm just grateful because he consents to eat pasta at last. DS2, on the other hand, is still at the eats anything stage, though I'm quivering at the prospect of doing BLW in a pale canvas tent...

If it gives you any hope at all. DS was BLW weaned eat it all type. Me = smug. Then he went through the Mighty Fussy stage. Now we are back to eat it all stage. Chose gammon at the carvery the other day because he hadn't had it before and fancied trying something new. Not that gammon's that exotic - more the trying something new....you know what I mean.

Slubber - that german grand prix looked mighty cold today... when do you & the Death Socks go on hols?

My DS1 would have found the idea of bogies appealing. He certainly gets through enough of his own. Yes, it's foul to watch and yes I've asked him not to eat them in public.

Also loving canvas Russian roulette. Seems the most farcical system but the added will it/won't it certain adds a certain frisson to the whole experience. You never get that with amazon.

Jet, we go two weeks yesterday. We only have 3 sites along the Rhine booked so far, so if Germany proves to be a bit on the chilly side then we just keep heading south. Switzerland, Italy, Malta, Libya... I am GOING to have a hot camping holiday this year and don't care how far we have to go to find it.

Met Office update for Cala D'or

wet and windy with a high risk of a hangover

on the other hand am now intimately acquainted with my Kindle which I absolutely adore!

Sal you were asking earlier up the thread about whether it was easy and it really is. Although I would have had no idea what to do if Chippy hadnt told me. Its miles better value for money than the iphone abroad ie free !

how on earth did i post twice ? the sun is shining today and i did not start drinking at breakfast time !

hahahaha notwaving you big lush you

Surprise 5m bell tent is a HUGE success. Loads more space than 4m (although by the second morning still strangely looks like someone has picked it up and given it and all its contents a good shake and run off laughing).

We spent the weekend in the sun at Park Farm [scary wild west camper emoticon]. Much more civilised than it used to be - even has paper in the loos these days - luxury! And no horizontal fireworks or midnight rally driving - we were truly spoilt.

Reshape - hurrah for Russian roulette tent/tarp ordering. Crossing my fingers all goes well! If you get yours I might go back for a bit of canvas accessorising myself. An inner tent might be an ideal place to hide the chocolate biscuits from a sugar crazed DD.

Off to ebay 4m now (well after work).

I've finally booked us a long weekend in Shropshire for the middle of August. Dh can't yet be tempted to longer trips but it's taken a much shorter time to bring him round to the camping way so I can't complain.

Still sunny

Wine has now been consumed

(don't forget we are 5 hours ahead of you )

Sounds lovely notwaving!

We spent the morning on the beach, back home to cool off then back out at 4pm. I'm going to miss this once I go back to work

Current lot of visiters are from the top drawer of guests-they even bought the curry last night

So, 4m bell you say...

5 hours notwaving....where are you again??
I reckon you are just drinking round the clock like a true brit abroad. Are you going to foam nites at the local discotheque and eating sausages, beans and fried bread for breakfast?

Oranges, you know you have started a trend here with 'let's just see if it works' Obelink shopping.

Shropshire is beautiful SeaShells. We camped in the clun valley this year and it was just stunning.

I'm still likiing the 'lets just see if it works' approach to shopping although dh isn't going to get it I am more than sure!!!

Well I have been off work today with a monster headache. Its cleared up for the last hour though so I am in bed searching for Cobbs - you have suckered me in! I honestly thought I had bought all the camping stuff I could need but I have to say it looks fab. I also covet a 58cm cast iron skillet with 3 legs for campfire cooking - it looks great. Having 2 boys who also don't like mixed up cooking I'm not sure how sensible it would be though! If I make noodel stir fry type things all in a wok together they moan they don't like it. Use EXACTLY the same ingredients but keep noodles separate and they love it. Same with pasta - sauce off - lovely. Sauce on - tantrums and moaning. Not good!

Pmsl at bogies in bread too. Both boys have always eaten bogie bread but ds1 (5) recently went through a phase of turning his nose up at it. Thankfully that seems to be over now though.

I have been boring sensible and not ordered any of it though. Not least because we are heading to Mum and Dads on Friday before going camping and it probably wouldn't arrive in time. Saved in favourites though and will check out again!

Someone was talking about camping uniform up thread? Mine consists of jeans / shorts depending on weather and then vest top with long sleeve t-shirt over if cold plus fleece / hoodie if even colder. Flip flops / wellies on feet depending on levels of wetness. And no makeup or hair straighteners - getting back to the basics of not having to give a shit is one of the things I find really refreshing about camping. Although I will probably take basic makeup (concealer / blusher / mascara) for days out to civilisation to avoid scaring small children.

I'd be well up for the one saucepan thread. I've got a fab noodle recipe that I can check out later if one saucepan could include a wok. Also a lovely lemon chicken and couscous moroccan one. I'll try and find them later