Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Camping

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

Laid back but taking no shit, only Schnitzel...

441 replies

SeaShellsInTheMoonlight · 13/09/2011 08:38

sorry, my phone ground to a halt on the other thread this morning!

I hope you found me :)

OP posts:
MisSalLaneous · 16/09/2011 21:12

[grain] losty. It's the happiness spilling over. Yes yes, I'll come with my axe. Any excuse.

lostinwales · 16/09/2011 21:18

Oh I want to take my bunting on holiday again [sigh]. We meet my parents every two years in Brittany so we had planned to get the ferry to Santander next year and then take 10 days to camp up to see them but my mum has now decided 'now lost will travel we should find somewhere to go that is further away'. Not that I would never travel in the past, I think she forgets that I've spent the last decade looking after small children. Anyway small rant but I wish she would decide where they will be so I can start formulating routes and lusting after different campsites. God I'm getting camping withdrawl!

brambleschooks · 16/09/2011 21:29

I have a mate who lives near Bala who is a chainsaw trainer and has a wealth of axes, so you're on. [grain]

MisSalLaneous · 16/09/2011 21:42

Yes, half the fun is in the research, hope you'll have your target area soon.

Camping topic's gone all quiet except for us. You're not all going to disappear in 3 weeks, are you? We could do virtual campsites, I can do some photoshopping and even give you photos of action...

lostinwales · 16/09/2011 21:55

If I go quiet it will only be if I'm hiding from the chainsaw trainer Wink

I honestly can't believe the camping season has passed so quickly, still think we will get one last camp in this year. Plenty of fleece and torches and we'll be fine. [hopefull emoticon]

MisSalLaneous · 16/09/2011 22:00

Oh yes, I'm also hoping to do one or two more. Any idea where you'd like to go? We're away over weekends until late Oct though, so timing sucks a bit. I can't not camp for another 8 months though! Shock

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 08:22

Morning all.

Sal I have just scrolled through your De Waard photos. I'm going to have to find the De Waard brochure to find out which one you were in. Awesome tent and site looks lovely too. I would be interested in finding out if there are other sites like that in Holland where you can take your own tent.
I announced to dh that in early 2013 he and I are going to Amsterdam for a romantic weekend break and on the way back we will be buying an Albatros. And he didn't say no! This is progress indeed.

losty I would be up for a meet up in Bala! Did you guys get any further with the meet up plans?
notwaving how did your trip there go? Did you go to the stuffed animal cafe?

I am just the same about planning. I love it. Was looking in the big Alan Rogers book on the drive back from Hull at French campsites for 2013.

I feel an ABA debrief coming on. You will have to indulge me.

brambleschooks · 17/09/2011 08:25

Yy to aba debrief.
Am v glad you are on mn as I have just done the chick dash to wake them up wearing only knickers and a tshirt. Hope new neighbours were having a lie in.

2013 .... Noo, I think you need annual commemorative trips - whats on the agenda next yr.? Papua new guinea?

brambleschooks · 17/09/2011 08:29

Oh yum she is mighty beautiful. I was a bit concerned the translation software named the first tent 'titlark'. That would be real wild camping.

JetLi · 17/09/2011 08:45

Morning. Wet & 'orrible here. Sore throat as well. Bloody kids and their bloody germs...

Welcome back slubber Grin

How are the bums this morning Funtime? Drapolene fan here for sore bots.

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 08:57

Awfully Big Adventure Camping (mostly) in Germany debrief.

So we stayed in 10 campsites in total (plus two other stops in guest houses), 8 of which were in Germany. I had very mixed feelings about German campsites but on the whole dh and I would love to go back and see more of Bavaria which was very beautiful and while we were there very hot.

Good points: all bar one site (where we turned up, took one look, and then quickly departed), the facilities on the sites were exceptional. Immaculate wash rooms and lots with family bathrooms which makes suge a HUGE difference to showering yourself with two children. Little things like one or two basins set lower down so the girls could easily and independently wash their hands after going to the loo. In several of the bigger sites there were specific Kinder bathrooms with fun showers, little loos etc. My girls actively WANTED to go and wash Shock

Apologies to those reading this who experience all this as par for the course when you camp abroad. We are so used to three loos, three basins and a couple of pay showers in N Wales. It was like like entering a whole new fantasy world of camping facilities.

Also good were other facilities, like excellent play areas, pools, shops, restaurants etc. These are not deal breakers for us but certainly the dd's were VERY pro sites with pools.

All the sites seemed v hot on night time and early morning quietness, no music playing, recycling-am undo, and general civilised and polite behaviour all round. Plenty of them had a mid day rest period where the gates were closed to cars and new arrivals.

On the bad side: well I may have mentioned it a few times but in Germany at least camping in tents is a rare and exotic activity, mostly left to youthful backpackers.
We were very very surprised at how few families we saw camping in tents. Because of this we found that the sites are very much set up for caravans and motor homes. So much so that as tent campers we were not allowed to book in advance, frequently had to pitch on hard standing (thank GOD I bought the rock pegs), were often directed to the arse end of the site and to tiny pitch areas and in a few cases not allowed in at all.

Most of the sites had large areas devoted to seasonal pitches.
{{{ snobbery alert }}}.
These were rank upon rank of rows of caravans, all with permanent awnings attached (with drainpipes and everything), then gazebo attached to the awning, picket fence or hedge planted around the whole thing, gnomes, solar lights, exotic gravel lay outs etc. Some had garden sheds built on the pitch.
Hundreds of them.
The last site we stayed at had 700 pitches, 500 of which were given to the permanent caravans (I only counted us and one other tent on the whole site).

This in my opinion gives the sites a totally different vibe to what we have gotten used to in Britain. We felt at times a little like imposters, straying on someone else's patch. A 'you're not from around here' feeling. Not at all what I am used to wrt "camping"

Interestingly probably my favourite site was in Freiburg had the lowest key facilities but had a really great atmosphere, we got chatting to lots of our neighbours, and it was the most tent-ified site we stayed at. Predominantly backpackers and families in tents.

When we go back I will just have to mentally prepare myself for a different style of camping. We are spoilt on the Lleyn with big open, pitch where you like around the outside sites. But then I'm never going to be able to shower again in a tiny little cubicle without wistfully remembering the underfloor heated, gargantuan, immaculate, free power showers we got in Germany.

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 09:05

The Austrian site was the snazziest of all (piña colada memories). And when I got chatting to a couple who had stayed at quite a few sites there they said that all of them had been exceptional and rather special. I would love to go further east towards Salzburg, but that is a LONG drive from the UK.

Lichtenstein was just bizarre. beautiful but bizarre.
Here is a price example: most days at all the sites we would buy some bread rolls. Cost per brochen in Germany: 30-40 cents. Cost per brochen in Lichtenstein: 1 euro 20 cents.
Dh and I dare not look at the credit card to see how much our two nights cost there. Will prob be more that the guest house nights.

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 09:10

Bramble 2012 is olympics year. We have tickets and everything.

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 09:12

Hiya Jet. Sorry you have the lurgy.

Thank you so much again for finding those De Waard addresses for me. Was a big treat at the end of the holiday.

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 09:36
notwavingjustironing · 17/09/2011 09:56

Sorry all didn't get back on last night. Have skimmed posts except adventure ones which I will settle down and read properly later.

Yy to meet up in Bala though!

Back later after childrens parties and swimming

lostinwales · 17/09/2011 10:31

Lovely posts slubber, sometimes we forget this is all about camping! We were on one site in France where there were mostly 'mobile' homes, with sheds! Fortunately there was a separate field for the poor relations which was spacious and chilled with lots of Dutch people and us and had a really lovely vibe. I'm very jealous of the facilities, we will have to do a trip in that direction at some point, we never got past the relatively basic facilities in France (but still a lot better than the ones in Wales!)

I've never, ever fancied a holiday in Germany and that area but you have made it sound really tempting. How did the death socks and sandals hold up?

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 11:26

It's a different sort of camping holiday losty.

At Bodensee we had some traditional relaxing holiday type days of lounging around by the (crystal clear 20degrees) lake in the sunshine, reading and then taking frequent dips to cool off. There are certainly enough lakes in the south states of Baden-Wuttenburg or Bavaria where you could do a straight forward drive, pitch, stay for two weeks and chill out and then home type trip.

The big forest areas were something else though. They are so well set up for walkers and cyclists, with paths and distances mapped out (and even on some signs no of calories burnt for each different route). If you wanted to combine a bit of lazing about (or naked spa action) and a bit of energetic physical activity (not in the naked spas) then I reckon Germany is an ideal destination.

Just a bit of a shame that the flip side of having pristine and fabulous campsite facilities is rather sterile and souless campsites (imo).

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 11:27

[grain] a SWF tevas.

Mine are outside airing.

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 11:29

Absolutely NO idea on the maths streaming question sorry.

thought Ada Lovelace was a character in Harry Potter

lostinwales · 17/09/2011 11:54

Prepare to be educated as I had to look it up on the internet for DS1's homework so the rest of you can suffer too.

Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate daughter of Lord Byron, but was brought up by her mother after they divorced. Her mother made her do maths from a very early age to counteract any madness that she might have left in her from her father. She was a mathematical genius and when working with Charles Babbage (inventor of the first ever computors) she wrote the first ever computer programme. (how to work out Bernouli numbers, don't google as it is far too complicated). She was also best friends with a girl called Medora who was not only her cousin but her half sister. When you've worked that out and stopped going [boak] try and imagine me explaining that to DS1 when he read it on wikipaedia [grain] I so wish he was in Fibonacci stream!

Slubberdegullion · 17/09/2011 12:20

cor

She sounds pretty cool. I'd be happy to be in her stream.

That Byron was a bit of a bounder wasn't he?

scaryt · 17/09/2011 15:39

Ada Lovelace sounds pretty cool. Lord knows what it means with regard to streaming though.

I'm rewarding myself with a quiet 5 mins surfing after doing homework with Y1 DS. Dear God. WHO invented homework. Ridiculous. I may be a teacher but I have a pathological dislike of homework. Apart from reading. (I know that sentence is grammatical tosh my brain is frazzled.)

Slubber I have to say you've made Germany sound really appealing which is a first for me. It really does sound like a wonderful ABA. Do you feel like you've had a rest AT ALL? 10 campsites in one holiday sounds loads.

My man Tony from Skoda came to look at my crack (my word, that sounds rude) and declared we'll need a new windscreen. So my lovely car will have to go back for a day. But at least it will be sorted. He'll even lend me his car for the day.

Lake Bala sounds fab next year.

notwavingjustironing · 17/09/2011 15:50

I'm supposed to be building lego skeleton warriors but I've escaped for five minutes. Wouldn't it be great if we could get together? Imagine the laughs round the campfire! WHY does it have to be so far away time wise?

Sorry to hear about your crack Scary.

brambleschooks · 17/09/2011 15:56

Sorry about crack.

I have been shopping with dh, but was thinking of iceyteks! My bf caravan freak has texted to say she has bought a tent. Oh yes. Am messiah of tenting.

Am daughter of world famous prof of mathematical thinking (wf in his field!) so feel your streaming pain. I have had it all my life. I was subject to 'screen dumping the chaos series of Mandelbrot designs' when computers first came into the home in the 70s. I just wanted to play pong.