The Best and Worst from your 2012 trips.

[SeaShellsOnTheSeaShore]

Best-ds (2) absolutely loving camping we also loved Roundhill in the new forest.

Worse- the novelty of short tempered aggressive new forest ponies is seriously wearing off. They are little shits (I prefer the donkeys!)

Oh, I forgot to add-best bit of kit-our Cobb, dh is in luuuurve

Worse bit of kit-probably my lantern, which only hangs, it can't be stood on a table top. It also is not suitably storm hurricane like :)

Best - DD's face when we unzipped the tent one morning to find Fallow deer grazing a foot away. Barbecuing sausages in the sunshine. Gin in a tin and chatting round a real campfire.

Worst - the pissing, never-ending, syphilitic rain at Latitude. Someone nicking our haybale overnight at Bedgebury.

Best bit of (glampy) kit probably the fake leather folding seat/ottoman I picked up for a tenner in a closing down sale, which acts as seating, storage and a coffee table.

Worst - Tesco Windbreak - totally un-put-up-able and ugly too.

Actually I've just noticed the title says 2012 - you got a time machine, Seashells? :o

Seahells matey, we haven't had 2012 yet.

but best: friends with kids all under tarp in N wales eating pancakes from the cobb.

worst: chronic pork induced constipation in Germany, and running out of camping gaz

Arrrrrrgh!!! I have spent all day writing frigging 2012

Kit.
Best: camping gaz bivuoac stove or the icey tek. they are both winners

worst; umm, probably the foldable coleman camping pillows that have gone all lumpy

oh dear

um

tipex?

I wish!

Worst: Spending a good hour discussing sites, telephoning sites, googling sites, and eventually booking and paying in full for 3 pitches on a site for a weekend at the end of July, for DP to then say "I'm working that weekend - did I not mention it?" No you did not mention it you idiotic twat
Best: So we went anyway & DP drove the 2 hour journey back home & did the overnight slot that weekend. He arrived back Sunday morning & DD1 (aged 2) went hairing down the camping field at full pelt shouting "Daddy, my Daddy, my Daddy, my Daddy" just like Jenny Agutter in the Railway Children you could hear the collective "Awwww"s from every direction. He said it was worth going to work, just to get a welcome like that when he came back.

Best purchase: Bellend tent Gin in tins
Worst purchase: Hmmm, this will need some consideration I think.

Ignore them Seashells, they don't know what they're talk about. The internet says so.

Was a good year for camping, wasn't it?

Best:

Kit - Frontier wood burning stove. Also Gransfors Axe.

Experience - sitting around the campfire in a quiet spot of woodland, drinking a smokey coffee first thing in the morning. Looking like hell. Not caring. No rush. Applies to any year.

Worst:

Kit - Well, didn't buy much this year, so can't really think of a 2011 bad buy. However, for previous years, I've got a never ending list: Cheap cool box, wind-up torch, How much time do you have?

Experience - Throwing boiling water over my hand one night, realising we forgot first aid kit, spent the whole night awake pouring cold water over the towel wrapped around it.

Oh nonono, just remembered one that was worse: Actually cutting the hole in my tent for the stove. Nerve wrecking.

Best

Kit
This stove - just seems jus heat stuff really fast - esp useful for coffee required first thing!

Also a gruffalo sticker book which keeps DS (20mo) quiet enough when he wakes at 6.30 to stop us being lynched by our neighbours......

Experience
God so many - well getting DH to agree to camping in the first place (without being too sappy I really do think its helped get our marriage back on track by getting us to spend proper time together - its good for the soul this camping lark!)

Watching the charletons at Galtres festival while DS slept in the carrier on DH's back and surviving the mud there.

Watching DS's sheer simple joy at jumping in puddles with his wellies and splash suit on during very wet weekend in the lakes

Worst
Kit
2 for 15pound folding chairs have had had 2 sets and dh has broken the arms on them both in just one use - rubbish!

Experience
DS crying pretty much constantly one weekend as the poor love was consitpated - didn't realise that at the time and I had a near breakdown after forgeTting to take my medication (for pnd) and deciding he just hated me.... (Poor DH!)

MrsMc82 - that is a very sexy stove! I'm with you on the good for the soul lark

Best:

Kit - my fab new pop up tent (although I reserve the right to change this once I have actually tested it outside rather than on the floor of our sitting room!)

Experience - sitting drinking gin in a tin (on the night I took the boys away on my own for the night) in the sun while the boys charged around a field on their bikes.

Worst:

Kit - my shitey mc-shite cheapo cool box from Asda. Still, on the bright side, it has probably helped my case to get an iceytek

Experience - Camping in the pissing rain with dh and the boys in the lakes while our neighbours got hammered and shouted and swore until about 1am. if I'd had Sals axe I'd probably be in prison currently...

at your 'My Daddy' story Caveman

Best experience - dcs frolicking in the buttercups at Low Wray
Worst - ticks

Best bit of new kit - tick tweezers (dh over the moon that he actually got to use them )

Tell me about the gin in tins, please.

I just discovered gin in a tin this year Elderberry - ready made G&T in a can. Fantastic item!

Yellow, give me a shout, I'll come with you next time

In the drinks section in supermarket elderberry- g and t, ready made pimms, vodka and whiskey and coke etc....bliss :)

After much research ElderberrySyrup we have discovered the best priced gin in tins is at Home Bargains - generally a quid for 2 shots of Gordons, avec Schweppes, ready mixed Also available in most major supermarkets. Greenalls do a version as well, and Beefeater although I haven't seen theirs for a good while now I think about it.

Best- pitching in the alps and walking down to swim on the most perfect blue lake surrounded by mountains and realising we were so far out of our comfort zone but it was amazing.

Worst
DH going snorkelling in the med with our car keys in his pocket a week later.

Best kit, 4.2 pop up, worth every penny.

Worst kit? Too minimalist to waste time in crap kit (the bunting's ironic ok?!?

best - arriving end of road, beautiful sunset, randomly meeting dss, just in time to hear beirut
worst - putting tent up after beirut in pitch black and snapping two poles, living in drunken heap of polythene all weekend - did keep the rain off though, top marks outwell

thanks for info re gin in a tin.
I think I'll do some systematic tests over the winter, ready for next season

Oooh gin in a tin could be a "Mumsnet swears by"!!!

Can't wait for 2012 camping!

This was the first year in ages we have not camped, as one of our best friends who we camped with died in April and it didn't feel right without him.

Best camping memories - loads of us playing silly games (adults & kids) around a real fire, under the stars, after a huge curry!