I have only done it a couple of times, a long time ago and I hated it. But now I'm wondering if I should make some changes...

[Cappuccino]

after spending 100s of pounds on staying in a cottage which was decidely all right

and not getting any sleep cos the kids woke at dawn

so I have questions

1. do you actually get any sleep?
2. are a lot of campsites disabled friendly ie with toilets and showers and that for dd1?
3. (dh's question) are they full of worthy hippy types who will want to speak to you
4. how much does it actually cost?
5. can you really just set off into the sun or do you have to plan endlessly?
6. will it kill us?

(oh should say re the recorder-we are often the only people in the field. So it only disturbs the cows [qink] )

I'd be willing to go to Fillydora campsites. Until the girls are old enough to manage their own rucksack and we can hike way back into the backcountry!

[http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/guides/camping/story/0,,2074831,00.html heres a good place to start]]

have always wanted to camp in canada in particular though. Also would like to camp again in scandinavia, can't beat that

oops

Well I think it is the height of bad manners when people open their car doors and put the stereo on full blast, but people do do it and I don't generally ask them not to because I'm on holiday and don't want to get into a row.
But it does tend to raise my blood pressure and I don't blame people who don't go camping because of that sort of thing.

Maybe it's the kind of campsite we go to then, if other people haven't experienced it

ah yes, i kept that.

r4 or r3 is fine. it's what burbles away in my head anyway.

Ah, YES! Have camped a lot in Alberta and BC - fabulous time! Not the toilet/shower block kind, though. That's not very common in those parts.

I have no problem with the hippy folky thing I'd just like to point out, it is dh

recently we went to a kids event where there was folk music and people sat around hippy like and I was watching dd2 playing in the sunshine and thought, this is wonderful, this is what it's like to be alive

on discussing the event in the evening I discovered that at exactly the same moment dh was thinking 'what is the fecking point of this? what am I doing here?'

you see?

LOL Cappucino

Tell him the point is that the kids are happy and so he gets to sip wine in peace and quiet.

ah yes

not usually a toilet/shower block at filly sites

maybe a portaloo and a solar shower...

three ah yeses. that's a triple jinx. race you to the next lamp post or you're IT.

I own a shovel and a solar shower, Filly, complete with the thingie you can hang from a tree to make a little shower stall!

1. Yes I always sleep really well when camping due to the mixture of mulled wine and lots of fresh air.

2. I don't know sorry.

3. We go to Great Langdale and there is a mix of people but they all tend to be very friendly as we go to the family field.

4. www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-global/w-localtoyou/w-northwest/w-lakedistrict-feature/w-nort hwest-lakedistrictcamping/w-northwest-lakedistrictcamping-langdale.htmLangdale is £4.50 - £4.80 an adult and £2 for kids a night plus £1 for the dog/

oops pressed preview to check links work and now can't read your questions - back in a moment!

1. You can't book at Great Langdale but you do need to turn up early.

6. It will not kill you in fact our famiy was going through a real rocky patch and our shared love of camping was one of the things that bought is back together.

I agree about borrowing stuff, we have just leant all our gear to some friends who are camping although I am not sure if it was a valid test of camping in this weather.

We don;t really plan, all our gear is in the shed ready to go and if the weather looks nice we head off after school on Friday.

expat my dad had one of those solar panels when we were kids. he was obsessed with alternative energy sources, though. his compost heap made it up to about 140 degrees apparently!

martianbishop we once ventured away from Great Langdale to a farm campsite to meet lots of drunken people in football shorts, we won't be going there again.

"I own a shovel and a solar shower, Filly, complete with the thingie you can hang from a tree to make a little shower stall"

feck me you are SORTED

pls join me in non-roofrack-owning camping.

I think I am the only person to take just a small tent, 4 x sleeping bags, and £50 in my pocket. Oh and a bin liner.

Twinset, are you telling me there are NO drunken people in football shirts at Great Langdale?
If so I am going to have a word with dh about where we go next time, I think....

If we're car camping - the lap of luxury! - then we make room for the two burner stove complete with cowboy coffeemaker.

Never laughed so hard as when we 4wheeled it to some 'campsite' a friend knew of in Fremont Canyon, Wyoming, and our pal threw a metal shovel into the ground and said, 'There's the turd shack.'

kathy WHERE are you finding these places?

we were on a campsite a few days ago and there was a bunch of young lads who kept us up til TEN O CLOCK telling jokes and toasting marshmellows.

They were the talk of the campsite the next morning and several people went over to their tents demand apologies.

Kathyis6incheshigh we have never met loud drunken people in football shirts on the family field of Langdale.

They are all dh's favourites from when he used to be in the university hillwalking society.

We are going to Glenridding this w/e but have had lots of loud drunken people there in the past. I got v stressed last time because some of them were having a campfire (strictly illegal) and I was scared it would set fire to our tent and incinerate dd.