survived my first solo camp!!

[dylsmum1998]

hi all took out my brand new Vango this weekend for its first camp- and i went by myself with dc, never done this before.
and it was great
children loved it and didnt want to come home.
i'm mighty impressed as i managed to put up the tent by myself no probs. and get ds's bike on the bike carrier on back of the car as well. xp always did it befpre and told me i'd never manage it by myself.

tent withstood all the weather this weekend has thrown at us. was mighty impressed when it didnt blow away last night.
ds's only complaints were he got hot in the night and couldnt stand up in the tent.

so pleased and cant wait to go out again

Well done!

I really want to take my 3 camping, was supposed to be going with h but now hes left us i thought we would'nt be able to go.

You have inspired me, maybe i can manage alone.

Where did you go?

Well done.
If you every did need help whilst camping I think other campers /caravanners are a helpful lot.

we went to st nicholas-at-wade, in kent.
its only about 40 min drive from where i live, so if it was horrendous i could get home easily. also we were able to pay daily so no wasted money if we decided to come home early.

I'd say go for it, how old are your dc?
mine are 2 and 9

They are 8, 6 and 3. Just a bit worried about getting the tent up on my own as it has always taken 2 of us. Guess my eldest ds is old enough to help though.

Did you find it lonely once they were asleep? thats when h and i used to chill out and chat.

can you trial run putting the tent up in the garden before you go- i dont have a garden so took mine to nany and grandads to play.
ds helped a little with putting up the tent- i need him to hold one end of the pole while i bend and hook in the other end. iyswim. then i involved them both with passing pegs round to me( mainly so i knew where dd was). i can manage rest of the tent myself, but poles is tricky by myself

no i didnt find it lonely when they were asleep- i went to bed too! i was as tired as they were, apart from last night when i couldnt get off, so i laid in bed reading my book and scoffing crisps

You know, i think i'm going to try it, if we don't venture to far from home like you i'll feel like i have a get out if it all goes pear-shaped!!

Why should the kids miss out because of him??!!

Think i will wait til the weather improves though!

thats exactly what spurred me on to do it.
i asked xp the other week if i could borrow some of his camping equip- i was short of a few things and he said i could. then text me a bit later and said i couldnt borrow it because i told him i wanted to go on my own. so i thought bugger you kids arent mising out bnecause you want to be an arse. and managed to scrap the few bits tpgether i needed.
i now have an ancient but fully functional cooker and kitchen stand. my mil broought secnd hamd 20 yrs ago. and still works and got some bargains round town getting the rest of what i needed

Fantastic - hope you feel really proud of yourself.

Where are you going next time?!

we're going to N. wales in august for the week, my sis will be on tour there in august and her baby is due 29 july so she'll have had it by the time i get there the first week in august, hopefully!
although may go some more local places on any nice weekends before then