Have you ever been camping, ever wished you’d been camping?

Primary Induction

I was introduced to camping at a young age. I went to Twineham Primary School, where ‘Fletch’, our headmaster, always took the top two years camping in the summer (are you allowed to do that these days?!). We always camped in pairs, and here I can be seen with my friend Hayley holding the lovely sign we’d made for our tent – we called it “Hot Chocolate” – ah, those were the simple days… We went for the best part of a week, and I still remember many local walks, learning to appreciate the environment around us, and many evenings sat round the campfire toasting marshmallows. At home, with my brothers, we were always building fires… and rickety shelters in the woods which probably wouldn’t have kept us too dry…

Guiding

I was a very devoted Guide (as I understand many still are), and used to enjoy going camping with the Guides (as Brownies we’d had to stay in village halls, etc., so this was a really exciting step up!) . I took every opportunity to go camping – and look at those old school tents (suspect they now all have the ‘easy to put up (but not quite so easy to repack into the tiny bags) tents’. Before heading out on my travels I started the path to becoming a Guide Leader, and enjoyed helping to look after the group whilst camping… all those meals over a camp stove, searching around for wood, emptying the toilets (lovely) – I managed to avoid that one one year, as I was badly stung by a wasp and had my arm in a sling for 3 days – just ensured everyone else was doing it right!

Global Travels

Following Voluntary Redundancy, I decided I’d had enough of ‘playing it safe’ jobwise, and decided to experience the big wide world, in a trip encompassing South-East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America. A few opportunities for camping – and I’d always dreamed of doing the Inca Trail, and that finally came true (a couple of weeks later than planned, but that gave me 2 more weeks to enjoy New Zealand – really, 8 weeks isn’t enough!). Despite the fact that I ‘traveller’s sickness’ the day before, I was determined I was going to complete the Trail.. I just accepted that I would probably be the last in the group, which I was most of the time, but we had a great couple of guides who would come and chat to us. Another chance to experience some fine open air camping… and no need to put the tents up ourselves, as the porters on this trip were AMAZING (and I have to say cooked, in tents, some of the most amazing food that I ate in South America), taking down the tents after we left, trotting past us with gas cannisters and trays of eggs balanced on top, setting up tents, cooking food ready for when we arrived for lunch, taking them down and repeating the process (with sleeping tents) at our evening’s destination. The photo here is on a little ledge, near the one place on the trail that you can have a shower (sheer bliss, but really not worth the effort to be honest!), with a stunning view, and from where we would be woken at 4.30am in order to see the sun rise over Machu Picchu!

European Travels

On returning from my travels around the world (some experiences are making their way onto here), I signed up as a Tour Leader to take groups around Europe, the longest being 29 days around something like 15 different campsites in 8 different countries…. I really enjoyed it, and I think all the guests did too – aside from the up/down/up/down nature of move-along camping, and trying to race against the thunderstorm to put the tents up! The previous year I had travelled as a cook with the same tour company to a campsite near Barcelona. The photo that you can see here is the result of a very unexpected event – a whirling tornado. I am standing in what had been the ‘kitchen’, from which most of the utensils had disappeared (thankfully not hurting anyone badly as they zoomed across the campsite), and behind me is the space where my tent had been and a couple of other collapsed tents! The tornado struck around 11pm, when I was trying to sleep, hoping that I would wake up in the morning with all the storms gone… but no… suddenly I felt rather exposed, as my tent flipped over, and as I sat up, my airbed whirled into the air… never to be seen again. We then spent the next hour or so running round the campsite trying to rescue everyone’s possessions from the tents, and dumping them in the washrooms nearby, before sleeping in the disco for the night. The next day, the campsite disappeared under acres of washing as everything had been soaked through… and we all pitched in to get the tents back up (only 3 were irreparable)… by 2pm we were having lunch and it was a bit of a distant nightmare… but every time that the wind got up…! The company now uses a different/less exposed campsite – went there last year!

Tutorial on Preparing

Camping is really fun and enjoyable when you want to spend your days outdoors. You can go camping with your family or friends and make unforgettable moments in the mountains or in the woods. If you’re a beginner looking for a tutorial on how to build a camp this article might be helpful to give you some information. Here is a list of some steps you should take when you decide to go camping. Read full story.

More?

We’d love to hear about your experiences of camping, good places to camp in the UK, basic equipment you’d recommend (not my eye mask in Spain – crucial!), and indeed, stories of what you’ve done for a ‘Super Fun Day Out’