Camping

We've been camping in the New Forest, for a couple of days, along with our friends Claire and Tom, and their 2 year-old girl.

This was our first camping trip as a family. The last time Pat and I went camping was about eight years ago, back when we would sleep through the night without having cold little hands and toes and excited squeaky voices to drive us out of our sleeping bags. We would go for walks and cycle rides, take long lunches in the pubs, go to the beach and attempt body-boarding/surfing before returning for a BBQ and a few drinks with friends. We had a 3-man pop up tent, a limited supply of camping equipment, and lots of time on our hands.

Oh, how different things are when camping with children!

We made the decision to sleep seperately, so that we could each be with one of the kids, in case of night wakings and confusion about where we are, leading to waking up the rest of the campsite.

At some point, last night, I woke up because I really needed to go to the toilet. Instead of getting up, I decided that I'd try to hold on, because I didn't want to walk all the way over to the toilet block. I also didn't want to wake up my son.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get back to sleep, and I couldn't ignore the need to go. My brain teased me by suggesting different scenarios about how to creep out of the tent without waking my son, and which tree would act as an accomplice to my deed. It was still very dark, so I knew I had a long wait.

Eventually, I couldn't wait any longer. I  s..l..o..w..l..y sat upright, found my torch and inched my way to the zip of my pod. He was still asleep. Until I pulled the zipper and suddenly he was awake, sharp as a pin, and wondering why Mummy was in plank position halfway across the tent floor. So he started to whimper. In a loud whisper, I called Pat, both to detach my son from my leg, and to help me find the zipper to the tent entrance. At this point, my daughter woke up and started crying because she was confused and worried about why her brother was crying. In the meantime, I staggered out of the tent, torch in hand, and feeling very desperate, I made it to my pre-planned tree, did what I needed to do, all the while aware of the fact that I had woken my family, and my family were now waking up several other camping families. It was also at this point that I realised my torch was a beacon to moths, midges and also allowed anybody who did happen to see what all the noise was about, to see me crouching by a tree next to a tent with two crying children and the father speaking in theatrical whsipers about "Mummy just needed to go for a wee, she'll be back in a minute - look, she's just by that tree there - can you hear her?"

Bloody hell!

All this, at 3.45am. I should have just used the potty.

The thing about camping, is that it doesn't have any surprises. Would anyone really be shocked to be woken up by other people's children, when sleeping inside a piece of nylon, in the woods, during a period of good weather in the summer holidays?

No.

On the other hand, how would you feel if you awoke to see a horse nuzzling your noodle bags?

 Yesterday, whilst we were out, a couple of opportunistic horses decided to raid Claire and Tom's tent. Quite formidable, considering it was completely zipped up. The horses have learned how to unzip tents, enter and inspect before inviting their gangs to join in the fun. In this case, they changed their minds when they saw the marmite ricecakes and Upsy Daisy books.

Now if they'd broken into our tent, they would have found wine, mayonaise, and crayons: Party Time!

We've had a great time exploring the campsite, cycling across Balmer lawn, playing at the stream, and being headbutted by a hornet. Yes, really.

We really did have a lovely time. The kids enjoyed themselves, particularly the cycling and strangely, the washing-up. I guess it is exciting when you have to carry your dirty dishes across the road to a communal washing area, instead of just putting it on the worktop for your parents to deal with! 

Thank you Claire and Tom for a lovely weekend!