Our latest section of the Wayfarers Walk was done by the light of a blue moon. Honestly, it really was! Read about it here.
Author: embraceyourinnergoat
The Damson Vodka
In the last post you’ll have read about how I picked wild damsons with the intention to make wild damson vodka. Well here’s how I got on.
This is the recipe I adapted for the amount of damsons I had:
- Freeze (or prick, but that sounds fiddley) 170g wild damsons
- Put the damsons in a bottle with 170g white sugar, 340ml vodka and 3 cloves.
- shake every other day for a month
- shake occasionally for 3 months
- strain and bottle
- leave for 6 months to mellow
- serve as a liquer or over ice
So far I’m about 1 month in, so I’m afraid I cannot yet vouch for whether or not this recipe is any good. I’ll let you know next summer!
L
The Wayfarers pay a visit to Jane Austen
Disappointingly she wasn’t in to receive us… in fact her house in Steveton is no longer there, but we did get to visit her father’s church! Read about this and the other places we came across on the next stage of the Wayfarer’s Walk.
Our knight in shining armour?
Ok well sadly not. We would be very happy if a knight in shining armour did turn up to help out with the washing up, but for now we’ll just have to make do with a piece of his chainmail!
Yes, that’s right, the latest addition to our campsite washing up system is a scourer made of chainmail.
Chainmail scourers are ideal for cleaning dirty dutch ovens. They scrape, but don’t scratch and the food residue is easily cleaned out of the chain mail cloth.
They are easily available online ( for example here ).
We are very pleased with ours. It has been well used over the last month or so we’ve had it. The dutch ovens are now all washed and seasoned and tucked away in the shed… although we’re hopeful there might be more fire food yet, even if camping might be over for the season.
L & R
Camping at Climping
We managed to catch the last of the warm weather when we tried out this new campsite the other week.
It’s a bit of an odd set up – you arrive at a gate with the wrong name on it, and follow the lane past a pretty farm house, then past less pretty farm buildings & parked up HGVs. Keep following the little tent signposts through a timber yard, drive along the fence for the prison, through a field and you arrive at Cuckoo Camp.
The pitches are individually marked out. The provision of your own private water tap for your pitch is contrasted by the requirement to bring your own toilet.
Although we could hear the road at night, we also were able to walk to Littlehampton and along the beach to Climping via footpaths. And yes, we did have an ice-cream and a paddle to celebrate the end of summer.
See how we scored this campsite of contrasts!
R & L
What every campsite chef needs…
This campfire chef has a new apron!
“Life is better under the stars and around the campfire”
I agree!!
Thank you to the follower who gave me it. Better start preparing the menu for our next trip!
L
Putting walking to the Test
On our latest section of the Wayfarers Walk, we went in search of the source of the River Test!
Read all about it and see our pictures.
L
The camping season is far from over
The camping season needn’t end with the school holidays! So far, the weather in September has been lovely for camping and we took the opportunity to try out another new site, Cedar Valley.
It’s a small site, so it felt a bit crowded, but we quite liked it – see how we scored it.
Some pictures from our trip:
We have plans to squeeze in another September camping trip to another new campsite – we’ll keep you posted how we get on!
R & L
Takes the biscuit
I love cooking over the campfire and I’m always up for a new challenge. I’ve done stews, puddings, cakes and bread…so this summer I thought I’d try biscuits!!!
They were fairly successful, but could do with bit more perfecting yet!
L
Don’t forget…
Most camping trips we forget something. Last time it was the coffee. Other times we’ve forgotten less important things like a sleeping mat or the tent pole!
The organised goat learnt from this and has lots of lists she double checks. The less-organised goat doesn’t… and it’s a bit of a worry.
When our top follower of this blog heard about this, she took matters into her own hand and compiled a generic camping packing list. Here it is to help you pack too:
Shelter
- Tent
- Tent poles
- pegs
- mallet
- Gazebo
- Chair
- Bedding
- Sleeping mat
- Sleeping bag
- Sleeping bag liner
- Pillow
- Hot Water Bottle
- Eye mask
Clothes
- Flipflops
- Wellies
- Pyjamas
- Hat
- fingerless gloves
- body warmer or fleece
- waterproofs (including trousers)
- underwear
- spare trousers
- spare top
- Jumper
Toiletries
- toothbrush
- toothpaste
- hair brush
- baby wipes
- deodorant
- flannel
- shower gel
- towel
Miscellaneous
- Lantern
- Headtorch
- Penknife
- Sunglasses
- Sun cream
- insect repellent
- map
- hand sanitizer
- face mask
- water bottle
- phone
- phone charger and/or battery pack
The obvious thing that is missing from this list are food and drink… but those are whole other lists of their own!!
Hopefully now nothing will be forgotten on your next trip either!
Happy camping
R & L (& friend!)
