Vegetarian camping feast

26 September 201918 September 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / Leave a comment

I love preparing the menus for our camping trips, but I was a bit stumped when I needed to devise a vegetarian menu for whole of the bank holiday without using mushrooms or any citrus or apples!!

After a bit of pondering (and internet research)… this is what I came up with:

Friday dinner

stir fry with noodles (why have I never cooked this when camping before? I bought ready prepared packets of vegetable stir fry, some stir in sauce and dried instant noodles – a super fast supper, perfect when you need to eat fast after getting all the tents up!)

pineapple pan pudding (one of my dutch oven staples)

Saturday breakfast

shakshuka (basically eggs poached by simmering them in a tomato sauce)

freshly baked damper bread

Damper bread cooked in the Dutch Oven

Saturday lunch

macaroni cheese and salad (cooked in the Dutch oven)

Saturday dinner

dahl and naan bread (dahl is a cheap, easy and tasty Dutch oven meal. The naan toast up quickly on the fire using the Dutch oven’s lid)

blueberry cake (this was my first attempt at blueberry cake in the Dutch oven – I think it was pretty successful and I’d make it again another time)

Sunday breakfast

cabbage griddle, scones egss and beans (cooked on the Primus stove, no time for Dutch ovens before church!)

Cabbage griddle scones

Sunday lunch

pitta breads with cheese and leftover salad (toasted up on the griddle pan on the primus stove)

Sunday dinner

sweet potato, butternut squash and bean stew with beer bread (I’d never heard of beer bread before researching for this trip, but it is a delicious, if unhealthy loaf made – as the name would suggest – with beer and drowned in butter as it cooks!)

cinnamon swirl cake (another new recipe for me, served with custard straight from the carton)

Three dutch ovens on the go at once!! Left is the beer bread, having already cooked on the fire, it is having fire just on the top to finish it off. Middle is our vegetable stew and top is the cinnamon butter melting ready to make the pudding!

Monday breakfast

Ah well, our trip was cut short by our trip to A&E so for Monday we didn’t have what I’d planned, rather we had the emergency cornflakes I’d brought and some of the cereal bars I’d made before we came.

Hope this menu inspires you if you also need to plan a vegetarian trip.

Eco larder!

19 September 201918 September 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 3 Comments

When we set up camp at Freshwinds we discovered an unexpected facility – an eco larder!!

It took us a while to work out what it was and how it worked, but eventually we realised that if we put something in a carrier bag and attached a string to it, we could store things in it to keep them cool!

We only tried it out with some beer, but we can confirm that on a very hot day it did indeed cool the beer nicely. A nice eco touch to this back to basics campsite.

R&L

Our latest campsite find

13 September 201918 September 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 1 Comment

You’ll have read in our last post that we had slighty too many adventures on our last camping trip! But how did the new campsite score?

Considering our experiences earlier in the year with weather warnings for high winds, we were a little apprehensive about trying out a campsite called ‘Freshwinds’!!! But it was recommended to us by a friend, so we thought we’d risk giving it a go!

Here’s how it compares to our other favourite campsites: campsite scores.

L&R

Camp kitchen and compost toilet block

The highs and lows of camping!

10 September 201910 September 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 3 Comments

We tried out a new campsite at the Bank Holiday weekend – and I think it was fair to say it was a trip of highs and lows.

The first ‘high’ was the temperature – the hottest August Bank Holiday ever recorded. Fortunately we had our gazebo for shade, as it really was very warm. A bit too warm maybe… but certainly better than our experience in May of camping on the coldest May Day Bank Holiday ever!!

The first ‘low’ was also the temperature – clear blue skies meant no cloud cover and the contrast between daytime and nighttime temperatures was huge. Sadly this meant some of our camping buddies didn’t sleep so well because they were cold.

In general, we liked our new campsite find. We were particularly pleased that we could walk through the shady woods to the sea at Pett Levels. We were disappointed that the pub and ice-cream stall had closed down, but the teeny tiny church on the beach had its doors open and allowed you to help yourself to tea and coffee for a donation – perfect! Swimming & paddling in the sea was a definite highlight!

There was general consensus that the compost toilets were a low point of the trip. Our newest camping recruit was not keen on them at all, and to be fair to her they weren’t great. Firstly you had to climb some rickety stairs to get to them – definitely a need for another hand rail, plus the door for one of the cubicles could potentially knock someone down the stairs! The toilets were a bit smelly – probably a combination of the end of the season, the hot weather and the fact they didn’t have urine separators on them. The toilets themselves were probably clean enough, but sadly the cubicle areas weren’t cleaned, so they were cobwebby and dusty… it wouldn’t have taken much to make a trip to the bog a much more pleasant experience, and less daunting for our novice camper!

One of our campers was a vegetarian – which provided opportunities for a whole new avenue of recipes. Sitting round the campfire eating freshly prepared food was another high.

On Sunday evening we sat round having eaten our fill of stew and beer bread and cinnamon swirl cake with custard discussing the highs and lows of our trip. Our novice camper was even beginning to imply she might come again sometime. And then disaster struck! A simple thing, she went to adjust the fairylights on her tent (yes, we camp in style!) and tripped on a guy rope. But sadly, it wasn’t a simple little trip and she was in agony. Fortunately we could get the car to her and take her to A&E, where we discovered the reason for the pain – she had a spiral break in her leg. This put the compost toilets into perspective and established a record low point for all of our camping trips.

Thank God for the NHS and A&E departments open in the middle of the night and X-ray machines and clever doctors! Distressingly we had to leave her behind in Hastings to have surgery, but 5 days later we are pleased to report she has had her op and is on her way home.

R & L

Our first ‘guest post’!

22 August 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / Leave a comment

In case you’re bored of hearing from us, here is a ‘guest post’ written by a blog follower and camping friend:

“Saw on the blog you tried out a new campsite. So did we!

We went to Warbleton Farm

Apart from lots of rain and hence mud, it was really good. The lady running the camping bit of the farm was friendly and helpful. It’s the most off-grid camping we’ve done yet – not even a tap in sight!

The website describes a few rules but these seem to be red herrings – having gotten there, they’re very relaxed. It said no cars next to pitch – but you can (although we chose not to leave car there – drove down, unpacked then went and parked up hill near road for fear of getting stuck in mud. Camping lady came and gave us a lift back to car with all our stuff in her Land Rover).

All pitches have a nice picnic bench and fire pit with BBQ Grill. We bought logs and kindling – which were huge, plentiful and dry (so burnt well).

We stayed in the bell tent (as no car big enough to lug all our camping gear plus dog at the moment… plans to change that in near future) near which were two other separate pitches, but both were vacant.

If you fancied trying it I would recommend Oak #1 – It is flat, just by the stream (has a rope swing if you’re into that sort of thing) and has loads of space either to spread out and relax or could accommodate a group booking with multiple tents easily.

Seemed to be under Gatwick flight path, so quite a few planes but not too intrusive. Virtually no phone signal.

No showers on site. An eco/compost toilet for each pitch (not shared). For hand washing, a bucket of water and some hand wash and anti-bac alcohol stuffy were provided. Two huge water carrier thingies were provided for drinking water, but I’m sure if you needed more you’d just need to ask.

Short walk (20 minutes ish) to a pub that does brilliant food (The Black Duck). Not aware of any shops within easy walking distance.

I’m pretty sure we’ll be going back there at some point.”

Think we’ll have to take up his recommendation sometime… but for now we have a new campsite of our own to try out this weekend. Will let you know how we get on.

L & R

Toads on the campsite?!

18 August 201918 August 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 1 Comment

Staying on a new campsite and trying out kayaking weren’t the only firsts for our last camping adventure. We also tried out some new Dutch Oven recipes… including toad-in-the-hole!

We also made our first campfire apple crumble!

I definitely eat better when I’m camping than when I’m at home!!

The real tents are back!!

17 July 201917 July 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 2 Comments

The real tents are back…

our tent set up at Barefoot Campsite

I know you’re keen to know about the new campsite we tried out last weekend.

It certainly scores well in terms of an attractive setting…

sunrise

Situated in a bend of the river Thames in Oxfordshire, Barefoot Campsite certainly is pretty. We were fortunate to have riverside pitch. Somehow the white noise of the weir was oddly calming, distracting us from the normal campsite sounds of what was a pretty busy campsite.

View from our pitch

And not only can you enjoy the view of the river, you can swim or kayak too. We hired kayaks from the campsite and paddled upstream to the pub for a drink.

Kayaking on the River Thames –

This is a well organised campsite, but unfortunately that means it comes with quite a lot of rules! They were enforced in a friendly manner, but I was asked to alter where I’d pitched my gazebo and move my car 6 inches to the left (someone over-estimated my ability to park with any degree of accuracy!!). The booking process was hard work and for a campsite that is clearly fully booked every weekend of the summer, they could do with more toilets…but they get away with it, as it really is a beautiful location!

sunset (over other people’s tents)

See how we scored it!

Different sorts of tents!

6 July 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 1 Comment

Sadly we haven’t had a camping trip recently… but a lack of camping hasn’t meant a lack of tents – just different sorts of tents!!

Here’s the biggest tent we’ve been in for a while – the big top at our church weekend away!

Big top

We must confess to struggling with gazebo envy when we saw this:

Super-sized gazebo at Revive

And then one goat had something to celebrate, so here’s my attempt at a ‘tent cake’:

tent cake We are very much looking forward to trying out a new campsite next weekend. Can’t wait – a tent I can actually sleep in!!

Not again!!!

10 May 20199 May 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / Leave a comment

So far we had been camping in UK twice this year…and both times there were yellow weather warnings!

We were more hopeful for last weekend… only to discover we’d gone camping on the coldest May Day Bank Holiday since the holiday was first instituted in 1978. And we’d inflicted our crazy camping on friends!!

Despite the weather everyone seemed to have a good time. We just huddled round the campfire and then slept with lots and lots of layers and our hot water bottles. (If you’re not in the habit of taking hot water bottles camping, you must start, it makes such a big difference on a chilly night).

We were staying at Britchcombe Farm and we have updated our review of the site here. It is a good campsite for groups – we were a group of 12, including 3 children with a motley collection of tents, gazebos and a campervan, but Britchcombe is spacious and flexible enough for this not to be an issue.

Hopefully our friends might consider coming with us again sometime…we’ll put in an order for sunshine next time!

L & R

Sunset at Britchcombe Farm Campsite

Inflatable gazebo!

2 May 201929 April 2019 / embraceyourinnergoat / 4 Comments

Following the sad loss of our ‘outwell day-shelter‘ gazebo in high winds which had twisted the metal frame beyond repair, we decided to replace it with an inflatable one!

Yes, you read that correctly, a blow up gazebo!

We also took a bit of convincing, but in the end we realised that it is always the poles which break in gazebos. We’ve got through two and we’ve heard tales of other people’s disasters. The theory is that the inflatable ‘poles’ will just bend and flex in the wind without damage.

They are expensive, but we recently inherited some money from a dear friend Marg, who loved campervanning, so we thought that buying a gazebo in her memory would be a fitting way to spend it. So we took the plunge and are now the owners of an ‘outwell vale air shelter‘!

The inflatable gazebo!

We went with the vale air shelter because it looked the more robust of the options we considered and it has really good height – no need for even the tall goat to duck to access it. It is smaller than our previous one, but we decided that the sloping shape of the old one meant we didn’t use the full size of it anyway. Also in the rain you tend to not be able to use the rainy side of the gazebo, but for the new one we bought two side panels which should mean we can utilise the full area. It will also be a good size to use in our gardens when we aren’t camping…and we’ll need to use it lots to get our money’s worth!

Even after a lot of practise the outwell day-shelter wasn’t all that easy to erect. Every time we just had to trust that we’d got it up last time, so it must go up ok this time too….although with each use the poles got a little more bent and success seemed a little less certain. The poles did have a ‘click’ mechanism to try and make sure you got them all at the right angle, but that never really worked. Even when it was new we were never able to get them all to ‘click’.

Our hope is that the new one is easier. In theory you just peg out the base and use the pump supplied. The instructions on the bag don’t really explain how the valves work and on our first attempts, it would go up easily – and then collapse when we stopped pumping!! In the end we sort of figured it out, but we might do a bit of internet video watching before our next trip so that we’re confident.

Roll on next weekend!