What are we up to this weekend? This morning we’ve had two snow showers – what lovely weather for camping! This isn’t an April fools joke…but perhaps we are April fools!! Will certainly be a good test of the new sleeping bag!
We’re at a new site, so we’ll let you know how we get on.
L & R
Wishing all our followers a Happy Christmas!
I thought I’d share this picture of my favourite Christmas present – a tent for each goat and hopes for a new year filled with new camping adventures.
Mine’s the tent on the left, the other goat can have the one on the right…and I’m a bit concerned that the washing might have to be re-done being as there is a seagull sitting on it!
If you want one of your own, it came from here: http://www.shoredriftltd.co.uk
Hope your new year is also full of happy adventures.
L
We may not have done much blogging, but we did fit in a bit of camping – mainly revisiting old favourites.
This summer we went to Climping in West Sussex , Bridport in Dorset, Kent twice – near Marden and near Crowburgh and finished off with one of our favourites near Andover in Hampshire.
All the reviews are up to date if you want to plan your trip for next year.
In the next post we’ll show you what our tent was up to when we weren’t camping…
L & R
A guest post for you this week – can you believe I’m related to these mountain goats?
Most of their adventures sound harrowing to me, but this one sounded fun – I think you’ll like reading about it too!
L
This has taken some planning, the main challenge being how to pack so that 2 adults can carry most of what is needed for 6 people to camp overnight and enjoy a day in the hills! 1,764 more words
Wild camping and walking in the Cairngorms: Glen Callater and Lochnagar — Miles Together
Here is our review of our latest campsite stay – Old Bidlake Farm in Dorset.
We had a lovely stay and enjoyed being near the sea. We hope to go again sometime and next time to stay longer.
R & L
Regular blog followers will already have met Henrietta who comes on every camping trip with us. She particularly enjoyed our latest trip as she got to have her own little outing and made some friends!!
Needless to say, Henrietta thought this was a wonderful camping trip! We’ll tell you what the goats made of it in the next blog post.
L & R
An early birthday present for one of the goats!
To find out what’s inside these mysterious black bags, you’ll have to await future blog posts!!
R & L
Yes, COVID spurred us on to invest… in our own camping toilet!
Previously we thought this was a bit excessive but the experience of an unpleasant toilet this last summer, combined with the importance good hygiene with respect to the virus, made us change our minds. The convenience of not having to trek a long way across a field to the toilet is also great.
After a bit of research we opted for Thetford excellence electric flush. Thetford has a good reputation, which gave us confidence to invest. This model has a larger waste tank so less emptying (although tank gets heavier in between empties!). What with a proper seat, an electric flush and an integrated toilet roll holder, it is almost as good as toilet at home!
An important consideration is that you need space in your car for transporting it. The waste tank and flush tank can be separated or there are smaller models available, but get your tape measure out before you place your order.
You need to get special chemicals and toilet rolls. I dose up on waste tank chemicals and water before the trip so that is ready. Also dose up on flush tank chemicals but Thetford advise not travelling with full flush tank so water gets added at camp site.
At the end of trip, after emptying waste tank, I add tank cleaner so that it is doing its thing as I’m driving. The movement is very good for this apparently!
New for next season will be sachets of chemicals – making dosing at the campsite easier and reducing the space needed for transporting chemicals.
R
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
Clothes
Toiletries
Miscellaneous
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!)
Since the lockdown has eased, we’ve been making up for lost time and camping once a fortnight!
Clearly if you actually have COVID you need to stay home! … but otherwise what is it like camping in a panedemic?
Book ahead
Everyone is having staycations and camping is an attractive option as its out in the fresh air. You’re also sleeping in your own tent and bedding using your own crockery etc, so it feels a lower risk option than other holidays. Thing is that the world and his wife have all realised it’s a good idea, combined with campsites reducing their capacity to manage the risk, it means that sites are getting booked up well in advance.
Pack what you need to stay safe
Pack your hand sanitizer, your mask so that you can support local shops, perhaps some anti-bac cleaning spray for your table/equipment and you should be pretty safe.
Think it out
As with everything these days, just think about the contact points that could be a risk and then make sure you are careful about those. Where is it that everyone in the campsite will touch with their mucky paws? …the water tap. Better sites will provide sanitizer at the water tap, but if not, just make sure you wash or sanitize your hands after fetching water. Apply the same logic to other contact points such as the doors, handles and taps in the communal facilities.
Think about who you are camping with. If you are one household that’s easy. If you are several, then maybe you need to pack separate tents and travel in separate cars.
It’s a good idea to wash your hands when preparing food anyway, but things which are simple at home can be tricky on a campsite. A collapsible bowl for the cook and some soap and water for the cook to be able to wash her hands easily and frequently is a good idea. We always have pre-dinner snacks in the form of crisps. Usually we’d have passed a big bag around. Shaking them out into individual bowls is probably a better idea to avoid sharing germs.
Look for recommendations
If you’re feeling nervous, look for some recent reviews or ask a friend where they’ve been and whether it felt safe. We will list our COVID reviews below.
It’s wonderful to be able to escape to the countryside again, and with a bit of thought hopefully it will be just the lockdown tonic you need!
R & L
Rowbury Farm – this campsite is very well thought out. The facilities are new, which probably helps. But there were sanitizers in sensible locations eg by the water tap, the toilets were being cleaned very regularly and there were cleaning materials available for you to undertake further cleaning yourself if needbe.
Weekend campfires – this campsite is very basic. As you will have seen from our review, the toilet facilities left something to be desired, but they did provide hand sanitizer and cleaning materials in each cubicle. There wasn’t sanitizer by the water tap nor were we convinced by the cleanliness of the ‘screwdrivers’… but once you’ve identified these contact points you can of course take your own precautions if you’ve packed some sanitizer.
Hook Farm – there was sanitizer in the toilet cubicles, but there were not cleaning materials available. There was no sanitizer available near the water taps either.
Cat Inn – while we were at Hook Farm, we called in at the Cat Inn for a cold drink and were very impressed with how they had thought through their COVID prevention. There was no need to book, but we did have our temperature checked and log our details on an app. There was sanitizer available on arrival, staff wore masks and had thought through little details like single use menus. We sat in the garden, but the inside had been carefully partitioned.
Embrace your inner goat 