We only managed to go camping on one of the May bank holidays, but we did find a new campsite to try out: Hurstview.
It’s located right on the coast, looking over to the Isle of Wight. It was a bit different to our normal choices – a bigger site, with facilities, but it was a relaxed, unpretentious site and we plan to go back again.
R & L
You might remember a ridiculous song about Alice the Camel having five humps that you sang as a child? (If not here’s a demonstration we’ve found you on YouTube!!!)… well our Alice also has five humps!! Or at least sometimes – other times she only has 3 or 4!
In this picture she has all her humps – the main tent which comes with a sort of veranda, an additional canopy extension and a vestibule. The additional bits all just zip on so you can add them or not depending on the space you need for that particular trip. Just as in the song, Alice might only have 4 humps sometimes!!
In theory you could probably just keep adding more & more canopy extensions – but we tend to think that 5 humps is big enough… especially when there’s only usually 2 people sleeping inside!!
R & L
We’ve recently been telling you about Alice the Palace our Kampa Hayling tent. Well in keeping with her royal title, Alice likes to travel in style!!
Being pretty big and being made of polycotton rather than just polyester, she is pretty heavy. The stronger goat can just about manouvre her, but only with the aid of the Alice’s travel carriage – a bag designed for the Vango Airbeam tent!
Although not designed for the Kampa tent, this bag is ideal – it is big enough to be able to roll Alice into it without too much trouble. There are seatbelts (well straps!) to compress her down a bit, but best of all there are wheels. She can be wheeled from the car, straight down the driveway and into the garage.
It’s definitely worth doing some research and not just going with the packing solutions offered by your particular tent manafacturer.
R & L
In the post about our recent camping trip, we promised to introduce you to Alice properly. Well here she is in all her beauty at Pit Hill campsite:
Some of you might actually remember her arrival. She is a Kampa Hayling 4 Classic in polycotton. For a large tent, she is pretty easy to put up as she is inflatable and we have an electric pump and battery pack, so we don’t even need to pump manually!
What’s with her name? Well, of all our tents she is by far the most luxurious. We found ourselves describing her as a palace – so when we were trying to think of a name for her we decided Alice the Palace had a nice ring to it!
We’ll look forward to introducing her more fully over the next few blog posts.
R & L
Camping season has begun!!We are currently enjoying coffee & cake by a fire to take off the chill in the air.
The we managed to get the tent up before the rain, and it stopped to enable us to go for a walk & cook dinner on the fire last night. However everything is muddy! Good job we packed our wellies!!
It wasn’t too cold overnight…especially if you have double thermals on, carpets & down sleeping bags.
Last time we camped at Pit Hill we brought the spaceship & camped light using Betty’s boot as our kitchen. This time we brought Alice & camped in style!
More about who Alice is another time…
R & L
That’s a good question… and sadly the answer isn’t camping! We both enjoyed holidays recently and both enjoyed walks – one in the Braid Hills outside Edinburgh and the other in La Caleta National Park, Tenerife. We’ll leave you to guess which picture is which!!
One of us even came across some other goats on our travels!!
These ones were outside the Johnsons Mill in Hawick. They are Cashmere goats – the long hair on their chests is what gets spun into yarn to make jumpers. We were treated to a tour of the knitting factory and it was fascinating to see the machines and people who turn the wool into (very expensive!) jumpers, scarves and socks!
The camping season hopefully starts again soon – we started planning last night! A lot of campsites seem to not be opening until Easter or even May, but hopefully we can have a trip in March. Any recommendations of all year round campsites welcome (use the comments or contact us).
R & L
I’ve made lots of things in a field…but oddly not normal pancakes. Banana pancakes, yes…but not the normal sort you have on pancake day.
I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m not currently standing in a field in the dark cooking tonight’s treats…I’m not even in the garden, but I did take the opportunity to practise the quantities ready for my next outdoor culinary opportunity!
Camping Pancakes (serves 2)
Mix together:
2 dessertspoonfuls dried milk powder
4 heaped dessertspoonfuls plain flour
1 egg
2 cups water
Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour in some batter. When one side is golden brown flip & cook the other.
Serve with white sugar & lemon juice (from a bottle) or syrup or chocolate spread…or whatever you have to hand in your camp kitchen.
Remember you always need more oil & a hotter pan than you think you do!!
My batter was lumpy, but this made nice thick pancakes so I couldn’t tell once they were cooked!
Enjoy!
L
Even when I’m not camping I often use my camping recipes as they are super reliable – if you can cook it in a field, it ought to turn out ok in a domestic kitchen!
I also like to practise recipes that I think might make good additions to my caming recipe book. This week I discovered this very simple meal:
Tuna Pasta (serves 3)
3 cups pasta
1 tin mushroom soup (400g)
1 tin tuna (145g)
1 tin sweetcorn (200g)
Put pasta in pan with soup. Refill soup tin with water and also add this to pan.
Boil until pasta soft.
Stir in drained tuna and drained sweetcorn and warm through.
Super simple! This was the first time I’d tried it. Another time I might experiment with adding a tin of sliced mushrooms too as it might add a nice variety of textures.
If you’d like to read about our camping food suggestions, check out this section of the website Campsite Cooking.
L
At long last we completed the last section of the Wayfarers Walk!! We set out shortly before lunchtime from the car park at Southmoor nature reserve, with our sights set on the Coal Exchange pub for lunch, just 3 miles away. It didn’t prove quite that simple… read more about our adventure.
Walking and talking – two things which very good for your mental health as well as your physical health. I’m not the only one who believes this – and this weekend I joined up with a group of people who walk every week with the specific aim of connecting people, combating loneliness and helping people improve their mental health as well as their physical health.
The organisers of Walk and Talk saw how much communities suffered during the pandemic. They saw how isolated some people became and were inspired to do something about it. The idea is very simple, every Saturday at 10.30 you can turn up and there will be someone else to walk with. There is no need to book, there is no charge and both buggies and pets are welcome!
I chose to try out the group which meets at Morden Hall Park and found a very friendly group of people from all different backgrounds and life situations enjoying spending time together in the outdoors. Not only do they walk together but those who want to stayed on and had a coffee together in the National Trust cafe!
Unknown to me I was especially lucky to choose this particular Saturday because they had a local history expert leading the walk. As well as telling us stories about Morden Hall’s history, she pointed out some hidden features and had brought old photographs to help us picture what it would have been like.
At the moment they have five groups, but they are aspiring to set up more. Check out their website for more details.
L
Embrace your inner goat 