First Time Campers....

May I just say a huge thank you to Gail for writing this blogpost for us:

Last time I slept in a tent I was around 13 and in the Girl Guides. The tent was ready assembled and apart from a rather unpleasant incident with a toilet tent during a stormy night found the whole experience very exhilarating.

So when our youngest son, aged 7 became a member of the local Sea Scout troop, we decided to join in the fun and get into the outdoorsy scene. Beavers unfortunately aren’t allowed to camp overnight with the Cubs and Scouts but are able to do so at the annual ‘Family Camp’ – the perfect excuse to buy a tent and get out there.

After a little research into tents and other paraphernalia we descended on a local store and bit the bullet. Stuffing the car boot with a large tent (with carpet) and a few extra’s to ensure we were reasonably well equipped. We decided to test it all out the following weekend and decided on an attractive looking site with good facilities (reviews from a couple of websites spoke of friendly staff, very clean shower/toilets and great play area – all of which was true!) Oh and the weather was supposed to be hot and sunny.

We arrived at Robin Hood Caravan Park late Friday afternoon a little nervous of assembling the tent for the first time on a proper site. We had done a quick practice run a couple of days earlier but had lost the will to live when we failed to see how the ‘ring and pin’ system worked. Yes, it is very simple now we know, but wasn’t at the time. So, we checked in and were told to pitch up wherever we liked in the tent field which was great because we found a large space to spread out all our ‘bits’ of tent before the complicated bit.

This is when you truly appreciate those little pop-up beach tents that once let out of their bag, leap into the air, pirouette beautifully and land perfectly formed and ready to use. Not this baby! Oh no, this one had coloured poles that resembled magicians wands and had to be inserted in a specific order. Once in, ‘someone’ then had to scramble through the mountain of tent fabric like an army assault course to be able to support the centre of the tent while the ringy pin thingy’s were forcibly manoeuvred into place. Stupidly, I thought doing the assault course was the better option until I realised that on a hot, humid sunny day, the centre of a zipped up tent wasn’t exactly the best place to spend fifteen minutes, unless you wanted to do the Indian Sweat Lodge thing.

Only a few harsh words were uttered, probably because we were in earshot of other campers but eventually the thing looked like a proper tent. A very big tent! A lovely, spacious, marquee of a tent with carpet. Hubby set off to blow the airbeds up. Now, as we all know, airbeds have a valve to put the air in and it’s usually the very same valve used to squash the air out too. Ha, not our one. Who knew there was a second hole in the thing and a little plug that should be fitted when inflating it. Strangely, it was some time before hubby, sweating like a pig on a spit complained that it was taking ages to blow up. I managed to stifle my laughter (it wasn’t the time or place for a sense of humour!) and suggested he put the second plug in.

Two and a half hours after arriving we were sitting with a cold alcoholic drink outside our new home watching the children play and enjoying the sunshine. It was a beautiful evening especially when at around 10pm and children were still running around squealing, the heavens opened and forced them all into their tents and bed. No need to play ‘hunt the child’ that night!

The only thing wrong with our first camping trip was that it wasn’t long enough. Thank you Robin Hood staff!