Thursday, August 09, 2007

Highs and Lows of Camping

Part one of our holiday, we decided to go and do a little camping. Now I am the worlds worst camper and having put up a stout and well reasoned argument as to why we should not go camping this year, (and lost) proposed a compromise. In view of the awful weather that we had been having why trek hundreds of miles across the UK when on our doorstep we have the Peak National Park. Surprisingly this went down well and we agreed to have a week in Edale camping and a week in a cottage on Exmoor.








I guess this was one of the highs. Its the view we had from the front flap (we had a back flap and even a tradesmans entrance). Not bad bad view to wake up to really. We had hardly any rain and did lots of walking interpersed with trips to the pub. I could almost be a convert. It was a mistake to send the fledglings out to get "something for our packed lunch" though. They came back with a tin of ham. It was very unpleasant. Soft and spongy wrapped in a thick protective coating of jelly. They were not the best sandwiches we have ever made.

The second week in the cottage on Exmoor was okay. The cottage was billed as sleeping four. It was true that there were four beds, but because of the low (very low) ceilings it helped if you were challenged as it were in the height department. Both Mrs BW and I nursed sore heads for much of the week and that had nothing to do with the pints of "proper job" that we drank at the excellent Exmoor Forest Inn, which just so happened to be across the road from the cottage. The cottage was surrounded on the other three sides by trees. At night the trees were full of Owls. I counted four different calls, though on reflection it might have been three and one with a cough. They liked to come to the tree nearest our window and sing to us. I am not that fond of Owl song to be honest and after a week of listening to them I discovered that I am not that fond of Owls!

We saw Red Deer and the Exmoor ponies and had a memorable day on Woolacombe beach trying to put a family sized shelter up in a howling gale and then having to shelter under it in a down pour (it was not water proof) The shelter never really recovered from this treatment and looked as if a herd of elephants had trampled all over it. The only way it would stay up in the end was if someone sat in it and held it up. No one else on the beach seemed to have had this trouble. Its a minor miracle that we managed to get the tent up!







2 comments:

fiwa said...

That sounds exactly like a family camping trip! Lol... those are the sorts of things that always happen: funky food, rain, not sleeping well. The fledglings will have fond memories of these times when they are adults.

Glad you're back.

The Birdwatcher said...

Yes you are right. Camping is always better when you are home and looking back at the experience.