I've just got back from our first family camping trip. A couple of months ago we decided to get a tent so that we could start going on holidays. Something Mandy and I have never done. So we went for the starter pack from Eurohike. This pack consisted of a tent (naturally!), a double spleeping bag, a double lilo, two single sleeping bags and two roll mats. It is brilliant value and all of the bits you get are not cheap tap.
So accompannied by my parents we went camping over the weekend in a town called Rhyader in Powys.
The trip down on Friday morning was stressful to say the least. Just outside Wrexham I looked behind to see Matthew not looking well at all. I told Mandy to give my mum a ring in the car ahead and tell them to pull over when Matthew was sick everywhere.
Half an hour later we had managed to get everything cleared up again and were able to get on our way. the rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful and we arrived just after noon and managed to set up our tents within an hour without too much stress. The campsite is called Wyeside and is a lovely little site right next to river (the river Wye).
During the afternoon we went for a little walk into the town (not far from the campsite) to get some supplies and stretch out legs from the long drive. One thing we had been trying to sort out all week was our gas stove. We had bought this little 2 hob thing from a shop in Aberystwyth and we had been trying to figure out how to get it working. We just guessed and got a little canister of butane and thought that would be it. However, looking at the end of the hose that came with the hob I knew that we would need a gas regulator. So Mandy went out and got one, only it didn't fit the caniser we had bought. I went to the campsite owner (I should have asked my dad as he knew) to see if he could help me and he told me what I would need. So during our trip into town we had to buy a bottle of gas for £45! Don't fall into the same trap that we did. The little canisters that you can hold in one hand are for the little stoves that strap directly ontop of them.
Anyway, after the town we went back to the tents and had a barbeque, after which we went to the play park to tire Matthew out a bit. He didn't really need tiring out as he was having a great time running about all over the place and getting into everything. There was this slide at the park which was quite tall (over 2 meters) and Matthew was having fun sliding down it. On one occation I was stood at the other end and thought I would crouch down to catch him as he came down the slide. Only I proceeded to bang both my knees on the metal of the slide. Ouch! I was in so much pain for about 20 minutes that I couldn't even walk. I think I had banged the nerve bundles in both knees as it shouldn't have hurt like it did. Thankfully the effect only lasted a few hours and I was able to move around again without any pain by the next morning.
The only thing that spoiled the entire weekend was this group of sweaty, foul mouthed, scabby, inconsiderate, idiotic, loud and generally crappy people who where camped just over the road from our tents. They were continuously noisy and we went to bed while they were in the throws of, yet another, party of some sort. So I listened to them shout at each other until 2:00 AM when I was so exhausted that I just fell asleep anyway. At 6:00 I was woken up by them starting the day. Why is it that stupid people are always the ones who need the least amount of sleep? They pulled the same crap on Satuday night, by which time people where telling them to shutup.
On Saturday we went for a walk along the river where Matthew and I had a couple of hours of fun skimming stones!
We were lucky with the weather for 2 days and even got sunburnt a litte on the Saturday, but when we woke upon Sunday it was raining. We had originally decicded to book until Sunday and then see what the weather was like before going for that day as well. However, with the rain we decided to call it a day and head home. What with all of the noise during the night over the weekend we were all very tired and so just really didn't have the energy to be wet. It had been very cold at night and with the rain it was just going to make things miserable as well.
The thing is while we where packing up the tents we noticed that the smeg-heads from the other side of the road (which was only about 10 meters) were going home as well. Mandy is of the opinion that they where evicted, but I'm not so sure.
Anyway, our first camping trip went very well overall. All I need now is to remember my penknife and everything should be fine! We hope to go camping again in the summer so if you could suggest a good location then let me know!