The Joys Of Camping

This Summer I've decided to do some camping trips. I have a love for the joys of camping in the Great British countryside. Apart from when I go to music festivals (See Music Festival Blogs), the only other times I have camped in a tent recently was an Easter weekend a couple of years ago in Great Langdale, which turned into a disaster because of a freak blizzard that roared into the valley just hours after pitching our tents. It was so cold my poor little dog kept me awake all night shivering in my sleeping bag. After a great day out walking in the winter wonderland, we warmed ourselves by a local country pub fire then I spent the second night in my car with the heaters on and the third night I'd already driven home to enjoy the creature comforts of a 13 tog duvet and central heating.

My love for camping and wanting to camp all the time was probably because as a child the closest I ever got to the joys of camping, was my Uncle bought a touring caravan one year when I was about 8 or 9 years old and every time I went round to visit I'd try to convince my cousin to play house in her dad's caravan, which I'm guessing she thought was weird and boring. Another year my Uncle bought a big tent and they camped at a site in North Wales just down the road from the caravan park my parents took me and my brother to every year. (the closest my father came to camping was a large static caravan on a posh park with shops, pools and round the clock entertainment, which I loved), I just wanted to do the camping in a tent thing too.

Around the same time, my next door neighbour, who was slightly older than me had joined the girl guides and had gone on a camping trip. As a Brownie I was far too young to do something so cool, so we camped out in her back garden under a tiny orange triangle shaped tent most weekends weather permitting. I'd saved all my sweets from the week so we could have midnight feasts and stay up late gossiping. I loved that summer. The following summer I'd moved house and my new friend had a caravan and I persuaded her to do a sleep over in her parents touring caravan and although we did my new friend didn't share my enthusiasm for the outdoor life as I did.

I joined girl guides once I was old enough, but then my need to be cool in front of other girls far outweighed wanting to camp and I left girl guides without attending a single camping, which I regret not experiencing now. My late teens saw me throw off the shackles of embarrassment and worrying about what was cool and trendy and what wasn't as I joined a charity group of young adults called the Leo's (part of Lions Club International) and me and my fellow Leo's loved to camp as much as we could during the summer months, which I though was amazing and I've been hooked on the joys of camping ever since.

I'm still friends with some of my Leo friends, (I even married one!) and we still love the freedom of the great outdoors that camping holidays provide. Last year we travelled the country in a motorhome (see Penney's From Heaven Travel Blog) and so did very little camping except for the family camp. Our families are spread across the country so a great and cheap way to get together and spend some time with one another is to organise a weekend camping, each branch of the family taking it in turns to organise. Last year was by a beautiful lakeside in the heart of Essex.

So now I am feeling withdrawal symptoms for the joys of camping and a simple life under canvas, in a field, no electricity, which means no phones, laptops and anything else techy. To be fair I do sometimes dream about how wonderful it would be to go back in time to a place where the internet was never even heard and people talked and socialised beyond the computer in their living rooms, which is probably another reason why I love camping so much.

So this time I made sure it was a summer camping trip to Eskdale in the Lakes and it has become one of my favourite camping locations. Pubs at either end of a long road with a tiny hamlet of Eskdale Green at one end and Boot at the other with a miniature railway that ran along the bottom of Blea Tarn and all the way the the coastline to a quaint seaside fishing village called Ravensdale. Another simple joy of camping for me is to walk for miles through luscious green woodlands, leading to secluded, tranquil waterfalls - walks up steep tarns to take in the breathtaking views -


opportunities to see dolphins and seals by the Irish coast and historical Roman fort to explore. After a busy and energetic day, one can have a tiny two pub crawl in Boot hamlet, then catch the mini train back to the Kings Inn in Eskdale or light a barbecue back at camp then sit back and watch the world go by, light a fire (as the camp site we use trusts us adults with open fires!) and lie back to see how many shooting stars you can spot in the unpolluted night sky. Perfect. And that's why I love the Joys of camping and why I will be including such experiences in my next book.



 Lunch on Blea Tarn Walk Lake Distict.
Alison's Website www.thebeyondseries.com