BACKPACKING CAMPING WITH A PRESCHOOLER IN THE MED (Camping)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	Camping
Date:	05/09/05 (934 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, near nature, free, good facilities for the price

Disadvantages: can be tiring and wet

There is already some excellent general-camping advice reviews here, so I decided to prepare one which concentrates on camping/backpacking with a preschooler. I have to say that they are based on a drier climate than the UK provides. I would think that most suggestions would be valid for more northern areas in the summer as well, but you would obviously need to worry much more about `wet` and much less about `hot`.

WHAT WE DID

The first was Italy in June 2004, when we wanted cheap holidays and we also wanted to see how the camping thing would work with a small child. Italy with its warm, human-friendly weather and known child-friendly culture seemed ideal for this experiment. I won`t keep you waiting in suspense, it DID work out and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Encouraged by the experience we took the tent to Greece in 2005. Our daughter was 3 in Italy and 4 in Greece.

In both cases we flew and we didn`t rent a car. As we moved around rather than stayed put, everything, and that included our daughter Katie, had to be transportable on our backs.

Bearing this in mind we decided that all the gear had to (at least initially) fit in one rucksack and that had to be carrieable by either of us. The weight as well as volume was thus of prime consideration. Be aware though that I AM a big woman and however unfit I was at the beginning of both holidays I have a pretty good ability to lug stuff around.

The person NOT carrying the rucksack was supposed to deal with the little one - hold her hand or carry her in the carrier, as well as carry the smaller day-pack with accessible essentials (water, extra clothes, food, maps, books etc.). Katie had a little rucksack of her own with books, pens, colouring books and her cuddly rabbit. This was of course often donated to me or DH to bear but she DID carry it for at least half of the time she walked. Towards the end of both holidays we had an extra bag full of extra stuff acquired on the way (toys, mats, food etc).

GEAR

Considering the weight requirement we decided to buy quite a few things from new. Bearing in mind the money requirements and worry about possible theft we decided to buy as cheap stuff as possible. Eventually we ended up with:

(1) A tent, of course. This gave us most aggravation as our old tent was both too heavy and too small. Really lightweight good quality ones were very expensive and still small, being fundamentally mountaineering tents - too good for us. Eventually we bought a 3 person dome tent from Aldi. It was spacious, had useful front-porch storage area and was easy and fast to put up. At 4.7 kg it was also one of the lightest of cheap and moderately priced three-person tents. At 25 GBP it was the cheapest. It is, it has to be said, very very flimsy and I didn`t see much life in the fibreglass poles (in fact one snapped when packing for the last time on the eve of our departure from Greece) but at the price it was almost disposable. Its water resistance was low (lower than Millet`s cheapest `Eurohike` range made `for British summer`) so I had grave doubts about how it would stand to rain. We didn`t have any rain in Italy but in Greece we had four days with rain when camping in the mountain foothills near Sparti. The longest was about 4 hours and quite heavy. The tent took it well enough, with only minimal leaks but we were not in it so it was easy to avoid touching the inner tent just by piling the stuff in the middle. Obviously anybody planning to camp in the UK or other northern countries would need to pay much more attention to this aspect, even maybe sacrifice space or weight for bit better rain resistance.

(2) We bough a 90 litre rucksack from Argos and although obviously worse quality and less resistant than our old 75 litre Blacks` one, it proved up to the job and comfortable enough to carry. At 25 GBP a worthy addition to our possessions.

(3) In Italy we had two self-inflating sleeping mats and one karimat but no sleeping bags to sleep in. Although the air-mats added extra 3 kg to the load, it was definitely worth it as the difference in comfort was massive especially as we slept without the padding provided by sleeping bags. In Greece we had sleeping bags but only karimats to sleep on - it was less comfortable but still OK and basically the earlier you go the more you would need a sleeping bag and thus if weight is an issue the more likely you will be to end up on a karimat only. We had two karimats spread across and a straw mat for our feet and that was perfectly enough. Straw mats are generally very useful if you have no chairs as you can sit on them outside as well as use them on the beach if you ever go, but of course there is no need to take them from the UK as they are very cheap and available everywhere for prices as low as 60 eurocents (1.50 was about average).

(4) I would recommend taking sleeping bags unless you are going in the highest summer season, as the mornings around 5-6 can be quite chilly even in June.

(5) A child carrier (read: a framed rucksack you stick you wee one in, sadly not: a native porter up to the task) was essential when our daughter was 3 in Italy and still pretty useful when she was 4 in Greece. We had one I had bought in a charity shop for a fiver having had arrived from Poland already rid of my pushchair. We didn`t do any off-road hiking to speak of, but it was still extremely useful. A three year old CAN walk quite far, a four year old even further but it still won`t be much above 2 miles and of course there is a difference between how far they could and actually would walk. We also did quite a bit of walking, what with campsites being located away from towns and our penchant for mad exploration, and Katie often slept in the carrier. I only wish I had a better one as with this one it was more of a strain on the lower back to carry a 15 kg child than to carry the 30 kg+ rucksack. I almost bought a high-quality one in Poland from makers of mountaineering equipment for about 80 pounds before we left and I did regret not having done this while in Italy.

(6) We brought very little clothes and of course we still brought too much. My recommended minimal list for would be:

- one pair of good, trekking-type sandals that you have already broken into.
- two pairs of socks (one for off-road spikes, one for sleeping in).
- shorts and long trousers, possibly two pairs of the latter, in a colour that is a reasonable compromise between not showing dirt and reflecting sun (khaki, grey and light purple worked well for us).
- one long sleeved shirt, 2 t-shirts. I actually wore pretty much the same t-shirt every day, washing it in the evening before and putting on damp even if it didn`t dry. The other one is for sleeping in and emergency tomato-sauce spillages. The long-sleeved one is to protect you from burn on long walks, mosquitoes, and can provide rarely needed but sometimes useful cover from night chills. For a small child I would take 4 t-shirts/vests, all of them as light as possible but not too susceptible to these tomato stains. An orange tie-dye is an idea I would seriously consider next time. Do NOT take black or navy tops unless you are prepared to use them in the evening only. A dark vest under a white top-shirt is a possible exception.
- a sun-hat, wide brimmed enough to cover face, floppy enough not to look disastrous when squashed.
-sunglasses were essential for me, while both Katie and DH did perfectly well without. This is personal and you will know.
- a swimsuit - everybody seemed to be wearing bikinis, even the fattest so if you don`t like to stand out get one as well. I was happy enough in my one-piece but we didn`t spend much time on the beach. Pre-pubescent girls see to wear only bikini-bottoms. I have not seen a single one in a one-piece.
- waterproof - ideally thin, light and breathable.
- a thin fleece or something like that for the rare chilly afternoon/night, especially for the little one
- skirts/dresses you take depend entirely on how much you wear them. I never do, so it wasn`t an issue, I took one pretty dress for my daughter but again, you might find that sun dresses is what you wear most of the time instead of shorts/t-shirts.
- a towel - we had two (a medium and a small one), and I had to wash it about every two days, but ideally it would be new of these thin but absorbent cotton ones you get in cheaper hotels. I almost nicked one once.

(7) We had a small one-burner camping gas stove which run on standard canisters (about 1 euro and widely available). This proved enough as did two rectangular mess-tin type dishes for cooking and 3 plastic plates for eating off, with plastic forks, spoons and one pen-knife.

(8) Alarm clock

(9) Anything I took and didn`t need to?
- the minimum of make-up I took was never used
- big bottle of high-factor sun-screen. Let me explain before you start to get indignant. I took it as I was worried that it would be hard to find high-factor, cheap stuff there. However, the sun-screen multiplies the time you can spend in the sun. OK. So if I normally can withstand the sun for 15 minutes without burning, wearing factor 20 means that I can spend 5 hours in the sun! The thing was, I never did. The only parts of my body that would ever get exposed for that long were my forearms, face and feet but these were already bit tanned and factor 10 consistently applied would have been enough (and I am very white!). Of course, if you plan to spend hours on the beach in the sun without clothing you need the stuff. Otherwise 10 will do with perhaps a stick of factor 20/30 for nose or the exposed bit of shoulders.
-Post-sun lotion. Each of us used it once and as such was not worth lugging the 300 ml thing with us.

ONCE THERE....

(1) The season does not start till end of June. Consequently, the prices before that will be lower, but some facilities will not be fully operational.

(2) Camping seems to be a family pursuit and is conducted mostly with caravans and motor-homes. Tents seem rare. We never had come across this typical Polish sight of a campsite filled with tents full of 16 to 25 year olds. Perhaps it changes in season. Perhaps we did not get to right campsites. But the consequence of the above we had to put up with is that…

(3) … prices seem steep. Some sites charge per pitch, some per person, some both. We didn`t come across anything below 10 euro per night in Italy and 15 euro per night in Greece, and that is in what was essentially the low season. If you can get to them, it is probably a very good idea to try the Italian agrotoursimos (farm holidays). These seem often to be quite posh affairs but sometimes they do allow camping, even if not advertising it in their official materials or listings. We used one and although there was an implicit obligation to eat (we did and it was very lovely and very expensive by our standards), this can be resisted and the whole experience can be cheap and very pleasurable. It also is a good idea to do some phoning around before (we didn`t) and get the idea of prices: in Greece once we were quoted a much lower (wrong) price and we were actually charged that!

(4) The facilities at the campsites are generally excellent: hot showers, nicely tiled bathroom areas, special washing up/laundry sinks, washing machines (extra charge) swimming pools, play areas for children little as well as shops and restaurants were all there.


CHILD SPECIFIC

As it`s well known both Greece and Italy are indeed child-friendly places. Children are admitted pretty much everywhere and run around freely but DO seem bit better behaved than UK kids. Come to think of it, I cannot think of kids in any country I visited that do NOT seem better behaved then UK kids. No exaggeration there, though, the Italian and Greek little ones and the bit bigger ones did their share of making noise and doing all the childreny things, but there was never malice associated with it.

The biggest difference in comparison with UK was the reception a very small child got: in the UK it is generally only other parents and older people that react positively to children. In Italy you will get a mixed group of youths obviously travelling to have some fun on the beach and they will try to engage your wee one with chat, smiles and jokes. This also - sometimes at least - happens in Poland and is, in my opinion, the result of less separation between different age groups and `life-stage niches` in these countries.

In Greece people are also extremely child friendly and, what will might be almost unbearable for a British father (and probably many mothers too) they will touch your child all the time - and all people: teenage girls, 20-something youths and middle aged mothers, old ladies and aged men, train conductors and bread sellers, people you meet at the bus stops and in cafes, they will all pat arms, pinch cheeks, stroke hair, tickle tummies and so on. I am Polish so I wasn`t that bothered (though in Poland men don`t do it, or do it much less) but it was very hard for my husband!

Being equipped with a pretty and sociable preschooler is then a contact- advantage, as we were virtually all the time greeted with countless exclamations of `bella` or `kala` and expressions of interest as well as tolerance towards crying, running round the restaurant table at a speed, and twenty trips across the dining hall to have look at the fish in the aquarium on the other side while forming a major stumbling hazard for the staff.

Getting half-portions was easy in Italy but not so much in Greece, I also managed to wangle a discount for a triple room out of two hotels on the ground that the `bimba` didn`t really need a separate bed (she happily used one when provided though).

Our daughter is now over 4 years old, well travelled and very adaptable. She never had problems with new places and as long as familiar or likeable people were present she always seemed to positively relish new experiences. This is important as I know of children similar in age who would pay with stomach upsets and sleepless nights for a visit to grandparents in the same town. She is also healthy, quite tough and a good eater. With this in mind, please let me thoroughly and wholeheartedly recommend camping with a preschooler in the Med.

Living in a tent was easier for Katie than us (she is, after all, smaller) and although she missed her toys and her bed, she caused no problems whatsoever. She slept well - I am sure that sleeping with both parents virtually in the same bed helped! She didn`t seem to have problems with heat at night, although she often slept around midday which she never does here. The daytime heat was what was probably hardest for her to cope with and thus I was very glad we didn`t go in high season. However, if you don`t go to too many adult attractions (I mean ruins and long walks here....) it would be easier even on hotter days.

I made sure that she wore hat and I covered her with sunscreen to start with so she tanned nicely and without problems. She ate lots and lost of ice-cream (very good food for children and even all this sugar is OK as long as the child is on the go…), supplemented by piles of fruit, tomatoes and occasional plate of pasta or piece of grilled veal or beef. The only thing I was very careful about was to make sure that she was well watered and never ever refused or delayed her drink.

We brought several small-sized books which we read more at first and less later (but how many times can one endure `Mr Funny` or the story of Moomin-Mama`s lost handbag?) We also brought a set of felt-top pens and a few pencils with some colouring books and this was brilliant for the entertainment she needed during rare quiet times in the tent or travelling by train or in the airport.

She had one transitional object (read: cuddly toy) and she cuddled it, threw at walls, fed, and sang to - in other words it performed its usual functions.

In Italy we bought bucket-and-spade set and she had a chance to use it 3 times on the beach, we also bought lavishly illustrated `Pinokio` book in Italian and she spend quite a long time poring over it as well as using it as bartering tool with Italian children.

Generally, neither of the holidays was child-centred in any way. It is something you can still afford to do at this age when the child simply enjoys being with you and as long as you don`t do anything INCREDIBLY boring like staring at one picture for 30 minutes everything should be OK. We did, of course, provide some concessions like seeking out that sandy beach once in a while or visiting every play-park she noticed. She had a chance to play with Italian, Greek and foreign tourist children several times and generally that was successful, with gazing, smiling, touching, sharing toys and food making up for deficits in communication. She definitely missed the company of other children provided normally by the nursery she attends and enjoyed the encounters very much.

My tips could be summarised as follows:

(1) Keep the child close and engaged in what you are doing. She might not know about `Baroque` but will be interested in the mythical animals on the church`s façade. He might not appreciate the breathtaking view but will notice sheep, lemon trees and poppies.

(2) Be ready and ideally equipped to carry your child, especially when it`s very hot and/or you are walking far. If you want her to go along happily with what you are doing provide something in return. This something is your presence, your back to lean on, your hair to pull and at least some attention.

(3) Allow, encourage and gently guide contact with other children when possible. Provide sweets and fruit to share, remind him of the local word for `thank you` and watch from a distance.

(4) Make sure the physical needs are met: drink especially but also food, shade and toilet.

You might be rewarded with something like our daughter saying, on the last night in Athens hotel, saying: `I don`t want to go home, I want to stay here and see more old things and stones` (and no, I am not making it up!).

Of course there is a limit, and that limit is usually age. I can clearly remember my sister, aged 10 or 11, furiously kicking a millennia-old wall in Mycenae and muttering to herself `Walls and stones and holes! I can dig such a hole with stones myself! Just staring at these stones and holes! It`s boring!`. She was 11 though and you cannot put an 11-year old in a backpack for a sleepy when they get too hot and tired!

Summary: cheap, fun and free but can be tiring