Loitering within tent (Sports Equipment in General)

Member Name: dibuzz

Product:	Sports Equipment in General
Date:	21/08/01 (282 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: relaxing , fun, an adventure

Disadvantages: can get very wet if it rains, person in the next tent may snore, no privacy fron each other

When my husband suggested buying a trailer tent I was horrified. Memories of the girl guides came flooding back with visions of digging out the toilet trench and soggy sleeping bags.

After assuring me that modern campsites had toilet and shower facilities he persuaded me to look at a second hand trailer tent. The trailer part housed a double bed and table with a bench at either side. There was also an awning which tripled the size of the living accomodation.

Our kids were then only 10 months and almost 3 so they slept in the awning in travel cots.

As the day to go drew near we made a list which seemed to get longer and longer. Bearing in mind we only had a metro where would everything go?

We managed to get most of it in the trailer and packed the rest around the kids. At least they couldn't see each other to fight!

When we arrived at the campsite we struggled to put up the tent (it gets easier with practice) and eventually got things unpacked. We used the baby's car seat as a highchair and thought we were doing rather well until night time. It was so cold and we had no heating or electric. It was also too light for the kids to sleep so we put a blanket over each travel cot which darkened them and made it warmer inside.

The next day it rained and then it rained and after that it rained. After a day out in the rain we just wanted to get warm and dry but this was impossible and after another 2 days of rain we gave up, packed our soggy stuff and came home.

However we decided to give it another go and luckily the weather in Tenby was beautiful. We really enjoyed the freedom and the baby took his first steps.

We had also picked a better equipped site so if we had got soaked we could have dried our clothes in the laundry room.

Although we had a cooker we didn't like to use it with the kids around so mainly ate takeaways. We only used it to make cups of tea or warm spaghetti or bean
s for the kids (believe me, when son no 2 eats beans you need to be living outdoors - still we could always blame the cows).

Although our first experience of camping wasn't good we have had many happy holidays since and are glad we weren't put off for good.

I would advise anyone going camping with children to make sure they take everything they need with them as some places are miles from anywhere. Also make sure you start writing a list well in advance. We used to put all the things we needed into one of the travel cots so little people wouldn't move them.

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