Mmmm , One word sums this up "Planning" (lack of ). Its not a good idea to try and find a camp site the night before on a bank holiday weekend, After many phone calls I eventually managed to get a last minute cancellation on the Kielder Castle campsite, Good job really as we were already driving up there. The alternative was to wild camp somewhere but every likely spot had no camping signs everywhere so we would have had to drive over the Scottish border where wild camping is more accepted.
It was just Joshua my son and I who were camping , Chris and John were not joining us till the Sunday morning and this was Josh's first ever camping trip apart from the one night where we made a camp and slept under the dining room table ( some interesting head injuries when i sat up during the night.)
We didnt leave home till about 4:30 and decided to go the longer but more interesting route of which the last 12 miles are forestry commision gravel roads so got to the camp site about 6:00.
After we booked in we were told to just go and find a spot to put our tent but were warned its was a bit wet. It very quickly became obvious why nobody else had taken the spots that were away from other people, the best spots were wet to say the least, water logged was far more acurate. I was fairly amused at the bright yellow Ferrari and a Porsche that were muddy up to the windows and looked like they would need a tractor to pull them out.
Anyway, we found a little spot that unfortunately was on a slight hill but less wet than the other parts of the site and set up the tent and a large tarp to sit under, Earlier that day i have picked up some cheap (£1.94 each) folding camping chairs and a little table from ASDA and they were fantastic, lightweight and much better than trying to sit on the muddy ground.
Tried both the petrol stove and a small gas one, both worked really well (apart from the petrol one throwing out huge flames, much to Josh's amusement if I did'nt pump it up enough) , however we have way to many pans and stoves than we actually need or could carry. Cooking was no problem, Quick cook pasta and some steak cut into cubes took about 5 minutes to sort out, along with a bottle of wine ( fanta lemon for Josh!)
The mozzies were out in force so sprayed Josh and I all over with spray and lit a mozzie coil under the tarp, That seamed to do the trick as they didnt bother us after that, the mozzie coils were quite brittle and about half of them broke as i was getting them out the packet so will need to salvage any good ones and find a way to carry them without breaking them.
We already had a large camping lantern (not sure why ?) and that was really useful once it got dark, Its too heavy for the canoe trip so we will need to get a lightweight gas or petrol one
We both slept fine and were warm and comfortable, Josh being cold or wet would make or break whether he ever wanted to go camping again. As he moves around so much (and we were on a hill) i twice had to drag him back up to the top of the tent as he was this little squashed bundle at the bottom. My army sleeping bag was far too hot and I ended up sleeping on top of it. It was pouring with rain during the night and very windy but we got up in the morning and everything was where we left it.
Breakfast was easy as Josh doesnt like milk on cereal and we fried up a few sausages. Packing up took about 20 minutes. The dry bags were great for just chucking everything in and making as few as possible trips back to the car.
Overall it was a huge success (dispite the lack of planning) and a good oportunity to try out the new kit we bought , it all worked great and could be packed/unpacked with almost no effort
So off to Leaplish Waterpark to meet Chris and John to try out the canoe
