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Back to basics…….

As a kid I grew up going on Holiday to Aberythswyth in our caravan where we stayed on the same campsite and had the most amazing time. Its probably one of my finest memories. My Dad and his caravan. He loved them. He was a dreamer like myself so when we had an odd weekend together we would go around the local caravan sale sites. I used to pick the most grandest one there and pretend I owned it. I loved camping.

My husband is not the camping kind. Its funny. I say this but I can guarantee 40% of people who read this will whole heartily agree with my husband. His attitude is ‘Why on earth would you want to go back to basics when you can stay in a perfectly good hotel with bed and breakfast’.  My response does not come from sense. It comes from heart. It comes from all those holidays I had and loved. The difference may be that as a child we could not afford anything else but my heart sings a different story.

I have not had a holiday since May last year. In fact Ive rarely had much time off. I try not to work all the time but this Summer, after discussing the school holidays with my husband we decided that even if we can’t have a proper holiday we can at least camp for a few nights. I knew the kids would love it and to be honest – if Im not at home it takes me away from my work. (Kind of) I still took my camera with me.

So we didn’t go far. 45 minutes down the road but in all honesty you would think we were much much further away. Who knew how much is around us – on our doorstep no less – without actually going away. On our drive to the campsite I was blown away by the scenery. I would swear we were somewhere else entirely. Fields, wildflowers, Forest. It was just beautiful.

Our campsite ‘Lucksall’ was completely amazing. If there are any campers out there, this is what we would call ‘The Posh Campsite’. I know exactly why my lovely friend Amanda chose this site, because she knows how much Mike hates camping and she wanted him to love it. Well……. we did. We set up camp just after midday. It didn’t take us long to get the tent up and of that we were both dead chuffed. We set to making butties and had a spot of lunch shortly after. We chilled out, read the papers while Bailey and Olivia made friends with a few kids on the site. It was lovely. Later that evening once settled we found a local pub with a huge children’s play area and had tea. We were all fast asleep by 8:30pm!!!

The only problem with camping is checking your equipment before you go. We bought the kids new air beds which were lovely. Mike decided we would use our air bed that we used when we went travelling around America 14 years ago……. without checking it. Needless to say after a few short hours of sleep the air bed was no more!!! Not the best nights kip. It was cold. It rained and at 5am a couple of women were outside our tent laughing and giggling about how much they had drank that night!!

8am and Im up before the children. This is no surprise seeing as my bed no longer existed and I was in fact lying on the cold hard floor. I was elated to see the sun shining and feel the warmth on my face as I stepped outside. I made us all breakfast which we ate in the sun outside.

We had a lovely chilled morning of playing games, reading, and drinking coffee by our tent. At 10:30am we drove to Ross-On-Wye where we parked up and had a wonder around. Such a beautiful historic town. By the time we got back to the car we were starving. We drove out a little way to a beautiful pub with a beautiful stream, trampoline, bouncy castle, swing, slide and much more. The food was amazing and just what we all needed.

Its been a lovely little mini break. Ive enjoyed our short time together. It was all about us and you know what, with our lives as busy as they are its so important to go back to basics…..