Camping - is it for me?

I was always a reluctant camper. Why have a thin piece of canvas over my head, sleep on the floor and be cold and wet the whole time when there is a lovely hotel with a comfy bed, shower and toilet in the room with you and a TV? Because it's fun! My husband would say. 

Back in the mid 2000's we went on a camping trip with our smallish tent around the south coast of England. The journey was fine, seeing lots of nice places and everything but we only camped once in 10 days because the weather was seriously against us. Biblical wet springs to mind. Noah may have thought about putting more provisions on the Ark if he saw it.  

We decided to give it another try, given the 2 year hiatus from overseas holidays and the costs of going on one now. Camping seemed like a good alternative.  Well I said, if we are doing this then we doing this properly. I want a big tent and comfortable mattresses. So we bought this...

A *Coleman Vail 6 man tent which according to tenting companies actually should sleep 6 people. Never believe this as a size guide. Always add 2 more berths than you need and you should be comfortable. It has 3 bedrooms (well partition pieces of fabric which can segment the main bedroom into 3 rooms if required), a lounge area and a good size porch. All of which we decided we needed based on our mooches around the local camping equipment shops. Id highly recommend finding such a place as actually being inside the tents when they are fully erected really does change your perception of them.  

I actually got this tent for the bargain price of £300. Who knew tenting was so expensive these days? Actually £300 for this size of tent is actually good money. Most of the ones we were looking at were over £800!

Another of the must haves for us were decent mattresses. More than one night on the floor is too much for me these days and so with a few nights on YouTube (one of my favourite sources of information of all time) drew us to the conclusion that self inflating mattresses (part foam / part air) was the way to go. Ours are *Outdoor Revolution Skyfall Midi 120 self-inflating sleeping mat.  

They are quite large to pack but they inflate by themselves in 30 minutes or so and they feel as good as a normal mattress when set up correctly. If you have individual ones each of you can control your own comfort level. Because the mattress is half foam, you wont end up on the floor even if you leave the valve open by accident.

So we stuffed our car with all of the new purchases and headed to *Hollands Wood in the New Forest. This is a lovely campsite where you can pitch where you can fit but you are surrounded by trees and open new forest views. Plus the required toilet block and showers. I refuse to allow a toilet and shower leave my essentials list when I'm travelling. You would be forgiven for thinking as I did that all campsites had them. Not so. 

At home I am addicted to my phone, TV, or any other screening device. So to sit in a campsite with no WiFi and no electricity, I was nervous. It turned out I liked sitting with my husband, people watching and talking rubbish - like we used to do when we got together over 20 years ago, before handheld computers that drain all life from our souls. 

To my great surprise I really enjoyed it. Being outside in the dark and seeing the stars without city lights was lovely. Waking up listening to the local cow herd walking past and horses braying in the field opposite felt strangely magical.  We liked it so much that we've been exploring our local area campsites and we are planning a bigger adventure later in the year. Watch this space - or should I say pitch!

Until next time x

 *I have not been sponsored for any opinions in this piece. All items mentioned are ones I researched independently and paid for myself. I will always be up front with anything related to sponsorship.