Last weekend saw my first ever camping adventure, our packing was certainly not lightweight!
Much to the delight of my family I had been ‘bullied’ into giving in to using the free prize we won last Summer – a 4 man tent, sleeping bags, airbeds and many other pieces of camping paraphernalia. My thoughts were to immediately sell on ebay but the children were so excited at the prospect of sleeping under the stars, that I would have felt a very selfish parent!
So no electricity, only a canvas cover for protection and sharing a double airbed with my daughter I bit my tongue and got on with the great outdoors, with no creature comforts or insect repellent and praying for dry weather.
I lasted the whole 3 days and we had lots of fun! Swimming, cricket, tennis, badminton, football, and of course some golf thrown in for good measure. We took the putting cups, numerous low bounce balls (to ensure we didn’t hit any windows!) and marker flags to mark out our own pitch and putt mini golf / crazy golf course.
A friend of ours had a portable golf kit with these really cute foam animal balls. Their 5 year old was hooked and it was a really great thing to take camping – portable, lightweight, suitable for kids and big kids and great fun! These would sit perfectly alongside our Soft Golf Obstacles.
What do you think?
So would I choose camping or glamping?
Well considering we did have the drab olive green tent and not some colourful bright designer canvas, we did have double airbeds and very comfortable sleeping bags. The dry weather and only a handful of insects made the experience much more appealing and with the invitation from friends on the campsite, catering for us under their awnings and gazebos it did feel rather like glamping but without the guided excursions and without owning the posh accessories.
A trip to the river for the kids to pond dip was great fun even if we did have to make our way back through a nature trail with ‘bull in field’ blazoned across the stile! Maybe after all that I am much braver than I think and camping or glamping as it felt, is a pursuit for the future…………
