Off we set in the summer of 2014. Aileen, me and our dog Sam, all crammed into our car along with our camping ‘starter kit’.
The summer of 2014 was our turning point. Without a shadow of doubt, we now loved camping. Although it would be nice to stand up in our tent and as for a comfy night’s sleep!!! There was more planning needed before the summer of 2015 but we were hooked.
We stayed at 3 campsites – Willowmere Camping & Caravan Park Little Cornard, Sudbury (our first so we have a soft spot for it as it ensured our first trip wouldn’t be our last), Middlewood Lane Robin Hood’s Bay North Yorkshire helped get us used to busier campsites and Port Bàn, Kilberry (this was our favourite, apart from the midges forcing us to make our breakfast by the breezy shore but to be honest that just added to some wonderful memories.)
Our first thought was to change our tent. We now knew that camping was for us but wanted a bit more comfort and space, especially for future longer stays. So we searched about and came across a second hand Kampa 7 berth for £100 on Gumtree. Now we were able to stand and we had a separate bedroom. All we needed now was extra stuff! Extra tables, upgraded cooking equipment and bigger chairs. This tent even had a separate space to put a Kampa Khazi Portable Toilet, which would also improve our camping experience. No more stumbling to the toilet block in the middle of the night.
Just one more thing to sort out – our sleeping issue!
So we acquired a large blow-up bed – Intex Ultra Plush Queen Size Airbed with Built-in Electric Pump. It inflated quickly but now we needed an electric hook-up. When does it stop? When do campers stop buying more stuff to ‘solve’ a problem you didn’t know you had until you created it?
Our new sleeping set-up was an improvement but it wasn’t perfect as we were aware of being bounced about whenever one of us turned around but until we had got our money’s worth out of it or until we could think of anything better, it was staying and indeed we kept it for a couple of seasons.
