a camping trip to remember

I hope you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend (or a lovely normal weekend)! Ours was truly amazing and I hope to share some of the excitement, joy and happiness with you.

The Eau de Camping has been washed off everybody, small bodies have been checked for ticks, the first load of laundry is on, the sleeping bags are airing, the tent is packed away dry (!), the last of the camping food has been consumed and the children are asleep or otherwise busy. I am feeling content, a little tired and full of optimism. I am definitely in an up phase in the ups and downs of life.

This particular end of May camping trip has become a tradition that we share with my super friends from the German speaking children's club. This year, we were 5 families with 13 children between us.

There is always a lot of food on our camping trips. A lot of food! We had barbecues, marshmallows, curries, salads, chilli, pasta, cheeses and cold meats, mountains o cakes and gallons of coffee, a good few beers, Baileys and limitless diluting juice for the offspring.

We spent a lot of time doing simple things around the campsite. Solway View in Dumfries & Galloway is a great site with a playground, several large grassy areas for ball games and other rolling around games, undeveloped "hills" with great adventure potential. There is also a rope swing which is popular with old and young. There was wood carving, loom band making, hair decoration sessions, pretend shops (so much nature to sell), reading, knitting, crochet, chatting and plenty of just sitting and being.

 

We explored the area surrounding the campsite on foot. There were woods with carpets of wild garlic, an ancient graveyard with half fallen tomb stones and fields with ewes and their lambs, horses and cattle. We stopped to admire uncountable numbers of beetles and other crawlies, picked up leaves and sticks and stones and collected snails (snail racing being a popular sport).

We walked to the local beaches at high tide and low tide and were amazed about the differences we could observe. The children run into the waves, dug holes and tunnels in the sand, shed clothes and run into the waves some more, shivered in the May sun, and  tried to escape the big shark in the water (of the two legged variety). Some of the more hardy went for a swim.

 

The weather was just right, not to hot, not too cold, not too wet and not too windy. There was heavy rain but not during the day. There were sunny spells and cloudy ones, too. The skies are never boring. The toothpaste never got too hard to squeeze out (a good indicator for "too cold for fun"). Campfires kept us warm in the evenings (knees burning, bottoms freezing), hot water bottles and blankets during the night.

All in all, this camping trip is up there in the top three all time best camping trips. Memories have been stored for leaner times, friendships have been strengthened and family bonds, too.

If you have made it to the end, thank you for persevering! I did miss this space of mine, and yours, too. I could have used my swanky phone to stay connected but I decided not to. I'll try to catch up with all my blogging friends' news soon, and say hello to all of you. Until then, there is some more washing to be done and school uniforms to be sorted out.

 

Have a great week! Cx

P.S. If you have the opportunity to visit Dumfries & Galloway, you should try and stay at Solway View. Neil and Patricia Picken are the most welcoming of hosts, their campsite is friendly, spacious and never feels to busy. Children are allowed to be children and parents can relax.