Camping Trip Review -

Arrived on site around 2pm Friday. Made it home by 3pm on Sunday.

Deflating blow up mattress. Imagine the sheer horor and distress Charlotte felt having checked the matress and approved it for my use, only to find out that it actually deflates the minute my weight is on it. Night 1 - I awaken to find im on the floor. It’s cold, I’m cold. It’s hard, I’m sore. At 3am I’m screaming in my brain “Enough of this shit! We are getting up and going home. I can’t take any more of the no sleep, cold sleep.”

Eventually we all get out of bed around 6am. It’s cold but nice weather. We make some breakfast, I slink off to the shower. 30 minutes of hot water. I feel alive again.

Most people take the kids off for a nature walk. I’m left behind to “watch the camp” as they’ve assumed, probably rightly, that I won’t manage a big walk plus a day of camp life. I use the opportunity to shower again. Get things organised in the tent. Speak to the neighbours and explain my back problem and apologise for having to blow the bed up every couple of hours. They tell me they know what they are doing and sleep with ear plugs so don’t hear a thing. I feel better. I’ve a plan for dealing with tonight.

Afternoon fishing. It’s cold, but I love watching the kids do it. There are too many kids around so it’s difficult to get any actual quality time with mine. It takes me a good while to walk the fishing spot. But all in all, it’s nice.

Dinner comes round and I’m feeling pretty spent. I decide to offer to wash up so that I can plan and take my time.

Kids go to bed reasonably well. Ewan struggles a little because of some of the other kids being awake. Eventually all are settled.

The adults sit, drink and share in the funnies. It’s a nice evening.

Eventually I get to bed. Now I’m feeling it. I can tell I’ve moved a lot, I’ve been cold on and off and my body is giving me the warning signs of “you need to slow down and rest”. I try to listen but mostly I just sleep.

When I awaken, it’s packdown day and I know I’ve got little to offer at this task. Smartly, I check with all the families and offer to cook everyone’s breakfast. I can do this from a sitting position and it lets the adults get on with packing up. Slight win of the weekend for me. I felt useful.

Breakfast and packing done, we head to the beach. I get to the top of the dunes and realise there are no handrails. (Interestingly, this is probably the first time I’ve ever actually looked, thought about, or had to consider the existence of a handrail.) I know I’m tired, I know I’m a bit sore and I know we’ve a long journey home. I explain I’m going to take a seat at the top and check out the view. Everyone else heads down. I’m there for about 10-minutes before it starts getting to me having to watch people having fun off in the distance, knowing that it would just be ridiculous for me to head down there. I eventually stumble my lonely way back to the site.

We drive home. Stop for dinner. Clean up a car sick child. Get back home and unload. Then I fall on to the sofa and don’t move again until bedtime.

I awake on Monday to a body made of lead. It’s shattered, I’m shattered but it was worth it.

Who knows, maybe this week will be different…?!