I was about to start with a moan about how by some miracle I have survived 4 nights in a tent. But that would be a lie…
I bloody love camping.
We rocked up on the first day and availed ourselves of some of the facilities, namely the indoor pool and the adventure playground. I wasn’t too keen on the pool I’ll admit, I always have my suspicions about the wee:water ratio in them. I fear it’s at least 75:25, especially when a flume is involved. Having seen the kids barrel down it around 4567 times each, I decided it didn’t look particularly fast, so I had a go too.
Clearly, I didn’t factor in the additional 5 (ok 8) stone I have about my person. I started off slow with a a “whee” at the top, and ended up with a “EEEEEOMFG” splash at the bottom, shooting into the water at the perfect angle to allow several pints of water to cram themselves up my nose. Not a mistake I repeated.
The park was great fun – I sat and dried off while the kids ran themselves ragged over the park – which was nicely shaded. I nearly had a heart attack at one point when Lyla shouted “Sarah, look!” and I glanced over to see Rian half way down the monkey bars, which were a good height up. I realised this was another moment where I have to let him try things. He managed it all as well!
We headed back to our pitch and everyone else arrived to set up. It was brilliant! I’ve never stayed in a trailer tent before, but it appealed to my love of things that pack neatly away and disguise how enormous and awesome they are!
The tent starts out as a trailer (clue in the name there) which you level out, then unfold two double beds, take out a little kitchen unit and anything else you packed in – kettles, pans, plates – everything! Plus the tent gives you loads of room to mooch around it. It was brilliant. I didn’t take a picture, like a moron, but I did take one of our breakfast – it’s not camping without sausages!
We had a disastrous day on Saturday – we booked the kids in to raft building at 1pm. Come 12.45 we leg it down the cliff path to the beach. Tide’s in. Hmm. No sign of any raft building materials.
So we ask the cafe owners, who kindly ring the camp. Rafting is in the indoor pool. Ahahaha. Leg it back up the cliff to the pool. They’re locking up. In the outdoor pool they say…FFS. We leg it over there, and sure enough there’s a gaggle of kids around the pool. We chuck them in, and linger around a bit. Still no raft stuff. Hmm. We ask the perky staff member who chirrups, oh, it’s on the field. At 1.30.
*collapse in a heap*
In the end they had a great time and we got to slurp down a very welcome fruit cider. And then we hit the pool.
Yes, it is the Isle of Wight, really.
The boy also had to have a go at archery – he even hit the target once!
We had to suffer several nights of “entertainment” unfortunately, but I know how to make my own entertainment…enough wine and any singer sounds good! Either that or your ears get numb, who knows!
The nights we had back at the tent were spent playing crib, drinking more wine, and enjoying the gorgeous views. What’s not to love? I mastered the art of sleeping with my hands over my ears a long time ago, so not even the snoring bothered me!
So that’s two weeks of the holidays done, and I’ve not had a breakdown yet. I’ve had a mad couple of days since I’ve got back trying to get wedding stuff organised, and hen do ready. I’m off to Barcelona tomorrow morning for four nights…but I don’t think I’ll be sharing any of that on the blog 😀
You have almost sold camping to me…almost! Sounds like you had a fab camping trip 🙂