Tent Sniffing for Beginners

Well I'm sure some of us fly south and continue camping...a bit like swallows, but with more tent poles. Some stay in chilly UK and still camp - after all, you can get all season tents and sleeping bags! (top of my bucket list is snow camping) But I suspect more of us do what I do, pack up the kit until spring and just snuggle down by a fire to read their camping and caravanning magazines and plan next years camping. I have already booked a few festivals too, nothing like reliving last summer and dreaming of the next to warm you up. So far I'm going to a local (to me) and early Festival (in May) called Elderflower Fields , I've never been to this festival before, and it hasn't been going long. I'm hoping it's big enough to be fun but small enough to be friendly. It bills itself as a family festival, and I have to admit it does look amazing! Rather glad to see that the theme will fit in rather nicely with another festival I'm off to Wilderness! I...

I recently filled in a survey for the Wilderness Festival team Always a good idea to get feedback form people that attend your events, especially if you then act on them.   One of the questions made me pause and think, ‘What was your most memorable moment at Wilderness?’   Not ‘what did you like most?’ or ‘what was the worst bit?’ but the most memorable. The thing that sticks in your mind, that festival moment (or moments) that you look back on. And there were a few. Sitting in our camp chairs listening to Sam Smith in the rain was one, it bucketed it down, Sam apologised as though it was his fault, and humbly and sweetly thanked us for staying despite the weather. My chair broke and my ‘waterproof’ blanket leaked so I got a wet bum. But it was lovely anyway. Memorable. One morning we wandered onto the site for breakfast and stumbled into a cinema screen showing of Singing in the Rain, it was a hot sunny day (did I mention the weather was WEIRD!) and we lay in the shade of an ...

I adore camping.I love tents. I'm fairly sure that many of the reasons that I love camping will be the reasons you hate it. I'll start at the beginning, I love the smell of a canvas tent, I like the anticipation of packing for a camping trip. The look at the list,checking the food and the booze. Packing the car,(I have a Fiat Panda so it's car Tetris every time) And then the drive, either to a site I know and love or to a new exciting site where who knows what I will discover. Arriving, unpacking, laying out the tent, pitching, happy in the knowledge I can do it all by myself! Sending DD to fetch water, and other small chores. The sun (or rain) and the knowledge that as soon as we are finished I can cool off with a beer or warm up with a tea. Sitting in the fresh air,watching the other campers, listening to the sounds of nature, the wind in the trees, bird song, bees. Walking around the area seeing what is going on. Snoozing on a rug, reading  a book, sipping a Pims...