I suppose this is the time to confess my little secret: I'm an aspiring adventurer who doesn't enjoy camping. Surely an unthinkable contradiction! But there you go, I am one such person. Don't get me wrong - I love most elements of camping and I really don't mind dirt, the dark or creepy crawlies. The problem for me is that I hate a bad night's sleep. I need to have warm feet, feel cosy and have a proper pillow. Before I had kids I was more than happy to rough it in any condition, camping or otherwise, but after years of child-related broken sleep (and not enough of it either), I wonder why I would ever willingly put myself through a bad night now - and when I'm on holiday, of all times! Suffice to say that I am precious about my sleep!
So, when Simon suggested that we wild camp during one of our National Park trips, I was none too pleased. When we go camping our car is usually packed full with a big family tent and anything I can fit in to make the nights more comfortable (including a large, thick sleeping mat and the full size memory foam pillow off my bed). The thought of only being able to bring what we could carry over a long hike made me groan. And the kids aren't able to carry all their kit so Simon and I essentially had to carry food, water and equipment for four. Argh! Of all the National Parks in the UK, only Dartmoor and the two Scottish ones allow wild camping, although you can usually get away with it in upland areas of some of the other Parks if you arrive late, leave early and are respectful of the land. We decided to camp in Dartmoor over the late May bank holiday weekend and kept our fingers crossed that the weather would be good. The ability to stay with Simon's parents and wait for a good weather day for camping was a real advantage. Next up in the planning was where we would head to, in the hope of finding a good camping spot. We pored over our OS map to look for a location that was close to a water source but not likely to be boggy, and we mapped out a couple of hiking routes. Peter (Simon's dad) very kindly agreed to drop us off on day 1 and collect us at the end of our hike on day 2. The final but most vital step of our planning was what to pack. We got out all our camping kit and set most of it aside as it was too heavy, bulky or simply too much of a luxury to justify the weight. We ended up spending far more money on this trip than I had expected to but the only way we could make it work was to buy Eve a new large backpack and me a new compact but comfortable sleeping mat (NeoAir XLite Therm-a-Rest) among other things. It was a great learning experience, particularly in discovering what we really could live without! So, how did the trip go? Pretty darn well (until a little mishap at the end...). We hiked across the moor, camped out under the stars far from civilisation and felt like real adventurers! I will post a little photo diary shortly.
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