The first time I camped with Benjamin, it was a bit of a disaster. He was four and I imagined a weekend of playing in streams, walks in the woods and building a fire to cook sausages on. It felt like I had waited ages for him to be old enough for a boys weekend. My adult camping experiences involved long trips north, normally in the winter and sleeping three to a small tent. Four of us would frequently head up the M6 to The Lakes or Scotland, so all the kit I had fitted into one-quarter of a car boot. The two of us in a big family car meant I could take lots of additional luxuries, unfortunately I didn’t have any. We travelled too far, the roads were packed, I forgot one of the sleeping bags and the site was in a remote corner of the New Forest with very few facilities and no other children. Twenty four hours after setting off, I was back home, tired exhausted and spent more time in traffic than asleep.
Beech track
Now I have all the gear! I rarely travel more than an hour. The car is laden and the roof rack has bikes and a box full of luxuries including blankets, pillows, table and chairs. I haven’t gone soft, I just like to minimise discomfort and let the boys enjoy the freedom camping offers. My wife made it clear that she’d never camp in this country. She’s a girl who likes high-class hotels and fine dining. To her credit, she knows how much I enjoy it and more importantly the boys have a wonderful time. It helps that the group I camp with has grown out of her book group friends. The normal scenario involves me racing of at 3:30pm on a Friday with the boys, bagging a good spot on the site and then the rest of the folks turn up later that day or on Saturday morning. Sara has Friday night on her own and then heads down the following day with the morning papers for twenty-four hours in a field.
Hunting
This trip was a little different. I was going for a week and taking a pup. As you can see from my previous post, the car was a little more laden than normal. I didn’t take much more kit – you need the same gear for a week as you need for a weekend. I just decided to take everything including two additional tents. I was camping for a week and it would give me a chance to run an audit and assess what I needed, didn’t need or needed to replace. I have way too many pegs and failed on the previous ten trips to sort them out, so maybe this time I would.
Incoming
Only two of the four families had booked. The double bank holiday was full of other commitments. There was however a new family expected who I hadn’t met before, so it was even more important for me to arrive early. My tent is pretty distinctive, it’s a large orange Tipi and easy to spot. So after a crazy day of packing, we set off with beach gear, waterproofs and wellies expecting a bit of everything.
This is a blog about me and my dog and our adventures. This was a big adventure for her. She got to ride up front by my sons feet but after a stressful day of following me in and out of the house a hundred times, she curled up and slept the whole way. Wish the kids could have done the same. Daniel was ‘starving hungry’ and the journey was taking a ‘million hours’. It was a warm dry evening and now I was out numbered three to one. One of the reasons I have a Tipi is it takes one person 5 minutes to erect. Once we had a base set up it was time to explore. I’ve camped at the site many times and it has plenty of walks, swings, meadows, woods and streams for a good adventure. The field we’d played ball games in the previous year was deep meadow grass. This proved to be a great puppy play ground. Hide and seek was the game of choice and we all howled with laughter to see the pup bouncing through the long grass. I’d hold Pip whilst the boys charged off and then I’d release her to bound off. Anyone found was licked and there was much wagging and shrieking!
Found!
When we returned to our tent, I discovered a new characteristic of the English Shepherd. Where ever her master lays his head is home and it’s her home and everyone needs to know. Any adult male, dog or fast-moving child within thirty yards of the tent was howled at or barked at. The howl was a long nose pointing skyward howl. A new sound which had the desired effect of letting everyone who she was. At every opportunity I praised her and then introduced her to the stranger. Fortunately once we’d been through this acceptance process she rarely barked at them again. The only time I’ve seen similar behaviour is with the postman. They’ve been properly introduced now, but she’ll still have a little bark if we bump into him on the drive.
One of the many rope swings
After an exhausting day and the realisation we were the only family on Friday night, I was in bed half an hour after the boys. Pip was happy to sleep in her cage and settled down with out a fuss. She woke at 4:30 to howl back at the neighbours Cockerpoo and then again at 6:30 to barf up a big wad of grass. Not bad for the first night in a tent.
Dog and Man 