Ideas for your camping adventures in April and May
06 April 2011 : Written by Geoff Vaughan
Camp craft at Wetherdown
April and May in 2011 have more bank holidays than the rest of the year put together. Prime time to dust down the tent, check the poles and book a fantastic campsite for Easter holidays, Easter weekend and the Royal Wedding May Bank Holiday weekend. April and May are packed full of camping potential with more free days off from work than ever before.
Ideas for Families
Woodland trails with Spring activities woven in: such as making spring bird feeders, learning about camouflage and hunting for minibeasts. Finish with an Easter egg hunt to collect Easter egg prizes. Runs from 1-3pm Thursday 14th April at
Wetherdown Lodge Campsite. Cost £7
Head onto the water: Watersports taster sessions for 7 years upwards available throughout April and May at 5 lakeside campsites throughout the South West. Check out these
5 great South West
campsites and make a booking.
Magical willow items for children to make and take home; using a natural and sustainable craft to make items such as magic stars, spiral bird feeders and living pencils. Runs from 1-3pm; Tuesday 19th April at
Wetherdown
Lodge Campsite; Cost £7
Go on an Easter Egg Trail at one of 250 National Trust Properties in England or Scotland: traditional fun and games for all the family in beautiful surroundings with eggs provided by Cadburys.
Ideas for Everyone
Try somewhere new and
Go Local - put your postcode into Campingninja and find a campsite within 50 miles of where you live and go on a 1 or 2 night trip. Benefits are a) doesn't take very long to get there; b) you spend way less on petrol / diesel; c) good way of supporting somewhere in your more local area.
Do it now!
Head to London and take part in the Royal Wedding: Central London Campsite with a family area, hot showers and security.
London Royal Wedding Campsite
Lambing! It's the season for little lambs popping out all over the place and there is bound to be somewhere either near where you are or near where you are camping to go to a lambing day or, in fact, actually help out with the lambing. A couple good places to go are:
There are tonnes more if you google it and if you know of any near you or just know of any people might be intrested in, please let us know in comment or on
Facebook!
Campfire Cooking - find a campsite where
campfires are allowed and try your hand at some experimental campfire cooking!
Mountain Biking – great time of year to go as it’s not so hot yet but not too freezing either. There are loads of great Mountain Bike Trails for beginners to experts around the country and here are some links to a few of them:
Sorted your Easter camping yet?
22 March 2011 : Written by Rhian Evans
Beautiful Lochranza on Arran
Spring seems to have crept upon us like the proverbial..... I'm not sure what, and then, before we know it, Easter is around the corner and the first Bank Holiday of the camping season has yet to be booked.
Now, maybe it's because, until the last couple of days, it is has been somewhat miserable and really quite cold of late and the idea of camping may border on the ridiculous. However, if you have a look around you'll notice that daffodils are sprouting everywhere, birds are being quite vocal and you may have just slightly caught the sun on your face a little over the weekend?
This can only mean 7 things.....
1. get your tent out of the garage / attic / cupboard / back of van * (delete as applicable);
2. make sure it still functions;
3. get on the phone / email / social network of your choice to some friends and family;
4. find some good campsite candidates on Campingninja;
5. share the selection with your friends;
6. book your pitch;
7.feel pleased with yourself and get excited about your trip in a few weeks time!
In the words of the Jackson 5.... "ABC..... easy as 1,2,3"....
The Secret Diary of a Camping Ninja: Autumn Leaves
17 October 2010 : Written by A Camping Ninja
Autumn - my favourite season of the year. Happily I've managed to squeeze in one night away camping this weekend.
After a cosy nights sleep all snug as a bug in my cocoon shaped sleeping bag I emerge from the tent into the cool, crisp October air and warm morning sunshine. An utterly refreshing combination and a great start to the day, enough to wake any sleepy ninja up.
A colourful morning of red, green and gold fallen leaves, the colours of the international flag of autumn. And one of the best noises of the season when you step on them too - more crunch than my breakfast bowl of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.
Ah, Sunday morning perfection!
Campingninja perfect picks for October Camping
07 October 2010 : Written by The Campingninja Team
Have you seen the great weather forecast for this weekend?Thought you'd packed your tent away for the year? Thought it would be too cold and miserable to go camping again until next Spring? Well, think again - temperatures, both day and night, are set to be well above the seasonal average with highs of 23 degrees in the South East and even temperatures above 20 degrees in the West of Scotland this weekend. This August was the coolest since 1993 and October seems to be determined to make up for it. Happy days.
Campingninja perfect picks this October:
Lochranza Campsite on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Set in a stunning location - wild red deer roam the campsite with golden eagles soaring overhead. Perfect for walking, cycling, wildlife watching, golf and much more...
Forgewood Camping,
Kent. Enjoy the Autumn leaves, have a campfire, and let the kids run free in this ancient woodland (just an hour out of central London). Caves, a folly, lots of deer and great walks all one one estate.
nestled under the Scafell mountain range at the head of beautiful Wastwater, or
Low Wray Campsite, situated on the west shore of Windemere. Great for walking, cycling, sight-seeing, catching a boat across one of the lakes and relaxing.
Our top tip for the
Peak District is
Bighillsdale Campsite,
nr Leek -
simply set between 2 villages, a haven for walkers and anyone wishing to explore the Peak District further.
For a few more home comforts why not try
Woodovis,
Devon's Holiday Park of the Year - peaceful, tranquil, 5 star rated with facilities
(indoor pool, spa and freshly baked bread) and welcome to match; this could be the perfect place to base yourself for visiting Dartmoor and surrounds.
The
South Wales Coast, is also a great option this October with
Llandow Caravan Park being a fantastic option for caravans,campervans and tents alike. Only 20 minutes outside of Cardiff
this 4* touring park is an idea place for exploring the spectacular coastline and visiting the interesting market towns of Cowbridge and Llantwit Major.
Why do we like camping? A True story from the Lake District
09 July 2010 : Written by Rhian Evans
Why do we like camping? - It may seem like a silly question but is it? The Guardian don't think so as they have published an
article with that very title which sparked some comment and debate.
To many people camping may seem, well, completely insane and the very notion of voluntarily putting up a tent, sleeping in it and trying to re-create as many of the comforts you have at home in a field seems utterly ridiculous. My experiences on a recent camping trip in the Lake District sum up the, what some might call, farcical nature of camping (still love it though).
A group of us were camping up in the Lake District in May and Rory's parents came to visit us from Scotland - they were staying in a B&B down the road (sensible) but we had invited them to our campsite for the afternoon for a bbq. The following is a series of true events which unfolded:
- Decide to have a bbq.
- Realise we have nothing resembling a bbq or anything to put on a bbq but decide to plough ahead none-the-less.
- Order bbq meat pack at campsite from local butcher (pretty much our best move of the day).
- Find an old wheel at the campsite which we decide is perfect for putting charcoal in for our bbq.
- Drive to Keswick to buy supplies - parking and getting around = a nightmare due to Keswick Mountain Festival being in full flow.
- Faff about between unfamiliar shops trying to buy fish, salad, charcoal and other sundries.
- Realise that even though we have a bbq of sorts we have nothing to put the food on - no grill.
- Alex drives back to the campsite to see what she can muster up.
- I traipse around Keswick looking for a hardware store / cook shop which sells cake cooling trays.
- Meanwhile Alex roots around in an old skip back at the campsite / farm.
- Just as I'm about to annoyingly purchase an overpriced flimsy metal rack I get a call from Alex - she has found a manky, rusty old grill which has been discarded by someone - hooray.... needs a bit of work, but hooray indeed!
- Alex spends the next 45 mins scrubbing aforementioned grill using soap, sugar and an old sponge.
- We get back to the campsite and set the chairs up around the wheel come bbq.
- Rory's parents relax with a warm shandy and watch.
- We light the charcoal.
- We make numerous trips to and from the car to get essential things - chopping boards, knives, plates, openers, bread etc etc.
- We flap newspaper about the bbq to get it going.
- We realise the beer we have is near boiling point as it has been sitting in the car all day on the hottest day of the year.
- We come up with ingenious plan to put beers in a bucket of water hanging by the hedge to cool them down.
- We relight the bbq (it went out during the beer episode).
- We chop up salads and vegetables kneeling in the grass.... and get grass in everything.
- We go back and forward to the hedge to check the beers in the futile hope one my turn cold.
- We wander back and forward to the campsite tap to fill up water bottles.
- More bbq flapping.
- Eventually we sit down ready to cook on our shiny new grill.
- The sausages almost immediately set on fire when the fat pours out.
- We try and move them but the cheap bbq utensils we bought melt apart as soon as they are near anything resembling heat so we resort to shiifting meat about the grill using plastic knives and forks and singeing any arm hair we ever may have had.
- We run to the hedge to get the bucket of, now very warm, water to try and dowse the flames.
- Finally we're ready to eat and we sit down, plastic plates on laps, warm beers in hand and proceed to saw through the slightly over-cooked minute steak with our woefully inadequate plastic knives.
- Once finished we sit back and declare we've had a lovely bbq.
Now, Rory's parents chuckled at us all the way through and afterwards said they thought we were mad with all our efforts and rushing about but they noticed we really seemed to be enjoying ourselves - they wondered why?
We thought about it and realised that it is something about feeling a bit self-sufficient, about having to be a bit resourceful (we know we're not talking Ray Mears here). If we'd cooked the very same thing at home we would never have had to have worked it all out and toiled a bit; and we certainly would have never felt the triumph of finding a grill pan, which was frankly a health and safety hazard, and resurrecting it from its landfill fate; it would have all been, frankly, a bit boring. The food tasted a lot sweeter because we had been on an, albeit ridiculous, journey to get there.
Rory's parents never want to go camping themselves, but they would be very happy to come and watch us camp any day.
Campingninja feature in Sainsbury's Magazine - Happy Campers
21 June 2010 : Written by The Campingninja Team
Geoff is featured giving expert camping tips in July's Sainsbury's Magazine in an article, "Happy Campers" by Francesca Syz.
Amongst other things Geoff talks about his fondest camping memories along the South West Coast Path in Devon and some of his favourite campsites.
Geoff's take on camping,
"camping is about connecting with the great outdoors so it doesn't really matter what the weather is like - the uncertainty is all part of the adventure".
Geoff's top camping tip, "A brilliant camping trip comes down to three things; good company, the right equipment and a decent back-up plan for rainy days."