MyLittleMan: First Camp!

Sorry it’s been a while. Things seem to have got in my way…but nice things…like… CAMPING! I love camping and we try and go every year. Getting together with friends, or chilling out on our own – we always have a great time, and it’s nice just to be outdoors in the fresh air. Last year we didn’t manage a trip as we thought it would be too much faff with a 6month old baby in tow…but with a 16/17month old it would be a piece of cake…right?!

We ventured down to the beautiful Purbecks, to set up camp at the foot of Corfe Castle. We didn’t want to go too far in case we had to abort the mission if a) it was a weather wash out, and b) if the little man didn’t take to it. So a short 1.5hr drive from home and we arrived at Norden Farm Campsite – a working farm. We camped with very good friends, The Bloomburns, with whom we try and camp every year with. They had set up our tent (after a handover on the motorway earlier that day!) so that it would be less stressful when we rocked up later in the evening after hubby had finished work. That definitely helped, and so did the fact that they had the BBQ underway! (Thank you Team B!) Thank you also to one of my yummy mummies for gifting us their tent which was full of pockets to stash torches, bonjela, and…. dummies!

My little man absolutely loved the camping experience. He was so well behaved and so much fun. He went to sleep with no fuss or bother on the air bed; he ended up sleeping on the floor using it as a pillow, but then we snuggled him between us and he was like a toasty little hot water bottle for us. He even gave us a lie in until 8am! He enjoyed setting up and taking down camp, the food was a hit and he loved his little camping chair. He was very much part of the gang.

I wanted to make our novice camper something of his own to take camping so I made him a travel toy bag with some material I had hanging around. We are usually very un-prepared when we take Wills away stuffing a few random toys in the car if we remember, and I thought he might need a few toys for some camp-side entertainment. Here are some pictures of it in action…

We were lucky on the weather front and we made it to Lulworth Cove/Durdle Door. We are really lucky to live so close to such a beautiful coastline. It’s a shame there are so many vulnerable areas with landslides at the moment, who knows how it will look in years to come. We trekked up the hill (with pushchair in hand…I’m surprised it survived being pushed up there…and I’m surprised the guys survived pushing it!) and we picnicked on the beach.