End of a crazy week.

This week was always going to be one we had to take time to recover from when it was over. But it was all worth it :).

After a brief one night touchdown back at home to bath, sleep in our own beds and unpack / repack the car we were off again. This time to Dorset to meet up with Em, Eve and Rei to camp at Eweleaze Farm. Em went 2 years ago and we’ve planned to go ever since but not been quick enough to book for the month they are open. We’d planned 3 nights with Em staying on for a further 4.

All week Ady had been saying to me at regular intervals ‘are we really, really going camping this week?’ as the rain lashed, severe weather warnings were issued, flash floods and structural damage causing winds lashed the country and to be honest although I was adamant we were going I did have in the back of my mind that it was only 2 hours from home and if needs be we could all do a dash back to our house for a mass sleepover.

We met Em at the services just after the M3 (her route) joins the M27 (ours) and travelled the rest of the way in convoy. Aside from a very heavy downpour just before we met it was blue skies and sunshine all the way and our first view of Eweleaze totally lived up to expectations:

We booked in and I was amused to notice a slight blip in my hetrosexuality in attraction to a very specific sort of woman. Those who work on running campsites! I developed a small crush on the woman who runs a campsite we stayed on earlier this year and sure enough there was a very gorgeous woman who checked us in at Eweleaze. Given my own appearance while camping is quite possibly at my worst and grungiest I suspect this attraction will never be reciprocated so my marriage and safe little family unit is quite safe while I secretly look at women in wellies 😆

We drove around, braving the crazy mud trenches and found a good pitching place with close proximity to the nearest loo shed, giant haystacks in the middle of the field for the children to play in, a spot near the hedge at the top of the slightly sloping field and plenty of views across the gorgeous Dorset countryside even if the actual sea was slightly over the hill. We decided to trade a sea view for peace of mind against the forecast winds.

We got set up while the children explored and did indeed play in the haystacks

Scarlett had a nap in the car while this was going on and carried on napping in the car while Em, Eve and I popped to the local shops for supplies. Hence she was not on best form when I woke her up again. She did manage a bit of a play, some bug hunting and some firewood collecting but ended up snuggled back in her sleeping bag, fully clothed, very early and slept.

The rest of us ate sausages, sat round the campfire and admired the truly amazing, sky-on-fire sunset:

It finally got dark and Ady, Em, Eve and I enjoyed the fire while Davies and Rei sat in the back of Ady’s car and DS’d by moonlight 🙂

Friday morning dawned with yet more glorious sunshine so we packed up a picnic and headed across the hill to the campsite’s private beach. It was busy but certainly not cramped and the children enjoyed playing in the sea (Scarlett particularly with the farm dogs who you could walk and someone had brought down to the beach with them);

and clambering back up the cliff and playing in the watchpoint shelter;

while we sat and chatted (and maybe drank cider and beer :))

There was stone collecting, bug hunting and some fairly competitive kite flying when another person came with their kite and it got tangled in ours 😆 We’ve all read the Kiterunner and we knew their game! 😆

The stone collection always amuses me as I watch the children scramble over loads of stones to bring one they’ve found far away and felt the need to carry, over many identical stones :lol:. Davies found some he was so attached to he insisted on bringing them all the way back to the tent. He carried an armful and loaded his pockets to the point his trousers kept falling down with many more. He then dumped them on the grass near the tent, didn’t glance at them twice afterwards and left them there! 😆

Em and Eve returned to the tent via the scrambling up the cliff face path while Ady, Davies, Scarlett, Rei and I walked along the alleged 250 metres to the steps. Actually the steps were not much better and walking along the stones to get to them almost did me in. They started at metal steps, then went to wooden and finally were concrete which the observant 3 children noticed, I was too busy concentrating on breathing without the aid of an inhaler!

We walked over to the ‘hub’ of the farm to coo over the kittens they had for sale, sit around on strawbales, eat ice cream from the shop and then gather some firewood from the massive mound of lopped trees and hedges.

We lit our fire early that evening and cooked burgers (from the farmshop) on it, toasted marshmallows and enjoyed another evening under the stars. I so love camping with a fire and really miss one when we camp without.

There was a big group of campers who had entertained us the previous night by releasing a whole load of fire lanterns off into the night sky. They were packing up and leaving behind a whole load more firewood and some strawbales so we went over to say goodbye and beg their leftovers which meant our campfire was bigger and better with added strawbale seating that night :).

We also had haystack challenges with a ‘can you jump from one to the other’ competition and an inevitable hay fight to end 🙂 I think I might have lost!

Sadly it was a rowdy night on the campsite and although I semi slept through it the others had all been disturbed by it. We also woke on Saturday to gloomy weather. We had a plan to head over to Portland and visit the castle and the lighthouse so we all squished in Ady’s car, listened to American Pie several times and arrived at the castle. Davies had been looking pale and shivery in the car and despite sitting next to Em who he adores chatting to had been uncharacteristically quiet and then announced he felt ill. First I and then Ady walked around with him assuming it was mild car sickness which he is prone to but he looked paler and greyer and was burning hot but violently shivering :(. We stood and watched a helicopter take off while he composed himself and then went into the castle.

It’s a small castle and well served by a comprehensive audio tour but possibly a bit too ‘modernised’ with work done to it which sort of compromises its historical feel. We did try on some armour, look round the canons etc. and get a good feel of it though

We also spent some time in the activity room and did some rubbings and build curved and straight walls to see which stood up to the demolition ball the best

I stayed in the room with Davies and Scarlett and we used the walls as props for the 3 little pigs story too. Sadly despite being bundled up in Ady’s hat and woolly jumper Davies couldn’t rouse himself and was very miserable and just wanted to go and pack up the tent and go home :(. He was convincing enough for me to decide that was what we should do, so aside from a brief stop at the Chesil Beach visitor centre and cafe for chips and tea (and a spectacular falling off a bench backwards injury for Scarlett) we headed back to the campsite.

We packed up fairly efficiently, aside from me being dizzy about how stable the tent would be once I’d taken out all the guys and most of the pegs and getting ahead of myself with dismantling it before Ady had actually emptied it 😳 which led to a last minute shoving everything in the car rather than Ady’s usual careful and consider packing technique. So 24 hours early we were on the way home.

Both the children slept a fair bit of the way which is simply unheard of for Davies and Scarlett, I was desperate for a hairwash and Ady was starting to believe he’d live the rest of his life behind a steering wheel having driven well over a 1000 miles this week.

We got home, unpacked the car, I whizzed up to the supermarket for essential supplies while D and S bathed, they ate and were both asleep by a record 8pm, we bathed and had a massive curry.

Today has been very much a recovering from a mad 7 days sort of day.I’ve managed to get all the laundry done, made pancakes for breakfast from the egg stash from the hens, a huge roast chicken dinner for 5pm for all of us, battled with flickr and it’s wilful ways of uploading some photos many times and others not at all. Ady has cleaned out his car and removed all traces of it having been a tour bus for the week, done various gardening related tasks that mean nothing to me and got the tent aired. Davies has lost his third tooth – top front, he now can’t say sizzling steaks and sausages 😆 and watched a lot of TV, spent some serious time on flopping and read me most of a library book at his own (surprise!) request. Scarlett has helped with the pancakes, watched some TV, spent lots of time with the chickens, taken herself off for an afternoon nap and amused the rest of us greatly by drawing up a grid on a postit note and then wandering round the house looking for things to tick off. She greeted us this morning by asking if we were ‘alright?’ when we replied yes she just ticked her postit and said ‘check!’ in a very efficient manner. She also ‘check’ed all the baking ingredients 😆

I insisted that everyone came out for a walk for an hour while the dinner cooked at 230pm and we walked into Lancing for some wine for me (bored of cider) and a promised ‘holiday present’ for Davies and Scarlett from Woolies. He got a Ben 10 figure, she chose Endangered Wildlife Top Trumps. On the way home my parents rang to say they were at our house and where were we so they came in for coffee and a very brief catch up as our dinner was ready.

Bath and early night again for Davies and Scarlett. It’s been lovely to see so many friends, go so many places and have such a busy week but I think we may need to lie low for a day or two to recover our equilibrium and catch up with various other things.