NicCamps in tents aka September Camp

Sunday was a fairly slow start and we had a vague idea of a leaving the house time of 1130am which I think we still managed to miss so with a stop off at Asda along the way for first night provisions we arrived at the campsite around 3pm I think. We arrived on the slip road from the south as the same time as Em arrived from the north so pulled into the car park togther which was splendid timing :).

The centre lived up to it’s relaxed and laid back vibe by noone having the faintest idea where Hazel the hostel manager was so we could check in. We thought someone had gone off to find someone for us but they wandered back again a while later and looked surprised to see us still there. Eventually we got waved vaguely in ‘that’ direction and told Hazel was in her room although noone seemed sure where that was so we decided to walk up and down corridors calling ‘Hay-zelllll!’ until we got an answer. We heard voices behind one of the doors, knocked and were lucky. Hazel did her ‘whatever’ thing marvellously and we went back to gather Ady and the cars and head down to the camping field.

We knew which of the two tipis Ali was booked in to so we planned pitching around that and the fire pit and set the tents up. Em headed off to collect Eve and Rei while we took our first Autumn Walk of 2008. Davies collected armfuls of ‘stuff’ although we didn’t use it to make collages with so perhaps it didn’t deserve it’s capitals ;).

Em, Eve and Rei returned, the children played, we ate, the DS tent was errected, decorated and put to good use, darkness fell, I had consumed most of a bottle of wine and then remembered I’d not guyed the tent out so had to stumble back up to the carpark to find the peg bag that Ady insisted he’d put in the car, couldn’t find it, stumbled back down and discovered it back at the tent after all and then swayed round the tent guying and pegging while singing ‘Two Little Boys’ to myself. Was happy :).

Ady and I sat up a while after Em, mainly because Davies and Scarlett were pulling their usual stunt of being really hard to get to be quiet once they’d gone to bed due to the novelty of being in the same sleeping pod. I had a bad night’s sleep due to the noisyness of the owls and foxes who were really loud and very regular with their screeching all night long.

Monday Another walk in the woods taking in the green burial site and various other sites along the way with Em, Eve and Rei. We spotted some dens put up at one point which inspired us (me) to build our own back at the tents. I began with a band of willing helpers who all dropped off one by one but we did manage a fairly respectable attempt at a den and Hazel came and sat in it at one point :).

I went off to Asda to get food and took a wrong turning which meant a scenic if slightly less direct route to it but quite enjoyed being out on my own for a while even if it was just being lost in country lanes in Hampshire and then wandering up and down the aisles of Asda and pondering over which brand of fishfingers to get for Em :lol:. I got back expecting Marcus, Michelle and Chloe to have already arrived as I’d been gone a long time but I actually beat them back and was able to greet them with tea and glasses for their wine and beer when they did arrive.

Another nice evening round the campfire and the rain during the night seemed to quieten the owls so I slept much better.

Tuesday Was the day it rained pretty much all day long. It was also Ady and I’s ninth wedding anniversary. And rather a contrast to our wedding day in terms of weather, location and circumstance :). We spent some time in the tent reading books; Davies did some reading, I read a couple of stories and then some facts from a nice Rainforest book I’d got from work which was interesting.

The DS tent really came into it’s own that day with all 5 children squished in it for much of the day while the adults sat in the carpeted comfort of M&M’s tent drinking tea and chatting. I dragged Michelle, Em, Eve, Rei, Ady and Scarlett out on a walk during which we lost Ady and Scarlett and Em, Michelle, Eve, Rei and I had an interesting conversation on why we talk about other people so often. I love kids’ perspectives on things and chatting about more abstract concepts and sociological stuff with them.

When we got back Michelle and I headed off to Asda for more food including various pretend foodstuffs for Ali. I realised only after I’d lost sight of Michelle in what must surely be one of the largest supermarkets in the country that I don’t actually have her mobile phone number so resorted to a brightkite having also forgotten the prefix for a private message. I also had visions of a four way conversation between Ady, Marcus, Michelle and I in 3 different locations if I didn’t suceed with that as I thought I could ring Ady who could get Marcus to ring Michelle. Luckily I spotted her at that moment.

Meanwhile back at the tent Ady was doing his Ady’s Mobile Children’s Entertainment Routine while Em and Marcus were slightly at loose ends I think. We drank more tea in M&M’s tent and then it was time to collect Ali and Freya so Davies and I headed off to do that. We had interesting chats on the way although I now completely forget what about, found the station fairly easily and returned with our complete set of campers.

After a brief hiatus where I totally lost my temper with Scarlett, Ady and the world in general and bitterly regretted marriage let alone children I calmed back down and eventually once I’d stopped behaving completely irrationally we did indeed have our anniversary dinner if not the cava I’d bought to toast it.

Wednesday was the day that Em and Marcus & Michelle headed off from the campsite to visit Porchester castle. It was another soggy day at the campsite but it appears to be in some sort of micro climate as everywhere else, including Porchester had lovely weather. It didn’t daunt us though and we did some hanging around the campsite with Ali and Freya, Scarlett and Freya did some painting and then Ady, Davies, Scarlett and I went off on a penny walk. We’ve been meaning to do one for ages and ages but never had enough time or the right location to do it but armed with a penny we set off. With fairly minimal fiddling and a bit of interpretive decision making when the path was a three way choice we had a good long walk that was all but circular and took us past a new grave laden with flowers (RIP Joan) that we’d seen the procession for with a handdrawn cart the day before, lots of very touching messages engraved on plaques on benches, gave us a couple of self timer opportunities and Ady found a toad which he, Davies and Scarlett all had a go at holding.

After yet another grey and drizzly day we ended up with another clear and dry night for campfire sitting. Marcus and Michelle arrived back (much to Davies’ disappointment without Chloe ‘if Chloe’s mummy and daddy are here, why isn’t Chloe?!?’ ) followed by Em, Eve, Rei and Chloe along with Tom and Ingrid, Ady’s work friends who were keen to see the site, view a bit of Camping In Action and see Davies for his birthday all in one go. They came bearing beer, marshmallows and chocolate so were very welcome guests :). We’d decided in advance to get fish and chips that evening so Marcus who had Information at his Fingertips found the nearest place at 5 miles away and Tom, Ingrid and Ady were sent off with a complicated list and lots of Marcus’ money :). We later discovered a fish and chip shop stupidly named just in the village which hadn’t shown up on the fingertips information but actually they were very nice fish and chips (if a little stingy on the portions) so that was fine.

We had a lovely tableau of adults and children, in a circle round a campfire passing salt and vinegar and ketchup back and forth, I opened the cava and all was well with the world :). We attempted sky lanterns and they were lovely but unfortunately high trees and low gusts of wind meant we were in serious risk of setting fire to the woodland so we had to stop after about 5 :(. We moved on to marshmallows and sparklers though to ensure our requirement of danger for the day had been fulfilled ;).

Thursday was Butser Day. The weather looked very unfriendly but actually we had the whole day in the dry with occassional bursts of really very warm sunshine. The Educational Officer, Maureen took us round herself and very kindly, considering the rather high volume of drop outs from my booked number of attendees didn’t refuse to run it or insist that we pay for the minimum of 20 children that are really required for the educational visit. It did mean we lost our free adults places though so it was slightly more pricey per head than I’d expected :(.

We took Ali and Freya with us and on the car journey had a bit of storytelling which is always nice. Davies, Scarlett and I have a few fall back stories we can all tell with slight variations and enjoy both listening to and telling to each other.

That small issue aside it was a fab day, way better even than I’d anticipated :). We had a walk to the celtic roundhouse area with stops to point out things of interest along the way (such as their sheep and chickens) and then a 20 minute or so talk in the roundhouse about the house, Butser, how it all works, a brief timeline history bit and some question and answer stuff. Considering our original age band of 3 – 12 Maureen coped magnificently with the changed ages and I thought, managed to spark everyone’s interest with her talk. We lost some of the much younger ones (Tarly had glazed over and begun picking her nose 😳 ) towards the very end but she still kept them seated and quiet if not utterly engaged.

We then had a peep in a couple of other roundhouses before heading to the wattling area. I’d selected from a list of various activities and chosen 4 based on things I thought would appeal to the most children, were the most practical as in hands-on and the ones least possible to try at home or indeed at other venues. Wattling is the weaving in and out of upright posts long wooden rods (or branches) to create a wall; either to use as a fence or to be daubed to create a structure wall.

I think most children had a go at that, with satisfyingly speedy visual results :).

Next came Clunching. I happily confess I chose this simply because I’d never heard the word before, instantly liked it (try saying it aloud, it’s lovely :)) and having googled it to find out more about it the number one hit was for Butser itself refered to on a school’s website saying what a great time they’d had clunching at Butser :). I hadn’t appreciated that there would be such direct contact with chalk however…

I was coping really well with the free ranging, off the lead, ‘she won’t hurt you’ Moss the sheepdog and even stroked her a few times. I was managing to listen to the ‘pick up a lump of chalk and smash it to make powder’ although that was starting to make my skin crawl a little but when Maureen started to explain the test to ensure it was chalk you had and not flint before you started striking it and said the way to check was to dig your fingernail in my knees quite literally went to jelly, I came out in goosebumps all over and had to walk away from the group rather rapidly (in a jellylegged fashion).

The children all enjoyed it though and I could see how, chalk dust aside it would be quite theraputic. The next bit was to add the chalk dust to various other components including straw, water, animal poo and mud. This was equally popular and then great handfuls had to be placed in a sort of oversized brick shape mould to carry on building up the wall on a small building that is being entirely built by clunching children on educational visits and will eventually be a blacksmiths’ forge.

It was then time for lunch and we were very kindly offered use of the roundhouse to sit and eat in with a couple of minor provisos about safety and respect for the building. Unfortunately some of our party (by association rather than direct friends) didn’t listen to that very well which made me rather cross (clearly been mixing with Michelle too much ;)) but Maureen was back with precision timing to whisk us off to another activity.

This time it was excavation and in marked out plots the children were provided with trowels and set to digging out things. There were plenty of pottery fragments, rusty nails, some charcoal, a couple of gate hinges and the ultimate in ‘finds’ for Davies of a rams skull. 🙂

Once they’d all dug up stuff Maureen took them all to sit down and talked through all the various things they’d all found. She slipped over to me to check which of the ‘making something to take home’ activities I thought would be best and on the basis of people sleeping in tents for a couple more nights I went for the non messy option of jewellry making. I think all the children had a go, even the initially reluctant ones. Davies and Scarlett both really enjoyed it and I plan to get some wire and pliers for them to have a go at playing with some more. I think perhaps models are more their style than jewellry but they really enjoyed the pliability of wire as a material to work with.

We finished with a look round the roman villa, a few more tidbits of information as we went and finally a go on the tables filled with little mosaic tiles to make your own which was a suitably low key activity for the fairly exhausted children. We had a lovely variety of pictures, patterns, random gatherings of colour and very precise and planned results of mosaics which was interesting to see.

The visit ended in the shop, rather cunningly, where we all paid and most of the children seemed to select something to buy. Davies chose a beeswax tablet to be drawn or written on with an attached wooden stylus and erased with the blunt end. He had seen similar ones at Fishbourne before, and indeed had a go I think but not seen them for sale before so he was delighted with that (and so was I for three quid ;)) and it smells nice :). Scarlett agonised for ages and finally chose a fox charm pendant on a leather thong necklace which actually really suits her and she has not taken off since, for bath, bed or otherwise and a small robins egg made of wood (they had chicken, robin and wren to show the size difference but I said she could only have one) which Em kindly gave us some lavender oil to soak it in so is now beautifully scented too.

Alison and co. came back with us for a brief cup of tea / peek at the campsite / less structured 10 minute run around on the on site obstacle course.

We decided to feed Davies and Scarlett at Asda’s coffee shop that evening for hot, no fuss food so while Ady sat in there with them I dashed round for food for our dinner and various bit for Davies’ ‘birthday event – not a party‘ on the Friday.

It was Ali and Em’s last night and yet another good one round the campfire. I always think the mark of a good holiday with mates is easily measured by the amount of in-jokes you come back with and this holiday certainly spawned a fair few of those :). All the evenings were lovely but this was the particularly memorable one where I went to bed with my sides aching from laughing and a feeling of utter contentment and wellbeing. Ady and I likened it to our first ever Melrose where we felt instant connections with people and just loved the lifestyle – this week was very similar to that.

I think this was also the night of the birth of the Wonderous Banging Clanking Band (one of their many incarnations) which was most of the children, led by Chloe, banging on an assortments of stones, chalk, flint, logs, sticks, plates and spoons and singing a variety of songs including ‘Whats the time Mr Wolf’, ‘Jelly beans’, ‘Shouty Mummies’, ‘Bye Bye Bracken’ and a medley of all their hits. They were actually very good and as someone who is always up for a bit of a singsong I couldn’t help but admire and appreciate their work :).

The other on-site entertainment for us on Thursday was a group of lads who had the other tipi. They were uni mates who still get together annually for a weekend of laddishness. They’d been to the pub but returned fairly early, inexplicably with German accents they’d not had when they left and proceeded to play an unruly, chaotic and quite amusing game of glow in the dark boules, which rebounded off tents, logs round the fire and anything else in their way.

They were sobered up by the arrival of the Drama Gang – some young folk, possibly on gap years, who were attending a course at the centre and staying at the hostel on wet nights and in tiny tents on dry ones. They would weave their drunken way down to the camping field each night around 11pm, call out ‘goodnight fire people, we love you’ and be otherwise silent. The Lads were very keen to lure them into their tent and the conversation was most amusing to eavesdrop on, particularly as they were unsuccessful! 😆

Friday morning we were taken geocaching by Marcus and Michelle. Em, Eve and Rei came too and we had a very picturesque walk along part of the south downs way in the sunshine before entering a field full of cattle (all young males as it turned out) to find the cache under the water trough. Ady worked his trademark magic that he pulls out of the bag for all children, old ladies and animals and had the whole herd quite literally eating out of his hand while the children all swapped treasures for other treasures (in some cases each others :lol:).

Michelle and Chloe headed back while the rest of us went on to look for a second cache. Scarlett was particularly keen as she’d decided to leave something in the first cache and choose something from the second. Unfortunately we didn’t find the second one despite quite a full search of the area and I was very proud of her being able to feel (justifiably) sad when she realised she wouldn’t get something when everyone else had but keeping it together anyway :). We realised time had gone by quicker than we’d thought so headed back to the campsite. I ended up ahead of the others and enjoyed walking at my own faster than child speed in the sunshine for ten minutes or so :).

Back at the campsite Freya had organised a treasure hunt for Davies so they headed off to do that which he was thrilled with. He came back with a couple of paintings from Freya and a fantastic little water colour of him that Ali had done :). Julie had arrived with Jack, Maisie and Lorna so we had a mini party. Chloe gave Davies a fab bow and arrow and a Horrible Histories dvd, Eve and Rei gave him a Ben 10 figure each – all mightly appreciated (thanks again :)) and the children played some games with Ady including musical bumps, chinese whispers and the Banging Clanking Band made an appearance to sing Happy Birthday (bemusing Maisie but including Jack who quickly saw the appeal of banging things loudly ;)). We had a birthday cake and candles and much running around enjoying the freedom of the campsite and the woodland.

Em, Ali, Julie and I went to sit on Sue’s bench with a cup of tea – there is a particularly poignant plaque on a bench located at a high point above most of the woods with a view on a clear day of the lagoons and the sea which has the legend ‘A cup of tea and a view of the sea – for Sue’. Michelle learnt that Sue’s husband visits the bench weekly with a cup of tea and we’d half hoped to meet him. We didn’t, but we toasted Sue with our tea cups and enjoyed her wonderful view.

Em had gotten packed up during the course of the morning so Julie, Em, Ali and I all left the site together – me to run Ali and Freya to the station for their homeward journey. On the way back to the campsite I collected an Indian Takeaway menu from the local restaurant that delivered food to the campsite as we’d decided to go for that as a last night treat.

When I returned Ali and Em had already been replaced by two new families pitching their tents for a weekend stay. One of which was a very cool, home made tipi tent. It was the two Dads and one child each to begin with but the Mums and additional children arrived later on – one family with 3 boys and one with 2 girls. One of the men went off to do his nightshift as a nurse but the other man and two women joined us round the campfire; we broke out the marshmallows to share and had a lovely last night chatting, evangelicising about HE, sharing camping tales and generally making friends. It was really nice :).

I’d rung for our curry and the Merc delivering it (the owner himself as the usual driver hadn’t turned up) arrived with split second timing at the gates to the centre as Michelle and I arrived clutching our glasses of wine to collect it :). Very nice curry it was too.

Saturday was probably the best weather we’d had all week and bright sunshine with odd bursts of overcast which were actually quite welcome to keep us from getting too hot. We’d all had a bad night’s sleep thanks to owls, other more distant campers and specifically one of the daughters of our campfire buddies who seemed to spend a lot of the night awake and wailing :(. The campsite had filled up and was apparently fully booked for the weekend and was suddenly not quite so lovely as we’d enjoyed all week so it was a good day to go.

We packed up in the style of Chris French – very relaxed, with lots of tea breaks and sitting around in the sun. Davies, Scarlett and Chloe went off to chat with a man building a stone pizza oven who incredibly kindly chatted to them for a while and then gave them a barrow full of sand to play in :). It’s so that sort of campsite :). Ady and Marcus went off to get cash out, Hazel came down to sort out money with us (I think I’ve kept my Hazel-talk to a sensible level. I was very tempted merely to blog about what Hazel wore each day and every bit of our conversations over the week but I managed to restrain myself :lol:). I was proud to get the sleeping bags and the camping mats down to all new record levels of smallness in packing them away and even more proud to have completely dismantled the tent by myself including fitting it all into the bag :).

Meanwhile Davies had decided to be ‘An Archeologist’ and ‘do some excavating’ so he was digging out bits of pottery with a spoon. Scarlett and Chloe played for a while on the obstacle course and then went and joined him to do that. Both my children have adored spending time with all their friends this week but particularly Chloe. Scarlett has rechristened her ‘Glowy’ because I think for Scarlett she really does glow with coolness :).

We finally packed up the last few bits, took the cars back to the car park and then did the 1km Mobile Phone Walk which is a 8 destination information points that you ring a phone number to get a recorded commentary for. Davies and Scarlett were utterly at the end of pretty much all resources but at that stage of not wanting to call things a day either so we trudged around with Michelle and I particularly finding the sound effects and banter on the recordings hilarious 😆

On the way back past the camping field we said a final goodbye to our campfire buddies from the night before who had just caught a tail-less slow worm which they brought over to show us so the children all had a hold of that. It was only young but the first live one Davies has ever seen.

We finally parted ways and headed for home. Due to road closures in Arundel what should have been less than a hours’ drive was nearly 2 and a quarter though :(. I dashed to Sainsburys for essentials while Ady dunked very dirty children in a bath, I cooked their tea and they watched X Factor while we unloaded the car.

It was a very late night but we enjoyed a bath, real bed, meal you couldn’t cook camping etc. Ady blew up many balloons, Scarlett made a fab card and I wrapped up presents and finally I got to bed at about 230am. Davies had nearly seen his birthday in as it was about 1145pm when he eventually got to sleep.

Ady and I both said it was our favourite group camp so far. It is easily our favourite campsite, we love the seasonal changes and scenery of the woodland, it is close to home, cheap and friendly, open fires are not just allowed they are positively encouraged, we had a wonderful mix of friends with us and while the weather might not have been perfect we had dry evenings every night to sit round the campfire. For us it more than made up for crap weather this summer meaning all camping trips have been blighted by rain, no MP group camp and was one of the first group camps we’ve been able to genuinely call a Holiday :). Thank you so much to Ali, Em, Marcus and Michelle and children for such a fab week – missing you all already xxx