Our camping adventure

We decided to take the kids for our first family camping trip and all in all, it was a lovely little trip away and great for not spending too much money as once you arrive there isn't really anything that they can ask you to spend money on!

We went to Tangham campsite which is next to Rendlesham forest. The camp site was lovely and as it is early in the camping season it was nice and quiet. The camp was nice and clean and the facilities were well maintained so I was really pleased as I had been worrying about what the toilet would be like! They have a little shop area for anything that you may need such as bread and milk and the staff all seemed friendly so I would definitely recommend the camp site to other family campers.

On arrival we set up the tent which was fun as we had only ever put up the tent once before and that was last summer! Luckily it soon came back to us and we managed to get it all set up much quicker then the first time we did it. Once we had unpacked all our things we settled down for our picnic lunch. I sat in my deck chair munching on my sandwiches and felt like the stresses of modern life were draining away with each bite. I loved the peace and quiet and the fact that there was no distractions was great, although the teenagers were not quite as enthusiastic!

After our lunch had settled we went into Rendlesham forest to explore. They have several trails that you can follow either on foot or on bicycle and Faith really enjoyed finding the arrows and showing us the way to go. We did two of the walks and some extra exploring before heading back to camp for some dinner. 

Now as I am not yet an expert camper we opted for simple and went for hot dogs for dinner which all three children loved. I toasted some sweet waffles for desert which I topped with chocolate sauce which went down really well too. 

Then it was time for some card games with the children and then we all got ready for bed as by this time I was absolutely exhausted! Of course we couldn't go to sleep with out first toasting some marshmallows which was lots of fun especially when I was moaning at Chloe for setting her marshmallow on fire just as my own caught on fire! 

I slept really well as I am one of those people who could sleep through an earthquake, but unfortunately I awoke to a very grumpy husband and two very stressed out teenagers who all informed me that they had had the worst nights sleep ever! Faith was alright but then I think that little children often are as she was enjoying the adventure of camping too much to let anything like a bad nights sleep get in the way. It is just a shame the others didn't do the same as it did make the day harder then it needed to be. I have promised to invest in some air beds before we go again as next time we go camping I would like to go for longer and I know that it wouldn't be fair on them all to have to go a few nights without a good nights sleep especially when we do a lot of walking. 

We had breakfast and got ourselves ready for the day and then it was time to pack up the tent. I really wished that I had booked longer as I really did love it but the children had commitments and we had only packed enough food and clothes for the one night so away went the tent.

We then went into Rendlesham forrest to walk their UFO trail which is quite good as you can pick up a leaflet at the start and then there are certain points along the trail that you read parts of the story which the kids loved and then at the end you decide on whether you think that it was aliens or something else which lead to a very interesting discussion in the car on the way home.

I can also now check off number 16 from my 40 by 40 list as that was to camp in the UK.