We're all packing for a summer holiday...

We're back from a great camping holiday in Devon.

The T5 did us proud...packing in and transporting all our camping gear, cooking gear, sleeping gear, wearing gear, playing gear, 11 month old, 2.5 year old, 12 year old, 16 year old, 31 year old and 36 year old.

We had plenty of space to boot. Unlike some poor sardines travelling down a very busy M5 very early on an August Saturday morning.

We saw all sorts of packing techniques...

...kids squashed in the back amongst pillows and duvets, sweaty little heads popping out the top for air while the family terrier is spread out on it's back on mum's lap in the passenger seat upon its own personal doggy pillow.

...Ikea storage boxes rammed full of clothes strapped to roof boxes. (Really don't want to see your undies pal..even less all your dirty washing on the way back).

...Windbreaks (uh, optimistic!) getting shredded to pieces as they are tightly packed and strapped underneath bursting to the seams roof boxes.

...Brightly coloured towels and inflatable rings squashed up against the back window of boots. Buckets and spades too, inevitably cracked as harrassed parents slam and force and bounce the boots shut "You will shut. You will shut. You will shut.if.it's.the.last.thing.i.do" then "What do you mean you need to get the sun cream out for the journey down?! No. Just no!"

We had oodles of space. I comfortably sat in the back between the babies in their car seats, feet up on the cool box munching a holiday pain au chocolat. The boys sat in the front controlling the sound system.

It was a good job the toddler spotted an epic error half way down the main road on the way to the motorway. *Someone* had left one of the back doors of the van open.

Some poor souls would have been treated to our pillows and duvets, clothes and undies, wind break, towels, inflatables, buckets and spades littered all the way down the M5.

And we would have arrived at our holiday destination with more space in the van then we left with.

And before you ask. It wasn't me!

Tales from the tent

Before the VW T5 we had a T4, and before that we had a tent.

I love camping. As explained in one of my earlier posts it's in the blood. After all, I've been brought up on it from trailer tenting right through to caravanning.

In fact rather than swan off to some swish Caribbean lurve island for our honeymoon we decided to stay in the UK and tent our way along the North Cornwall and Devon coast.

I would like to say this was for environmental reasons and we wanted to keep our carbon footprint down, but I would be lying wouldn't I? I now drive a T5 as my daily commute after all.

No, we decided to camp coz we both love being under canvas. And it also meant our baby - our mad Springer Spaniel called Marley - could join us.

Now this would have been fine if it hadn't been one of the most tempestuous Septembers in years. The tent was soaked and two of our tent poles got snapped by all the violent shaking of the tent...(ahem!)

One particular stormy night in Padstow we were joined by some new neighbours in our quagmired section of the campsite. A nice, professional looking couple in a hired baby blue bay VW campervan.

Lucky buggers, we thought. Bet they will be nice and cosy in their van tonight.

After salivating over the coolness of the camper, pushing our wet faces up against the damp glass and fogging up the pane to try and get a glimpse of the interior, we donned our waterproofs to go into town for a Doom Bar (him) and a Cornish Rattler or two (me).

On our return it was plain to see the campers next to us were not happy.

Through lots of thuds, thumps and exasperated sighs came...'Oigh, get on your side! Your on my side of the bed!' Thud..thump...thud 'Seriously! How do you take up so much room!' Thud...thump...thump 'Oh my god. Will you stop moving and stay still so I can get some sleep?!'

Trying to hold in fits of giggles and guffaws of laughter (ok, we may have been a tad tipsy) we crashed out into our damp, soggy tent.

Through the howl of the wind and the slashing sound of rain on canvas we were woken up by the odd argument throughout the night about who had the most bed.

The next morning the sun made an appearance, and we were greeted by two very tired and unhappy looking campers.

'Want to swap?' We said cheerfully on the way to the showers.

Unfortunately not everyone is cut out to be a camper...whether under canvas or in a dream van.

We're not sure what happened to the couple in the cool camper. On our return from the shower blocks all that was left were tyre tracks in the mud. And our tent still standing (well, just).

Stuff memories are made of

My parents used to take me and my sisters camping as kids.

Our camping adventures began in a trailer tent. Bright orange with brown and orange flowers on the curtains. Total retro hippy cool.

After a few fun filled years under canvas we upgraded to a caravan.

We loved the caravan so much we used to beg our parents to let us sit in there and play board games on rainy days so we could pretend we were camping with the rain hammering down on the roof...ding, ding, ding, ding. It's a sound that often used to send us to sleep on holiday (well you know what the great British weather is like!)

The best holiday I remember having as a child was when we took the caravan to a field in the Gower overlooking the vast blue sea.

There were no toilet blocks, no playgrounds. Just heaps and heaps of sun and freedom.

Me and my little sister spent hours flying kites and collecting shells on deserted beaches, then at the end of the day we would have a cold alfresco shower and collapse sunburnt and exhausted in our cosy sleeping bags.

I can remember the cool, fresh dampness of early morning dew between my toes, the whistles of camp kettles getting louder and louder. The smell of bacon bubbling on camp stoves early in the morning and the tang of early evening smokey bbqs.

This is the stuff great memories are made of, and I want to create those same cracking memories for my kids.

We made a start on that this weekend, taking advantage of the stonking weather we are enjoying joining friends with kids the same age as ours at a nearby camp site.

The kids loved it and we have got some wonderful new memories to cherish as parents. Watching our baby girl crawl around in the grass just wearing her nappy covered from head to toe in chocolate biscuit, then dunking her in the washing up bowl to clean her up and cool her off.

Seeing our toddler tearing happily along the road on his little red scooter, stooping down in concentration to collect pretty duck feathers around the lake, kicking a football as hard as he could and whooping with delight as he rolled around in the grass wrestling with his friends.

The view from our breakfast table, and the van, was pretty spectacular too.

It was a weekend I will never forget, and hopefully one the kids will remember and cherish too.

My boy is already asking when is the van taking us all camping again!

Soon, son. Soon.