Camping at Hartfield - Day 3 and lessons learned

In spite of the very early night, I didn't get to sleep properly until after midnight. Alan also did not sleep well – acid indigestion from gorging on fish and chips. Both of us just aren't too good after eating fatty foods, as we do not eat them at home any-more.

We also listened to the rain and wind and to a Mr. Fox killing one of the ducks who lived on the lake (or at least, that is what it sounded like - a ghastly Donald Duck scream, or screams as there was more than one).

But I did sleep, much to my surprise. Morning found me refreshed and ready for another day. After breakfast and tea, Alan went off for another hour of fishing and start to pack up and dismantle those bits of equipment that I was able i.e. the air-bed, packing the sleeping bag and taking the inner bed down and folding it up. Had one very impressed husband when he arrived back.

Once everything was packed up, we left the site for a leisurely trip home, stopping for lunch on the way, believe it or not, another fry up, this time a full English breakfast - delicious!

So what has been learned on this camping trip, which,  in fact,  I did enjoy, but if things didn't go wrong there would be nothing to write about?

1)      Preparation may be everything, but communication helps as well. Alan had been so good in sorting everything prior to getting to the site. He didn't however tell me of his expectations, which made for an awkward start. Probably wasn't his fault. Maybe I should have asked more questions, rather than ‘just turned up on the day’ as it were.

2)      Air-beds should be properly blown up, or else sleeping will be difficult if not impossible (as well as getting in and out of bed - imagine feeling like you're walking on water). We realised as we were packing up that Alan’s side of the air-bed wasn't even half full. No wonder he was complaining bitterly for the two nights we were there.

3)      It rains a lot in this country, particularly when you want to go camping.

4)      Camp fires are fun and I have an extremely adept husband who sets them up.

5)    And finally, both of us agreed that comfort might be improved if we had an inner tent that allowed space either side of the air-bed, so that getting out in the middle of the night would be that much easier. So began the research towards buying another tent that may fulfil our needs. More about that in another posting - think canvas.