updatey

[parthenia]

Back from the Latitude music festival in Southwold, possibly Britain's most middle-class music festival. So many small children, many of them in strange tiny tow-trucks. Yummy mummy tantrums in the (extremely congested) Family Camping area. Woman with giant all-terrain pushchair yelling at youthful security man: 'These tents weren't here this morning! HOW am I expected to get my children back to my tent now?'

This is our first time proper camping in 3 years. Oh God. Campsite is about a mile from the car park, camping approach is not minimal. We scrabbled for a while just to find a spot to put the tent up. Then...well, I'll cast a veil over the next two hours but for future reference a) never put up a tent with someone who has zero capacity to think in 3 dimensions and b) don't camp on rocky ground, especially in gale force winds. Also, the sadist who wrote the tent erection instructions (fnar fnar) wrote them in 3 pages of dense capitals, with NO PICTURES.

Things that worked:
- camping stove (a bit bulky, but wonderful)
- catering strategy of M&S tinned curry
- camping lantern and water carrier
- not showering
- EAR PLUGS

Rubbish things:
- The cooler that let in all the ants. Eww. They ate little E's melted Maltesers, and then got stuck to the chocolate.
- Inflatable mattresses in a high wind.
- Sleeping on thin foam mats. OW.
- The tent. P. would describe it as 'retarded.'

It was a funny festival experience. It was very busy and very hot. I was a bit punch-drunk from working late all week on a report, and there weren't really many bands that I was desperate to see. P. went off with his friends and little E wanted lots of company with very little live music.

Highlights:
- The Feeling did a lovely set, the first thing I saw
- James, on the Saturday, showing everyone how 'demented frontman' should really be done
- Mumford and Sons
- Tom Jones! He did an unscheduled set on Sunday, playing his new album, which is very much in Travelling Wilburys territory. Thundering blues and gospel.
- Belle and Sebastian
- On the first night, sitting outside the tent with little E., eating spaghetti hoops and hearing Florence and the Machine belting across the trees.

Little E. and I are going camping again n a couple of weeks. I have ordered a new tent, of the popping-up variety.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I'm off to the Sidmouth Folk Week next week, and from previous experience second all the things that work. Even if I'm in the "quiet" field earplugs are essential.

Popping up tents are good but unfortunately I've not seen one big enough for me and two doggies.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Try Decathlon - they were advertising a four person pop up, I think.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

That's probably the one I'm buying, but not from Decathlon unfortunately - the nearest one to me is Lakeside and although they promise total UK delivery this is a black lie.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking in terms of going back to a motor caravan or similar, but if I don't, that's definitely an idea.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know how I get on with the tent - it's technically a four-person tent, with a biggish bedroom and a bit of sitting space. Apparently very good for two.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

It has arrived! And it's awesome.

It's just tall enough for me to stand up inside (I'm five feet nothing) and the inner bedroom is very roomy. The whole thing is beautifully designed; putting-up time was under 5 minutes and most of that was pegging out the groundsheet.

It's by Quechua. This one: http://tente.quechua.com/en/tent/r-8,a-62,tente-2-seconds-xxl-iiii.html.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I'm making a note! That will definitely be my next tent!

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

I'll test it next weekend. :-)

I bought it online for £120 from Tents Direct, but Decathlon stock them for cheaper, if you've one nearby.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

That's it, I'm coming next year.
Oh, and there's lots of good places to camp in Scotland...

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

You'd love it. It's a very enjoyable festival, absolutely loads to see. Also nicely eccentric/artistic rather than corporate - pink and green sheep, water fountain lightshows, ballet, comedy, cabaret, you name it.

Tom Jones was a bit of a revelation, actually.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/jul/19/tom-jones-praise-blame

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree with the not showering and the ear plugs. Also electric inflatable mattress pump to run off the car battery. Next time I go camping I am taking a woolly hat to sleep in.

I keep thinking our tent is embarrassingly huge as it has a middle area and 3 sleeping pods, and in Belgium it didn't fit in the space they thought suitable for a tent (I think in Europe, if you have 3 children, you graduate to a camper van) but it does have the advantage that you can fit a camping table with stove and five chairs in the middle bit and cook in rain and high winds while everyone else is messing about with awnings and windbreaks and gazebos.

I am jealous of festival going and might try and brave it next year when the youngest is nearly 4.

[parthenia14.livejournal.com]

Our current tent is sodding enormous, but it's also asymmetric, so there's quite a lot of knowledge in putting it up. Knowledge that I'd forgotten and B. has never had. Also, because the main dome is high, it needs at least two people to feed in the poles and maneouvre it all into place.

What with the wind and all, it ended up sloping oddly off to one side. It did stay up though.

We also have a car pump for the air mattresses, but that would have required walking over a mile back from the car with a fully inflatable mattress or two. In high winds. :( We chickened out.

Unfortunately my ageing bones can't take the horror of sleeping on those thin mats. I'm still creaking as I move.

[7tree-hugger.livejournal.com]

Is that the one sponsored by waitrose? Oh those thin foam mats, who invented those?

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Someone who thought the classic bed of nails was too comfortable and sybaritic.