Under Canvas

It seems more common than you would credit. We have been looking into the viability of a bit of winter camping, but not necessarily on a campsite as such. Possibly near to home and a preference for a woodland. I am probably describing wild camping here. The trouble with that term is that it has such a broad covering of what wild camping means. The purist would no doubt scoff at the phrase used for the type of camping we are looking to do, and in truth I can see that would be fair. Surely "wild camping" is backpacking with a pack of self sustenance for whatever that period away may be. The Americans/Canadians just call it "Hot Tenting" which I think suits the style. I think I look at it as....I don't know yet in truth. Maybe after it's happened I will have better phrase. Even the word camping has that effect for many. My definition of camping is in a tent, whereas it seems this can be used for others to mean a motorhome, caravan or camper van. In p...

We are reluctant to give up on the camping season so, I surprised Mandy with a 2 night camping trip to a campsite outside of Settle on the Yorkshire Moors.....I am good like that! I checked the weather and the all important pack up day of Sunday was looking dry. Friday wet, Saturday in the morning damp, but sunny spells developing in the afternoon. In October I will take that. Mandy was not keen, as we set off Friday afternoon the weather really was hard to look past, the fog encountered was low and thick with constant drizzle. We rolled up just after an hours drive to the campsite and got told there wasn't many campers booked on so pick your spot (music to our ears). Thought we would keep on the higher ground just in case, and we were soon pitched up and having a coffee. A lovely view was quickly admired before we set off for supplies. I had taken along a real treat for us as a surprise. Mandy was surprised alright. A MOD 24hr rations pack! The weather star...

Errr not quite. My addiction, as it turns out is lighting. That be at home, garden or camping. I am a huge fan of the LED lighting now available, but I will keep my meanderings to lighting for camping. The basics of what I look for lighting when camping. LED ✅ Battery Powered ✅ Compact ✅ Remote Control ✅ Rechargeable Via USB ✅ High Lumens ✅ Variable Brightness ✅ I think I have found something that gives me most of the basic things. Each of the categories can always be improved though. But so far this light is as good as it gets for a person with addiction to fulfil. The lamp is small and heavy. Most likely the batteries are the main weight with a total of 9900mah capacity. The dimensions are approx H85mm W75mm It looks as though it has one LED bulb for the white light and one for LED for the red light. Ideally I would prefer a number of LEDs inside the lamp as this normally makes the light a little less directional. It's not a huge thing with...

It gets to this time of year and we are reluctant to give up on our camping. We should get a few short trips in before the end of October but this year we are looking at camping in the winter. Finding a site that is open all year and that will allow tents on the ground is not that easy and I have not found a site local to us at all. I usually start thinking of camping in the winter months now but come November I think...mmmm...maybe not. This year I hope to change that. We have found a site a couple of hours away after making a few enquiries they are happy for us to camp. Now don't get me wrong we will be using electric hookup at that time of year so a heater is readily used. The practicalities of camping in low temps and often damp conditions makes it more awkward as packing the tent away when not dry is a fatal mistake especially cotton/canvas. I am excited about the thought of the trip and Mandy is slowly warming to the idea. The thought of crisp mornings and snow on ...

One of our favourite events is held at a cracking bird migration hotspot known as Spurn Point Nature reserve. It has a great pub, even better campsite and some superb movements of both rare and common migrant birds. Other animals include bats, moths, dragonflies, butterflies, hare, deer, weasel and fox, all of which we have seen personally. I am so reluctant to mention the campsite as it only just has enough room for a few units. One of the sad parts of the campsite over the years, is that more and more static caravans have taken up year round residency, which to my eye makes sites look a touch scruffy and of course limits availability. That out of the way, it's in a superb place within spitting distance of the Humber and North sea. The campsite we stayed at is  Driftwood Campsite This is from a Migfest a few years back where at 06:00 people take part in visible migration counts whereby with any luck, thousands of birds can be seen on migration in a morning. Meadow P...

We haven't done a two night camp as yet, so with the weather being OK and having the weekend off work, we thought that getting away at 16:00 on the Friday, would be a good chance to see if a two night camp is worth the packing and setting up. Having only come back from camping on the Monday we again headed back to Charoland Campsite meaning a travel time of 1 hr. I did wonder how this would go with it being Friday. We packed the car up the night before and Mandy dropped me off at work. We did travel lighter this time with just the 3 meter pod, rain awning and the newly made rain awning sides. Other things were missed off our usual kit to take and to be honest it was great. The well thought out facilities with the new addition of a washing up sink for tent campers was well received. The reception building houses the details for your stay and a little info for the local area. The tent was soon up and after a cuppa we relaxed having only taken about 1hr to se...

Dog owners that think the next door pitches are their dogs latrine. OK, you pick it up, but diarrhoea.........it's not happening. The campsite owners stipulate that dogs must be on leads at all times, and exercise your dog off site. Now, just in case some pooch owners are unsure, exercise is a very polite way to say take your dog for a shit off site. It does not mean open your caravan door send the dog outside and keep whistling at it until it's done it's shit. How lazy can you be. Believe you me, after the dog's third bowel movement on our pitch I was restrained when I remarked to the dog owner that his dog was keen on our pitch. So irresponsible dog owners you are our "Arse of the Camp" 🐕 💩💩