Parasitic camping

Thanks to the Dry Rot Saga (which deserves a post of its own so I shan’t go into it here!) we were not sure whether going on the East Anglia camp at Breck Farm was a good idea or whether we should really stay here and get on with sorting and shuffling… The weather forecasts really didn’t help matters and I didn’t fancy sorting out all the stuff and then trying to put up a tent and look after 4 children in potential torrential rain all by myself if Bob stayed at home to do sorting out, which looked like the most helpful option form his point of view.
The Beans came to the rescue with an offer of a spare pod in their tent 😀 Such luxury! I’m afraid I was somewhat in helpless mode, so having other adults around to take responsibility and share equipment was ideal just then, while Bob got a whole weekend to himself to get on with things much better done without children 🙂
The camp itself was not quite what I had expected or hoped for tbh, but it was a good start and the children loved camping on the farm and playing in the woods nearby. The weather was nowhere near as bad as had been predicted and we were able to be outside much of the time. The tent was even dry by the time we packed away, which has to be a bonus! Hopefully we weren’t too parasitic; I was aware that I was really getting the better side of the bargain this time!
SB and BB were lovely and all the children got on really well, which was good since the camp itself didn’t quite work as a social experience so they spent a lot of time just playing with each other around the other children there. There was a craft tent, where they spent a fair bit of time colouring and sticking and producing interesting things which had then to be carefully preserved and taken home (how bad will it be if most of ours get, er, lost when we unpack the car?) and making sculptures with straws, plastic cups and paperclips. There were a couple of fires built near the craft tent too, which should have made a nice focal point but somehow didn’t work like that. We have plans for next year – it just needs a bit of organising 😉 J has declared it his favourite campsite ever, so we have to go back anyway 😀

On the way back we all (Beans and us) drove along the North Norfolk coast road in search of nice beach, thinking of Hunstanton and then actually deciding on Brancaster, where the children (apart from BB, who was asleep, thereby giving Chris a handy excuse to stay in the car with the paper 😉 ) had a whale of a time running around on the beach finding an amazing variety of shells, worm trails, baby crabs and more, some of which we managed to dissuade them from bringing home, but it’s surprising how much a croc will hold when used as a basket…

Application of cream crackers and chocolate spread having failed to convince the children that they were full enough to go straight home we ended up at a Little Chef for tea and didn’t get home until after 10, by which time all but J were asleep and able to be decanted straight from the car to bed – a satisfactory ending to a long but very pleasant day 😀