Camp

We have been thinking about buying a tent. There is such a lot of Britain we would like to see that indulging in a spot of camping seems like a great idea! My very first camping trip wasn't that long ago, maybe 12 years or so (alright, 12 years is a long time if you are 11 but not, if like me, you are 45). I went to the New Forest (see photo) in Hampshire. A pretty place with the odd village dotted around and plenty of trees. William the Conqueror liked it so much he spent his holidays there, hunting. That was 1079, and it's official title then was New Hunting Forest. Apparently not a lot has changed since then. It is still managed by following a set of ancient rules that date back a thousand years. It's not hard to imagine it as it was then, it was probably more dense, but the wildlife is still there to see and if the amount of deer that live in the forest today is any thing to go by then it would have been a hunters paradise. However, if there is one animal that seems to be everywhere in the New Forest then it has to be the New Forest pony. Ponies have been present in the Forest since 1016 and although they seem wild, they are in fact owned by the people who live in the villages that are situated within the Forest. I can speak from personal experience when I say that the ponies are a pain in the arse! My first camping trip was not the wonderful experience I had wanted it to be. I have always had an interest in the great outdoors, climbing hills and Monroes in the rugged wilderness of Britain is one of my favourite pastimes. But I enjoy my comfort and any trip would be made with the knowledge that at the end of a hard days climb there would always be a cosy b&b or cottage waiting for me at the end of the day. After watching a few episodes of Ray Mears Bushcraft, though, I was ready to sleep in a tree and if needed, kill my own food. Maybe tv is a bad influence but even though I'm old enough to know better, I still go all misty eyed when I watch those sorts of programmes, yearning for the days when Man was self sufficient and savvy when it came to the outdoors. The simple truth of that is that Man was NEVER that self sufficient! It's a fact of history that one of Mankinds earliest inventions was a pair of slippers and the armchair! One watch of the wonderful movie Into the Wild should be enough to wipe all thoughts of living off the land from any sane person's mind!

Admittedly though, we were in no danger of eating poisoned berries and the closet I got to killing my own food was a godawful bicycle ride to a butchers shop 6 miles away. The weekend was a disaster because we spent most of it wet. Waterproof clothes are only waterproof up to a point and if you haven't spent 2 nights listening to rain hitting the lining of a tent then, boy! you just haven't lived! The campsite we stayed on was infested by ponies...who had learnt that tents were easy pickings when they were hungry. We were amazed to see a pony walk into a large tent and run out a few seconds later after the supporting pole broke, munching on a pair of underpants! Riding out on our bikes a little later we spotted a pony with its head in a lower, 2 man tent...suddenly we looked at the ponies in a different light. No longer were they dumb animals but instead it was starting to look like Dawn of the Dead, with the zombies replaced by horses intent (no pun intended) on eating not us but our underpants! We left the New Forest later that day. It wasn't the last time I went camping, but I haven't been for a few years now. I have to admit that I'm really excited by the thought of spending a weekend in the Lake District, sitting out under the stars on a balmy summers night, drinking wine and reading after a glorious day walking in the hills. Whether it will be like that...I don't know, but if it isn't then I think there is a good chance that I shall tell you all about it!