So everyone’s getting ready for the Summer (which may or may not arrive in full force) but I’m still making plans about where to go. But there are three places which always remind me of the smell of morning dew, brewing early morning coffee watching the sun come up and that sense in my heart that today is going to be a good.
1. Camping on the Isle of Arran
When I was a young kid I holidayed on Arran every year, getting the ferry over and walking or cycling across the island for weeks. It was here that I saw a Golden Eagle for the first time, abseiled for the first time and did karaoke ( a strange night and if someone buys me a drink I may regale them with tales). Anyway camping on Arran was never a “planned” affair, I never booked anywhere, and instead just wandered about and found somewhere to stay. In my dotage (mid-30′s) I would be plumping for a campsite such as Glen Rosa Campsite. Which ticks all the boxes for what I want.
2. Camping in North France
When I got to university for the first time some beer company started giving away cheap tickets to France from Dover (£1 return or similar if I drank their beer seemed like a fair deal). So having jumped a lift with some friends, jumping on the “booze cruise” an array of Scottish students went on an unremarkable trip to the North of France and started to join the adult world by behaving themselves and eating food which was not accompanied by baked beans or cheap pasta. The North of France has some of the best cycling I’ve ever done (as everywhere was reasonably flat) and the journey from winery to campsite was generally an easy walk with a bike.
3. Camping in the back garden
As with most people the first expedition to camp is outside in the back garden with some friends. It was always a highlight of most Summer breaks – nipping out for the evening and coming back as the sun went down and not thinking your parents had noticed the array of vodka bottles littering their lawn or the drunk leaning against the wall. But before that, when I was young and behaved, I would sit up with friends (I was about 9) read comics by torch light, someones parents would bring us something to eat and we’d sit up until late at night blethering. TBH that was probably some of the best camping I ever did and I’ve already went and bought a tent for my kid to camp out in this summer.
In essence the best places to camp in my lifetime are generally those where they create an experience and a feeling and a set of memories. Facilities are one thing sensations are a completely different one and these are what we all want.
