FF#5: Spend a night under canvas

Polyester not canvas but it'll do. Our Wickerman home.

I had never been camping until now. Not as a child, not as a brownie or a guide, not as a student. Childhood holidays involved self-catering cottages in Germany or up north. I dodged constant requests from Labour Students fundraisers to steward at music festivals. My mum describes camping as "something [she] never had any desire to do". I don't feel especially deprived but I have a lot of friends who see the world with their young children while camping and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

I bought our four-person tent in Asda for £40. Second-bottom of the range so I wouldn't feel too bad if we never made it past the first night. 

Other outgoings included:

Blow up mattress - £10

Tickets for the Wickerman Festival in Dundrennan, Dumfries & Galloway - £210 for four of us

Passes for posh loos at Wickerman Festival - £40

Three nights of camping AND Dizzee Rascal, and the forecast was pretty good.

Helen rocking out in the sunshine at Wickerman 2014

It was the last weekend in July. We arrived, we pitched out tent in the family campsite, we festivalled for three nights, we survived.

Good things:
Dizzee Rascal's show was brilliant and the four of us loved it - small people on the shoulders of tall people, bouncing and singing along.
Really nice chips
The chemical toilets were not bad at all and nowhere near as bad as some of the race toilets I've encountered
My children are more or less old enough to weather the detrimental impact of a late night and early start now and again, which seem to be necessitated by festival camping

Things I wasn't too keen on:
It rained on Saturday night and there's no way to dry yourself/clothes out once you're wet, is there?
The first two days were far too hot. Sorry to be fussy but it was just too hot to do anything and I woke up feeling like I'd had a bottle of vodka before bed
Five minutes walk to the loo. In the dark of night, or first thing in the morning.
The campsite was *mobbed* and we were surrounded by bacon-frying professional campers with chairs, gazebos, extended families and fairy lights, making me feel very amateurish
Drinking water that tastes like a swimming pool. 
As it was my first festival too, I banked on the power of musical performance to bring the family together and keep us entertained. Which was foolish. Next time I'll bring playing cards.

Morning campers!

A few nights back at home and we felt much better so we spent a night in the lovely campsite at Aberlady, 30 minutes from our home. That was much more enjoyable - the toilets were closer, there were hot showers and a well-equipped kitchen, the drinking water was less chloriney, it didn't rain and we'd brought our loom bands to keep us busy.

I'm happy to go camping again as long as you can promise me as many creature comforts as possible and appropriate weather.