First camping holiday

We have been toying with the idea to go camping and hill walking with Baby for a while.  He is now 6 and is a relatively active child so we thought it was time to give it a go.  We went to the Lake District over the Easter holidays and spent one week at a campsite in the Lake District.  This wasn't a camping trip like we had before.  First of all, we were unsure what to bring as we did not know how he would cope with the changeable weather.  He is generally not that worried about the cold but he had also never really been in a situation where he had been seriously exposed to the elements.  So we took a lot more than it turned out to be necessary.  It did mean that we had to be slightly more economical with what we brought for ourselves.  We also brought a few extra sleeping bags and mats as we wanted him to sleep well.  As the weather had been a bit strange lately, and there was a forecast for snow in the area we planned to go to, we booked a wooden pod at the camp site, rather than use a tent.  Tenting is fun but can be a bit miserable if the weather is bad.  My husband was a bit dismayed by the glamping but we both decided that we would rather that than run the risk of putting Baby off camping.  As a compromise, we chose wooden pods that were  equipped with an electric heater, one charge point for our phones, and nothing else.  This means cooking with camping equipment, which is a fun thing to do, and we thought we should start with positive things.

As it turned out, phones were completely useless at the campsite we chose as there was no signal whatsoever anywhere nearby, so the phones served only as cameras.  However, it all worked out very well.  We needn't have worried that much.  Baby took to camping like a duck to water.  He loved the rain, he loved the cold, he loved the sun, he loved the wind, he loved the walking and scrambling over rocks, he loved hunting for waterfalls, he loved sitting at the campsite, he loved crossing streams on stepping stones, he loved sleeping in the sleeping bags, he loved preparing and eating the picnics, he loved cooking on a camping stove, he loved everything.  He was game for anything and was in good spirits throughout the trip.  It was apparently the most fun he had had so far.  That was a relief!  There really is something about children being in the wide open space, just mucking about and having fun, that is to be recommended.  Perhaps it was a welcome break from crowded, rushed, city life.  We can move on to removing the more luxurious elements next time we go camping.