Camping & Glamping

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After not having camped for about 10 years, and thinking our camping days were now past, we suddenly took the notion to try it again. Initially for just a couple of nights on the Isle of Skye en-route to the Isle of Harris, we figured we could handle a couple of nights in a tent. As it turned out, despite the mixed weather and saturated ground, we really enjoyed it and decided we wanted to do more.

So now we are all geared up for two different types of camping – “regular” camping for 1-2 night trips and “glamping” for longer trips. To be honest it doesn’t take too much longer to set up the big tent than it does the small one, but we do take a lot more gear with us, it’s like a mini holiday home!

We have yet to do walk-in wild camping, the furthest we have been from the car has been under half a kilometre, so it’s been feasible to do a few return trips to the car for our gear. Our dinghy, which we use to take our gear if we are island camping, is big enough to take more than we could carry on a walk-in camp.

“Regular” camping

When we do a regular camp, we take the smaller tent. We now have 2 to choose from – our old Kayam one, which is a 3 man with a really decent sized porch and our new Geertop one, which is about the same size inside as the Kayam, but with a slightly smaller porch. The good thing is that it weighs a fair bit less and packs to about half the size of the Kayam one.

We keep a “camping list” handy to make sure we always take the essential gear with us, and any optional gear suitable for the type of trip we are making:-

ESSENTIAL
Tent of choice
Double airbed with fitted bed sheet for the top and insulating mat for underneath
Sleeping bags (ours zip together to make one double bag)
Picnic rug (handy for the porch area)
Stove, gas, lighter, pots, frying pan, mugs, plastic cups, mini kettle, cutlery, plates, bowls
Folding camping table such as this one
Tea-towel and/or kitchen roll, sponge, washing-up liquid (preferably biodegradable)
Camp meals and drinks, oil or butter for frying
Microfibre camping towel such as this one
Toilet bucket (we double line it with bin bags, pour in some cat litter and then tie the bags up to dispose of later) – this is normally a “must” for me for night-time loo trips
Water & water carrier if wild camping
Tent torch and head torch
Coal or logs for a campfire & firelighters (tealights are also useful to get it started)
Bin bag to take rubbish home if wild camping
Toothbrush, toothpaste, wet wipes
Spare clothes

OPTIONAL
Hot water bottles and/or extra blanket in winter
Camping chairs
Folding picnic table such as this one

RECREATIONAL
Our Intex inflatable double canoe – we have had so much fun with this, I can’t recommend it highly enough!
Buoyancy aids
“Shortie” wetsuits (depending on time of year)

TRANSPORT
Intex dinghy with electric outboard

“Glamping“

When we go “glamping” we take the big tent, the link here is the closest I could find to the one we have, as far as I can see just the colour differs.

This tent has loads of space and you can stand up in it, even Paul who is close to 6 foot tall. Mostly we use it without the inner, giving us even more space. It has a generous “lounge” space for cooking, eating and chilling out when its too cold to do this outdoors.

We use this tent on campsites that offer electric hook-ups. As I said earlier, it’s like a mini holiday home! We take a LOT more stuff with us for this type of camping.

GLAMPING GEAR
The “big” tent (Vango Iris 500)
Tarpaulin for underneath
Aerobed – the creme de la creme of airbeds! The link is to the king size. Plug it in to inflate & deflate easily!
Sheets, duvet & pillows (taken off our bed – instead of sleeping bags)
Electric blanket (in the cooler months)
Electric hook up cable
Picnic tables x 2 (one for eating, one for cooking)
Camping cupboard – ours is very similar to this one
Tent carpets x 2 (one for “lounge” and for the “bedroom”
Inflatable chairs – similar to this one (watch out, they can deflate, we have had both replaced, but we love them!)
Battery pump for the above chairs
Small low wattage caravan heater (remember not to overload the electricity!)
Electric coolbox
Doormat & boot tray
Basin and collapsible dish drainer
More kitchen equipment such as colander, serving spoons, wooden spoon, pot stand
Plastic picnic wine glasses
Movement sensor light (useful when getting up for the loo in the night)
Toilet bucket, bin bags and cat litter as mentioned earlier (for those night time trips)
Bathrobe & Flip flops for going to the shower (makes life so much easier!)

Camping is such a cheap and fun way to holiday or just “get away from it all” for a night or two. None of our gear was expensive, the big tent cost £153 from Millets, the Geertop tent was £45 from Amazon (not on sale at present, so I can’t put in a link). The next biggest expense for our “glamping” was the aerobed at £125.

For purchasing our gear we mainly used Amazon, Millets, Morrisons (£10 each for the picnic tables!), Lidl, Go Outdoors and Ali Express. Home bargains is cheap for the gas stove cartridges and the water carrier was much cheaper here than it is on Amazon.

For our “glamping” kit we obviously spent more than on our basic camping gear, but all in all, it came in at little over £600. When you consider how long the kit will last, that makes for some cheap holidays! An electric hook-up at the campsites we have used so far has varied from £20-26 per night.

GLAMPING KIT COSTS
Tent – £153
Tarpaulin – zero (we already had some in the shed)
Spare tent pole – £20 (we really recommend this, trust me!)
Double size Aerobed – £125
Electric blanket – £18 (from Aldi)
Electric hook-up cable with 3 plus sockets – £30
2 x Picnic tables – £20 (£10 each from Morrisons supermarket in summer)
Camping cupboard – £35 (Lidl)
Stove – zero (we already had one, but you can buy for around £10-12 in Home Bargains)
Cooking set – zero (again, we already had this, but for “glamping” we mostly just take stuff from our kitchen)
2 x Vango camping chairs – £54 (you can buy much cheaper ones from Asda / Tesco)
2 x Tent carpets – £18 (£9 each from Amazon on sale, more expensive now)
Inflatable chairs – £30 (£15 each from Go Outdoors)
Battery pump for above chairs – £15
Small heater – £22
Electric coolbox – £40 (Groupon)
Boot tray – £3 (Ikea)
Collapsible dish drainer – £8
Tent light – £15
Movement sensor light – £10 (we use this at home when not camping)
Toilet bucket – £18 (cat litter & bin bags really cheap from Home Bargains)
TOTAL COST OF ALL THE ABOVE = £634

Our favourite campsites / “wild camp” spots

Our “go to” campsite in the Lake District is Castlerigg Farm, just outside of Keswick. We visit at least once a year, often in May to enjoy seeing the bluebells covering the fells. The campsite is elevated with great views looking over Derwentwater towards Catbells. The last twice we went in May our trip coincided with the annual torchlight procession up Catbells, which is great to watch. Facilities at Castlerigg are excellent and there is a great on-site restaurant. There are also some great walks directly from the campsite.

On the small Scottish Island of Barra, is Scurrival Campsite with the most idyllic views over the machair to the white sand beach and turquoise sea. I cannot think of a better view from any campsite we have stayed at. Facilities are pretty good, not as modern as Castlerigg Farm’s, but clean and adequate, with a friendly owner. Beach access just across the road, ideal for canoeing.

Within Loch Lomond and the Trossachs we have a couple of favourite “wild camping” spots. During March – October you have to book and pay a small fee, outwith these months you can camp freely, although the first one I am going to mention is not open to cars from around the end of October to Easter, so that limits you a bit.

The “Three Lochs Forest Drive” in the Achray Forest near Aberfoyle is one of our favourites. The best spots are around Loch Drunkie. At the Fisherman’s Car Park you can walk to the shoreline or camp on the hill nearer the car, both with good views, the former with stunning 360 views of the loch and forest, but can be quite exposed to the wind. We have camped at the shoreline twice, on a small peninsula, luckily both times we got it to ourselves.

One of our favourite “adventures” within the same national park, is to take ourselves and our gear over in the dinghy to Inchcailloch, a beautiful small island on Loch Lomond, with a sandy bay (Port Bawn) to camp at (with compost toilets) and beautiful walks. The summit trail is the islands highest point, and offers stunning views over the loch and surrounding mountains. To access this island, you can go from either Balmaha or Milarrochy Bay.