Had my first camping of the year just over a week ago. Nicola’s first one ever so we decided on a week at Shell Island. Well that was the plan.

Arrived nice and early on the Friday (well about 10.30am but we did travel through rush hour, no major problems luckily). Gorgeous day, warm, slight breeze, fairly quiet on site. Set up the pitch and had a lovely day generally (apart from big group of lads being noisy and singing a song about Scuba Diving at 2am next morning, oh well you get them everywhere). Saturday was a bit more cloudier, breezier and wetter so not as good but still enjoyed it. Sunday morning we were woken about (just after midnight by noisy lads singing that horrible Scuba Diver song again, at least I also heard a warden tell them off, and then woken again at) 4am with the walls of our Vango Venture 500 tent boinging about making sleeping uncomfortable.

Seeing as we were awake and the wind was getting stronger still we went and sat in the car. Looking round many other people were up, and some tents were really taking a battering. Some people were sleeping through it all I think. Eventually we made the decision to put our gear in the car for safe keeping, then disassemble the tent til it calmed down a bit. But a pole was snapped so we made the decision to come home. Tent might have been OK but not risking it if the winds remained up. By 7.30 we were leaving the site, and some 100 or so people had done so already I think I heard. Man on the gate said 60-70 mph winds were reported up the Welsh coast.

So although the trip was spoiled, Nicola was not put off and at least we got a little trip and will have to go back sometime. Here’s a pretty picture.

At least I have my other tent (Vango Omega 450) from last year, so I can use that until we can afford an Outwell Montana 6 or something equally roomy and stable.

I wanna be a scuba diver…

Found a great tent today, bargain price, a Vango Venture 500 for only £59.99 at Go Outdoors! Plus the Coventry store had a green one in stock, which I prefer against the blue. Luckily we got the last green one in the crate and there were only a handful of blue ones left. I’ve had Vango stuff before and they’ve always been great, and that particular tent is popular and well praised so definitely a good buy I think.

Put it up in Nicola’s garden this afternoon, make sure all was there and correct. Looks good, nice and roomy. Thought best to double check it was fine, always a bit dubious of the last one in stock. Hopefully will be able to put it to proper use soon. Thinking of taking Nicola to Wales as she’s never camped before.

Now to decide whether to keep my Vango Omega 450 from last year (as it’s smaller and faster to put up, might make a good spare) or sell it on.

Having a night in tonight; 1, I need to get to sleep at a decent hour as I’m off camping tomorrow leaving about 8am (on the Brum M6 at rush hour, ho hum lol) and 2, N needs to get an early night as she’s up at 3am so we can’t go out tonight, had another nice night out last night though

Yep off camping tomorrow until Saturday at Llyn Gwynant Campsite in Snowdonia. Inside a valley right next to a lake at the foot of Snowdon, 2 miles from civilisation (well a little village, also 5 miles from Beddgelert), went there a few years ago and it’s truly stunning. Hope it’s not full! Well with the latest weather forecast we may well have the site to ourselves… The car is pretty much loaded, just need to chuck my personal stuff and my Ikea bag full of food (big and strong, perfect for it) onto the back seat in the morning (cos the boot is almost full).

No I’m not taking my Macbook and the phone signal will be non existent on site so no blog entries til the weekend.

Take care everyone.

Hey everyone, it’s been a while I know. I’ve either been busy, unmotivated, tired, working, out, or a mixture of the above.

Bought myself a new tent so hopefully will get to use it soon, want to make the most of my long weekends over the next few months and take it out more often. Last season I was using a blue and white dome from Tesco, now got a proper one, which is a bottle green Vango Omega 450 with large porch area and a cool bright orange sleeping area (Omega 450 isn’t on the Vango site but is the same size as the Beta 450), picked up the last tent of stock from Go Outdoors in Coventry so that was good. The tent is slightly smaller than the Tesco one but better quality, faster to pitch and nicer looking.

Also bought a matching windbreak, an improvement on the stripy seaside ones I was using before. Of course much time has been spent in Go Outdoors and Jackson’s of Arley, my two favourite outdoorsy shops.

Seen N a few times recently, been fun

Work has been pretty chaotic recently, with the holiday traffic and numerous accidents clogging up out roads. Got two early starts tomorrow and wednesday then 11 days off, that break is well needed, just hope the weather holds up.

I’ll try post a bit more often, I also don’t get chance to comment on other blogs as much as I’d like too but I do read.

Hope everyone else is well.