Our most recent camping adventure was to Inbirchworth in South Yorkshire, a secluded campsite bang in the middle of the Yorkshire countryside. However this camping trip was like no other we had done before, why you ask? Well for several reasons, the first being that we had the task of setting up two tents, our Vango Airbeam Eden 600xl and our “Rosie” our Vango Rosewood Tipi tent. The second reason that this trip was going to be different was the fact that we were introducing a family to the world of the great outdoors and camping (always a challenge when its their first time).
So we arrived on site at around 12 noon on the Thursday (our guests weren’t arriving until 5pm on the Friday). So this would give us plenty of time to set up.
The site has a warden (really nice chap and extremely security conscious). We went and paid our dues at the little house at the entrance and drove towards a automatic barrier, keyed in our personal code and the barrier lifted and we were in! We were allocated pitch 15 with EHU, we decided to firstly set up the Eden due to its size, unfortunately the wind had started blowing around 20mph! and the the Airbeams started to struggle in the wind as they were inflating - not a great start! The security conscious warden had been observing our efforts on CCTV from his caravan and came over to offer us the ”Paddock” which was a private field shielded by a perimeter wall. So we took him up on this very generous offer. We immediately took all our gear including unrolled Eden tent into the enclosed paddock.
Eventually the wind subsided and we had the Eden fully set up like home from home ready for our new guests. We really wanted them to embrace camping so we took the full shooting match to kit them out.
It was now Thursday around 2pm and we were ready for a sit down to have a well earned drink!
We were staying in the Eden tonight (Thursday) as our guests were not arriving until 5pm on the Friday, so we sat and relaxed for the whole afternoon occasionally throwing the ball for our dogs Dexter and Daisy who were really enjoying it!
Friday morning came and we decided to set up our Rosie, our Vango Rosewood Tipi tent. As always Rosie treated us well and she went up with no trouble at all. We love this tents for dozens of reasons.
By the time we had showered, taken the dogs for a walk and eaten it was nearly time for our guests to arrive (a big moment for us) had we delivered? And would we achieve our aim of selling the great outdoors and camping to them??
Danny, Paige, Millie and William were our Family guests, a young family from Penistone only 3 miles away. They all arrived at around 5pm and we could immediately see the expression on their faces when seeing the two tents set up, they loved it. Young William was grinning from ear to ear!
We all settled down for a drink while the children and the dogs played in our enclosed private field. It was perfect for us.
The kids seemed to take to it immediately as did Danny and Paige who settled in quite nicely too. On the Saturday we decided to have a long walk to see the Alpacas with the kids, plus it did the dogs some good too, the warden described the location of the Alpacas as “just in that field down there” it seemed like miles to get to them, but when we did it was definitely worth it!
After the long walk back to basecamp we decided to prepare for tea, and Paige went and bought a treat for us all, a chicken variety box which we cooked in our gas oven. We had a great evening with plenty of food and drink, after the kids were sound a sleep Danny decided to crack open the Jack Daniels with honey, which for which I joined him for a couple, thats a drink that’s definitely on my list for our next trip (very nice).
While we were all sitting and relaxing and socialising I decided to ask the question that was on both our minds....”have you enjoyed camping then” Danny immediately replied “yes it’s been really good” followed quickly by a reply from Paige “oh yes we’ve loved it, it wasn’t what I thought it would be”. Paige starts immediately then looking on her phone for tents and prices. We knew from that moment that we had actually achieved what we set out to do and sell the camping bug to someone else.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the weekend but me not as much as the others as I was ill with some kind of flu bug, however all in all we made another family happy and got them involved in the world of camping and that was good enough for me!
Danny, Paige and the kids
Millie using the Airbeam access flap as a door
Our Vango village all lit up
Until next time, happy Camping everyone!
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