Saturday 24 July 2010

The Antidote

For us, the antidote to life's stresses and strains, is to pack up a few essentials and head off to a nearby field.

Yes, once the young man had finished school on Thursday, we headed off camping for a few days. You'll notice that being a frugal camper, there are no matching breakfast dishes. We use the old ones that the kids had!
Our destination for a few days was Barn Farm in the lovely village of Birchover in Derbyshire - less than an hour away from home.

Over the years we have collected several tents. This is our "something for the weekend" tent. Only 3 poles, 10 minutes to put up and I can have it decked out and the kettle on in 30 minutes.
It only cost £45 (it was a "last years model"). I would never buy a "cheap" tent like the ones you get in Supermarkets etc, but I would never pay full price for one either. You can get some great bargains at the end of summer in proper camping shops (we use "Go Outdoors").
Our pitch in this little piece of heaven cost £37.50 for the weekend - a bargain!!!!
Barn Farm is a huge campsite - but very quiet in the week. At weekends they open a massive field and it attracts lots of family groups.


Birchover is on the top of a hill, and the views from the campsite are stunning.

The farm has some very unusual inhabitants. Thanks to these beauties, our early morning wakeup call was like being woken by a dozen "Vuvuzelas"!!!


The Alpacas had been recently shorn........


...leaving them looking very comical indeed.


Ive walked my little legs off. On Thursday, after tea, we wandered across the mystical, magical Stanton Moor which is just behind the campsite.


On Friday, we walked through Birchover,


--over the hills and dales to Winster (where the pub was SHUT!!)


--and then across to Elton, where the village pub there was also SHUT!!!



so back to Birchover. Birchover has 2 great pubs. The Druids Arms is a Gastropub, but we chose the Red Lion and were not disappointed.

We've had a fabulous couple of days, worth £37.50 of anybodies money!. The weather on Thursday morning before we went was dreadful, but fortunately the sun has been shining and we had great weather. I'll show you later what we did on the way home.

18 comments:

Lalabibaby @ Dreaming of The Simple Life said...

That looks just perfect .... my miserable git of a husband has never entertained the idea of camping but I used to love it as a child. My grandparents took us all over East Anglia most weekends. Thanks for sharing those lovely photos x

Lyn said...

Great, we kept saying we were going to go camping, bought a tent (sale in John Lewis!) and it's still in the loft! anyway glad the sun came out for you, those alpacas look hysterical!
love
Lyn
xxx

topchelseagirl said...

What a lovely spot to go camping and a bargain to boot. Those alpacas look so funny, yet still cute. x

WinnibriggsHouse said...

That sounds just the ticket to start off the great summer hols. Glad the sun came out. Your piccies are great.

Twiggy said...

Oooo that looks smashing. We want to try camping with Twiglet this year, we are having a trial run at Grandmas house first :) We still need to scrape the Glastonbury mud from our tent from ahem..... 1996 !!
Twiggy x

harmony and rosie said...

I quite fancy going camping now. My parents gave me the tent we used to use as a family all those centuries ago, certainly vintage and bright orange too!!

Fancy those two pubs being closed - did they not know you were in the area?

x

Deb from WhatsInMyAttic said...

Kudos to you for being a camper...I am not so inclined at all! Looks like you have it down pretty well, though, and had a great time.

The alpacas are just too funny with their skinny bodies and tufts of hair looking like wigs!

This was so much fun for me to read! The scenery is stunning!

Nearly there Claire said...

Awww! BRILLO!!!!
You won't have been all that far away from me...next time how about we meet up and all camp together??? I reckon a EN'MASS BLOG CAMP will be fantastic!!! But only if you can find pubs that are open please hee hee. xxxxx

Zannah said...

Looks like you had a great time!!

Rosie said...

Looks like you had a great time - we used to camp a bit quite a few years ago now but the tent has long been given away - being woken up by a peacock's call must be quite a shock to the system! Those alpacas are so cute:)

Gilly said...

Great Site, weekend and photos! We used to do a couple of days camping when we were young and spry!

Love the alpacas!

The Ample Cook said...

The photo of those Alpacas made me laugh out loud!

What a lovely, simple way to have a break and get away from the stresses of life.

I think a lot of people could benefit from doing this don't you Diane?

Tamara said...

I love the Alpacas - beautiful. Looks like you had a good time.

Lx @ Twelve said...

You do fill your days in a lovely way!

Pity about the shut pubs though....

Lx

Jennyff said...

I've never camped, though when it's really hot I always want to sleep outside in the garden. That does look fun especially since the weather was kind. Maybe I should try back garden camping.

menopausalmusing said...

Ah.......... Variety packs of breakfast cereal. Always "to dear" to buy for everyday when I was a child, but when we went camping, we were allowed them. Wish Asda had been around then!! Your post brought this flooding back.... :O)
Glad you had the weather with you...

periwinkle said...

looks like an awesom campsite - we have a whopper of a tent and there are always arguments when we put it up -- love those alpacas

Lisa said...

The pubs were shut?! We were looking at tenst yesterday whilst in town. Thinking of making a small purchase, there were loads of offers. But as I hate driving too far, if at all, wondering whether we'd get much use.
Lisa x