Dorset camping
After just 5 days back at home we were off again to Dorset for Penny's
birthday bash - a big family camp out at Burnbake
www.btinternet.com/~burnbakecampsite which is on the Isle of Purbeck
near to Studland Bay.
The cousins' breakfast..
Fab site and close to a great beach with a small cafe where your tea
was served in mugs, on trays for you to return and where they even had
deckchairs, windbreaks, kids toys and buckets to borrow on an honour
system, amazing in this money money world - even the kids lollies were
organic and only 50p!
We had a wonderful day there on Saturday followed by a barbecue with
proper camp fire and toasted marshmallows.
It was such a great weekend and the kids (especially Georgia and
Fintan) will certainly remember it for a long time. Michael was
absolutely thrilled to discover that the beach - South Beach on
Studland Bay - seemed ripe for a bit of cockling. The difference
between France and England was amazing (no-one cockling all
sunbathing!), within minutes of looking he had found some whoppers and
within a pretty short time had collected 2 buckets full - Finny was an
excellent apprentice. So as a starter before the fabulous lamb that
Kev cooked we cooked them up, mariniere style. They could have done
with a longer soak to degrit, but most of the family tried them and
some even enjoyed them - especially Finny who ate them with real
gusto! Now Michael wants a decent weekend so we can go and check out
Minnis Bay. Foraging is his new favourite hobby!
Nick, Victoria and Joel joined us for one night - much to the kids
delight. Joel proved to be a fantastic hobby horse, play mate and
gatherer of fire wood.
Raff has always had a soft spot for Nick, so loved playing Frisbee on
the beach, and then was suitably amazed and detighted to be able to
mess about on Kev's new monster motorbike.
Lizzie is clearly now a seasoned camper - having already been to the
Big Chill, and we all loved having cuddles with her.
Sunday was Penny's birthday - and who doesn't celebrate it without
cake, fizz and two bottles of pickled onions from the local beer
festival! (could the presence of Kev have anything to do with this?)
Posted by emmagee at 3:20 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Summer holidays
We headed to France for our camping this year to avoid the floods and
pestilence which have followed us to Cornwall for the past few years.
Our aim was to have a significantly warmer, drier and less stressful
time and to that end to choose a campsite whose location reduced the
amount of schlepping about in cars to go to shops/beaches/attractions
etc.
I can proudly announce that such a place exists and to prove it, we
did not have to fill the car up with petrol for 2 weeks! For those who
want to have an equally relaxing time may I point you to
http://www.camping-indigo.com/vendee_campsite_indigo_noirmoutier.html
our pitch was just after the big tree on the left - about as close to
the beach as you could want to be. It did however make for a sleepless
first night, as I worried about the kids sleepwalking onto the beach!
I had given the boys strict instructions not to leave the tent (they
were in a pup tent next to us) until we were up. I heard noises from
their tent at 7.30 or so and went to tell them they could get up. I
unzipped their door and Raff's first words were "morning mummy,
where's Stan?". Mild panic, obviously, before I found him wandering
around the back of our tent trying to find the way in!
The kids soon settled into the rythmn of late-ish rising, toddling
down to the bread van for "une baguette et une traditionelle" (a
wonderful sourdough baguette which became my favourite at lunch) and
sometimes "cinq Croissants". They always left together, but Stan would
run the whole way back and beat the other two by a long way!
After breakfast we would head all 50 yards to the beach. We soon
became aware that in the mornings the locals didn't relax on the beach
at all, rather they would head across the sand as the tide receded to
gather their lunch. We could see the oyster and mussel beds which were
exposed at low tide, but closer to shore people hunched over the
beach, rakes in hand.
Our curiosity led us to go and see what they were up to, and so began
our latest passion - cockling. To be precise it's 'clamming' because
what they were merrily harvesting by the kilo were Palourdes a kind of
clam. It's totally addictive! The kids joined in and soon we had
enough for supper - free supper, the best kind!
Lunch was pretty much always bread, cheese, salami, ham pate, salad
vert, tomatoes.......etc wonderful long meals with the kids eating all
sorts and Raff discovering that he likes hard Chevre cheeses, like
Brebis - but only if we called it 'Zebra cheese' - he misheard us say
Chevre in our best french accents!
It was a little inclement at the beginning of the first week, but soon
the decision to head to France paid off as the sun shone, the wine
flowed and Georgia even made friends with some French children. A huge
bonus was camping on the beach. We rarely went further afield, except
for provisions from the pretty town of Noirmoutier with it's thrice
weekly market. In fact we didn't fill the car up once in two weeks -
and had we had bikes it would have been even better since the island
is almost completely flat.....next time.
One day we had a mini excursion to he next bay along which we reached
on a free bus that ran around the north of the island - we could have
walked sans enfants, but they loved the bus and it saved on the
whining! The beach had similar geography, but a whole different social
strata. The bay, backed by pine forests full of gorgeous, huge houses
was full of beautiful yachts and the was peopled by the beautiful and
stylish. There was a wonderful wooden pier/jetty stretching out form
the forest which Stan insisted on running along at breakneck speed -
totally terrifying as it wasn't exactly Health and Safety Exec
approved!
One truly sad site, a result of the previous nights' incredible wind,
which had Michael up checking guy ropes at midnight - was a wrecked
yacht, 40ft, thrown up onto the rocks just below an lighthouse
ironically. Everyone in the bay was making the trip to see it and it
felt almost cruel to take a picture.
After a frolic beneath the pier we headed up to a wonderful huge white
building above the beach which housed a great, relaxed restaurant -
like Pont de la Tour only far more laid back. The kids menu offered
moules frites which the kids tucked into with gusto and we had a
wonderful prix fixe.
Other particular highlights of the holiday which I have to get down
before they are forgotten
Moustachio nuts - Stan's new word. The boys had a little boys only
drinks session one evening, sitting on the rocks, drinking beer (or
similar) and eating their way through a huge amount of "moustachio
nuts"
Candelabra - home made. Michael cannot sit still on holiday and likes
to make things, so one evening he mad a candelabra out of foil
ramekins, long candles and our clothes small whirlygig clothes drier
Backgammon - Himslef spent nearly the whole two weeks collecting
pebble of a certain size, colour and shape before letting on what they
were for. Then he attacked a large cardboard carton for beer wit his
Leatherman and some very precises measuring. And lo, a fold up,
poratble backgammon set. We did try to have a whisky fuelled
backgammon rows - as per Kenya - but were saved by the fact that he
kept beating me and I'm not such a bad loser (or something!)
Broom - he also made a broom, like a shamba broom out of branches from
our neighbouring tree - camping by the beach has one setback - very
sandy tent - but it beats mud!
Harry Potter - we foolishly left England he day before the final Harry
Potter was published!! Georgia noted that our camp neighbours were
reading it - in English and would hover wistfully next to the lady as
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