About Me

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Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it

Monday July 11th 2011 - Going home

I woke to another gloriously sunny morning and a very warm tent - reaching round the side of the bedroom pod I unzipped one side of the back door and tucked the flap round the leg of the nearby table to let some fresh air in. The van was parked immediately behind the tent with only about four feet of space between them, so being out of sight of anyone else I lay there for a while just listening to the various camp site sounds. Eventually though I had to face the fact that no matter how sunny it was I had to pack up and go home later on - there really should be a law against work getting in the way of camping!

First off was a dog walk round the site then a breakfast of toast and marmalade and a good brew, followed by a few minutes dealing with my sore leg. The blister had burst during the night leaving my skin coated in a yellow crust  - yuck! - and feeling very tight, so a bit of soothing bathing was in order. With that done I spent an hour or so sitting in the sun outside the front of the tent, during which I spent a few minutes chatting to my next door neighbour, then I made a start on packing things away. I wasn't in a particular rush to go but the weather was too nice not to take advantage so I wanted to leave plenty of time to take the dogs down to the beach before I set off for home.

One of the things I like about my tent is the fact that it has a front and back door - with the side door of the van open it was an easy matter to transfer things straight from the tent without having to continually walk round, and it made packing up so much easier. It was just after mid-day when I finally left the site, and after calling at the nearby petrol station for some diesel and a couple of cans of Coke for my journey I drove down to the beach. I had to keep the dogs on the lead until I got past the dog free area but once I was away from there I let them off so they could run about and explore as they wanted while I walked along by the water's edge. All too soon though it was time to head back to the van and hit the road, and as I drove across Britannia bridge and left Anglesey behind the decision was already made - if the weather was nice I would be back at the end of the week!