Taking Betty Camping

On Friday, April 30th, after picking up Betty, Sid and Sonia hopped in with me and a slew of camping gear and we headed off for a camping weekend in Uffingdon, about an hour and a half west of Aldershot. The forecast wasn't looking great but what did I care...I now have a roof over my head! We arrived around sunset after a bit of traffic on one of the motorways but we had plenty of time to get settled into camp. The campground was a large grassy field with a bit of a dip running down the middle of it. It was at the base of a hill and provided a bit of a view of the countryside to the west. There were already a number of friends at the site including Eve & Jeff, Carolyn & Matt, Glenn & Ana, Brian & Ellie and their two kids Callum and Aidan.

After a drink or two, I thought it was time to get a campfire going as dusk in full flight. We didn't have a hatchet but there was some kindling and also many larger pieces of wood. Jeff jumped in on the fire making as he shares my enthusiasm in this wilderness sport. Unfortunately, it turned out we had differing opinions on technique. I follow the fire pyramid mentality which requires fuel, heat and oxygen. Well Jeff wasn't too believing in the oxygen bit (so I guess he follows the fire line?!?) so he kept piling on the big logs. To counteract this, I grabbed my trusty Stratus frisbee golf disc and began fanning the flames, and fanning the flames, and fanning the flames. We eventually got a nice fire going but it wasn't without consequences. The following day I required some band-aids (or plasters here) on three of my fingers due to some nice skin erosion due to friction...oh well, I'll survive. We had a lovely evening sitting around the campfire, listening to some guitar playing (simultaneous songs at times) and having a few laughs.

The next day, Aidan, Sid, Callum and a few others passed an hour or two with a lively frisbee tossing session. Good way to get the body moving and awake. To add to the revitalization, everyone opted to go for a hike up the big hill beside the campsite. It took 20 minutes or so to walk up and the view of the English countryside was fantastic. We sat at the top for a while soaking it in and then descended a different side to head towards the local pub for an afternoon pint. I was a bit of a straggler and hence the last one to arrive there. It was a good half hour walk to get there...maybe a bit more. We sat outside on a big line of picnic tables. The clouds were starting to get a bit darker and covered most of the sky but thankfully still no rain...yet. I introduced everyone to a darts game called "Half It" before we wandered back to camp.

Hiking up:

The group at the top:

About to head down:

A campsite similar to ours:

Enjoying a pint:

Sid finishing the Half It game:

Another campfire was lit that night and everyone enjoyed sitting around it until a torrential downpour let loose around 1am. Thankfully we had a great gazebo setup that everyone huddled under until the storm passed. It only lasted about 1/2 an hour but it completely drenched the field...yet didn't put out the fire. It was another late night with some great laughs and nice music...gotta love camping.

The next morning the sky was grey and it was raining mildly, but steadily. It was obvious that it was not going to let up so after some brekkie, we packed up and headed home. It was a good test run for Betty as I did discover that she has a bit of a leak in the roof vent but I should be able to take care of that. Great weekend!