Food for wild camping with baby
We're off to the Atacama and Patagonia next week, and I have no idea what on earth I am going to feed Esme, so thought it would be a good time to put together what I do know about wild camping food to refresh my memory and hopefully inspire me to be able to add a ten month baby into the mix! If you can bring all your food with you, and it's just for adults, I find food packing for a big trip pretty easy. We basically eat oats, seeds and raisins every day (with cold milk) for
Wild camping in Bongo with baby
We've now spent 33 nights in our Mazda Bongo camper van, starting when Esme was about 6 weeks old, the most recent trip when she was about 7 months old. The longest we've spent in it was 14 nights on one trip, we've taken 3 shorter trips of a week, and a couple of one or two nighters too. We've been as far as the Outer Hebrides, up most of the West coast of Ireland, and a few short trips just an hour or so from our house. I've now tried and tested bongo-ing with baby enough t
Adventures with baby - the first 6 months
So here we are, 6 months in - from sleepless nights in the tent to three in the bed of a tiny Bongo camper van, from al fresco feeding under
Packing for an adventure
We're off on a wild camping trip to Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland tomorrow, a few days earlier than we'd planned, so I have less time to get packed than usual. Lucky I have my packing spreadsheet! I'm not actually joking - I am a total geek, and have spreadsheets for everything - very rock'n'roll, eh? But making sure you have everything you need with you, and that you don't have too much stuff is vital to having a good adventure. In the early days, we suffered from too-m
Go wild in the Outer Hebrides
16 days, 12 islands, 11 ferries, 4 month old baby, 1 bongo... We're just back from a trip in the camper van to the Outer Hebrides. We took the ferry from Mallaig, over to Castleboisdale with Calmac. Calmac do a bunch of very reasonably priced hopscotch ferry trips to allow you to do a circuit of the Outer Hebrides (and lots of other Scottish islands). We took the bongo on Hopscotch 30 for about £240, so that we only had to drive as far as Mallaig on the Scottish mainland. It'
Go wild in the Shetland Isles
Scotland is well known for it's "Every man's right" giving access to land for hiking and wild camping, but given the high numbers of tourists to mainland Scotland, and the limited number of roads, it can be difficult enough to find a scenic spot for an easy wild camp, especially if you don't want to be eaten alive by the Scottish midge. The Shetland Isles have very few visitors and even less midges, and wild camping is positively encouraged! With signposted stiles through far
AirBnB - the perfect companion to wild camping
I love wild camping - the scenery, the freedom, the adventure.. And it's free, so you can do a lot of travelling on a tight budget. But after 8 days sleeping in a field, sometimes you really need a break (or a shower). Previously, we've checked into a hotel for a night when it all got a bit much - the weather takes a turn for the worse, or it's just been too long eating nothing but supernoodles and oatcakes. When we were in the Shetland Isles recently, we thought we'd try Air
Camping Gear must-haves
Having light weight, comfortable camping gear is crucial to enjoying yourself and wanting to get out there again as soon as possible - never more true than when you're pregnant. You can't carry the same amount of weight, your night sleep is more easily disturbed, your patience levels are slightly more frayed than usual, so now is not the time to be hard on yourself! Simple things, like a good comfy sleeping mat, a nice pillow, and a robust tent will make all the difference to
5 things to do on a wild & wet camping trip
On our latest wild camping trip in the Burren, we planned to be up on the hills for 4 nights, getting as much photography done as possible, before the bump gets too big for me to carry my share of the camping and photography gear, and before "José" shows up in December... The weather, however, had other ideas for us. It began to rain on the first night, late enough that we were still able to cook dinner and get a quick time lapse in before bed. By the next morning, the rain w
Greetings fellow crazies!
As the bump and I were clambering over the railings across the river, backpack on, with tent, sleeping bags, and all our food for the ascent up into the hills of the Burren in County Clare for our 4 day wild camping trip, my first thought was “am I crazy?”. Then I thought, “well, there could well be other fellow crazies out there that I could connect with…I should start a blog!” So here it is.. Over the next 20 weeks, before “José” shows up, I'm going to write a blog, coverin
