“Mum, I really want to go camping.”
Seven words I had been dreading since giving birth 11 years ago.
And then to make matters worse…
“Yeh mum, me too!”
The younger sibling’s affirmation that camping was now apparently an absolute must.
OK then. Let’s do this. But I am not sleeping on the ground. And we are not spending a small fortune buying all the gear when we clearly have no idea. In fact I am only doing this if we can do it in relative comfort.
Cue frantic Google searching by the younger ones whose spelling returned some frankly dubious results but finally it looked like we had an answer to our prayers.
Step forward Nights Under Canvas.
It offered fully furnished bell tents which were set up ahead of our arrival and appeared to have everything you could possibly want or need. Sounded promising.
On first glance, it looked like the perfect choice but would the reality match up to the expectation… hmmmm we’ll see.
So we got in touch and yes there was availability the weekend we wanted but where did we want to go?
Actually where did we want to go? Errrr due to secretly hoping they’d be fully booked, I hadn’t actually got as far as campsite research.
I knew I wanted a good shower and toilet block, somewhere close to the beach and also somewhere which had a bit of life (and electric points for the mobile phones) and Nights Under Canvas owner and all round good guy, Steve, had the perfect answer.
Book Pencarnan Farm in St Davids. It has its own beach along with brilliant facilities and even better, its own bar, pizza place, coffee shop as well as its own on site store for those last minute essentials.
It also allowed dogs so my other perfect excuse for not being able to do this was removed.
And so with what seemed like zero hassle at all, I had booked what would actually turn out to be an amazing glamping weekend.
We arrived at the campsite on a day where it was forecast rain which I thanked the bell tent gods above that never materialised, checked in and easily spotted our accommodation for the next two nights.
And all I can say is, the excitement levels when the kids unzipped the bell tent door and discovered the ready made up beds, the table and chairs, the kitchen in a box and even better the electric charging point, almost broke the sound barrier.
As a slow trickle of campers arrived, I failed to stifle the rising smugness, sitting outside our bell tent sipping on a glass from the Nights Under Canvas kitchen box filled with lukewarm sauvignon blanc, while listening to the arguments of normally loving couples as they attempted to erect their tents. Hadn’t they heard of Nights Under Canvas?!
The evening was spent at Pencarnan’s Courtyard enjoying suitably chilled Prosecco from the bar, eating freshly made pizza while the children made friends with other small guests.
Then it was bedtime and time to see if these airbeds would live up to their expectations… and I reluctantly had to admit they did and we were well rested when we woke up the next morning. Admittedly as someone who needs several layers in 30C heat to maintain my body temperature, I did choose to sleep on top of a blanket as well as have the duvet provided for extra coziness.
The next day was spent on the beach which was perfect for the whole family with the dogs allowed as well as a trip to St Davids and then all of a sudden it was teatime again.
This time, we decided to cook sausages on the gas hob provided in the Nights Under Canvas kitchen in a box and after filling our bellies, we sat relaxing while the children played barefoot and feral with their new friends before hitting the hay and getting another surprisingly restful sleep.
And all of a sudden it was time to head back to reality by getting the dogs and their bed into the back of the car, slinging our pyjamas and mucky clothes back into the rucksack and zipping the bell tent back up before rounding up the young ones from their new-found friends and making the two hour drive home back to Cardiff.
So camping - I am converted? No. I cannot fathom the hassle of putting up our own tent and buying all the kit needed. I’m not sure my stress levels could cope with the inevitable argument over trying to tie guide ropes and quite frankly why would you when you could glamp?
Glamping with Nights Under Canvas though - I am an absolute convert! You betcha! Most definitely. The kids are over the moon that this was not a one off and the nagging for when we are going next has almost reached a persistent level (which is having the desired effect as one of my permanently open tabs is the Nights Under Canvas website but shhhh don’t tell the children that). Here’s to the next bell tent adventure!
