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

Friday April 12th 3013 - K is for Kampa

This post is part of the A to Z Challenge.

As a solo camper my first major purchase - albeit an unintended one - was a Kampa tent which I saw on display at Camperlands camping store. Camperlands is a forty minute drive from home and is a great place for anything camping related; I hadn't been there since before the break-up of my relationship, which was well over twelve months previously, and as I needed some new tent pegs I decided that a drive out there for a look round one Saturday afternoon was long overdue.

Having browsed round the accessory shop and purchased the tent pegs I went for a wander round the tent display, and there it was - the Kampa Minnis 4. I wasn't really looking for a tent, had never even thought about buying one, but there was just something about this particular one which attracted me and the more I looked at it the more I liked it. A small 4-person vis-a-vis design in dark blue with just four flexible poles and a 4000 HH, which is excellent in terms of waterproof-ness, it looked easy to put up and would be ideal for weekends and short breaks instead of using the large drive-away awning. I could have one bedroom and I could put the dogs' bed, the loo, and anything I wanted to store in the other - and the more I thought about it the more it made sense to have one. Unfortunately though I didn't have my debit card with me or enough cash to buy one there and then - which is a good way of preventing any spur-of-the-moment purchases! - so there was nothing for it but to go back home.

I spent all weekend trying to talk myself out of buying one of these things - did I really need one? - then on the Monday morning I went back to Camperlands with enough cash and got one. It's been used many times over the last three years and has been a great little tent, and if other Kampa tents are of the same excellent quality then I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. However, there's a twist to this little tale which won't be revealed until later in the blog!