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

Thursday April 18th 2013 - P is for Perfect Moment

This post is part of the A to Z Challenge.

I guess many people have, at some point in their lives, had what they could describe as their 'perfect moment' - an instance which, for whatever personal reason, was special to them. The very nature of camping can often bring a 'perfect moment' and I've experienced more than one over the last few years, the last two being just a few months ago.

I was camping in early September last year at my favourite site in Norfolk and one day went to explore and take photos round a little village situated on the Norfolk Broads. A footpath from the village to where the small chain ferry crossed the river a mile away ran between open fields and the riverbank, and as I walked along with the dogs I experienced what must have been an absolutely perfect half hour.  Even though I was less than half a mile from the village there wasn't a single person around and I could have been a world away from civilisation. A wide expanse of reeds separated the main river from the bank and deadened the noise of any passing pleasure craft; with the hot sun shining from an almost cloudless blue sky and nothing but the sound of the breeze whispering through the reeds and the calling of various birds as they flew overhead the peace and tranquility was almost tangible. It's almost impossible to describe, but that short period of time somehow seemed so perfect and so special that if I could have bottled it and kept it for ever then I would have done.

A few days later I experienced my second perfect moment. I had wakened early to a morning filled with sunshine and blue sky and had taken the dogs for a walk along the nearby beach. The tide was going out, leaving a long stretch of clean firm sand to walk on, and the warmth of the sun was clearing away the last remains of a light early morning sea mist. With no-one else around I had the whole beach to myself, and with nothing but the sound of the waves as they lapped the sand and the occasional squawking gull flying overhead it was one of those times when I felt glad to be alive.

So there we were, just me and two little dogs walking along in our own little bit of paradise, and it was one of those perfect moments which I'll remember for many years to come.