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

Monday April 20th 2015 - Q is for Quiet and peaceful

This post is part of the A - Z Challenge.

Having the relative freedom to be able juggle my work hours and go camping at any time of the year and on any weekend I choose means that I can, if I wish, avoid the busiest and most popular times of the year when the school holidays kick in, and camp when it's much quieter. Although I do camp on bank holiday weekends when I know it will be busy I try to balance this out by camping early or late in the season and choosing sites which I know will be fairly quiet.

 My regular site on Anglesey gets very busy to the point of being absolutely manic during late July and August, especially on the bank holiday weekend (think Glastonbury festival) but even then I can usually find a fairly quiet corner to pitch my tent. The two large camping fields at the Elvaston Steam Rally in July are very busy but I don't camp with the masses - I drive right across to the top end of the third field and pitch my tent in a corner well away from everyone else. That doesn't mean I'm anti-social - far from it - but with a very busy work life and a home close to a main road any peace and quiet I can get is very welcome.

 Most of the sites I've stayed at so far, while always having that important quiet element, have still in some way had some form of background noise in the distance but there are four where peace and quiet are guaranteed - the site I stayed at on my very first solo camping weekend (no noise except sheep, hens, and birds in the trees), the camping field at the California site (nothing but the sound of the sea and seagulls),
the coastal site in the Scottish Highlands (sheep, birds, and gentle waves) and the one in the hills of North Wales where I recently stayed for the first time over Easter. With no tv signal, a very intermittent phone signal, and just the sound of the nearby river and waterfall and the birds in the trees it truly was quiet and peaceful - and at only two hours drive from home it's now at the top of my list of weekend escapes.




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2 comments:

  1. Christine20 April 2015 at 17:07

    So no towns starting with a Q, huh? :) I was wondering what you'd do.
    I'm with you. I do not like camping in the middle of a bunch of people. To me, the point of camping is to hear nature, not my fellow campers.

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    Replies
    1. Tigermouse20 April 2015 at 20:16

      There are several towns in this country starting with a Q but none that I''ve been to so they don't count for the blog.

      I suppose hearing your fellow campers at certain times is unavoidable whatever type of site you go on, but when there's no-one around on a quiet site the tranquility is almost tangible. The Easter site, which I'd never been to before, was so blissfully quiet that I was really sad to leave.

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