Honeybridge Park Campsite

So a couple of weekends ago (after buying our -new to us- eBay bargain trailer tent) we decided to go and do a local trial run, several reasons for this - it was Flyingpops' first time towing anything, the tow bar on the car had only just been installed (and was untested), we had never actually put up a trailer tent and last, but not least, this was Thomas' and Poppies first time ever under canvas (lots of unknowns to bring into focus before we end up 5 hours away discovering problems for the first time)!  Flyingpops spent a few days organising everything (including trips into the loft to find all our old camping stuff and buying nice new magnetic LED lamps) and packing the car, then on the weekend we loaded up the bikes and hitched up the tent and headed off to Honeybridge Park (near Dial Post) - (only about an hour away from home at trailer tent speeds - just in case of emergencies) -

Putting the trailer tent up took 6 (slightly confused) adults about 2 hours, but most of that was working out how to get things level, where all the posts went and the proper order to do things in...I'm pretty confident two of us can do it (assuming a fairly level pitch) in about the same amount of time (and we will only get quicker with practice) - as it happened taking the whole thing down again only took about an hour and I pretty much managed most of it on my own (just needing some help with pole holding to stop everything collapsing onto Poppies head a couple of times)...

Once it was all up we were able to get everything arranged satisfactorily quite quickly, the camp kitchen is large and easy to use, pretty much everything we needed was included (so we had electrics, a camp toilet, an electric fridge, gas etc. all just waiting for us in the box) unfortunately we didn't spot the gas cable and regulator stashed under the plastic sink in the kitchen before we decided it didn't exist and rushed out to buy one, so we now have a spare... ;)

You can get an idea of the size of the thing from this shot, each of the two beds in the off-ground sleeping area is roughly the size of a king sized bed, there is extra sleeping for up to 4 other people underneath them in hanging pod mini-tents and all sorts of dividers you can use to make private areas in the main body of the tent for things like the camping toilet if you wish to (but we didn't) as we were 30 seconds walk from the shower block...

Thomas and Poppy completely *loved* the camping experience, Thomas especially just running free making friends with lots of the kids on site and zooming off on adventures then coming back and jumping on his new bike, Poppy desperately trying to follow him but being foiled by the gravelly roadway (which acted as a nice barrier to keep her near the tent without resorting to putting her on a dog lead)!  Anyway, all went really well, the towing was fine, there was a steep learning curve putting the tent up, but I'm comfortable with doing it now, so the next trip will most likely be down to Cornwall in a couple of weeks time! Really looking forward to that and here's to many happy camping trips to come! :)