Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => Meets, places, trips and reviews => Topic started by: Moxy on September 28, 2015
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It has come to the point that every outdoorsy dad surely gets to, when I am going to take my son on a 1 night stay in hotel annalong for some father-son bonding. I have tried preparing him with pictures, videos, bought him a new sleeping bag and ordered a new tent (any excuse!) Lol. But really its going to boil down to getting him up there, lighting a fire and a bit of hide and seek to get him comfortable being out in the woods. I'm also still trying to get him into understanding there's no WIFI up there! Typical kids! I would love to hear some peoples stories, both good and bad (if there are any) just so I'm going in with my eyes open.
Cheers
MOXY
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Just remember to bring the marshmallows ;)
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That's the first thing he asked me to take! Lol
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Hi Moxy,
I regularly wild camp with my two kids and I think the key to their enjoyment is to have them doing as much as possible to help. When we pitch up I get one of my kids to prepare the kitchen area while the other will setup the inside of the tent.
A few ideas.
1. A trangia is a great way to cook with kids. It's safe, fun and you can actually cook meals on it. Makes a great focal point for pre-dinner cupasoup.
2. Take a snap glow stick to hang up inside the tent after dark. Makes a perfect night light, tent marker and you can play games with it and paint light trails in photographs.
3. Pack a firelog or 2 to keep them warm and midge free well into the evening. I know that they say you shouldn't toast marshmallows over these but we do regularly ;D
4. Steamed pudding, custard and hot chocolate !
5. When we leave I have them scouring the whole area for signs of our presence. It will avoid lost gear and also instill a leave-no-trace ethic.
Here's a superb place to camp with kids that I wrote about a while ago.
http://www.ni-wild.co.uk/blog/2014/05/loch-altan-donegal-wild-camping-at-its-finest/
Have fun.
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Cheers Andy, have trangia and glow sticks. We did a practice of putting the tent up yesterday and he loved it, which is a start. And of course I will be lacking bags for the leave no trace side of things.
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Brilliant mate just enjoy it you'll learn more from him than he will from you. Me and my wingman's first wild camp was Annalong a few years back and he loved it. Arm the wee fella with a few outdoorsy gizmos and a wee firesteel (there's an arsonist in all of us) and you can always make him the excuse for all your future camping trips ;D
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Glenn, you and I are definitely on the same page with the arsonist stuff lol I am going to let him start the fire, which was a huge outdoors confidence booster for me on my first camping trip with the scouts, all those years ago. Who needs a TV when you have an open fire and a few manly stories! (Heavily censored)
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Hey Moxy, i ain't no veteran at the old wild camping having only ventured out this year for the first time. I quickly became addicted and then of course the kiddies started asking to come, I played safe and took the oldest 2 lol they are 11 and 10 and I have to say as much as I was nervous they had a great time and it was easier than I ever imagined ;D like above they had plenty of input helping to cook and collect wood etc and the next day we also did the no trace rummage around to be sure we left all as if we were never there and they really enjoyed that part. I'm going to be brave if the weather holds out and take all 4 kids soon the younger being 4 and 5 :-\ ill let you know how that goes ;)
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My 2 kids are 9 and 6, i'm getting geared up at the moment and am planning to take them out soon as well. Same of you Dannyboy i'm a bit nervous but i know they'll love it.
I'm based in Co Tyrone, anyone know of any good wild camping spots in Tyrone/Donegal?
I've seen a few of your posts andymcinroy and they've given me a good few ideas.
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what about ditching the tent and going WILD!
This was a microadventure we had the other week with the 4 kids. Just a 30 min cycle from the house.
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That looks class, last time i slept out without a tent was about 30 years ago, maybe time to do it again!!