As you’ll remember from my last blog, I randomly had the idea to go camping last weekend to enjoy the heatwave.   It was all very spontaneous.  I had the idea on here on Friday afternoon and then we set off to go on Saturday morning.

Saturday morning came and we realised two things: one) we had zero camping gear and two) we didn’t even know where to go and camp.  My boyfriend set about finding the perfect location and I set about locating the goods. I drew up a quick list and decided we needed everything from a tent right through to cooking stuff.

After an hour  - and thanks mainly to the saviour that is Google – we knew where we were going (Norfolk) and where I was going to go shopping (Decathlon).

We reserved our ‘pitch’ and headed off to Decathlon.  We chose this particular shop because it is huge and sells everything you could need, for just about any sport possible and I always understood this was the place to go for a bargain. When we started shopping, it was easy to be seduced.  They literally had all the gadgets you could need (and um, lots you absolutely wouldn’t need but just want anyway).  I particularly loved this camping bed (£50) and really wanted it but then I realised it was essentially just a double airbed with a quilt attached.  We saved ourselves quite a bit of cash (£35 to be exact) by just buying an airbed and bringing along our own quilt.

When it came to looking for the tent, we ended up going with this one this one (£22.50) from argos.  This one from Decathlon was almost exactly the same but cost almost £80. The picture above was our tent.  Yes, I am very proud of it…

When it came to cooking time, this stove (£45) was the one we wanted but we got exactly the same one on offer for just £30 from Decathlon which was fab.

We bought a gas lantern from Decathlon for almost £30 but to be honest, the combination of gas, matches and tents scared me so I would much rather have gone with something like this one from Argos again.

All in all, we spent about £180 on stuff and that covered everything from the tent, chairs, sleeping stuff and cooking stuff right through to camping knifes and forks. It seems like a big stack of cash but we figure we will have it all for years to come and once we are out in the tent, there is very little else we’ll need to spend our cash on. It definitely paid off to shop around tho and I learnt that while I had always assumed Decathlon was the cheapest place (just because it was a big, dedicated shop), that wasn’t always the case (the tent proving the point). We also found that Tesco was full of bargains too.

Anyway, with our car packed full of all our stuff, we headed to Norfolk.  We pitched in a field along with a few fellow campers and a few camper vans. The tent we chose was one which required proper putting together (pegs et al) and it was so much more fun than those pop up ones you can buy.

We spent the early evening exploring the woodland and river (did I mention that my man sometimes thinks he is Ray Mears?) and then did a BBQ outside our tent.  The next morning, it was time for the Sunday papers and a wicked fried breakfast on our new stove (see below) and then it was off for a bike ride.

Our camping adventure did come to a slightly painful end after I managed to lay on a patch of nettles and get bitten by tons of bugs. But you know what? It was one of the most fun weekends I’ve had for a long, long time.  So much so that next weekend, we are gonna do it all again…

Cooking up a treat on our bargain stove…