Camping in Kent with Daddy and Top Ender - Day 1
Hello! Daddy here, Mummy has very generously allowed me to blog the camping holiday I am on with Top Ender this week. It's generous for two reasons - one that she trusts me with her blog and two that she isn't going to get jealous of the things that Top Ender and I get up to. She is having her own staycation with Big Boy, and that looks great fun too!
Top Ender and I have tried to camp together every year since she was 4 but we missed a few years through pressures of work and lack of finances. But here we are in 2015 on our fifth camping holiday, and visiting Kent for the first time.
Kent is closer than I remember, so we made very good time arriving just after "check in" opened, to put up our brand new Quechua Arpenaz Family 4.2 tent - quite a step up from the pop up tents we've used on previous trips. Total time to put up the tent and install the groundsheet and bedrooms, about an hour, and hardly any swearing!
First up was a trip to the swimming pools in Faversham. It was a sunny day so it was very busy, but not so you felt too cramped in the pools. We moved back and forth for an hour between the outdoor pool (deep and chilly), the indoor pool (not quite so deep and very warm) and the Rapids (shallow and tepid). This is a lovely set of pools - well maintained, clean and reasonable value at £5.10/adults and £3.60/children.
Realising that it was now 3pm and we had forgotten to eat, we then made our way to the Golden Arches in Whistable for food that more than replaced the calories burnt at the pool, before heading on to Margate.
I holidayed in Margate when I was Top Ender's age, and have been back for two day trips since - but it all seems very similar. We didn't bother with the reopened Dreamland theme park because it looked a little pricey, (and some web sluething had shown the one ride I really wanted, the train, hasn't yet reopened) instead deciding to hit the arcades and then the beach.
We went back to the tent for a quick comfort break, and to send some messages home and then we headed into Canterbury for dinner - Top Ender turning her nose up quite definitely at the offer of a "Children's Menu" in Nando's (but she did end up leaving the garlic bread, we've brought that back to the tent in a doggy bag for her lunch tomorrow!).
Pleased that the tent was still there despite a few gusts of wind and spots of rain, we've made for the two bedrooms. I am knackered but Top Ender still has time for some Minecraft on her tablet. Yes the campsite has WiFi - a necessity like showers and running water these days!
Tomorrow, Dover Castle and the White Cliffs! Sleep well!
Top Ender and I have tried to camp together every year since she was 4 but we missed a few years through pressures of work and lack of finances. But here we are in 2015 on our fifth camping holiday, and visiting Kent for the first time.
Kent is closer than I remember, so we made very good time arriving just after "check in" opened, to put up our brand new Quechua Arpenaz Family 4.2 tent - quite a step up from the pop up tents we've used on previous trips. Total time to put up the tent and install the groundsheet and bedrooms, about an hour, and hardly any swearing!
First up was a trip to the swimming pools in Faversham. It was a sunny day so it was very busy, but not so you felt too cramped in the pools. We moved back and forth for an hour between the outdoor pool (deep and chilly), the indoor pool (not quite so deep and very warm) and the Rapids (shallow and tepid). This is a lovely set of pools - well maintained, clean and reasonable value at £5.10/adults and £3.60/children.
Realising that it was now 3pm and we had forgotten to eat, we then made our way to the Golden Arches in Whistable for food that more than replaced the calories burnt at the pool, before heading on to Margate.
I holidayed in Margate when I was Top Ender's age, and have been back for two day trips since - but it all seems very similar. We didn't bother with the reopened Dreamland theme park because it looked a little pricey, (and some web sluething had shown the one ride I really wanted, the train, hasn't yet reopened) instead deciding to hit the arcades and then the beach.
We went back to the tent for a quick comfort break, and to send some messages home and then we headed into Canterbury for dinner - Top Ender turning her nose up quite definitely at the offer of a "Children's Menu" in Nando's (but she did end up leaving the garlic bread, we've brought that back to the tent in a doggy bag for her lunch tomorrow!).
Pleased that the tent was still there despite a few gusts of wind and spots of rain, we've made for the two bedrooms. I am knackered but Top Ender still has time for some Minecraft on her tablet. Yes the campsite has WiFi - a necessity like showers and running water these days!
Tomorrow, Dover Castle and the White Cliffs! Sleep well!