We've decided to load up the car and go camping for a week in Cornwall.
The good news is that Cornwall is amazing and could easily be on anyone's Bucket List,
we've made a video up here for you to have a look at.
The bad news is that I HATE camping!
But, I've got some ideas to show you and David how to enjoy the camping experience - even
without a toilet, shower or turn down service.
My experiences of camping have been awful.
As a kid, I remember my brother puking in the tent. And, the last time we camped, it
rained for three days straight and we decided to give up and go home early.
As it's a Covid year and, it was either camp or don't go away at all, I thought I'd try
it out one more time.
I think I can still turn him and I've got five days to do it!
In this video, there are some ideas which will make the whole experience more comfortable
and fun.
I'm not going to go into everything you need to bring - there are loads of videos that
do that already - but, these are my tips for happier camping with kid...and big kids
Unfortunately, you can't plan for the weather.
We ended up going during Storm Francis, with crazy winds predicted!
"Campers have been rescued and homes flooded as Storm Francis brings wind and heavy rain
to much of the uk.
"Storm Francis saw winds of more than 80 miles an hour battering parts of Britain."
"A British summer...at the seaside."
We're all packed up.
I'm saving space in the car by only bringing cereals and snacks with us, we'll buy the
milk, cheese and fresh food when we get there instead. It's much less hassle than packing
water coolers.
I also have plastic boxes ready to go with our camping gear.
I've got one with cooking items and another with tent and first aid bits.
When we come back, I'll clean it, and it means it's ready for our next trip
Who's excited for camping?!
"Let it go, let it go!!"
It wouldn't be a road trip without a sing-along!
We're here!!!
Okay, we've got about an hour of daylight to try and get this tent up.
Can we do it? Let's do it!
45 minutes done! It's very windy.
It is the windiest I've ever set up a tent but we did it!
Now we just need to do the inside!!
We all know bored kids, equal annoying kids so give them jobs while you're putting up the tent.
Make it a fun activity, rather than a chore. I'm sure they'll have great memories of helping
with it all.
When the tent is up, make it feel more like home.
Some fairy lights and bunting will make it feel so warm and cozy.
A carpet makes the whole tent feel so much more homely.
You can buy one made especially for your tent or, what we did, is we just went to the local
carpet store and asked them for discontinued samples.
It's another great barrier between your toes and a cold floor.
Having a big family is really hard to pack for, so what we did is we have everybody's
individual stuff and their own tidy, little bag that they keep in their own spot.
At the end of the trip, they put it back in here, in the big bag, and off we go!
This way, we don't have one very messy suitcase or five very messy suitcases all over.
We just have little bags that we pop into the big bag and off we go.
We've never had electricity in our tent before and this meant we didn't think about it properly
when we put up the tent!
That is so unlucky! We've done the whole tent!
We are so close! We should have tested that before!
Two feet!!
Please tell me we don't have to do the whole tent again?!!
Camping's all about making friends with the neighbors!
He had a longer one. He said he made his one!
I said, "can we swap until we leave please?!"
And he said, "yeah!" So, when we leave, we're gonna give him - he's camping longer than
us - so, yeah, thanks Russell!!
We did it! I'm sweating.
It's nearly the kids' bedtime.
Oh my gosh.
Let's get some dinner shall we and then we can get an early night?
So, what did you think what did you think, really quick, about putting the tent up in
gale force winds, getting blown away?
It was an adventure - that's my word for it! It's already an adventure.
Will it stay up? I'm not sure!
It's still very windy.
Is that nice? He's still shivering!
Is this normal for camping? Is this normal for the wind?
No.
We survived the night! How did you guys sleep?
We went to bed at Eleven. I
I was scared.
It was very noisy. It was very noisy, wasn't it?!
Did you sleep in the noisy wind?
It's so noisy. I think I probably got about two hours of sleep and all that was probably
from 4am to 7am in the morning.
That was very, very windy - gale-force winds.
David's still sleeping...
...that doesn't bode well for enjoying camping does it, a night like that?! And he's still
sleeping!
How was your first night camping?
I think I got an hour and a half sleep, at first. It took a while to fall asleep.
then...the wind!
The wind!!
It was so loud, wasn't it? And I went outside the gang ropes have gone a bit, so I pushed
some of those back in at about 2.45am or 3 o'clock in the morning.
And, actually, when you're outside it was actually not that bad - it was really weird.
It's just so bad in here - just with the flapping and the noise that goes with it.
And then Dylan was being Dylan: having his head in my spine and farting!
I don't think I went back to sleep until 4am!
Only WE would go camping during a storm!!
Quick tip for you: make sure all your guy ropes are really, really tight - especially
if it's windy out because it was so noisy last night.
None of us could sleep and, literally this morning after just tightening them a bit,
the tent is so much more stable.
And you can look around and see the stable tents - and ours was a bit shaky and now ours
is one of the really stable tents!
What are we doing?
Going for a shower.
SONG: "Wake up Slowly..."
Morning, Jude!
Bringing a baby camping sounds like a lot of work but taking a travel cot or 'pack and
play' can really help.
Obviously, it's a bed, but it's also a great place to put them when you're trying to get
ready - or cooking - or any other time you need to get them out of the way.
A little bit bored in the morning.
The shop's shut so we can't get milk. We weren't clever enough to buy milk yesterday so
it's a bit hard to entertain a two-year-old!
So, we tried to go to the shop to get some early morning breakfast but it's closed.
It's quite fun, kind of, being out and about and trying to fend for yourself because everything's
so easy these days, isn't it?
But it's also nice to be able to get milk whenever you want, isn't it Jude?
We had a much better night's sleep last night, didn't we Jude?
Because, there was no storm.
So, I think, we all had about six hours sleep, definitely.
Whereas the night before we only had like two or three so hopefully we're gonna have
a better day, aren't we?
So, Sammy needs the toilet and instead of just going in the normal toilet, we have to
run across the field in the rain!
I love camping. I love it!!!
How long's the rain forecast until?
4 o'clock!
Top Tip for you: a little bit of positivity goes a long way when camping!
This is how rainy it is, this holiday.
We're not just saying, "it's a little bit of rain," it's a LOT of rain!
There's flooding. We've had storms -- this is so unlucky!
Bring lots of games for entertainment.
Camping is all about unplugging from your phones and recharging your soul, so make the
most of it.
Have some wholesome fun as a family together - you might even like it!!
Is it too rainy?
It's like being in a plane that's crashing!
I love camping. I LOVE camping! I love camping?!
So, last night, everyone else had their showers and I thought I'm going to wait until the
morning - have mine, enjoy it. And have a nice long shower, just get clean again in
the morning - feel good about myself the next day.
So, last night, I hung up everyone towels.
We've only got four towels.
Can you guess what happened?
One, two, three, four towels, soaking, soaking wet!
When am I ever gonna get to shower?!
SONG
Good work, Sam. That's REALLY helping us!!
Right, a week in Cornwall. We're driving back and the million dollar question is: have we
converted you to being a camper?
So...I'm not convinced.
I'm not a convert but that's mainly because we had Storm Francis turn up on the first
day, three days of torrential rain, then more high winds across the week as well.
We were literally sleeping with the tent flapping against our ears last night, the whole night!
Bad weather!
But, I loved the wholesome side of it, I thought that was really fun.
I loved working as a family to do things.
Building the tent together?
Yeah.
And, we didn't fight once building that tent or taking it down that's a huge accomplishment!
We're still both shocked at that in itself - not even a disagreement.
Amazing!
Yeah, so I liked how we weren't on our phones and we weren't doing anything we'd normally
be doing, like watching TV or anything like that, so I thought that was really cool.
Every day felt like an adventure - you never know what you're gonna do.
And, I was actually imagining what it would be like if it was hot the whole week, like
nice weather the whole week: barbecues outside, just hanging out with more people at the campsite
and swimming - all those kind of things.
So, this time it felt like I was avoiding the tent as much as I could because I wasn't
happy in there.
Having said that, we had electricity which was really good - which I've never had before,
and that was really cool to have because we could plug in a heater, electric blankets
and things like that.
But, also, a little thing like charging up your phone.
There's nothing worse than, every morning, waking up and your phone is dead and you're
meant to be driving somewhere, so it was really good to just have that kind of convenience.
I really like that. And that bit where you're so cold in the middle of the night and you
just think you're never gonna get warm again and you find the button for the electric blanket.
Oh, game changer! That that was good - that was a good moment!
So, it's no: I'm not a convert, yet.
But, I'll give it one more chance and hopefully it won't rain!
So I'm willing to give it one more chance and, hopefully, we'll get some nice weather,
the next time.
Surely, every single time I've been camping, can't be awful. Yeah, surely!
Challenge extended!
Right, we're going again!
Please just leave it a few more years, yeah?!
Not straight away!!
See what we got up to during our five-day trip to Cornwall, here.
Where should we live the life of Reilly, next?
Pick a video!