The Big Adventure

Finally the start of our Big Adventure. As a wee family we've camped for the past few summers around the UK were keen to widen the field a bit with a european camping adventure. It seemed this year would be the time to do it as my lovely husband is working for himself and has time at the moment for a three week break and I am on maternity leave so no problem fitting in time off alongside others.

Scotland - England - Netherlands - Germany - Austria - Slovenia and back. Perhaps even Italy too.

We left at an impressive 11am, as close to first thing as you can get with two boys and a baby, particularly when you have to carry out a ( ultimately unsuccessful) search for beloved puffin before getting in the car.

The 3.5 hour journey (which was to become one of our shorter journeys) was relatively uneventful except that the oldest son listened to a fair chunk of his audio book and the middle son drunk too much of my fanta and felt the effects of that combined with too many late nights and just a tad too much excitement.

However, about half an hour before arriving at our first destination I remembered the thing that I had forgotten ( there is always something, it just takes a while to realise what it is....) and got myself in a bit of a palaver about how we would cope without the crucial part of the pram for three weeks. Given that the littlest is still just a few months old and enjoys lying flat in his pram, kicking his feet around and chewing on his muslin cloths, we had taken the decision to make room for his carrycot part of the pram, rather than just taking a small buggy so we were mad knowing the hulking great carry cot and the buggy frame were useless without the one little piece of metal which holds it all together and which was sitting in the dining room at home.

Needless to say, later than we meant to be and a little bit stressed, with a crying baby and a sick middle child, we were delighted to arrive at my uncles' home in the borders where we were greeted with glasses of prosecco in the sunshine on the deck and slipped happily into holiday mood watching the fish, enjoying a barbie and fashioning a makeshift repair for the pram.

A special thanks to J & H, we plan to start all our holidays with you from now on ;)