Carry on camping

For the fourth time this year I found myself pulling into Bridge Villas campsite in the camper. Our spot in the shade reserved the previous week I was first in and setting up as the rest of Kims works colleagues arrived.







The 70s arrived in style, with Kim and Lily in the Beetle, dressed for the part! By tea time we were all in and set up and chewing the fat.





After a fish and chip supper we tucked Lily into bed, where she assumed the most random of sleeping poses across the pillows.



For the rest of the night we sat and chatted and watched the stars and the bats come out before getting some rest.



Saturday dawned hot, but our shady corner of the site made it very pleasant as bacon and black pudding were munched as we planned our day. The Tassimo coffee machine was brought out, a new addition to the camp kitchen and much caffeine was drunk too.



A spot of foam plane flying was had before we loaded up and walked into town, a wander round the shops before a picnic was put together and decamped to the castle grounds. Kite and plane flying, interspersed with eating and drinking led to a hike up the castle once more.









IN keeping with tradition we hiked back down and round to the riverside splash park so the kids could get soaked and cool off, some of the adults joined in! Duck feeding from the banks of the Thames used up the last of the bread before we split up. Most headed for the campsite while the Steves headed for the shops to gather meat for the BBQ.





Once again the butchers came up trumps with a fine selection of meat which I wielded my tongs over.





We polished the lot off and settled into a meat induced stupor in the chairs while the kdis ran around and wore themselves out before bedtime.





A fire log was unleashed in the ashes of the BBQ and provided toasted marshmallows to those brave/stupid enough to try.





After some stories, Lily dozed off on Kim and was whisked into bed for a well earned sleep.



With the kids safely out the way we indulged in more flaming and snacks before watching the smoked out bats circle and shooting stars fly overhead. The drink flowed and the conversation lowered in tone.









Finally at midnight we crawled to our beds for a good nights sleep. Sleep that was disturbed at 5am by the three dull booms and the ground shakes as some of the cooling towers at the nearby Didcot power station were blown up. Over breakfast of more coffee and bacon with added black pudding we began the pack away of the camp before a surprise visit from Wally veteran and Cornwall dweller Stu, up for the weekend to visit a friend round the corner. We nattered as we packed before saying our goodbyes and heading for home. Another successful and sunny campout over. On the drive down the A4074 I stopped to get an "after" photo of the powerstation to go with the "before" from the previous week.

Before


After


Steve.