Last year, Jordan and I bought a very fancy tent. It is Hi-Gear, 8 man tent and I personally believe is beautiful. October 2019 we went on our first camping holiday in our new tent, we spent one night at Great Yarmouth with William as well. We went when there was a weather warning in place, and as predicted there was a massive storm as we were putting it up resulting in Jordan getting absolutely soaked. It was a wonderful trip and we promised to go again.
At the start of 2020, we looked at going on a camping holiday in the July, a place called GnomeWorld and we were going to book it but then COVID came. We realised that we weren’t going to get our holiday and we never booked it. As we started to come out of lockdown, we booked some camping holidays!
Jordan booked three holidays for us, 2 in Lincolnshire and 1 back to Great Yarmouth.
I have to say I was a little apprehensive about going on a camping holiday with an Inflammatory Bowel Disease. As previously worked out, changes in diet can affect how my system works, I was changing medication the day before we went and also camping sites are not well known for having the greatest toilet facilities. On top of this for our first trip we had to travel an hour and a half to get to the campsite as well as the thought that our pitch may be a longish walk away from the toilet facilities.
We went to a place in Lincolnshire called The Lakes and Lawns campsite and we had the most wonderful time. It was amazing to get away from everything and have nothing to do for 3 days. I couldn’t worry about getting the washing done or making sure that the floors were clean. I was forced to sit and relax and not do anything for 3 days. We had good sleep because we had an early night each day as there was nothing else to do. Camping was wonderful for me. We went on walks with the dog and went fishing and just spent time as a couple. Since the start of lockdown, we have both been so busy with everything that we have to do and the responsibilities that we hadn’t really just existed as a couple.
Camping allowed us to just relax.
The food didnt affect me, we had takeaway one night, a bbq and a pasta meal. I managed to eat pretty well for three days and didnt have any issues. This was a pleasant surprise! We didn’t take any fizzy drinks with us, but I did have a coffee every day and still didn’t have any problems!
In terms of the toilets, the ones at the Lakes and Lawns were amazing. They were well appointed and very very clean. They were cleaned twice daily and honestly I was amazed by how clean these remained throughout our whole stay. It was a short walk away from the tent, maybe 2 to 3 minutes but I am lucky in that I havent ever had huge issues with urgency as some people have and so this was manageable for me. The only thing that was a bit of an issue was that due to COVID we had to take our own toilet roll (which I had done…) but I kept forgetting to take it to the toilet with me!
Overall we had a wonderful time and returning to reality was a bit of a culture shock.
I cant wait until the end of September when we go away again. I think there will be more walking and less fishing as we’re at a different campsite.
Thank you Lakes and Lawns for our wonderful stay. We will definitely be back ASAP!