Jubilee Weekend @ Morn Hill - 1st family camping holiday

Richard and I joined the Caravan Club last week and headed with our new Vango Airbeam tent, Alfie (4 years old) and Emma (2 years old) to Morn Hill, near Winchester for Jubilee Weekend. Readers (along with the lovely lady on the phone who took our membership request) may wonder why we joined with a tent, and not The Camping and Caravanning Club; I was brought up a caravanner, and my parents and sister and brother-in-law are members, so we wanted to be able to join up on campsites with them. The Club sites are always so lovely, and the facilties (especially when you're in a tent!) are brilliant.

We arrived on Saturday at 11am and there was only one pitch left (obviously a busy weekend). The seasoned campers either side settled back to watch us put up the aforementioned Airbeam (my Dad had helpfully announced to the campsite that it was a new tent, so everyone looked like they were about to open the beers in anticipation of some excellent entertainment…).

If you’ve never heard of an Airbeam, it’s very simple – there are no poles, just inflatable beams where the poles should be. You peg out the corners of the tent, pump up the beams and the tent magically pops up. Peg out the guy ropes, and you’re done – brilliant! At this point, I should mention that when we put it up in the garden at home, one of the beams had a puncture and it had to be replaced, but the less said about that, the better.

Actually, the tent went up really well, (much to the disappointment of the neighbours) although the replacement beam was too short, so Vango have exchanged the tent completely now – excellent customer service, for anyone who was wondering.

The first day was great, the children loved their tent ‘bedrooms’, giggling and singing to each other until they fell asleep, punctuated with our own observations, “go to sleep”, etc, etc. The rain and wind kicked in that evening, but the tent stood surprisingly firm, with no leaks, thankfully, but it was really cold and drizzly the next morning. As any sensible caravanner-in-a-previous-life, I nipped into my sister’s van to thaw out my feet, but the weather brightened and we had the Big Lunch as a family to celebrate the Jubilee (see photos).

That evening, the Morn Hill wardens had organised a Jubilee Party, with Gosport Solent Brass playing a fantastic concert for us, and a massive spread of cheese, bread, biscuits and wine. There were flags up everywhere, and the children had been making crowns for a competition. We dressed in red, white and blue, and took our chairs and blankets (and jumpers!). The atmosphere was brilliant, everyone demanding encores from the band, and then we all stood to sing our hearts out to the National Anthem.

At this point, I’d like to thank the wardens for putting so much effort into the party, it was much appreciated, and we enjoyed it immensely – thank you!

The rest of the weekend went really well, and we’ve booked to go to Wood Farm, Charmouth, in August.

Packing away was also really quick – take up the guys, open up the valves and the tent collapses, then roll it up and get big heavy people to jump on it as it’s rolled up and popped into the bag.

Much as I loved caravanning as a child (and I still do, especially the heating when it’s cold!) our tent has been a success, we can’t wait to get back out there! I know I’m obviously not going to convert anyone with a caravan, but the speed at which we put the tent up and down has really been worth the cost of the tent (child can use the pumps to inflate the beams, so I’m looking forward to sitting back in a couple of years and watching the children put the tent up for us!). So, if you spot us in August at Wood Farm, please feel free to come over and watch the tent magically pitch itself (well, almost all by itself…).