An overview of our annual camping trip (and even more shrimping).

Every year at the start of Summer we go camping (you can see some of last year's pictures here).  At first there is the fun planning that mostly involves reminiscing over the previous adventures, then we progress to the half-arsed 'who has a tent' phase, finally we make the transition to the darker 'Jai becomes a total cow and spams everyone on facebook every ten minutes nagging and planning' phase.  Luckily the last phase is the shortest.  

Then finally we get there and everything, even forgotten tent poles and pegs (no exaggeration), or sleeping bags, or rollmats, seems somehow thoroughly unimportant.



I am trying so hard to not bombard you with my pictures from this weekend, so photo-heavy though this post may appear, please appreciate that this is me 'holding-back'.  I mean, camping, in the UK, in the Summer?  Seems like a recipe for a Buffy-esque tragedy right?  But no, we had sunshine, a perfect sea-breeze and even a little sunburn for our weekend trip.


 

The days were hot and sticky and perfect, but the evenings were better.  In the evenings, smothered in aftersun, we headed into the dunes to light fires and cook our supper.  We planned ahead this year and packed garlic and lemons and we cooked brown shrimp, caught earlier in the day, on the open fire and spent hours afterwards picking through their fiddly shells.  Fire cooked shrimp must be one of the best things in the world.
Then, like in a feel-good-family-film, we huddled and chatted round the fire, spotting the occasional shooting star till we fell asleep under rugs and blankets.  I literally have the most awesome friends. 
(Admittedly waking up shivering on the cold sand and finding the fire has died out - less movie like).