Julie's Boggle

I think most people who know us well would accurately peg us as “not camping people”. It’s not that we don’t like cooking for ourselves, but we do like our amenities to be close at hand – en suite preferably.

So this makes our next holiday a particularly unusual one for us in that we (as in all three of us) are going to be spending a week in – well, okay, let’s say it: in a Caravan.

The caravan I should hasten to add, is the more luxurious of the options we had available for this trip. Option B was a tent.

But to more fully cover the circumstances of this holiday, I need to explain that this year we are going to a New Wine conference. And if you haven’t heard of that before, it’s a Christian conference, hugely popular, and held every year (in the UK at any rate) in a massive show-ground.

Its popularity has increased so much that in the UK they now hold three conferences a year and we, along with a substantial portion of our church, and I-don’t-know-how-many thousands of others, are going to the one for “London and South East”.

To be fair, we could have stayed at a B&B outside of the show-ground, but we felt that we would really lose out on a lot of socialising if we did that. The camp site gets laid out so that everyone from the same church camps in a “village” together, which is pretty cool because it’s basically like going camping with all your friends at once.

Not that we know what it’s like to go camping, but I reckon this has to be the easiest way of doing it if one must, because the caravan company brings the caravan to the camp-site for you, plugs it in etc. in advance, and then takes it away at the end. (We could have done this with a tent too, but felt that might be stepping a little too far outside our comfort zone. )

Apparently it can be rather muddy and grim if it rains all week, so here’s hoping for clear skies for the week after next!

Why this conference I hear you ask? Well, we’ve obviously been hearing stories from New Wine veterans for years now and, we decided last year, the time seemed about right to be brave and try it for ourselves.

And Jon? He’s part of the plan. The caravan we picked (4-berth) is apparently big enough to fit his travel cot. He’s also signed up for the babies group “Gems” which gives us 1.5 hours of crèche service a day — a bit of a breather for Tom and me to take in a seminar or two together.

All sorts of interesting questions are popping up. Like what’s the best food to take with us? How do people generally bath babies on a caravan trip? Will the kitchen equipment supplied be big enough to make a meal for 8 when we prepare our shared supper?

But all these are among the many things to ponder during this week’s packing brainstorm. Sounds like it’ll be fun.

As our first holiday in rented accommodation, I’d say our Isle of Wight trip (photo album here) was a fair success. The island itself was as scenic as I’d expected — even more so when it came to the the exquisite blue of the surrounding sea — and our hosts at the B&B were remarkably accommodating.

Jonathan’s “room” in the B&B, was a prettily decorated annex, separated from our room by a plastic folding door. There was a proper cot in there to which he took an instant dislike. This proved to be a nightly trial as our usually cooperative baby engaged in a battle of wills with us over falling asleep in said cot. Sigh.

Baby sleep aside, the B&B served us well although I think in future I would go with self-catering for the extra flexibility that would offer when travelling with an infant.

In this case, I’d brought along all Jonathan’s food in pre-frozen containers (agreed with the B&B in advance), not really considering the position this would put us in if a microwave were not freely available.

Fortunately, that week, the B&B owners had an empty self-catering flat, for which they gave us the key. (I hate to think what a bother we would have been to them knocking on their door twice a day to access their freezer and microwave otherwise.)

We fitted in a two enjoyable walks with Jon in his borrowed baby-backpack. He really enjoyed the wind in his face and was given to fits of bouncing about in a way that is quite destabilising to the parental carrier!

The first walk was along the beach at the bottom of the pretty, multi-coloured cliffs of Alum Bay. In the arcade on top of the cliffs, a thriving tourist industry has sprung up around making knick-knacks containing layers of different coloured sand. And signs have been posted at the bottom of the cliffs to discourage people from taking sand away with them (I suspect they fear the cliffs collapsing.) Naturally this fuels an even more robust activity down on the beach of “stealing” bagfuls of sand!

Our second walk was along Compton Bay (Hanover Point) where they have a fascinating and under-marketed beach with dinosaur footprints on it! (If I had known how little tourist info was offered on this intriguing place, I would have done my homework before we left!)

We did quite a lot of driving around (Smokey Joe did us proud ) , including a circuit of the island to get more of a feel for it. Our B&B was on the western side and we noted that this end appeared far more rural than over on the east where the towns and suburbs covered more area and felt a bit more built-up.

The island is about 42 km by 19 km (26 by 12 miles) and the various towns and hamlets are connected by a winding network of small country roads. Small as it is, it takes almost an hour to get from one side to the other.

As a consideration for a holiday destination with young children, the Isle rates quite highly for its proximity to London and its overall attractiveness and country-feel — you are surrounded by farm-land until you hit the coast.

The only real sting in the cost of getting there is the price-tag on the ferry ticket.

I’d also note for next time that the country roads are not brilliant for push-chairs as few, if any, have a verge and they are fairly narrow. For the less-intrepid visitors, this means you are obliged to drive to the start of your walk. But if you have toddlers, chances are you wouldn’t want to be doing country walks anyway but would rather stay further to the east, closer to the big, sandy beaches and all sorts of infant diversions.

I’m fairly sure that we will return when Jon is a little older, and I think young Jon will guarantee that our next visit will have a completely different feel to it!

Jonathan’s first birthday party was a fairly low-key affair. Just a casual picnic in the park with us and some friends with their own little people.

When his big day rolled around, our lad was slightly subdued and not his normal happy self. We put this down to a curious little virus that was whipping round the local infant community. It didn’t have any serious effects, but did dampen his healthy appetite, cover his torso with little red spots, and made him a lot more solemn than usual.

Nevertheless, he was still able to enjoy his presents (and their boxes!) and prove that he had ample appetite for sticky chocolate birthday cake when his turn came around!

(Additional pictures from his birthday and our holiday are in this album.)