Blackberry Woods

Scarlett, Flo and I, aka 'the adventure girls' have just returned from a short camping trip in the magical Blackberry Woods. After our many camping trips in Australia, we have a pretty high standard when it comes to campgrounds. Of course, we found some rubbish ones there too, but in general Australian campgrounds excel for their size, firepits and cooking areas and usually for their beach, river or lakeside locations. Blackberry Woods, near the glorious town of Lewes, East Sussex, didn't disappoint. Ok, so the loos and showers were rather basic, but the generous private pitches, the location, the adventure playground and the surrounding area were all top notch. It helped that we arrived during the mini heatwave we have been enjoying for the last week.  The big downer was that Rob did his back in again this week and couldn't join us, but it turned into a really fun girls-only trip. 

We settled for our USA 2-man tent over the big 3-room tent, mainly because I have never paid the slightest bit of attention whenever Rob assembled the big one and wasn't sure I'd manage it alone. Our pitch - 'humpty dumpty' -was perfect. A huge space for the tent, loads of room for games of boules, plus a lovely outlook across fields and woodland to the South Downs. With the pitches separated by woodland, it was private without feeling too remote or scary. After getting the tent up, and filled with our inflatable mattress and bedding, the girls seemed to grow up before my eyes and did that thing I have longed for, for so many years - they took care of themselves. While they headed off to the adventure playground together, I lay in the tent and read. A book. I know, that's what I said. In the late afternoon, we changed into anti-mosquito long pants and sweatshirts and headed off across the fields holding a rudimentary map, with child-like drawings of the footpaths to the local gastro pub, the Half Moon. We crossed a field, then walked through a wood, then crossed another field and then another wood and then came to a public footpath crossroads. Unsure, we headed east and arrived on a pleasant B road but with no sign of a pub. Upon knocking on a blissful-looking cottage door, we were greeted by a lady from Arkansas who happily drove us the last half mile to the pub. We had a great night colouring in, eating huge sandwiches with chips and salad washed down with fruit juice and cider, before being pointed in the direction of the correct footpath home. This took us, as the sun was setting behind the South Downs, across fields awash with gold, passed horses and long grass, back to the campground. I lit the campfire and we sat around it in our PJs, toastings marshmallows. A game of boules later, and a chapter of Harry Potter and suddenly it was 9pm, time for bed for all good campers. Unfortunately, at that exact moment I noticed our previously taut mattress has lost  a great deal of air while we had been away. While fiddling with the stopper, to fix the loss of air, the stopper itself was shot inside the mattress, which deflated in about 4 seconds, ahem, flat. Great. We resorted to using the duvets as mattresses for the girls and blowing up a loan Thermarest for me. The girls were warm and comfortable, but without the duvets for planned extra cover over my sleeping bag, I froze and honestly felt as if I stayed awake all night. Clearly not, as I woke repeatedly to remember bizarre, mattress-related dreams, and finally when Scarlett stepped on me on her way to the loo at 7.30am.

We spent today at a horribly disappointing 'wildife reserve' where we were promised a newborn lamb, but saw only a few pigs, tag-nut laden sheep and some ducks. That's 20 quid, I'll never get back. The  playground was very cool however with teepee, fort, tyre swings and tractors to climb on. We finished the day driving up to the top of Ditchling Beacon (somewhere Rob and I had cycled up during the London to Brighton ride many moons ago), the highest spot on the South Downs, to challenge our ice-creams to stay in their cones as the wind blew and the temperature dropped. Happy, happy days.