So in England, it has been a glorious time for all students… thats right, Easter break! No school for two weeks is absolutely amazing! However, as I'm in my final year of school, a majority of my supposedly "free time" has been taken up by the nightmare of revision.
But, the second week of my break I got the chance to actually relax. As it was my dad's birthday during this second week, we decided to go camping for a few days to celebrate. My dad loves his camping so me and mum thought we'd go with him to celebrate.
Day One: Arrive to camp
Our pitching spot was right near the toilet block, which was a result! I didn't need to walk far to go and have a shower! Our tent is known as Outwell Montanna 6P, which is one top tent to have in a way (not to sound boring or anything!) This has been the best tent we've had by far, even though we're not seasonal campers. So we began to pitch our tent. It's fairly simple, I mean I can fix it together and only takes around 40 minutes to put up. But my dad being his old self, he's bought all these gadgets and bits & bobs to make the tent feel comfortable for me and my mum! That took around an hour to place in the carpet, beds, fridge and table (ooh fancy!)
That evening our friends we were camping with for the week, made us dinner. We had pork steak with vegetables and some gorgeous red chilli chutney (tasted delicious!) After eating, me and mum washed up and we all went to bed at 8pm! Crazy I know! As always, I slept amazingly due to my Vango sleeping bag being super warm. Only woke up once to Dillon barking, but besides that it was a good nights sleep!
Day Two: Dads Birthday
I had sausage & eggs for breakfast, which was surprisingly tasty being as it was cooked on a temporary hob. Then I got showered and struggled to work it properly. It was one of those push buttoned showers, which meant that I had to hold it the whole time I tried to wash! Anyways, I managed and it wasn't a struggle.
After getting ready and trying to look my best, my grandparents came to visit us in our tent. Camping isn't really their thing, so we didn't know how they would react but they actually really liked it! Anyways, wine was flowing around the tent and then we began to walk into Cromer to find somewhere for lunch. We stopped off at a little pub called The Wellington and I happily tucked into a chicken burger and even had vanilla ice cream thrown in for free. The hosting was so lovely, I left a positive review for the restaurant/pub for the public to see!
Feeling stuffed, we all walked to the beach to take Dillon for a walk. In this season, dogs are allowed to go on beaches and have a run around and Dillon loves the sea! After getting extremely sandy and wet, we put him back on his lead and took a countryside walk back to camp. We got back and tucked into some birthday cake that I had made a few days before. Surprisingly, it stayed in great condition, was light and fluffy to eat. I was shocked, I'm not the best baker! Then my grandparents went home and we just relaxed for the rest of the evening and I even was able to squeeze in some chemistry revision. This led to bed time again and having a laugh just before going to sleep. My mum had worked out the hood on her sleeping bag and all we could see was her little nose which was highly amusing!
Day Three: Trains, views & crabbing!
We then had some Mr Whippy ice creams (I swear they taste better near the seaside?!) and then went down to the beach to let Dillon explore. He looked so happy to be back on the beach, jumping in the sea and meeting other dogs, I just love seeing him happy! Fun fact: the beach we visited was the same beach I visited 7 years ago for a school trip. I went back to where we had been back then and it had changed so much due to coastal erosion and it really upset me how much it changed! But we went down there and had a part of a beach to ourselves which again led to more photographic opportunities!
After visiting this town, we decided to go to Wells Next To The Sea. I had been here only once or twice before with my grandparents but never really got to experience Wells main form of entertainment: crabbing. We brought a £2.50 crab bucket, £1 line and a bag of shell fish as bait. Me and my dad sat on the edge of bank, worked out how to put the bait on the line and sat there for a good 20 minutes before we actually caught something. As you could clearly tell I wasn't a natural and once I picked up the line the crabs dropped back into the water again. However, we stuck to it and caught a large crab followed by a smaller one! I was so delighted that we actually caught something and it wasn't a waste. I would definitely recommend this activity as it can be enjoyed by all ages!
Day Four: Home time
It was a lovely break and was nice to get out of my home town for a while. I'd like to thank my family and the other Thompsons for making it such a lovely experience!
Thank you all so much for reading, see you in the next blog post!
Grace x