A couple of weeks ago, Gary and I booked the Friday off work.
We bundled ourselves into a friend’s pickup, with tents, sleeping bags and essential road trip snacks, and drove down to Kingsdown in Kent for a camping weekend filled with sun(burn), sea and cider…
Kingsdown Camping is a massive field placed right on top of the White Cliffs. There’s an AMAZING view of the sea from the top of the campsite, and it’s only a 20 minute drive to Dover.
There are proper toilets and proper showers, and the £25 we each paid for our two night stay also includes the rental of a fire pit, a table and benches to sit on. (Not that we needed or used them because I think we took about a million deckchairs with us and they were much comfier!)
Our group arrived first, so we managed to grab a good spot for our group of thirteen.
The crucial thing is to find a balance between being close enough to the toilets that you don’t have to walk 5 miles in the dark to find them, but far enough away from families and children that you don’t bother them when you’re playing drinking games at 11 o’clock at night…
And I’m happy to say we nailed it.
We were right by the beach path, with plenty of space for our multiple tents, cars and deckchairs (GOD. SO MANY DECKCHAIRS), and far enough away from everyone else to not be a bother.
After we’d set up our tents (and deckchairs), we had a wander down to the beach, and Gary and I found a little footpath that led right up the cliffs.
The views were absolutely stunning, but kinda ruined by the fact that at this point I realised that the strong wind had successfully hidden the fact that actually the sun was HOT and I was burning. Had burnt. Was burnt.
Well done me.
I was pink. So very very pink. Which meant that I got to spend the rest of the weekend sat in the shade, wrapped up in jeans and a hoodie, whilst everyone else laid around the grass and soaked up the sun.
Sigh. Remember your sunscreen kids!
The boys played football, we all played rounders, we stocked up on cider and BBQ food at the local Tesco’s, and then we settled in for a nice quiet evening around the campfire… (Hahahaha. As if. We got drunk and played “I Have Never”. Obviously.)
We failed at cooking on the camp fire by the way. If anyone was wondering.
Half-cooked burgers are SO not the one…
We did manage to cook bacon sandwiches and make tea on a portable stove the next morning. Three cheers for the one and only couple that remembered to bring that with them.
But after that we pretty much gave up the idea of cooking anything ourselves and just headed straight to the nearest beachside pub (5 minutes down the road!) for lunch.
We walked past the cutest cottages on the way, and I ran halfway down the beach to take photos of the beach huts too. Because I’m a blogger and taking photos of beach huts is what we do best.
The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking up the sun (or the shade, in my case…) and playing more rounders and drinking more cider.
And then for dinner we ordered Dominos.
Yeah. I know.
I wish I could say I’m sorry and ashamed but guys. GUYS. It came to about £4 each, they delivered it straight to the campsite reception and none of us got food-poisoning from under-cooked burgers.
I feel like that’s a pretty solid defence for our life (and dinner) choices, right?
The next morning dawned bright and early. Very early.
I’d had a little stalk on Instagram of our location (does anyone else do this? It’s SUCH a great way to find pretty places to photograph!) and spotted this gorrrrgeous sunrise shot.
We figured out which way was east (YES. I FINALLY GOT TO USE MY iPHONE’S COMPASS APP!), and confirmed that yep, we’d definitely have a fantastic view of the sunrise from our little spot on the beach.
So I made Gary wake up early on Sunday and push through his brutal hangover to come watch the sunrise with me. Because yes, apparently I CAN be both romantic and mean at the same time.
And guys? It was so worth the early wake up call.
The clouds were low in the sky, so we missed the ACTUAL sunrise, but oh it was so lovely anyway! Pink skies, birds singing… absolute peace and tranquility.
And then we went back to bed and slept until 9am because it was Sunday after all…
On our last morning, we brought down the tents, cleared the campsite, burnt all the rubbish, and left everything looking clean and tidy (because we’re good little campers). Then we drove down to the village of Deal.
We’d driven past this GLORIOUSLY flowery street on our first day, and decided it would be the perfect place to hunt down a roast dinner and an ice cream before we drove back to London.
Guys, I think I took about eleventy billion photos.
The street, the pub, the houses… IT WAS ALL JUST SO PRETTY. I could have sat and stared for days.
After a (distinctly average) roast dinner, we wandered down the pier for an ice cream and a look at what the fisherman had caught that morning.
Tip: The coconut ice cream from the pier shop is EVERYTHING THAT’S GOOD ABOUT THE ENGLISH SEASIDE. I’m pretty sure it’s ruined me for all future ice creams.
Finally, after a few more photos of the flowery houses (#sorrynotsorry) we piled into cars and drove back to London…
Things I learned on my first proper camping trip that wasn’t supervised by adults (because guys I’M the adult now. WTF.)
- I really like camping.
- I’d like to go camping again.
- We need to buy a gas camping stove thing to make tea and bacon sandwiches with when we go camping again.
- Dominos is a life saver.
- REMEMBER THE SUN CREAM.
