Summer Camping Trip

I love camping! Whether I'm in a van or a tent there's just something special about being outside under the sun or the stars trying to cook your meals on a couple of gas burners. I do wish more UK campsites allowed proper fires and I also wish the weather here was more reliable as despite doing a whole lot of research into which weekend in summer it was least likely to rain it rained so much on our first night that mine and Nick's tent sprung a leak (okay, more like 20 different leaks) and we ended up sleeping in the car. Haha, silly me for even trying to predict the weather!

Nothing perks me up more than breakfast though and thanks to Sal's genius we soon discovered that crumpets make a perfect camping brekkie! It's no secret that I'm obsessed with toast, to the point that I have two specific camping toasters that my friends mock me for endlessly. See, the gas rings are small and round and toast is large and rectangular so you do often end up with a burnt and undercooked toast thing going on. I'd still argue that that's better than no toast at all but I'm happy to concede that crumpets are way better because they're small and round, just like the stove. 

Another ridiculous camping breakfast fave' of mine is pancakes with sugar and lemon. I just mix up the dry ingredients (8oz flour, 1oz Soya Flour and 1oz Sugar) in a zip seal food bag and bring a mini soya milk to add to it alongside water (7fl oz Soya Milk, 7.5fl oz Water). These fry up nicely and sugar and lemon make a super easy topping. You could be fancy and bring jam or chocolate syrup or whatever else you enjoy on a pancake.

Snacks are another important part of the camping experience and I was overjoyed when Sal pulled a packet of the newly vegan Fox's Party Rings out of her bag as soon as she arrived. These were my favourite biscuit when I was a kid and whilst I won't be buying them all the time they'll be perfect for my next birthday celebration / children's tea party.

Sometimes when you're camping you just want to eat something quick and easy which is where baked beans or spaghetti hoops come in handy. You can eat these hot or cold - although apparently doing the latter makes you something of a savage according to my buddies. Of course I went for the cute option! Hello Kitty for me and My Little Pony for Sal - you can read her account of our trip here by the way!

One night we decided to cook up something a little more gourmet so we made fancy Smash!

Nick fried up some VBites bacon and Vegusto sausages in a little olive oil...

...and after rehydrating the instant mashed potatoes with soya milk and water I added Vegusto Piquant cheese, nutritional yeast, salt and margarine before Nick topped the whole lot with the meaty fry up. This was warming and surprisingly tasty, it even won Nick over to the belief that reconstituted potato is a-ok!

No camping trip would be complete without S'mores so Nick and I brought chocolate and marshmallows and Sal brought digestives as her local American import store had no vegan graham crackers.

S'mores aren't meant to be made on a gas stove but with the "no fires" rule in place we made do. Freedom Mallows are quite little and due to their size they don't quite melt as well as Dandies or Sweet and Sara but they did melt and that's what matters.

Tabitha patented a technique that involved patiently waving the mallows close to the flame to melt them gently and then balancing the square of chocolate carefully on top of them so that it'd get a little melty too before sandwiching the whole lot between the biscuits. Perfection.

I will warn you that this technique will end with your stove being covered in melted chocolate but it's worth it and it's easily cleaned off with a selection of baby wipes!

I love being in the countryside, I grew up in it and I've re-kindled my love for it now that I don't need to deal with getting everywhere on a bus that leaves once an hour, only goes to the next small town and stops at 5pm. Dawn and dusk are my favourite times of day in this kinda setting, there's something super beautiful about the light and the quiet calm. Here I am watching some adorable sheep!

I'll be back soon with more of our Cornish adventures including a trip to The Eden Project and a review of exciting new vegan restaurant Wildebeest Cafe.