We were invited to the New Forest to join some of our friends (who are tent campers) for a weekend at White Meadow Camping which is a Camping Unplugged site near to a place called Lepe on the south coast. There were 12 adults and 8 kids in total. We had never been to a Camping Unplugged site before and so we were not sure what to expect.
We arrived in the Cali at an open field where there were lots of tents pitched up in groups around the various edges of the field. We checked at reception to find out where our group was located (most of them had arrived already) and drove over in their direction. There is no electric hook-up at these sites (hence the "unplugged" aspect) but for a weekend electric hook-up is not essential whether you are in a camper van or a tent. Music is not really allowed unless it is a live acoustic instrument but you are allowed to have a camp fire which is a nice touch.
Our group had organised themselves in a sort of semi-circle with the camp fire in the middle and we used the Cali to complete the circle and got to setting up while the kids played in the woods collecting sticks for toasting marshmallows on later, making new friends and playing with old friends.
We put our new flagpole up (with our new smiley face flag as well as the VW windsock) as a marker for our area and also as the toilets were quite a walk away at the opposite end of the field we thought it would help to guide the kids (and us) back in the right direction.
The weather wasn't quite as chilly as I was expecting for the New Forest. Some of my previous posts mention my concern about how cold it can be but I think as we were so close to the south coast it helped. It also very much helped to have the camp fire to keep us all warm.
I must confess I was a bit of a lightweight on the first night and went to bed early after a long day at work and lots of driving (it took us over 2 hours to get there in Friday afternoon traffic) but we were up and cooking bacon rolls for breakfast the next morning while the kids were all running around and playing.
We had a surprise birthday celebration for one of our friends and then we all bundled into our cars and headed off to Lepe Country Park to see the sea. We caught a lift as we didn't fancy packing up the Cali for such a short drive - it's less than 10 minutes to drive but can be quite a long walk especially for the little ones.
Unfortunately dogs are not allowed on the beach so after a brief stroll around the country park (which seemed nice) and after the kids had a bit of a run-around in the very large playground there we headed back to the campsite.
We had a lovely afternoon BBQ-ing lots of food, eating, drinking and playing games. Later that evening we all settled around the camp fire to toast some marshmallows and relax.
There was lots of rain forecast for the next morning so we decided to start packing up in the evening much to our friends' amusements as we probably had the smallest set up there!
When we woke up in the morning the rain was pouring down as expected so we set off for home early in our pyjamas.
I'm not sure that this particularly style of camping was for us. The toilets and showers were portacabins / portaloos and there was a fairly decent washing up area but I wouldn't say it was the cleanest site I've been to. The lights and hot water were all switched off at night at 9pm and turned back on at 8am which I found slightly annoying as I had to remember to take a torch to the bathroom but these were just minor niggles in the general scheme of things.
The important part was that it was a lot of fun for the kids and we managed to relax and enjoy ourselves too.
