a new camping adventure


We have decided to embark on a whole new adventure, of building and running a small campsite, Rue du Chateau. I had to leave my job and be a stay at home mummy to my young son George (a year old next month!). Ebay, blogging, writing and selling my books, are all ways I am trying to earn an income to pay those bills. 

We live in an absolutely beautiful part of the world, near Hawick in the Scottish Borders, nestled among rolling hills. Our farm has a river running through it, flat fields and young woodlands. Wildlife runs through it daily, ranging from deer, hare, red squirrel, bird of prey, wild ducks - please see my blog post about the ducklings here

Hundreds of years of history on our doorstep, Hermitage Castle, Melrose Abbey, the Border Reivers, Scottish Clans, stronghold towers, big houses, a brewery and a distillery.

We have an awesome new playpark and an indoor soft play centre twenty minutes drive away. Pretty much everything is twenty minutes or more away. And that suits us just fine. Limited phone reception, hardly anyone here, its a perfect rural escape.


Often I have walked along the riverbank, thinking how much people would love to be sitting with their kids splashing on the stones. Or just watching the world go by at a slower pace. You know, when I go to the cities now I struggle to understand people because they speak so quickly? I used to live in the city and be one of these super fast zoomy people, and now its so different to me. Everything is in a hurry, to a timetable, deadlines, buses, trains, meetings. And here where we live, well, as the Spanish say, maƱana. Its a different world. A half hour walk along a country lane to reach the pub - because there's no rush to get there or back again. After all its about the journey too.

Camping is becoming increasingly popular as even a weekend or one night away turns into triple figures before you've even blinked. Hotels are getting more expensive, trips abroad not always possible, why not just chuck a tent and sleeping bag in the car and try somewhere new in the UK?

Have I sold it to you yet? Read no further! Click here to be transported to the booking website. 


I says to my husband last Thursday, what are your thoughts on having a campsite here? And by the weekend, we had one. Like some magic wand being swept over the farm, only with a lot of hard work, swish swoosh, a campsite has been created.

Resident Collie Alfie on the King's Pitch

I'm all for my side hustles, but now I don't have a job I'm reliant on them. I feel that its important not to rely on your main job as the only way of making money. But didn't realise I'd end up dependent on them! I'm reluctant to invest my limited budget or even worse, get into debt for ideas that may not see a return till the summer months - we have to eat before then! I want hustles that can be tested and built up over time. Check out my money generating ideas blog article here

Of course more goes into making a campsite than you first think. The ground looks smooth, but practice lying down on it, and it turns out its quite bumpy. Where are folks going to sit, how are they going to get from one field to another when the gates get tied for the sheep and ponies? Toilet facilities? Water? Get too big and you need licences.

And what about the badger thats decided to just up and die at the riverbank? Barely even seen a badger round here before and ones just made his final stinky resting place where you want people to go explore.

A quick dash to town revealed the Outdoor shop on Hawick High Street sells portaloos as well as loads of other useful camping gear. Time to build a toilet shack. But what is this? We can use the horse trailer for now, jazz it up with some fairy lights and its a pretty kitsch place to ... you know. Didn't the fairy lights, those oh so magical things, take about an hour to untangle. James thought it was funny that I put a table and mirror in there, but I know anytime I've been camping I still want to make sure I look alright. It doesn't matter if I'm in the middle of nowhere, if I find I've had something in my teeth all day, I mortify myself.


My husband James improvised seats out of a tree that had to come down, rather than buy benches. How many campers do you need to pay for that bench when you could make one that looks more in keeping anyway? Someone recently said to me "work with what you've got", and we're trying to apply that to everything at the moment.

The ground has been strimmed, and pick-axed, and shovelled, and stomped. For all its "wild camping", it still needs to be comfortable. There's spaces for hammocks too, we didn't chop all the trees down to make seats.


My dad made fire pits out of the metal bases of office chairs, welded to old washing machine drums. It helps that he's a trained welder, but I've seen examples where the drum on its own is part buried in the ground to make a more permanent fire pit. 

Stiles - we are going to make these out of old chairs, one on either side of the fence, tied together. 

There's still a long way to go, signs to make, thistles to deal with. We would like some footbridges across some of the wee burns, and if it gets popular, wouldn't solar powered showers be lovely? Why not create some proper cycle trails on a map for people to explore the area? Will the pond dry out?

I hope that we will have enough eggs to offer to our guests, and that our veg patch may produce excess too. But we don't want to rush flat out and stop enjoying the process, it should be organic and grow over time. What we offer is fairly basic, but the peace of the area is just lovely.

James and Alfie resting after working hard to prepare the King's Pitch
And the badger was ceremoniously encouraged to drift further downstream on his Viking-esque choice of burial with a solemn salute and oddly enough, four Apache helicopters, appearing over the forest tree tops and hovering over the farm. And I promised you tranquillity! Well, it is the rest of the time, just not for badger send offs apparently!

Pay us a visit, drop me an email, the campsite is open. And we'll keep working at it while writing the books, ebaying, digging the vegetables, looking after the baby, riding the pony, coming up with other adventures, and just plain old enjoying life!









Comments

  1. We are camping in Missouri-wish we were camping there! From the St. Louis Turnbulls

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  2. What a lovely comment thank you! You would be more than welcome any time x

    ReplyDelete

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