4th and 5th September 2010 – Sumners Ponds

We set off as early as we cold for our first camping trip to Sumners Ponds. Four of us plus our luggage, tents, etc for one night all packed into Dave's car. We had decided to travel light as there was just the few of us going for one night. We had an uneventful drive down to Horsham. We stopped at Tesco for BBQ food and breakfast stuff before going to the campsite.

Having set up our camp and said hello to everyone, it was soon time for our walk in search of a pub or two. Dave and Tracie were our guides. We set off to the footpaths and over the stile. I didn't have a good start. I fell over it and performed a hat trick, broke my favourite long nail, caught my hand on the barbed wire and hurt my ankle. Grr! I was more upset about my nail though. It takes ages to grow them and seconds to break them!! It was a lot further to walk there than we thought and it was quite a hot day. We soon got to Bax Castle where we had a lovely dinner. I passed on ice cream as I was enjoying my beer. A few hours and full tums later we set off back to the campsite. A few of us got left behind and took a different route, we were almost back to the campsite when we realised that we'd managed to miss the pub. We soon found everyone and enjoyed another beer or two in the Queens Head.

Back at the campsite, I tried to read but soon the heat and the walk made me sleepy so I had a doze for a while. Before it got dark there was some tent swapping to be done too. The second tent that we had brought with us was Kat's little pop up tent and it was very clear that this was not going to be big enough for two. So we borrowed a tent from Dave and Tracie which was much better. Sabrina and her cousin used the little one. They weren't going to stay originally.

The BBQ was soon lit and we cooked our food on a corner of the large grill. It took ages to cook and there was plenty to eat. Someone was cooking curry in a tin foil tray which looked very interesting. There were several of us looking after the food for each of our parties. Everyone brought their chairs over and we spent the evening drinking and chatting until late. A great evening with friends old and new.

On Sunday morning, the last thing we wanted was rain but unfortunately that's what we got. It was hard cooking in the rain but we soon got ourselves fed. We got the tents as dry as we could using towels and lots of kitchen towels. As we had got damp and there was no wind to fly kites, there wasn't a lot of point staying until the afternoon so we said our farewells and set off home.

Apart from the rain, it was a great couple of days. I guess we will go again next year but not travel so light.