Glamping

Glamping is “Glamorous Camping” and although we’re all keen campers in my family - sleeping in hammocks, bivvies and bigger family tents at all times of year, I’m drawn to the idea of a bit of old fashioned luxury once in a while.

Glamping means different things to different people.  As I understand it, there are only two basic requirements:

1. that you're not in a proper building, and 
2. you do not sacrifice comfort.

My idea of glamping harks back to a time before polyester flysheets and carbon fibre tent poles; 

a more innocent time when Swallows and Amazons sailed to uninhabited islands with cakes, new-laid eggs and a pail of fresh milk, or the Famous Five camped on the moors with picnic baskets full of ginger beer and cook's best scones with jam and lashings of cream.  

It’s pure escapism.  

Retreating from modern life to a different place or time when we imagine life was simpler.  Less hectic. I would say a life before smartphones, but of course we’ll have our phones with us and we'll definitely post the photos on Instagram. 

I'm not averse to using solar power or batteries, but I do want to be fairly self sufficient, not connected to mains electricity, not plumbed into running water - so I plan for our glamping to be off-grid.  

I’m also doing this as a project on a budget, shopping in the sales, buying direct from China, repairing and making things myself whenever I can. 

We'll see how it goes.