The Joys of Back Garden Camping

So here we are, several months into this Covid-19 pandemic and sadly for many of us across Europe and America in particular it seems that all those plans hatched during the long winter nights for fabulous trips out into the open countryside camping this summer are now fast becoming a distant dream. Indeed here at TURAS we’ve had to cancel several trips we’d booked to Germany, France and Switzerland as well as various others much closer to home around the countryside of England and Ireland. And as the various stages of lockdown continue across the world, the opportunities for us to get out and about doing what we love, sadly look like being curtailed for some time to come.

The DARCHE Stowaway Kitchen has been getting lots of use of late

However all is not lost. Indeed for many of us the lockdown gives us all the opportunity to take part in the ultimate ‘Staycation’ – right outside in your own back garden.Now I know at first, camping 10 metres from your own back door doesn’t sound like the greatest adventure. However, particularly for those of us with children, (who if they are anything like mine after 9 weeks of this craziness are liked caged animals by now), then the chance for a change of scene and being able to get out, sleep under the stars and immerse themselves in the outdoor sounds and smells is still an exciting prospect – in fact if you cast your mind back I’m sure for many of us the very first camping we experienced as a kid was probably in our own backyard and it was from this your love for it flourished – and your children will be no different.

We have been lucky enough to have several weeks of sunny and warm weather in April and early May and it was just the excuse I needed to throw up the 4 man tent up in the garden and set up camp for the kids with the fire pit in prime position for those evening camp fires, sitting around telling fireside bedtime stories and roasting those all important marshmallows. Don’t underestimate the positive effects this has on young people’s mental wellbeing, and your own too.

The DARCHE Firepit

It was during a night out in this changed environment, away from the normalities of the house and lying in our sleeping bags chatting as we went to sleep that my youngest lad felt able to open up and share some of his worries and fears around what was happening in the world just now and allowed me the opportunity to talk these through with him and help put his mind more at rest and ease his anxiety.

Children aside, the other obvious benefit of the backyard camp is it presents you with the ideal opportunity to test out kit, both old and new. With the old, a great chance to check out if it still works properly when it doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t, and if needed make those needed repairs or pop it on your ‘birthday list’ if it needs to be replaced.

With the new, an opportunity to treat yourself and order that new piece of kit you’ve been promising yourself. I mean, after the last few months I think you deserve it, right? So whether it’s an awesome DARCHE Swag and stretcher set up, (one of our favourite new pieces of kit here at TURAS for the ultimate nights sleep), a Petromax FT6 Dutch Oven where you can experiment to your hearts content learning to cook everything from a great loaf of bread in the morning for breakfast to the perfect roast leg of lamb and roasted veg for your dinner.

Back Garden Cooking with the Petromax Atago

Or one of the amazingly built kitchen boxes from Go-Outside.at and the new Stowaway kitchen from DARCHE, there’s a never ending selection of ‘new toys’ you can still order and get delivered to your door to play with.

So don’t be down guys, let’s take advantage of the world’s biggest enforced staycation as great opportunity to use these strange times we find ourselves in, where although physically restricted temporarily, we can still mentally let ourselves fly free, start planning that ultimate road trip you’ve been dreaming of heading off on just as soon as this awful virus is under control and draw a silver lining round this cloud we have over us just now. Stay safe and have fun!