Hike Norfolk Camping Trip 2021 – Day 1

This is the little story of the Hike Norfolk camping trip, but since it’s a private trip and I’ll get into trouble if I try to give all of the behind the scenes gossip away, I’ll only give a taster of the event. Thirteen of us went on the trip and it was a three night stay in Edale which is in the Peak District in Derbyshire and where I started a walk from last year.

The drive up to Derbyshire was a bit sluggish as the volume of the traffic seemed high. We weren’t sure where to stop or whether we should try and get food in Edale, so we opted to find a Tesco Express. Then we spotted a Morrisons, so our little convoy of cars went there. I managed to get a couple of beers, a foot long sausage rolls, another bag of sausage rolls and some food for the next day’s walking. Certainly convenient.

I discovered that about 100 metres from our campsite there was a railway station, so if I ever need to get back to Edale I could easily. It also only takes one connection from Norwich (change at Sheffield) and fares can be from as low as £20. I doubt I will be going back to Edale though as there was no phone signal (well, there is for EE, but I’m Vodafone). I know some people say that it’s good to get away from social media and e-mails, but I consider that to be piffle, as I need to upload photos to Facebook….

The process of erecting the tents begins, although some had arrived earlier on in the day and had completed their arrangements. Fortunately, the rain held off for a while, which was useful as apparently it had rained for most of the day. Nearly all of this field was Hike Norfolk, with just a couple of other people from Yorkshire I think they said.

My little tent is the one on the right, which Liam choose for me in Go Outdoors (I’m completely clueless with things like this). Liam and Leon also kindly made me a video of how to put the thing up, which proved to be most useful. I did get some help from Steve with the construction efforts of my tent, but I think I can erect the tent on my own next time. And there is a next time, as I got a cheap YHA camping deal when I’m going on my own for a few days, so I’ll have to deal with this alone….. I was pleased that there were just two poles and two bits of material, so that limited the number of mistakes I could make (although I still made about eight mistakes).

This is the view from my tent (well, I was standing up here, as technically the view from my tent was the bottom of that hedge). That flat bit in the middle of the photo is the railway line, which was much busier than I expected. I liked the relatively regular sound of trains going along it, including freight trains at night. I used to think I like tranquility and quiet, but I like hustle and bustle which means I’m destined to live in cities forever.

Observant readers of the blog will note that my tent is not very large, so this clearly isn’t a photo taken in my tent. I won’t name whose tent it is, but he owns the most decadent tent that I know. So that should be a clue.

The campsite is relatively small, but it’s located across a few fields, with a lower section. At the base of the campsite is a river, which I could hear from my tent over the three night stay. Well, I could hear it when the rain and gales didn’t drown the sound out.

I took some Guinness with me, but I also acquired a couple of cans at Morrisons. This was pretty decent and I consumed it with my sausage roll supper. That’s as decadent as I need in life.

All told, I decided that the first day was a success as although the drive wasn’t the smoothest with the traffic, we got the tents up and everything seemed comfortable enough. I’d add now that I’m really not into camping, I consider comfort to either be inside a pub or inside a hotel, I’m not fussy which. But, the things I do for a little adventure in my life…..