New Forest, Hollands Wood

Up until this point all of my camping experiences had been with another person taking the lead so I set myself the goal of doing a ‘Semi-Solo Camp’ which involved me travelling to a location with the gear, pitching the tent myself, sleeping in said tent, then packing it up and taking everything home. I wanted to do this with some back-up in place, so when Min and Nev visited Hollands Wood for a weekend with the van I went on down for a night with the van as a back-up.

For my first time being the lead in this I didn’t pick the best of weekend as there was torrential rain through both days, and the night. However when a break appeared I pitched up the Big Agnes Copper Spur 2 myself, with Min watching and checking once I’d finished, they offered some input into the pitch as they were aware of how wet the tent fields could get so suggested a slightly raised area (which was a godsend as there was small ponds outside the tent in the morning!)

This was a fantastic trip that gave me a massive confidence boost in doing things for myself, and the whole experience gave me comfort in my skills.