Blogging Around the World Henfield

7/30/2019 Blogging Around the World Henfield

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Blogging AroundThe World


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Chapter One

Prologue

Faye and I decided to take our friend Amy camping for her 30th birthday, as sheloves the outdoors. After some searching around, we came across BlacklandsFarm in Henfield, in West Sussex.

8th

May 2010

We set off at 8.45am for London Bridge

Station, with our array of stuff, including

two tents, cooking equipment, food,

sleeping bags and far too much luggage

for two days, to catch our train to

Hassocks.

Once there, we tried ringing the campsites

recommended cab company to take us to

the campsite, but no-one answered the

phone. We then rang the campsite owner,

Phil, who said he would arrange a cab for

us his end. After 20 minutes, (and no cab),

we decided to make our own way to

camp. We stopped in the Hassocks Arms

(across from the station) to ask them to book a cab for us, but we

couldnt resist a drink as we were there.

We were stuck behind a hearse all

the way to the campsite and by

the time we reached it, the rain

and wind had started.

Phil was nowhere to be seen as

we drove down the path to the

field at the back, so we dropped

our 19.50 through the Reception

letterbox and decided to try and

put the tents up.


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Obviously, the rain picked up at this point and Faye and I had never

attempted to erect a tent before. As we went along, one of us was on

tissue duty and was responsible for wiping the rain and mud off the

floor of the tent. It took about 40 minutes to put the first ten up and 15

minutes for the second.

We had wanted the authentic camping experience and had stopped

off especially to buy tasteless spam hot dogs and baked beans, which

we cooked for lunch on Amys trangia, (it felt like we waited two

hours for this very unfulfilling and disgusting meal to cook!)

After lunch, we went for a walk and eventually reached Henfield

Village, (about two miles away). We came across Norton tea house

and stopped off for a very traditional English tea and scone, (served by

a very strange, nosy old lady).

After the tea, we carried on down the road, which turned into a

wooded path and then a forest. We walked through bluebells until we

arrived at a farm. We petted the pigs, goats and horses until we

realised it was getting dark and we were lost. We asked for directions in

a local farm shop and were told we had somehow walked ourselves

back to the campsite, so we headed back and started up the trangia

again (it was now 6pm) for another campsite favourite Ravioli.

Before cooking, Amy needed to add some

fuel to the trangia, which she did - andimmediately afterwards, the trangia

exploded in a massive fireball. We couldnt

get near the trangia to turn it off and the

flamers were getting higher and fiercer, so

Amy rang her brother Graeme for advice.

After managing to smother the flames, we

realised that we had used petroleum on the

trangia rather than mentholated spirits, as

oil. Whoops!

We then spent about an hour trying to find some petrol for our

decimated trangia. We found Phil (who lived in a ten on the edge of

camp) and used some of his petrol, which cooked our long awaited

Ravioli, followed by trangiered bananas with chocolate. We had a bit

of booze and then settled down for the night.

We all slept in one tent and used the second, soaked one for storage.


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Amy and I had prepared some ghost stories in advance of the trip,

which we read by torchlight (once settled in our sleeping bags) and as

Faye is scared of the dark, she brought her Dr Seuss book, which she

preceded to read to us in silly voices.

After story time, I needed the loo (which was

right across the other side of camp across a

muddy field) and persuaded the others they

needed to go too. Faye put her

Frankensteins on (nicknamed as such

because her hiking boots are so ugly and

heavy) and we dragged yet more mud and

rain in and out of the tents.

Chapter Two

9th May 2010

We are the only ones stupid enough to choose this weekend to gocamping the place is deserted! The site comprised of a huge field,

with a fishing lake at one end and some portaloos at the other. It

wasnt very scenic and to be honest, was not what I was expecting.

Very strangely, two weird things

happened over night. Firstly, as I was

looking for my toothbrush in the other

tent, I found a large tooth. Amy said

she was sure it had not been there the

day before. I still have no idea who it

belonged to or how it got there!

Secondly, as I

went to pack my

waterproof trousers away, I noticed some weird

chalk writing on them. It looked like Chinese

writing, all over the legs. This was also not there

yesterday! Again, bizarre!


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None of us had ever tried fishing before, but decided that today was

the day to try. As this was a flying visit, we packed up the tents and the

rest of our stuff and had porridge for breakfast and went to hire our

fishing rods. We didnt realise however, that you dont hire rods, you

bring your own. Phil was kind enough to offer us his personal rod to use,

and gave us a 20 second lesson on how to use it. He gave us some

bread to use as bait.

By this time, a large group of people had arrived and were setting up

their tents, but paused to laugh at us as we tried to look normal,

carrying this huge, heavy fishing rod to the lake.

At the lake, Amy attempted to

put her training into practice,

but the bread kept falling offthe rod and Amy couldnt figure

out which way to wind it. I was

in hysterics. Faye then had a go

with the rod and managed to

tangle it up to the point where it

was stuck and broken. This all

happened within 5 minutes of us

being entrusted with this

expensive fishing rod.

We spent about an hour trying to unwind the reel and restore it to its

original glory (during this time, the end of the rod was in the water

and Faye was convinced we had caught a fish). It turned out to be a

very small piece of pond scum. At least we caught something! We

retied from fishing once we had unwound the line and took the rod

back to Phil (to the sound of titters from our fellow campers).

We called a cab to take us back to the Hassocks Arms, (where we

hoped to leave our bags while we went for a hike) before catching our

train home. The cab arrived an hour after we booked it, (during whichtime we had decided to attempt an 8 mile hike from Hassocks to

Lewes in East Sussex.

After a stop for lunch at the Corner Cafe, (where I ordered a gourmet

burger) (left), we started our hike (from Amys Country Walks book). It

was a 5 hour walk in total, but due to time constraints, we opted for the

shorter 2 hour version. The walk took us through Butchers Wood, across

a field and up a steep hill over the South Downs. We stopped to admire

the amazing view and I realised how unfit I am. Amy and Faye

continued the walk up the hill to a windmill while I lay on the grasstrying to breathe!


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I started walking back down the hill and waited for the other two at the

bottom, where we rushed back to the pub to collect our bags and

make our train back to London with two minutes to spare.

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Blogging Around the World Henfield