Well, I never thought I'd hear myself say it, but I actually kinda love camping. Yes, me, the girl who packs at least 32 outfits for a 3 day trip. The girl who can't go anywhere without liquid eyeliner. The girl who needs to eat at least every 20 minutes.
Since moving back home for the summer it's been hard for Laurence and I to have some time together, especially for a couple of days in a row. Financial restrictions mean we can't book a hotel (boo) so what was the other option? Camping. Cheap and (sometimes) cheerful. I've been camping once before in my life, which naturally makes me a seasoned pro. Said camping happened to be at Sea Sessions in Bundoran and I lasted one night because I hated being kept awake until 6 a.m., but I still camped, okay?!
I was very apprehensive when I booked a 2 night camping trip at Lough Key Forest Park but I decided to give it a go anyway. Laurence has been camping loads before so we packed the tent, the camping stove, the baked beans and enough snacks to sink a ship, and away we went. We arrived at the campsite at Lough Key Forest Park at around 5.30 p.m. to find there was nobody there to check us in. We spotted a sign on the reception door saying we were a 'late arrival' (even though I never got an e-mail to say what time we had to check in, but alas) so we had been allocated a pitch for our tent. However, this space happened to be beside the reception where the other tents were pitched, and we needed to drive the car beside our tent to blow up the air mattress from the car.
Seeing as there was no space to drive the car near our allocated pitch we decided to try and drive onto the grass and pitch elsewhere. This was all fine and dandy - until the car got stuck in deep, deep mud. After a few failed attempts at pushing it out and a lot of panic, 3 other men who were camping offered to help Laurence push, and I ended up having to drive the car out of the mud and through an extremely narrow space to get back on the gravel. Lo and behold, I did it - and I only stalled once!
At this point we decided to forego the air mattress and just sleep in our sleeping bags on top of blankets. I helped Laurence pitch the tent without injuring myself or poking my eye out and we settled down for the evening. Our main meals, which were very fancy, included spiralled pasta with a cheese and broccoli jus (aka Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce in a mug) and Asda mac & cheese burgers in cheese topped rolls topped with spicy cheese. How many times does this blog post mention cheese, I wonder?
Possibly the only people to bring Chambord to a camping excursion...
We got our little disposable barbecue going and enjoyed barbecued veggie hot dogs, veggie burgers and even had veggie marshmallows toasted on a spear made from a bit of tree branch. Delicious. After our feast, we walked down to the lake to look at the ducks and swans and go for an evening stroll. They even have exercise machines at Lough Key which was cool, I definitely worked off some of the barbecue food!
The first night was quite cold in the tent and also quite noisy as there was a group of teenagers camping and drinking. I did see a security guard roaming around at night but he didn't seem to do anything about the noise. We woke up really early with the birds and the light shining through the tent and it was actually quite nice to be up and about early - apart from unzipping the front of the tent and having the entire contents of the insect section at Dublin Zoo fly in.
After breakfast we ventured down to the lake again to hire a boat for an hour. The guy who helped me into the boat was really nice and told me he's dropped a few girls in the water but never a phone - very reassuring! I even tried my hand at rowing a bit and found I was surprisingly ok at it. We rowed out to Castle Island but couldn't actually step foot on it as the castle is crumbling a bit which is such a pity. We watched the ducks and swans glide across the lake and it was so tranquil on the water. The hour was soon up and we rowed back to the shore to have an ice cream by the lake.
One of the good things about Lough Key is that the local takeaways deliver there, so we got a pizza delivered for our dinner and enjoyed it with a few drinks. It was so nice to sit and chat for hours about everything under the sun, and I was sad when the night was coming to an end. We fell asleep with the sound of the birds still tweeting.
It didn't take us very long to pack up our tent. Although it lashed with rain the entire time we were there the tent was nice and dry. I like that Lough Key has showers, toilets and a proper kitchen including washing machines, dryers, a fridge and freezer. It's kind of like more luxury camping but without the price tag, and with timed showers.
If I had any complaints about the camping it would be that the security wasn't great and the reception area was also unoccupied a lot of the time, as I said we didn't receive a check-in time and had a lot of people asking us how they could book a pitch. Still, if you're near Boyle and are looking for a good place to camp, I'd highly recommend Lough Key Forest Park - we left very happy campers.
Since moving back home for the summer it's been hard for Laurence and I to have some time together, especially for a couple of days in a row. Financial restrictions mean we can't book a hotel (boo) so what was the other option? Camping. Cheap and (sometimes) cheerful. I've been camping once before in my life, which naturally makes me a seasoned pro. Said camping happened to be at Sea Sessions in Bundoran and I lasted one night because I hated being kept awake until 6 a.m., but I still camped, okay?!
I was very apprehensive when I booked a 2 night camping trip at Lough Key Forest Park but I decided to give it a go anyway. Laurence has been camping loads before so we packed the tent, the camping stove, the baked beans and enough snacks to sink a ship, and away we went. We arrived at the campsite at Lough Key Forest Park at around 5.30 p.m. to find there was nobody there to check us in. We spotted a sign on the reception door saying we were a 'late arrival' (even though I never got an e-mail to say what time we had to check in, but alas) so we had been allocated a pitch for our tent. However, this space happened to be beside the reception where the other tents were pitched, and we needed to drive the car beside our tent to blow up the air mattress from the car.
Seeing as there was no space to drive the car near our allocated pitch we decided to try and drive onto the grass and pitch elsewhere. This was all fine and dandy - until the car got stuck in deep, deep mud. After a few failed attempts at pushing it out and a lot of panic, 3 other men who were camping offered to help Laurence push, and I ended up having to drive the car out of the mud and through an extremely narrow space to get back on the gravel. Lo and behold, I did it - and I only stalled once!
At this point we decided to forego the air mattress and just sleep in our sleeping bags on top of blankets. I helped Laurence pitch the tent without injuring myself or poking my eye out and we settled down for the evening. Our main meals, which were very fancy, included spiralled pasta with a cheese and broccoli jus (aka Batchelors Pasta 'n' Sauce in a mug) and Asda mac & cheese burgers in cheese topped rolls topped with spicy cheese. How many times does this blog post mention cheese, I wonder?
We got our little disposable barbecue going and enjoyed barbecued veggie hot dogs, veggie burgers and even had veggie marshmallows toasted on a spear made from a bit of tree branch. Delicious. After our feast, we walked down to the lake to look at the ducks and swans and go for an evening stroll. They even have exercise machines at Lough Key which was cool, I definitely worked off some of the barbecue food!
The first night was quite cold in the tent and also quite noisy as there was a group of teenagers camping and drinking. I did see a security guard roaming around at night but he didn't seem to do anything about the noise. We woke up really early with the birds and the light shining through the tent and it was actually quite nice to be up and about early - apart from unzipping the front of the tent and having the entire contents of the insect section at Dublin Zoo fly in.
After breakfast we ventured down to the lake again to hire a boat for an hour. The guy who helped me into the boat was really nice and told me he's dropped a few girls in the water but never a phone - very reassuring! I even tried my hand at rowing a bit and found I was surprisingly ok at it. We rowed out to Castle Island but couldn't actually step foot on it as the castle is crumbling a bit which is such a pity. We watched the ducks and swans glide across the lake and it was so tranquil on the water. The hour was soon up and we rowed back to the shore to have an ice cream by the lake.
One of the good things about Lough Key is that the local takeaways deliver there, so we got a pizza delivered for our dinner and enjoyed it with a few drinks. It was so nice to sit and chat for hours about everything under the sun, and I was sad when the night was coming to an end. We fell asleep with the sound of the birds still tweeting.
It didn't take us very long to pack up our tent. Although it lashed with rain the entire time we were there the tent was nice and dry. I like that Lough Key has showers, toilets and a proper kitchen including washing machines, dryers, a fridge and freezer. It's kind of like more luxury camping but without the price tag, and with timed showers.
If I had any complaints about the camping it would be that the security wasn't great and the reception area was also unoccupied a lot of the time, as I said we didn't receive a check-in time and had a lot of people asking us how they could book a pitch. Still, if you're near Boyle and are looking for a good place to camp, I'd highly recommend Lough Key Forest Park - we left very happy campers.
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