by Camping trips with a young family can be very challenging, especially in the UK, where the weather can often skip from sunshine to deluge in the blink of an eye. My added challenge is that my wife, Helen, can’t be with us for our Easter break (she’s away training for her fourth Olympics – a reasonable excuse). My three kids (twins of four, and an older brother who isn’t quite six) are a bunch of tornadoes. I certainly don’t want to fly overseas with them, but I do want to give them a memorable outdoor experience. So what to do?
The inspiration comes in the form of Wild Camper Trucks, a small business founded by entrepreneur Andrew Clark, which rents out a fleet of four-wheeled campers from bases in Kendal and Inverness. The go-anywhere vans are sturdy and reliable, but have enough comforts at home that they feel like glamping on the go. Thanks to the extra roof tent, they are set to sleep four, but with children as young as ours we could easily push it to five. There is a bijou kitchen and dining area, lots of sitting and kipping space, and a huge amount of storage, allowing us to take all the outdoor toys we need.
Andrew is associated with the Off Grid Camp and Nearly Wild Camping websites, which connect 4×4, camper van and canvas campers with landowners. Campers sign up with the websites, and pay their hosts as they would at any campsite.
So, together with my friend George, who rents a brother’s terrible caravan, we choose a few days in Cumbria.
Our first site is absolutely dazzling, a farm in a part of the country I could barely find on a map. The Howgill Fells are to the north west of the Yorkshire Dales national park, separated from the Lake District national park to the west by the Lune. Cautley Spout, in the south of the Howgills, is considered to be the highest cascading waterfall in England above ground, with a drop of around 200 metres. The higher Howgills, such as the Great Dummacks and the impressively named Randygill Top, are more than 600 meters high. Even in the height of summer, this northern corner remains quiet and parts of the Lakes and Dales can be conquered. In early spring, we have every area, peak and waterfall to ourselves.
It’s our first tester night. A storm comes in from the east, with biblical rain and wind
The famous conqueror Alfred Wainwright said that the Howgills looked like a herd of sleeping elephants, and it’s easy to see why. The hills are bulging, the streams and rivers that pour down the flanks of these curved giants give them a wavy appearance. The word “Howgills” is derived from Old Norse fresh, which means gap or hill, and feel less intimidating than the peaks to the west. For me and my brood they are attainable, and they lead to joyful heights.
We park our truck in the high fields of a sheep farmer. She’s busy zipping around the trees on a quad bike and helping ewes through breech births, but she makes time to show us around, giving the kids a chance to bottle feed the new lambs – so new are theirs still scraggly umbilical cords young people then hear again as “miracle cords”).
We are the only campers out on the hills, and could be a million miles from home. Cooking up a barbecue, we play Grandma’s Footsteps and clouds run over Howgill’s highest peak, the calf (676 meters), and jackdaws caw overhead. Dinner is hotdogs cooked outside. Easy enough with the gas burners and fridge/freezer included in the camper truck.
There is a camping toilet and shower, which uses water heated on the stove, so alfresco washing behind a tarp is completely possible and ethical toiletries are provided to reduce the abuse that enters the table water. Bedtime rolls around and the tent is up in seconds, accessed via a patch inside the camper truck.
It’s our first tester night. A storm comes in from the east, with rain and the wind of the Bible blowing in. Me and my oldest boy are sleeping in the extended roof tent, which fills like a yacht’s sail in a sea breeze. He snores through the whole thing, but at 3:00 I carry him (still asleep in his sleeping bag) downstairs. If I was in the family tent it would be a safe situation, but the four of us were snuggling together in the huge double bed, and it’s pretty cozy.
Come morning, we’re ready to roll. The camper truck handles like a car in many ways: it’s smooth to drive and you soon get used to the weight in the back. To help combat emissions, Clark plants 25 trees for every 1,000 miles its customers drive.
Wherever we stop, we find places where the children can run rampant in nature
Our big adventure activity today is a whitewater paddle trip down the River Lune on inflatable rafts. The coast of the rafts is above the tidal rapids most of the day, with divers darting about and huge shoals of oysters taking to the sky as we rounded every corner. Rain has been pouring down for the entire four hours we are on the river, and by the end the children are blue and shaking. As we coast into Devil’s Bridge in Kirkby Lonsdale, they’ve had enough, so being able to chuck them in the back of the truck and throw them in sleeping bags is perfect.
Other overnight stops include a wild beachside area north of Wirral, where we can step out of the van and onto the sand, to Ashgill Forest in the North Pennines, home to the red squirrel and tree pine included in the wildlife. Wherever we stop, we find places where the children can run rampant in nature without constantly apologizing to other campers. We plan an itinerary, but change it daily according to the weather and the mood of the children. In April conditions, we could not safely reach any of these sites without the 4×4 (or at least we were begging the local farmers for a tractor tow).
Despite the rain, we all love being outdoors. In calmer conditions, the tent on the roof offers plenty of sleeping space, and next time we’ll be fitting Helen in too, once her Olympic rowing is done.
I’m also hoping we’ll have the chance to use the truck’s own cinema: the mirror rolls down on one side of the van and turns into an outdoor movie screen, so you can watch a movie under the stars.
The whole trip is great fun. It delivers on the wild in a way that camper vans and motors can’t, but it comes with comfort that leaves the canvas wanting.
Wild Camper Trucks sleep up to four people and start from £140 per day including insurance (minimum five nights)
