How hard is it to wild camp with a toddler ?

Can you take an under 2 wild camping ?
What if they don’t sleep ?
Is it safe ?
What do we need ?

Well hopefully we can answer some of these questions for you ……….
Before Coben was born we had done a few wild camping trips and Marc has done a quite a few more since Coben arrived but we knew it would be a great experience for all 3 of us to do it. We thought about doing one on Cobens 2nd birthday that would make an exciting memory ! However with the few weeks of good weather we were having in May and a Bank Holiday weekend which we hadn’t any plans for, we decided at the last minute to go on our first family wild camp.

Where to go was the first decision to be made. Three things that we took into consideration were ….
– The area had to be familiar to us,
-The van needed to be fairly close and parked safe,
– the walk wanted to be short and easy going.

So with these things in mind we decided on an area in Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales where we had wild camped before, it was around a 2.5km walk from the van and the parking was safe.
Sunday morning came but sadly wasn’t the weather we had been expecting instead of the glorious sunshine we had had during the last few days it was much cooler and very overcast with a threat of rain. Not ones to be deterred easily we packed the van with our gear and we set off. We left around dinnertime and incorporated a walk on the way at Grimwith Reservoir of which you can find the details here.

After the walk we headed towards the area we were camping at but stopped on the way to make some tea in the van as we didn’t see any point in making things hard and taking food up to make on the hill and besides we had no room in the bags !!
After we ate our tea we drove down and parked the van up and got things ready to go on up into the valley.
The camping bag weighed around 12 kg and Katie was carrying this and I had Coben in his carrier on my back with some extra clothes and things in that too.

Once the bags were on we set off over the first stile not just a stile but a stone stile with a spring loaded gate just to make things even more awkward. In fact this was the first of many of these types of stiles we would have to tackle on our way up the valley.

After around 15 minutes walking and climbing through the stiles the camping spot came into view. By this point Coben had fallen asleep in his carrier so missed out on most of the short journey.
Standing at the foot of the hill we were going to have to tackle, we took a 2 minute breather before climbing the short steep climb. Katie got halfway up which was a great effort before having to leave the bag as it was just too big and heavy which wasn’t a problem for me to come back and retrieve once I had took Coben up to the top and left him with Katie.
With the camping gear at the top and Coben still asleep the clouds started to come in and it felt like it could rain, so Marc quickly unpacked the tent and proceeded to set it up. It was up in less than 9 minutes, sadly Coben missed out on his first tent set up and was still fast asleep

With the tent set up we then unpacked the sleeping matts and bags and made our room up for the night.
We moved Coben onto his mat but Katie had to lay with him for 45 mins as he was upset as we disturbed his sleep. Eventually Katie could leave him and sit out taking in the peace and views. Now it was hot chocolate time so out came the trusty jet boil and the drinks were made in a matter of minutes.

For us sitting in front of a tent looking over the hills listening to the curlews, oyster catchers and the odd owl brings us a lot of peace and we sat there in silence for quite a while not thinking about anything really just been in the moment and feeling very lucky. Better than sat in front of the T.V,
Once dusk started to creep in the temperature dropped so we ventured into the tent and got dobble out. Now dobble is a kind of modern version of snap that’s the only way I can describe it some friends introduced us to it on the lakes trip and it is pretty addictive, its a simple game and perfect for camping. Bedtime came around it was a cloudy night so no stargazing was done we got inside the sleeping bags and settled down for the night.

During the night it got much colder than anticipated so sleep was broken for both of us as we kept checking Coben was warm enough, but we needn’t have worried he was warm and cosy in his sleeping bag and seemed much warmer than us, however we do need to look into a better sleep system for him for any late summer and Autumn camps.

4 am …….and the light was coming in to the tent and woke Coben up and as much as we tried he wouldn’t go back to sleep we resorted to Pepper Pig on the phone to entertain him for a while something we don’t often do but we would be lying if we said we didn’t and it just helps with certain situations. It would be great if we could say we went out exploring the valley before all the animals woke up and watched foxes and owls going home from there night hunting but truth is we were tired very tired and stated in our sleeping bags as long as we could snuggling up with Coben in the middle watching his programmes.

The sun came out and warmed the tent very quickly inside and by 6 30 am it was too warm in the sleeping bags so we decided to get the jetboil out and make coffee.
We cheated here too or maybe its a camping hack we had the cappuccino all in one sachets for ease of making a hot drink and keeping things light and they are nice and they do the job so why not.

Some sneaky pan au chocolates were had before we packed up ensuring we left no trace and headed back to the van.
We got back to the van and there was a convenient bench where we decided to sit in the sun eating the overnight Oats we had prepared the night before another simple quick breakfast. People were slowly arriving to go walking and climbing so we made a move and drove to Hebden where we had planned the days walk which can be found  HERE.

So would we do it again  …
YEP already planning the date.

What would we do differently…
Nothing really keep to the same 3 rules stated above which were familiar,  easy walk, easy access to the van.

Will we change anything ?
YES  we are going to change the baby carrier and use the Sling so Katie can carry Coben and a small bag and I will carry the big bag or both have smaller bags and let Coben walk if possible with a bit of carrying this option will be best if the walks suitable.

All the gear we used is tried and tested and there’s nothing extravagant or expensive the tent we have owned for 7 years and used it a lot , the same goes for the sleeping bags, mats and bag. The only thing we bought was a matt for Coben we went for a self inflating matt as these are the safest for babies and toddlers.
We will be looking at a better quality sleeping bag for Coben when Autumn arrives and maybe a new tent as this one is showing signs of wear and tear but I mean it is 7 years old. Oh yes a tent with a black out bedroom is a must unless we want the 4 am wake ups.

We hope we have encouraged you to think about a wild camp with your kids and give you ideas, a wild camp doesn’t have to be far it could be just in your garden. As a first attempt take some friends also so you feel more relaxed and supported.
Please contact us if we can help in any way or you have any questions and we will do our best to help.

Thanks for reading and remember EXPLORE, ADVENTURE, GETOUTSIDE