UKH

Thinking of heading into the Pentlands soon to do a wee overnight with my son - his first camping trip.

Any suggestions - preferably not to far a walk in (or walk out if it all goes pear shaped)!

Also any handy pointers on camping with kids - I've already cut a cheap roll mat down to size for him and I'm going to take some felt tips for roll mat art work.

In reply to Stoo Irvin:
There are lots of fun things you can do involving camp food like bannock bread and doughnuts.

Take a set of snap cards (especially handy if it rains)

Get a small pocket kite to fly with him (if you get a decent sized one, you can suspend a gopro from it...)

if i think of anything else ill post it

Hope you guys have a great time

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

The great thing about kids is that they just adapt to what's going on around them.

Treasure hunts are very popular, its amazing how often you can find a bag of chocolate buttons or similar lurking in the highlands around a wild camp . A map to help find them need bear no resemblance to reality either! X marks the spot.

Enjoy, I hope you get some special memories.

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

Sounds great. Probably I would suggest taking him several changes of clothes in case he gets wet. And baby wipes. Clean up anything with baby wipes.

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

You might consider an out of the way spot on the East Lothian coast as an alternative to the Pentlands. I'm sure there are good spots in the hills but I'm struggling to think of any that beat the shoreline for convenient access and things near at hand that'll interest a 3-yr-old...

enjoy!

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

A few months back I took my 2.5 years old daughter camping (her second time, but first time solo just the 2 of us) but I have decided that the intro should be at a campsite rather than wild camping - especially as she was new to potty training. I wrote a whole post about it:
http://www.outdoorsfather.com/2016/06/first-solo-camping-toddler-father-mis...

In any case, I'd recommend going in the afternoon and being ready for a later bed time than usual, bringing their favourite and spoiling food for breakfast (cold home made pizza for us) and be ready to carry it all, including your kid.

Best of luck!

In reply to Gilad N:

Love your camping post, it has some really good tips. I think a well planned first camping trip can be the difference between whether your kids love it or hate it. Well done, and I hope you have many more.

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

A success by all means. Headed out to east lothian, inland at Whiteadder Reservoir.

Plan A camp spot was to exposed as it was very windy. It took us 45 min to walk in together, and 15 with him on my shoulders to get back. Plan B was closer to road and more sheltered. Once were had pitched and had dinner we went on a mission to find sticks to beef up light weight pegs. Glad I Did as wind was strong. It kept me up but here slept through!

Next mission... a bothy!

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

Sounds great.

I've had mine camping, and wild camping now but they have only visited bothys during the day, as part of a bike ride to have a snack in - but both uber keen to stay the night in a bothy - my only concern is that in bothies that are close enough for bairns to get to there can be other guests who may not be as tolerant to kids so be prepared to take a tent as well as a back up

In reply to Stoo Irvin:

Make a "Standard" sleeping bag into a kid friendly sleeping bag by tying a belt about 3/4 of the way down the bag. This will stop the kid slipping down into the depths of the bag in their sleep and getting scared when they wake up!