We went camping again this weekend to prepare, train and just ready ourselves for our 3 week trip through Spain and Portugal. Since we intend to camp pretty much every night we’re traveling, we know that we need to get everything down to an exact science so set-up, take down and everything in between goes as smoothly as possible.
This time around we intended to be much better prepared. We packed the grill, plenty of food and drinks and were leaving nothing to chance. Of course we did forget a few small things like our gas camping stove but since we had the grill with us, we still managed just fine.
We arrived at the campsite during the “quiet period” and since there was still an hour to go, we decided to head into town (about 10 minutes by foot or 3 by car – considerably better than last time) to get some butter to cook with (yeah, so our packing list wasn’t totally perfect) and a 6-pack of beer and Sprite. Why this combo of beer and Sprite you’re thinking? Didn’t I say we had plenty of everything with us already? Well we did have just about everything but we didn’t bring beer and since Germany was playing Sweden in the World Cup and it was an incredibly hot afternoon, we decided to have something refreshing to drink with just a tiny kick to it. We wanted to go for Weissbier and Sprite but didn’t have the right glasses (called a Russ – or Russian)…so we settled for a Radler instead (pils & Sprite combo).
When we were finally allowed into the grounds, everything went according to plan. We were able to set up the tent in 15 minutes versus 20 or more during our first attempt. We set up a dog run, had our chairs ready, etc. etc. All in all it was a very nice campsite. We had a fresh water tap right beside us, they offer W-LAN for those internet junkies like ourselves and even have a small pond (with some huge fish in it) and a place to lay out. Those feeling adventurous can even go to the nude area where they have lounge chairs and tall hedges which keep out leering stares in both directions lol.
The shade at this site was not as plentiful as the last so we were keeping a constant eye on Ayla. For the most part, she laid under the truck and slept…but eventually I had the idea that she could drink from the water faucet next to us which has ice cold water coming from it. Needless to say, she totally loved that and I thought she might drown herself in there at one point. She didn’t want the water all over here but ended up with a rather wet head at the end of it all anyway. We would have loved to take her into the pond but unfortunately they had a sign posted that no dogs were allowed…so I guess that introduction will have to wait until a later date.
While we were taking a walk with Ayla to explore the rest of the camp grounds, we noticed a small creek running through the property and hoped we might be able to let her go in there. But the water was dammed up and quite stagnant so we were not about to get involved with another washing ordeal there. But Ayla still managed to learn something new in the process. At the furthest point of the creek, there were two logs laying across it to form a little bridge. Each log was about a foot across but still pretty much in their natural form. So hubbers headed across them first and Ayla jumped up there like she’d crossed things like this a million times before. She was a bit distracted and alarmed once we reached the middle and she noticed that the logs weren’t laying on the ground anymore but when hubby called her, she just continued on. We didn’t intend to make her try it again so soon but the other side of the creek hadn’t been mowed in a while and the grass was about waist high. There aren’t poisonous snakes in Germany (or so I’m told) but there’s no telling what else lurks there…and since Ayla is already a tick magnet, we decided to skip that adventure. So back across the log we went. This time she was a little more nervous at first and I accidentally tapped the back of her foot which sent her shooting across the logs but she still did incredibly well in our opinion. Once again, she far surpassed our expectations and we started thinking once again that perhaps making her into a Search & Rescue dog (SAR) would be worthwhile…unfortunately you have to devote about 12 hours a week to the program and we’re not sure that either of us has that sort of time to spare. Guess we’ll have to just do more geocaching and adventure hiking on our own 😉
We’ve already decided we’ll be going back there at least one more time before our trip. The World Rally Championships are held about 2 km (1 mile) from there and it’s the “official” campground of the teams and so on so we’ve already booked our spot. We even went and scoped out all the locations before we left so we could get the best one lol. We chose a pitch it a corner which backs the “main” road (mostly only traffic to the campground which isn’t much) and another small path. It is protected almost completely by hedges (one of the very nice features of this campground) and rather large so we think it will be just perfect for us, allowing us plenty of space for the tent, Defender, puppers and anything else we’ll need. We’re really looking forward to that weekend already which is Aug 10-13.
We are also thinking that the last weekend in July we may be back to that site again because we want to do a test run of two campsites in two nights since we’ll be moving from place to place a lot in Spain. We just want to make sure that we are familiar enough with our set up & take down and can plan a bit of logistics with clean up after dinner and so on. Perhaps we’re being a bit anal compulsive about all this but when you’re living out of your car for 3 weeks, it’s better to be over prepared than under.
