An amazing time was had by all this holiday at our Wild Spring Camp. Right on the Camel estuary with some of the best views in the land. Someone also remembered to order awesome weather so we were very happy.
Setting up camp the day before everyone arrived was very wet but that's o.k. we're used to getting wet and we later had good weather and a wild camp washing line.
With nothing but a compost loo, all meals were camp-fired and and all water fetched Jack and Jill stylee. We dined well on campfire classics, pancakes, eggy bread, bacon, bolognese and mexican soup and nachos as well as hot chocolate and s'mores-obviously! When asked at the end of camp what they enjoyed most, breakfast was a favourite thing for many of the group and having a fire in the morning when they woke up was a highlight. I wouldn't have expected a morning fire to be a favourite element of camp, what a lovely reassuringly simple thing, that makes me happy!
We were fortunate enough to work with Jay and Rhoda from Natures Course. They taught us about foraging and tracking. Here is Rhoda telling us that how feathers are pulled out tells you what animal did it! We loved their day, they were great. They took us on a barefoot walk, played nature awareness games with us and we made a hawthorn salad for lunch. We learned such a lot from them. They thought the knowledge level of the group was impressive, which was great feedback. Jay and Rhoda have such a lovely calm and relaxed approach which was very refreshing for our usually very bouncy group! We hope we can work with Nature's Course again.
Camp gave us all a chance to be outside in the way that we wanted, freedom and exploration with no cap on it for 3 days! What treasure! As a result we were all much more able to observe and take part in activity or learning that may normally be too challenging if we were in our usual 3 hour session.
Three hours each week is amazing and incredibly beneficial to us all socially, and in terms of understanding the woods and what is around us. It only really scratches the surface though. In three days each child had enough time to release their wiggles, be bouncy, excited and zingy and then we were left with something else, a different state of mind and being. This calmer state of mind and altered attitude meant we were all ready to experience the wonderful place we were camped, in a different way. Our interactions calmed also and there was more positive group play and more contented alone times.
Not only is time out in natural environment beneficial but I conclude that extended time in a natural environment is nourishing in the most unexpected ways.