[Don't forget to enter my giveaway here to win the Sleek Paraguaya Palette and some secret goodies!] So, last week I went on holiday. A glamping holiday.
Glamourous + Camping = GLAMPING
Myself and a group of lovely friends (Tash, Lauren, Dot and Nikki) headed across to Berridon Farm in Bradworthy in Devon where we stayed in a luxury tent, played A LOT of Pictionary, learned how to cook on a wood burning stove (here's a little hint for you, cooking anything on a wood burning stove takes a LONG TIME. You want a cup of tea? You're going to be waiting about two hours), met a seriously badass goat and saw literally THOUSANDS of gnomes, but more on that later.
Basically, glamping, as you've probably guessed, is a much fancier form of camping. You stay in a tent, but it has a proper floor, beds, running water and a toilet. There's no electricty, so you do have to go right back to basics when it comes to entertainment (board games are a must), and with no lights apart from candles and torches, it gets seriously bloody dark at night, but it's A LOT of fun.
There was an episode of TOWIE where some of the gang went 'glamping', however, apart from them having a pink floral tent, I don't really understand what made it 'glam'. At one point Joey Essex and Harry tried to make a toilet in the ground by hitting it with a stick. I don't care how you look at it, that is just not glam.
This isn't glamping
THIS is glamping;
On arrival at Berridon, Farmer Dave warned us about Barclay, a "rogue goat" in the field. He proved to be something of a handful...
Our tent.
Inside the tent. Fancy! You can just about make out the door to the loo (on the left), then, at the back of the tent (through the sort of doorway bit in the middle) there was two "bedroom" areas - one with bunk beds, one with a double and then on the right you can see my cupboard bed!
Cupboard bed! It was VERY cozy.
Told you he was troublesome. He climbed onto the chicken coop and it broke. He looked guilty for about five minutes and then just climbed back on. The little scamp.
Pigs! No idea what their actual names were, but Lauren christened them Alfred and Hitchcock. Just because.
One of the first things we spotted on our way to Berridon Farm was a sign that read "Gnome Reserve". We knew that we couldn't leave Devon without finding out exactly what a "Gnome Reserve" was, so on our last day, we took a little trip. Oh, the things we saw...
We discovered that a "Gnome Reserve" is a place where there are more gnomes than you can possibly imagine. And they're all doing different activities. Here, you can see some gnomes who are doing a classic gnome activity; fishing. We also saw gnomes at the fair, gnomes in planes, gnomes at the beach and gnomes on the toilet. Really though.
Wearing our obligatory (fabulous) gnome hats. From left to right, Tash, Lauren, Me, Dot and Nikki.
Apparently, Gnomes drink "Blue Gnome" and their rockets fly from "GNASA". It's all about the little details.
I don't think I can emphasise enough just how many gnomes there actually were. The woman who ran the Reserve said that on the last count she had over two thousand. TWO THOUSAND GNOMES. That's a lot of gnomes.
After the Gnome Reserve, we went to Westward Ho! which is the only place in the UK that has an exclamation mark in its name. That's pretty special. It was lovely and beachy.
The whole gang at Westward Ho!
So that's glamping. If you fancy spending a few days getting away from civilization, but don't want to sleep in a cold, cramped tent, then I thoroughly recommend it! The company we used was called
Featherdown Farms - they have loads of glamping locations across the UK, but I picked Devon because I've never been before and like beaches.
Have you ever been glamping? Would you consider it? How do you feel about gnomes?
