OUTDOOR BLOGGERS WEEKEND 2018 | DALBY FOREST

One of the best things about the Outdoor Bloggers network is that we get to meet and get to know fellow bloggers at our annual camping weekends. Over the last few years we’ve had camping meet-ups in Edale, Llyn Gwynant in Snowdonia, Horton-in-Ribblesdale to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks, and Croston in Lancashire – and they are always lots of fun. This year we headed over to Dalby Forest in the North York Moors National Park.

Outdoor Bloggers.

The idea of our camping weekends is to bring like-minded people together to do something that we all love – spend time outdoors. Jenni, the Outdoor Bloggers co-organiser, and I arrange a few activities, and there is always plenty of free time to make the most of the weekend. This time around we organised an after hike, a writing workshop, a nature and photo walk, a campfire, and of course the Outdoor Bloggers after dinner quiz.

Hey little lamb!

Camping

We chose to base ourselves at Low Farm Campsite, Ellerburn, a one-field site on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. I love sites like this – basic but beautiful. The camping field is large and even with the advertised 30 pitches full I can see that there would be plenty of spaces to go around.

My camp set-up from the other side of the river.

The welcome from the owners was a very warm one and, after paying my £10 per night camping fee, I was allowed to drive onto the field and pick my camping spot. The river runs along the side of the field which makes for such a lovely setting and the ground is flat. The far end of the field was a bit boggy after a lot of rain earlier in the year, so we stayed close to the farm buildings. It was just us on the site so we could spread out as much as we liked, and of course we did!

I took my Vango Banshee as my base, which ended up as one of three on the site that weekend. It really is a popular little tent and for good reason!

Lowfarm Campsite.

The ablutions block is new and really quite nice. There’s just the one shower, which is coin operated, and in the ladies there are two toilet cubicles and two sinks with hot and cold running water. I’m told by my fellow bloggers that the men’s side doesn’t have hot water. There’s an outdoor sink for dish and clothes washing, a water standpipe and a variety of bins so you can separate your waste and be a good recycling citizen.

Camp kitchen…!

I have to say the site was a really fabulous base, I will definitely return with friends and/or family and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to explore this part of the country.

Exploring on Foot

You know that one of my favourite things to do is walk, and we did lots of it during our weekend. On the Saturday we headed over to the Hole of Horcum and on the Sunday we wandered into Dalby Forest to explore those areas on foot. For someone like me who is a little socially awkward and wouldn’t go and strike up conversation with someone new in a room, I find walking with a group is a great way to get to know other people. Use what you love to make friends, and all that! There are so many walks we could have chosen, but I think we did a pretty good job with the ones we did.

Outdoor bloggers in their natural habitat… 

Around the Campfire

One of the absolute best things about camping in groups is the opportunity to sit around a campfire at the end of the day and chat about all kinds of nonsense while eating dinner. I decided to go easy peasy on the eating front and just took my Jetboil Flash and a couple of Firepot by Outdoor Food pouches, along with a boot load of snacky bits and bobs to keep my belly happy. I loved sitting around the fire with the others – we chatted about our adventures, our hopes and dreams, our work and blogs, compared injuries and looked at scars, and even found sticks to toast marshmallows!!

Jenni lighting the campfire.

The perfect setting.

The biggest problem with this is that everything I took with me absolutely stank of campfire, but it’s okay, I’ve just received a parcel from Grangers and I’ve had my down jacket through the wash and will be following suit with my waterproof coat very (very) soon.

Ahhhh fire…

The Goodie Bag

A few days before the camping weekend I was in my spare room – which was also full of unpacked moving boxes as we’d (finally) got into our house just a few days before – making up goodie bags for the group of bloggers who came along to the weekend. I love a goodie bag when I attend events and I equally love working with brands to put together the Outdoor Bloggers event gift – it’s so much fun! Thanks so much to the brands who answered my call-out, you’re fab, we were very pleased to be able to introduce you to our members.

Can’t get a goodie bag and not to a flat lay!

If you want to have a look inside take a look at our thank you post over on the Outdoor Bloggers blog.

Join in Next Time

Jenni and I have lots of ideas for future Outdoor Bloggers events (if only we had the time to run them all!), so if you are a blogger who loves to get outside and then write about it, make sure you’re signed up over at OutdoorBloggers.co.uk to hear first about our 2019 camping weekend and anything else we organise. In the meantime, keep an eye on #OutdoorBloggers over on twitter – we run monthly twitter chats and our members use the hashtag to share their blog posts, questions and photos. Come on over, you might like it!

Can you tell we got Outdoor Food in our goodie bags?!