To camp or not to camp ......

Most people with any knowledge of dementia will tell you that those affected by it are better off at home in familiar surroundings but we have always gone on holiday and often to somewhere just slightly unusual.  Those of you who are following this story will have read about Osea Island off the coast of Essex; Morroch Bay on the west coast of Scotland; Comino, the rock in the Mediterranean; the citadel in Corsica etc.  There were lots of amazing holidays in quirky destinations and the trip to Lanzarote in May made me realise that Ash is at home with travelling.  He can cope with being out of routine because for him being on holiday is part of our routine.  However we live in a slightly altered world nowadays and whereas I would normally have our next holiday booked these aren't normal times and I can no longer plan anything too far in advance.  However I've been observing and thinking ever since we got home in May and I think I have an idea.  When Jake was little we took off every summer for a three week camping trip to France.  I have a horror of being stuck somewhere awful and this was well before Trip Advisor was even thought of so I never booked.  We just took off in a general direction and kept going until we found somewhere nice.  This strategy took us to a lakeside in Lot et Garonne, the Crozon Peninsula in Brittany, the edge of the Mediterranean on the French Riviera, Ile D'Oleron off the coast of Brittany (when Ash refused to pay to go over the bridge to Ile de Re) and many other beautiful places.  He drove and we wandered along coastlines, made our way carefully down scary mountain roads, picnicked at the side of turquoise lakes and left the real world at home.  Jake was squashed in the back of whichever car we had at the time along with bags of clothes, sleeping bags and other equipment and we just traveled until we found somewhere we liked the look of.  Anyway I have considered all of this and think I can do a close proximity.  I have found an island off the coast of Wales which is a campsite and nothing but a campsite.  To get to it you drive across a causeway at low tide and when you get there you pitch your tent (almost) wherever you want.  How cool does that sound?  I've figured that if we go in September I won't need to book but I'll ring beforehand and explain our situation so that we can go for a couple of nights then, if it doesn't work out, we can come home.  If it does we can stay longer, I can just take it one day at a time and we can pack up if/when it stops being fun.  On top of that we can take the dog.  When we stayed on Osea Island the biggest decision of every day was whether to go clockwise or anti clockwise around the island on our daily walks.  I can see that happening all over again.  Anyway, just to make sure I'm planning an overnight camp-out in the garden in the next couple of weeks to see how we go with putting the tent up and making morning tea.  If that goes well I'll get my head around the rest of it.  Watch this space.

PS, don't forget to join the new facebook group  www.facebook.com/groups/1990374111022679/ so that you can post about your own positive experiences and pass on your top tips.