OUR FIRST CAMPING TRIP GOES OFF WITHOUT A HITCH

So with our New Years Resolution in place, it was now time to put our money where our resoltion was and Eric and I picked the week-end of Valentines for our first trip.  I’m a person who wants to always try different places and rarely go back to a place where I have been before.  BUT with that said, after running through all the possible places we could camp for one night, our first night to try the tent, make sure we wouldn’t kill each other, that Eric could survive a night in a tent (and with me) we decided to camp somewhere that had a back up plan, should the tent not co-operate, bad weather, hippo attack etc……. and so I thought it would be good to go back to a place where I was taken, literally 12 months previously when I did an overnight camping trip with a bunch of friends.  It had a view of the lake, toilets, showers and a restaurant.  It was the perfect location, it was Camp Carnelly’s.

Carnelley’s is a tranquil campsite with beautiful bushy grounds. The monkeys swing from the trees and the hippos graze on the pier. Over the years Camp Carnelley’s has become one of the most famous locations on Lake Naivasha.  We are not just a campsite, we have it all from accommodation, “Lazybones” bar and restaurant, onsite activities and activities located right beside our camp.  From camping to luxury accommodation and everything in between. With the picturesque Lake Naivasha literally on your door step, every minute you spend with us you will fondly remember for a lifetime.  We offer accommodation for every budget, need and requirements. Don’t forget Camp Carnelley’s is home to “Lazybones” Bar and Restaurant known to produce some of the best food in Naivasha.

I hopped onto their website to make a booking for the camp, not sure if there would be other Valentine lovers that would have the same idea as to just turn up to find no room at the camp inn.  So I sent an online request and received a reply within 10 minutes.  We were booked. 

As this was our first camp, we decided to take some stress off ourselves and not take the cooking side of things, besides it was valentines, so we would splurge ourselves for the week-end and take on the food element on the next camp trip.  So no eskies full of food, ice etc to worry about basically it was just the tent, bedding, chairs and table.  I would pull things out during the week that had to be taken with us and Eric had to ask more than once how long were we going for?  And like any holiday, whether you go for one night or five, there is still the bare minimum that is required.  I’m a list and prepared kind of gal, so I had ‘camping’ items strewn through the house ready for packing on Saturday morning.

My standard of camping sits in between camping and glamping.  I had my Ipad packed, which contained the music, I had my Bose travel speaker charged and packed, we had an external charger packed (for phones) and to make our sleeping arrangement SUPER comfy we had a double blow up matress and a double matress camping frame that we were going to sleep on.  The day before departure, Eric went and bought a pump to only check it at 9pm at night that the connection does not fit the airbed’s socket.  This was not a problem according to Eric, as there are plenty of petrol stations and tyre fundi’s, we would just get one of them to pump it up for us when we got to Naivasha and he would tie it to the roof of the car to get the inflated matress back to camp.  I was not sure how it was all going to work, but we figured we could sort something out when we got out there tomorrow. 

On a good day, with traffic withstanding, to Naivasha it is around 1.5 hour drive from Ruaka.  We had a pretty good run and arrived just after 1pm.  We checked in at the hut on our way in and were told to to just get set up and we could pay later on.  Sounded good to us, so we drove in and there were around 10 other people already set up, and some other people still setting up, so we werent the last to arrive.  I just had an image of a National Lampoons kind of debarcle setting up and providing entertainment for the other campers as we struggled.  Oh well I guess that is part of the fun as long as you don’t kill each other in the process.  Map reading for directions and tent errecting, two things to test a marriage at any time!!!!!  We found a spot that faced directly onto the lake.  Having been here before, we saw a HIPPO last year when we camped, but there is an electric fencce that is turned on at night time so the residents of the lake don’t come to close for a visit.  Well, only a few weeks before, somehow a hippo got through the fence and had a great ol time walking around the camp, scary the begeezus out of the guests, so they have now dug a meter wide trench in front of the electric fence, so there was going to be no hippo knocking on our front door tonight, and I figured even if he did, we don’t have to let him in right?

So we parked and this was I think the test of the weekend….. the tent errection.
It was a new tent and when we pulled it out of the car, it was still in it’s box that we bought it in.  We hadnt even bothered to take it out of the box!  The upside, we used the box as firewood.  The first thing I read when we unzipped the tent bag was the advice to make sure you check that you have all the tent components before heading out to camp for the first time!  Well we just don’t have the space for that where we live, actually the tent is around the same size as our living room back home, so we were just hoping that all the pieces were going to be there.  We checked them all of, when I noticed we were missing all the corner connectors.  Oh heck.  So before panicking we unrolled the tent to see if there was a missing bag of stuff when we saw the connectors are permanetly connected to the tent. PHEW.   I have camped around 20 weeks in total in Africa.  I’m not a camp wizard, but I do know some of the 101 basic rules of setting up a tent.  After my first 5 minutes of imput, the tent master aka my husband, got the instructions and within 20 minutes we had our little house for the night errected, sturdy and all in one piece!!!!!

I was actually dumbfounded that it could be that easy.  It wasn’t a small tent, it was a 6 person sleeper and has a ‘living room’, so to have it up and completed with a husband and wife still smiling was a great acomplishement.  It was going to be a good week-end!  The one drawback was after setting up the double matress frame, we knew that we couldn’t sleep on the frame without some form of mattress.  As we were all set up and still in high spirits, we figured we had bought enough blankets that we would sleep on the blow up matress with no air (the grass was super soft) and used the blankets we had.  We were both happy with this and the frame went back in the car.  It was going to be interesting to see if the reality of sleeping on the ground was going to be what we expected. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent in camp chairs, overlooking Lake Naivasha, some tunes playing, drinks in hand and snacks on our fabulous camp table.  We lunched at the restaurant and I have to say I had the BEST nachos I have EVER eaten and then back to camp to light a fire and take in the serenity.  Eric was getting a good laugh watching all the mzungus trying to light their fires when he just waltzed in and had ours cackling within 5 minutes.  I think I may have found a good camping partner after all!!!!  We were back at the restauarnt for dinner and then back to our camp fire and a bottle of champagne and a block of chocolate for dessert before turning in around 10pm.  It was starting to get a little chilly, so we decided to sit in our ‘living room’ compartment for the last of our drinks before heading to bed around 11pm.

                       

 

We were okay until 3am. 

I woke first to the grunt of a hippo.  A hippo that sound not to far away from our tent.  I couldn’t help myself and I had to have a bo-peep to see if I could see him, but alas, unzipping the fly, I couldn’t see anything.  Shame and as we settled back in, I realised just how flipping COLD it was and I was sleeping with my beanie on, a jacket and socks on my feet, and I was still COLD.  We finally drifted off to sleep to the sound of hippos in the not so far distance and even though it was freezing, I am pretty sure I had a smile from ear to ear.  There has to be something said for achieving a goal that you put in place, whether it be financial, fitness or something as ordinary as having a successful camp for the first time.  This will be the first of many camps as I am happy to report that Eric enjoyed his first camping experience and we are already planning the next one.