Answer: To even smaller islands.How many times do we give or receive advice to
'put some distance between yourself and that thing that is sure to drive you mad' or to
'get away from it all...'?
And what better way to do this than actually leaving the UK mainland and heading for one of its many and varied islands? We really don't have to travel thousands of miles to achieve the sense of distance that we need to refresh, re-balance and to achieve perspective. Each island offers its own culture, perceptibly different from either the culture of the mainland and that of other islands, so there is quite literally
a lifetime of exploration and discovery on our doorsteps.
For those of us who love to
get beneath the skin of a place, with each island comes fascinating layers of history, folklore and tradition in which to steep ourselves while we visit. For those of us who like to experience a place through our stomachs (
I am not going to use that word 'greedy', I'm just not) the local variations in ingredients and the production of food, often influenced by geography and climate, make for a gastronomical experience. For those who relish the sense of distance there is the sea, the glorious sea, to the north, the south, the east and west, an evocative and ever-changing canvas against which the island and its dwellers survive.
For all of these reasons Campsite Chatter has created its new
Island Camping specialism
Campsites on UK Islands. There is something deeply liberating and thoroughly exciting (even if the ferry does leave at 7:30am and you've travelled 11 hours overnight with small children and two dogs to reach it!) about watching the expanse of water between you and the mainland grow.
Perhaps it appeals to the explorer in us all, reminds us of our childhood games of leaving home for distant shores on voyages of discovery? There is real exhilaration in realising in a somewhat heady state that you have somehow stepped outside of life as you know it, given stress the slip if just for a week, stepped back in time even and placed yourself in a situation where you really can't do anything much other than feast your eyes, listen and
relax.
Campsite Chatter's Island Camping specialism has identified island campsites and touring grounds on a diverse cross-section of the many habitable UK islands there are to visit.
Perhaps you'd like to go just about as far West as you can in the UK without falling into the sea and visit the Isle of Tiree in Scotland?
Campsites on Tiree Visit temperate Tiree
(Hoorah for the Gulf Stream) for fantastic bird watching and nature watching experiences and for breath-taking sunsets.
Kid yourself that you have in fact spent a fortune on air fares and been responsible for the release of oodles of carbon in order to reach the white sandy shores of a Caribbean dream, when in fact you have travelled responsibly to the Scilly Isles, the beautiful Scillies just off the Cornish coast.
Campsites on the Scilly Isles And don't tell
anyone where you are going - you're likely to want to stay and you won't want to be found! Funnily enough wildflife seems to find island life more conducive to coping too and tends to thrive. The Scilly Isles are a case in point: more traditional farming methods and protection from development means that wild flowers cloak hillsides, cliffs and sand dunes, and whale and dolphin watching can be as simple as seeking out a good cliff top viewpoint with a half decent pair of binoculars and a flask of coffee.
Or perhaps you'd like to throw yourself into an island's festivities and celebrations and visit Alderney during Alderney Week (which in 2014 is from the 2-10th August). This year the inhabitants and visitors to this tiny, gem of a Channel Island are swashbuckling their way to Treasure Island.
Campsites on AlderneyLoved camping or caravanning on an island that we haven't yet covered? Email us and tell us about it:
[email protected] and we'll create a hotspot just for you and credit you on the page!
