Camping

Since the start of summer there has been talk between a few friends of going camping on a weekend to get away from the city and relax in the rural idyll.

This culminated last weekend when we rose early(ish) on Saturday morning, packed the car and set off across the province to Fermanagh. Namely the Share Centre.

The last time I was here was when I was in the Cub Scouts. If memory serves, this would have been the late 80's and I don't recall much except for being on a sailing sailing vessel, possibly banana boating and camping on one of the islands on lake Erne and having quite an uncomfortable night.

Thanks to the power of modern conveniences, this was going to be far from uncomfortable. Forget cramped tents, waking in the middle of the night to find you've been lying on a rock and requiring a chiropractor, this is the 21st century.

After selling our camping gear in New Zealand and giving away most of our gear before we left, we were buying all our gear from scratch which affords the opportunity of updating your equipment.

Out with the old, in with the 4 man tent with separate living room, battery-powered inflatable bed, table, chairs and everything but the kitchen sink. This is living rough.

As suggested, the Share Centre is situated beside the lower lough Erne in quite picturesque surroundings and there are plenty of activities to undertake besides relaxing. The centre offers, canoeing, kayaking, sailing and banana boating although for some reason you have to be under 16 to banana boat which we were quite dismayed about and booked ourselves in for canoeing on Sunday morning.

Saturday afternoon was a relaxed affair; relaxing, chatting, drinking a few beers, playing poker and throwing a frisbee about. Everything that camping should be except for the near constant drizzle of rain.

Sunday morning was altogether different and in between showers, it was glorious and warm. Canoeing, especially using Canadian canoes, is not our favourite water sport. We prefer the more controlling and personal kayak but unfortunately there was no session organised for that morning and unlike NZ, you need to have a certificate to take out a kayak by yourself which is faintly ridiculous since a canoe is more precarious in my opinion.

We took some time rowing against the current to get to the island where I had camped all those years ago but our timing was impeccable as we were just approaching the shelter it provided when a shower struck.

After a few minutes, the rain was replaced with blue skies and sunshine and we made our way back to base.

We had a great weekend and intend to go back next month for a longer time and explore more of the surrounding area.