ANOTHER OF THOSE PERFECT LIFESTYLE HOLIDAY BLOGS

I'm a proper, second generation camper. Squeezing into an orange and brown frame tent with 5 other family members while it pours outside, or walking across a wind swept Welsh field with a toilet roll stuffed up your jumper are as much a part of what made me as my formal education. Some of the Lost Shapes designs even reflect this: Wander Wonder for the more lyrical, wholesome attitude to the outside world; Rain Likely and Another Nice Day for the weather obsession that camping causes, Mosquito inspired by French camping trips. I don't think I've ever gone a whole summer without spending at least some of it in a tent.

That'll be the sea views then.

BUT there are moments when you just think, 'Really? Am I really saying this is fun, or a holiday, or even anything other than horrible hard work? And who said we should come to Wales?'. That moment comes when the view looks something like this.
When the tent, fed up with being relentlessly bombarded by the wind, has just suddenly given up all efforts to be waterproof anywhere, rain is dripping onto the stove so the beef burgers are spitting hot fat into the stuffy tent, while the veggie burgers have burnt to the pan which then melts to the plastic bag when you try to bin them, and you've got period pains, and a weird whole body rash from staying in a hot tub for two hours (yeah, I know, middle class problem), and there are no clean plates cos nobody washed up lunch because it hasn't stopped raining long enough to go to the uncovered wind tunnel they call a wash up area... And it's shit. And you probably shout at someone then try not to cry. And you promise the family, who are finally permitted to say that it would be nicer if we were home, that we will find a better way to holiday.

Before I left for holiday, I thought I'd do a cool camping-style, perfect outdoorsy family review of the campsites we visited. Pictures of us looking tanned, wholesome and gorgeous by roaring campfires, blue seas and white-washed walls...
It just seemed a bit dishonest not to get some of this out first, for balance. There's just nothing perfect about either camping or my family.

Forget the pretty pictures from campfire cooking books - curry sauce and badly rinsed rice is where it's at.

More views.

Mornings in a launderette - it's what you're dreaming of when you plan the holiday.

Yep, that's a small tent inside the main tent, in a partially successful attempt to keep dry.

And then the sun comes out and everything is okay. 
Wales is probably more gorgeous than anywhere you could go abroad, and I can't believe I ever dissed it. Camping is the only way to really enjoy life. Sea, sand, hills, fires - these are the things that keep you grounded, connect you with reality. Reading by gas light, sleeping to the sound of rain, waking to sunshine, being outdoors the moment you get up, free range children - these are the feelings that no hotel can compete with. This is why we keep coming back for more.

This is probably what spoilt us for ever - the first five days spent at Tipi Corner near Carmarthen. 24 ft tipi with running water and log burner, secluded garden with veg and chickens, compost toilet and shower block and a hot tub, all for just you to use. Just perfect.

View onto Whitesands bay, from Carn that forms background to Lleithyr Farm where we stayed for a week. A more organised and groomed kind of a campsite than I'm used to, but in the right ways - includes reasonably priced shop, play park, decent facilities and even a large enclosure of mini donkeys and other micro animals. And out of the wind, which can start to feel very important...

Nothing beats sausages cooked on a beach with friends. Newport (Pembs) beach, looking onto the Parrog and the cliffs where I spent most of my childhood holidays. There are some very well situated campsites here, but they do know it enough to charge extra for location.

Driudston bay, Pembrokeshire. Gorgeous. We camped at Shortlands Farm just 20 minutes walk up from it, which I imagine would be idyllic if you didn't get such hideous weather. As with all the Pembrokeshire cliff top campsites with great sea views, it's really exposed to the wind. And you have to take your own loo roll, which annoys me out of all proportion.

Inspired to camp in Wales after all I've said? Here's where we stayed:
Shortlands Farm
Lleithyr Farm
Tipi Corner 
We'd also recommend Caerfai farm, especially as it's an organic farm which uses wind and solar power, but it was booked up this year.

Another Nice Day? Camping wasn't quite that messy - I got talked into a mud assault course...