During my (0) CHILDHOOD (CHILD), my 1EARLY experience of the great outdoors was 2FORGET: a wonderful weekend camping with my fellow cub scouts. It must have been on the West coast. My parents always took us on holidays to 3SEA hotels, which were fun but very regimented and, frankly speaking, quite 4MONOTONY.
That scout camp provided my first experience of sleeping in a tent, staying up long into the evening with a campfire and a pan full of sausages for supper, and waking at dawn to the sound of birdsong. During this trip I developed a taste for the great outdoors, something which I have never 5LOSE.
As a 6YOUNG I became an amateur naturalist, wandering ever further into the local countryside to look for signs of 7WILD. I can remember my delight when I discovered my first fox hole in a wooded area next to a field a few miles from my home.
My own 8CHILD have been camping many times, and I treasure photos of them watching their first sunset from the doorway of our tent, but I often wonder if they will hanker after hotel holidays by the seaside instead.