Bike Touring with Kids- micro adventures with micro size people

We are off on Sunday for 2 nights of cycle camping.

Definitely apprehensive about logistics and what happens if something breaks.

How did it go?

My wife wants to go camping again, so, I'd give it 10/10. We were helped out by the weather; no rain and not too cold.

I've got the boy on tow with a follow me. The tow bar weighs 4kg which is a bit of a challenge on the hills (when added to 17kg of camping gear, 8kg of child's bike, and 25kg of child), but, it works nicely with a rack and panniers. It is also easy to detach the tow bike for independent adventures or to get it onto smaller trains.

We had a short ride to Victoria, then a 1h train to Plumpton station.

The BlackBerry wood campsite is 2 miles from the station via quiet roads and gravel tracks. You get a clearing to yourself to pitch your tents and there were plenty of other kids there to share and enjoy the just-the-right-amount-of-danger playground. (Zipwire, massive swing, tree trunk bridges over a stream...)

The campsite shop is open until 7pm and sells firewood and beer (plus other non-perishables) cutting down on what you need to pack.

All in all it was a superb introduction to cycle touring, and a great step towards bigger adventures.

Pack list:

Things I forgot! Coffee, washing up sponge
Bought on site: eggs, sausages, milk, beer, firewood, marshmallows

Breakfast: sausages, eggs, wheatabix
Dinner night 1: (chorizo onion and garlic pre-chopped), pasta, (pesto, pepper and salt) - fry chorizo mix, cook pasta, mix in pesto.
Dinner night 2: udon, eggs, sweetcorn -boil water add everything
Desert both nights: hot chocolate

GSI pinnacle 1p and 2p cook kits
Kovea spider stove and Amazon windshield
Gas canister
Wooden spoon, leatherman knife
3 titanium sporks

Lanshan 1p and 2p tents plus carbon poles
Naturehike sleeping bags
3 small tarps and some extra lines and pegs
Decathlon silk bag liners
Exped lite sleeping mats

Petzl head torches + lamp kits
Anker cache batteries

Uno
Pack of cards
Kids activity book
Phone with BBC school radio downloads
Kids headphones
Book

1 change of clothes p/p
Wash kit