Adventures at Sunninglye Farm

A few weeks ago, boyfriend and I went on a glamping adventure with Cat and Steven at a farm near Royal Tunbridge Wells. We'd been looking forward to it for absolutely ages, and we'd gotten the glamping experience at a total bargain off Groupon. We knew that since it was October the weather would probably be a bit crap, but we pulled on our hiking boots, picked up our rucksacks and prepared for an awesome weekend!

All of us took Friday afternoon off, and we met on the train to Tunbridge Wells. We got there around 1.30 in the afternoon, and immediately set off to find a pub for lunch. Turns out that Tunbridge is such a cute little town with loads of random little town shops, but the train station is at the bottom of a massive hill that we had to climb in order to find a Wetherspoons. We did find one eventually though, and it is up there as one of my top Wetherspoons. We found it inside a former theatre, and as you can see from the photos below, it's a massive place and the owners have retained all the theatre's seats, stage and decor. So nice to find a place with all the trimmings (and the food wasn't bad either!).

My kinda pub!!

Happy pre-glamping lunch!!

After we scoffed down our food, we found a Sainsburys to pick up some necessities for the next couple of days. We picked up food of course, and a shambolic amount of alcohol, and then piled into a taxi for Sunningle Farm, where our glamping experience awaited!!

Ten minutes later we emerged into sunshine on the farm, and were greeted by numerous very excited dogs and a rather amused old lady. Why amused, you ask? Well, it turns out these glamping experiences are usually aimed towards families with their little kids, and we weren't exactly their typical customers. I'm not sure exactly how excited she was about all the clinking coming from our shopping bags either. But nevertheless she gave us a tour on the way to our tent (Hawthorn tent, located right at the end of the campsite to keep the kids away from us, and no doubt us away from the kids!). It was a bit of a trek across the horse and donkey field, but we were provided with a wheelbarrow so boyfriend very kindly wheeled most of our shopping across to the tent. And then we got there, and were so pleased!!

Although I took this picture off the brochure, this is EXACTLY what our tent looked like. Just imagine a few bottles of gin and beer on the table :D

For those of you who have never been glamping, or never even heard of glamping before, here is a brief description: glamorous camping!! All the fun parts of camping: the tent, the fire, the outdoors, but with a few conveniences to make it survivable without waking up with bugs in your hair and going to the loo behind a tree. Our tent was huge, with running water and a toilet (albeit without lights and very old fashioned). There weren't any rooms per say, but there was a bunk bed area, a double bed area and a cubby hole bed (so jealous that Cat and Steven got to sleep in there!). There was a little kitchen with loads of cooking stuff and crockery and cutlery, plus a ginormous kettle! Also a dining table and a sofa. But of course, no electricity, no internet, no heating, etc etc. My kinda camping!

First thing to do was get all the goods in the ice box, make the beds and get the wood burner going. The latter was surprisingly difficult to do, but we succeeded everytime (eventually)!! The boys went off to gather firewood and later Cat and I went to look at the piglets. They were so cute and snuffly, and all they did was eat and fight (although mostly eat). One was veeery interested in my shoelaces.

Evening was coming on fast and so were the clouds. We returned to the tent to get the wood burner going properly, as we needed to cook our dinner on it. We also served up some gin and tonics (the glamorous way to camp, dahling) and played a few rounds of our new favourite game: Beans. It was totes the game of the weekend - kudos to Steven for finding it.

It took about four hours to cook, but eventually we had an amazing dinner of beef stew and buttery potatoes, fresh off the fire. Drinks kept flowing and we went to sleep in some surprisingly comfy beds, excited for the morning ahead.

Dinner on the stove, farmer style!!

From a different point of view

Considering it rained most of the night before, the Saturday was a beautiful day and I woke up bright and early(-ish) to get the wood burner going. It was a pretty relaxed morning, with much lying abed and reading on the sofa. The kids visiting the farm got to have a ride on a tractor, and I was super jealous that I missed that. Although I suspect the farmers were glad not to have us weird adults along.

We got a lovely breakfast together, and the highlight was definitely the scrambled eggs with the fresh from the chicken coop eggs. I never realised how much you can taste the difference! Once we had cleaned up (thank god for fresh running water), we set off on a hike to Pembury, a little town just North of the campsite. The farmers had recommended going there as it wasn't too far away and we could hike across country rather than on the roads to get there.

Cat, giving us a pose

So we hiked, and we hiked, and we hiked some more. You can tell I'm not a big walker. If I remember correctly, it took us about an hour and a half to get there, although we did get pretty lost walking across the fields at one point. I suspect we just failed at finding the correct hiker's path to get there.

Considering it was October, it was a ridiculously hot day, not aided by the uphill climbing and the excessive layers of  clothing we were wearing. I was so happy when we arrived in Pembury and found the Camden Arms, which is such a pretty pub. Hell, I think all the pubs in this area are quite pretty!! Somehow, even in a rural village in South England, Cat and Steven managed to find a Scottish bartender, which I think was quite the feat. Boyfriend and I were ready to sit down and enjoy a few quiet pints, especially our all that strenuous activity, but the others were keen to set off again, so we decided to go our separate ways and meet up back at camp later.

A horsey protecting its young

Well I can't speak for the others, but I had a marvellous afternoon, complete with a few pints and a shared baked camembert with boyfriend as a lunch-like snackette. Absolutely fabulous, and we managed to miss the brief torrential downpour! But eventually we had to set off back to camp and *shock horror* we managed to get pretty lost!! We were on the verge off heading back to the village and calling a taxi when we managed to find the right trail, and then we were in a pretty major hurry to get back before it got completely dark! We made it....just. Cat and Steven were getting pretty worried by the time we arrived back at camp, and the farmers were convinced we'd left because the group had fallen out!!

Countryside!!

Anyway, we made it back in one piece, and were pleased to see that C&S had gotten the wood burner going and bought some ferociously strong cider from the farm's honesty kitchen. It was sooo tasty!! And even better, it wasn't raining so we managed to get the BBQ (wood burning of course) going, and had the most delicious sausage and burger BBQ for dinner. Cat and I then became a bit over-enthusiastic about roasting marshmallows on the fire, and ended up with sticky marshmallow all over our faces. My favourite part of camping!!

Our front yard :D

The best part of the glamping was sitting around the table playing beans for the rest of the night, and watching Cat overindulge on the cider. Actually, given it's strength, it wasn't a case of overindulging (she only had a couple of small glasses), but it totally did the job! The result was an even better night than the first one!!

The next morning dawned all too soon, and C&S were off on another hike. Boyfriend and I decided to do a walking tour of the farm and see the animals, then we packed up all our stuff and set off for the closest train station, which is Frant train station. Now here's a bit of trivia for you: Frant train station is not actually in the town of Frant, but is actually a mile or so away in another village called Bells Yew Green. All very confusing of course, but what in England is not?

Full after dinner

We had agreed to meet at a pub called the Brecknock Arms, which actually turned out to be a delightful place that I will reccommend anytime, and will certainly go visit next time I want a Sunday lunch in  the country. It was gorgeous, light and airy, with a fireplace, dogs allowed and brilliant barstaff. My opinion is not at all coloured by the fact that they gave me a free Strongbow, which they had happened to pour by accident and had no use for. Not at all.

It was too warm to light the fire yet

As you can see from the menu pictured below, they had plenty of good food on offer, and I absolutely do not regret my choice of Lamb Sunday lunch. The vegetarian option (brie, mushroom and walnut wellington) actually sounded really good too, so boyfriend ordered that and we shared. Yum!! What a brilliant ending to a fantastic weekend!

Lunch at the Brecknock Arms