Ok. We know. This is a big website – and the more we write the less clear it seems to become!
You can be forgiven, therefore, for not knowing exactly what is included in your stay and what you need to bring. So, here is our handy guide to what to pack and what to leave behind.
In The Domes
We provide…
Beds, (derrr…) made up with duvets and clean white linen. If the weather is predicted to be very cold during your stay, and you are of a fragile temperament, feel free to bring an extra blanket or a woolly hat to keep you warm in the middle of the night.
There is basic electric light, of one sort or another, in all the domes, but don’t bank on plug sockets. So don’t forget your torches… you will need them on dark nights.
A wood burner with a starter supply of dried, compressed eco logs. We also supply matches (or, soon, some nice branded lighters). If you run out, you can buy more from The Lodge – so don’t panic. The compressed logs are far and away the most cost efficient method for heating the domes. We strongly advise against buying logs from local garages and bringing them in. They are always soaking wet and provide very little heat, so are terrible value for money.
A private ensuite is attached to each of the domes. This has a sink with running water, a normal flushing loo with loo paper and either a shower or a bath. Water is heated by YOU in a wood fired boiler inside the ensuite which you need to light once a day for about an hour – unless you fancy giving your skin a well earned break too. We don’t provide towels because, when we did, people abused them!!
In the Kitchens
Each Dome has a kitchen area, next to it, which you organise with equipment from our kitchen baskets, which contain almost everything you could possibly want to cook with. So, all the pans and plates and crocs and pots you need as well as hurricane stoves for boiling water. There are culinders, cutters and cutlery, garlic presses, potato peelers and bottle openers. But no sharp knives, we keep them in the Main Lodge along with stove top coffee makers.
If you are cooking for yourselves and want to lighten the load in the car, all the supermarkets deliver, so just use The Lodge address with postcode GL167EN. or now the what3words reference gold.tune.plantings.
A rocket stove to cook on. This is a cast iron griddle, powered by sticks that you can collect in the forest – or you can buy kindling from us which works really well too. They are very efficient and cook brilliantly with very little mess. This contrasts with BBQs.
All the kitchens have electric lights, to a greater or lesser extent, but you will still need to bring a torch.
We don’t allow people to bring BBQs on site because they are the opposite. Not only are they a wasteful fire hazard, but they make a lot of mess and mainly just burn people’s food.
Organic fridge. Each kitchen has an evaporative box which keeps things cool and squirrel free. You can make it colder with icepacks from the small freezer below the sinks in the washing up area or, if you want to actually cool drinks down you will need to bring you own freezer box and packs of ice.
Washing up area.
This is located in one corner of the site, so there are washing up bowls to carry things in and dishwashing liquid at the sinks. But no tea towels!
Rubbish and Recycling.
We used to have a line of 6 recycling bins but the local tip now splits everything into 46 different categories. So, reluctantly, we have decided we can no longer cope. We therefore ask that you take away everything you bring in. We can still dispose of waste food but everything else must be separated into as many different types as possible and then taken just around the corner to the tip – or bundle it all up and take it back to dispose of at home.
For Babies
Until we complete our much awaited Babyshack, Mums & DODs (‘Dads On Duty’) can enter the sacred temple that is the Restaurant kitchen (all others risk beheading) to use the fridge, the microwave, the kettle, the oven and anything else they need to make their lives easier.
The Shop.
Over the last 13 years this has had its ups and downs and has had more and less of different things. Food was a disaster and someone kept nicking all the sweets, so there is very little of that on offer. Mainly it sells maps and books and more compressed logs and firelighters.
The truth is that The Shoppe is probably only still in existence because we like the line in the website that says ‘Ye Olde Shoppe – Ancient Britains weren’t much good at spelling but they did like a bit of flogging.’
OK we’re rambling now but we think you have the idea.
So remember TOWELS, TEA TOWELS AND TORCHES – that’s about it. Add a bike, a blanket and a sense of adventure and you’ll be more than fine.