Starting out?

Trevor D Gamble wrote (see)

 emergency whistles for each child to carry etc.

Trev, they are 3, 5 and a baby of 1 (who may possibly not be walking yet). I can tell you don't have kids!!

Plus, I could not even begin to tell you what I would be thinking pitched next to a family with 3 kids with whistles.....I'd kill them.

Having camped with small kids in the past, I'd say "try a ready-assembled camping trip in France first". We still had to take the "kitchen sink". What folk who don't have small kids may forget is that it's not just about camping gear!

1. The toys you have to carry (we always took a small bag of Duplo plus crayons and books). They never tired of Duplo and it's small and light.
2. Seating device to keep the baby still while you feed him/her and attempt to eat something yourself
3. General restraint for both the tots - no accusations of "What was everyone else doing" please - you take your eyes off for a second cos one kiddie is (say) puking and the other parent is at the shop/bog and they take off like the clappers and if they can't find mummy they keep running in the same direction for what seems like miles. And you can't just "run after them" with two other tots in your sole care who can't run....that's assuming you knew which direction to look
4. bowls for washing all the clothes each day, pegs, etc

It was hard work logistically and we had a car to fit it all in. But they LOVED it.

Best of British!

What folk who don't have small kids may forget is that it's not just about camping gear!

Indeed. but actually also not a lot more than loads of patience and adapting to the pace of your kids.

good tip

thanks

aaaaah, can anyone tell me where I can get some more of that patience stuff...

I sometimes have very little little and rarely loads!

Ben Turner wrote (see)

Thanks for that Zuma. Very interesting. Obviously you can have a great time with one of these things as you have proved. I know the Ardennes and the Eifel as I live in Belgium and I also know the WHW pretty well from years ago. But I'm still not convinced.

No problem I do not sell them and I don't get a commission

Beach: allong the flud line just great. Dunes no problem as long as you stay on paths. But going of road in loose sand is a bit of hard work but manageable for not too long distances (1 km max to keep it relaxed). And clean the cart very good for the salt, there are metal parts on the cart (risc of corossion)...

I'm not knowledgeable about the surroundings of Bouillon. We only walk GR's, that is marked long distance paths. What you describe is really not uncommon in the Ardennes when it gets wet, so yes we had that paths too (around Houfalize amongst them). But here this daddy doesn't mind to get muddy . Define steep, very steep is a percentage of more than 30 degrees, that's hard work but fine for lets say 100 height meters (In the Eifel I did a couple of times more than 150 height meters up hill in one go). But these climbs you only do ones or at max two times a day. Our kids just have raining gear. But there is a special addition on the Rambler available (for good money ofcourse) to keep your kids dry and out of the sun.

Ofcourse we study everyday the map in advance when we walk a marked route. Somtimes it just looks hairy on the map but we just take a go. It's also a challenge. But untill now we haven't had any day we had to took the car apart the haul our stuff along a difficult passage. We look very carefull study on the map in which direction we walk our piece of the path that certain day. Which direction is the easiest? That direction we take. Mostly it's the direction which has the lesser steep slopes up hill.

The reason we bought the cart was mainly not for day trips but for hauling all our stuff from camp A to camp B and so on. We do this in the Netherland in weekends. There we can find nice routes where campsites are not far apart from eachother. On holidays in the Ardennes we do daytrips along a marked path. I park a foldable bike at the end of the planned dayhike and at the end of the day I bike back to the car to pick up my wife, cart and kids to drive back to the campsite. Next day we do the follwoing peice of the marked route and so on. When the kids are older distances can grow greater and at some point we can take all our stuff with us again on longer distances (may be when the kids are 8 or so). The they are still too young to carry all stuff, the cart is still helpfull as bagage hauler until the kids are old enough to carry their stuff themselves. So I think I have some years to go with that cart. Might be I even have to buy at a certain point a new one...

I know they did the staircase with a childcarrier, but I saw some pics of it and wasn't impressed. I would take the cart with me I believe, but my kids are a bit older and can walk difficult passages themselves. I think they did Lomond with the cart. I aslo believe they did parts of the Great Glen Way a holiday later on.

Ben,

If you can't speak it perhaps you can read it abit...  Here some links with photo's and discussions:

http://www.hiking-site.nl/fotoalbums/showgallery.php?cat=3406

http://www.hiking-site.nl/fotoalbums/showgallery.php?cat=3410

http://www.hiking-site.nl/fotoalbums/showgallery.php?cat=3385 

http://www.hiking-site.nl/virtuexpo/pmg/index.php

Warning from here only dutch discussions with participating users of a Rambler explorer: 

(I'll organize a second kidshike with trekking from camp A to camp B end of june 2009 in the south of Limburg between the towns Vaals and Epen http://www.hiking-site.nl/prikbord/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=138&topic_id=10938&mode=full)

http://www.hiking-site.nl/prikbord/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3423&mode=full

A big thread on experiences:

http://www.hiking-site.nl/prikbord/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=133&topic_id=13773&mesg_id=13773&listing_type=search

Happy reading if you can do it.

Thanks again Zuma! I will check out those links.

But I'm starting to suspect that you Dutch are simply not happy unless you are pulling a wheeled vehicle either behind your car or your person!

I view this as an adventure that is not really about camping but just a young family moving around without a car. The actual tent bit that's probably the least part of the problems. Kids get tired+sleep, they don't demand comfort like adults. However kids have nil tolerance for boredom and make their own fun which may not be convenient for the situation.

So, I doubt this will be done but you can actually do these type of adventures by folding bikes with trailers. The bike part resolves the issues of moving children and luggage, the folding bike part solves issues of fitting the stuff on trains/boats/planes/cars/etc. I don't have photos to show the exact solution but you can extrapolate. 

Here is a bike with a large trailer, in an appropriate outdoors camping setting (Langdale)

and here is a large tent which you can change to one right size for a family of 5, e.g an Hillberg. The trailer i used had more camping-specific gear than you will use and I was packing for winter.

Here is a bike with room at the front for a toddler.

So I think you can do this with 2 bikes and 2 trailers. one trailer has the luggage (tents, etc) and the other has two kids on tow. One rider then has a a kid also in front. The trailer shown has a 100L and a 40Kg limit, if you wanted more capacity you can add front panniers, rack boxes etc. With this gear, you can fit in trains and boats and parents supply all the forward energy. Once unloaded, you can use the bikes to cycle around, and you can do stuff like drop the saddle and walk the bike with a 5 year old on the saddle. 

 Once you own the gear, can be used for general stuff, e.g. commuting to work, shopping, etc. Basically you've made your own flat-pack parent-powered family transport system. Cost.... well less than a car, but you're talking about 3 grand I reckon, allow a grand each for the bike, 500 quid for trailers and 500 quid for camping gear. Could do it for less, say two grand but not significantly less.

Ha Nigel,

Nice to read about trekking with children on a bike! Not my cookie, we  do it on foot.  Cycling is not my hobby.

The difference between cycling and walking with children is only the way of moving (walking vrsus cycling) and the distances that can be done.

For the rest everything is the same. Lightweight tent, sleeping stuff, cooking stuff, food, a cart to move all what doesn't fit in your backpack or your packs on a bike. Even the kids behaviour and their needs are the same (timely food and sleep, entertainment and fun and some learning experiences on the road) 

So your experience is just as welcome. Did you actually cycled a trekking with kids?

I know a Dutch website which is entirely dedicated to cycling with (small) children on trekkings. Never saw such a large website dedicated to walking trekkings with small children. Smeems that more people do this kind of thing (trekking with small children that is) cycling.

  know a Dutch website which is entirely dedicated to cycling with (small) children on trekkings. Never saw such a large website dedicated to walking trekkings with small children. Smeems that more people do this kind of thing (trekking with small children that is) cycling.

Zuma do you have more details, we are better cyclists than campers!!

DAVE

Oké here some links in Dutch  unfortunately. Perhaps you can babelfish (copy these links andtranslate them through babelfish or soemthing like that) these links.

How to chooce a family tent for cyclists:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=13

Available light weight family tents (But mind you cyclists can take tents with some more weight than hikers.):

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8&Itemid=13

User experience with some of the listed family tents:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=13

  Sleeping cots for small children:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10&Itemid=13

General advice of bagage (what do you pack?)

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=44

A specific general packing list:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=

General info Bagage carts for cyclists:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=17

How to chooce a bagage cart:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=

Available bagage carts:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53&Itemid=

User experiences with bagage carts:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=

Carts for kids:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=17

What kind of cart for kids to buy?

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=

How to use and load a cart for kids:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=

User experiences carts for kids:

http://fietsenmetkinderen.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=

There are also links for kid bikes which you hang behind your bike for older kids (year of 4 to 6).