Travel: Why glamping is the best way to experience an area on a budget

Changing nappies, bottle feeding, and rocking a baby to sleep are among the skills I’ve learned since becoming a dad, but building a fire has not been required until now.

I’m under pressure as my wife has tasked me with ensuring a wood burning stove keeps the temperature up in our New Forest glamping tent at the start of our first holiday with our five-month-old baby, Penny.

I carefully arrange the logs, ignite a firelighter, and keep my fingers crossed. Within minutes, the stove gives off a warm glow, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

We were more than a touch apprehensive about taking a baby on a holiday in a tent, but Feather Down’s site at Midgham Farm is glamping on steroids.

Our tent, described as a ‘canvas lodge’, is suitable for up to six people, so we have plenty of room. There is a fully-equipped kitchen a living/dining area, and three sleeping areas. The most important factor is the en suite bathroom, with flushable toilet and a shower where a powerful jet of warm water is produced in just moments.

There are candles and gas lanterns to provide light, we use the stove for cooking as well as heating, and we have tablets to sterilise Penny’s bottles.

Sammy Sykes, who owns the farm with husband Henry, tells me the back-to-basics holidays “enable kids to get their parents back”.

She says: “There’s lots of interaction, such as lighting the fire. Plus children are often told to leave their iPads at home.”

Most of the other Feather Down guests we see are families with primary school-aged children. As we stroll around the site, many of them spending time with various farm animals.

The chickens are the star attraction. Every morning, we see children in their enclosure, searching for freshly-laid eggs.

Four Gloucester Old Spot boars are also popular. They come scurrying towards us whenever we walk past.

A small group of friendly goats spend much of their time sitting on the broken trampoline in their pen, when they are not being petted by young visitors.

As we make our way back to our tent, while pushing a wheelbarrow filled with more wood for the fire we spot a turkey at the entrance to the honesty shop, presumably making sure every item removed is recorded. The unstaffed Portakabin is well stocked with essentials such as candles, toilet paper, snacks and drinks.

Penny’s frequent giggles indicate she is taking well to the fresh air and having both her parents’ undivided attention.

Feather Down – which operates on 33 farms across Britain, as well as others on the Continent – has seen demand surge during the coronavirus crisis, as many people are choosing domestic breaks over foreign holidays.

The farm’s communal pizza oven is lit twice a week. Although we have enjoyed using our stove to prepare meals the prospect of cooking our dinner in minutes is too good to miss.

We are eager for something easy, so we buy, ready-made pizzas from a supermarket in the nearby market town of Fordingbridge. The ability to eat them one-handed also means this is a rare night where my wife and I have dinner at the same time, as I am able to hold Penny while devouring several slices.

After a couple of days relaxing in our tent and exploring the farm, we embark on a trip to Bournemouth, a 25-minute drive away. We have a hearty lunch at the Durley Inn pub (harvester.co.uk) – perfectly located a few metres from the beachfront – before taking a stroll along the promenade.

Another day trip is spent at Moors Valley Country Park (moors-valley.co.uk). The site has an excellent buggy-friendly 0.75-mile walking trail around a lake, plus a 1.5-mile route which takes us to a lookout point, with views of the surrounding forest.

We can’t spend too long admiring the scenery, though. The temperature is dipping, so I need to get back to our tent to prove my fire-building prowess was not a fluke.

P.S. Watch the kids play around hale bales in the fresh air, meet the adorable new lambs of the season and don’t forget a sugar cube for the ponies – camping on the farm is a different life. Bye bye city streets and traffic jams, it’s time to explore sweet meadows and fields, For a list of sites, visit campsites.co.uk