Camping by cargo bike
Last month I embarked on a 24 hour mini adventure to go camping by bike.
My cargo bike was initially used to do the school run but I quickly had other ideas and was curious to know whether it could support two adults and two children to make a human-powered journey to spend a night in the wild.
Could we go camping by cargo bike? What would a 24 hour adventure from the centre of Cardiff look like?
And so the planning began. I decided on an 8 mile journey heading north out of the city centre following the Taff Trail to The Acres in Taff’s Well. It’s a beautiful route which I have cycled hundreds of times to commute to and from work - it’s mostly flat, traffic-free and follows the River Taff.
The plan was for our five year old son to cycle the entire distance and my daughter (aged two) could choose to ride in the cargo bike or hop on her balance bike as it suited her. Whilst it’s possible to cycle this route in approximately 45 minutes, we had allowed at least 4 hours to complete the journey with two children (including some filming). This would hopefully give us time for ice cream, exploring parks and inevitable hold ups!
One critical element I needed to figure out was would everything fit in the cargo bike and if so how? Two days before the planned journey I laid out all the kit into two piles (‘essential’ and ‘nice to have’) and nervously started slotting kit into every available space in the cargo bike. I was pleasantly surprised that it all fitted, and even left space for our 2 year old to sit in her seat with her balance bike on top of the load when she wasn’t riding it. We also made use of two panniers on the rear frame of my husband’s bike.
When the weekend came, the weather was on our side.
Our start point was The Bike Lock, a brilliant new bike storage cafe in the heart of Cardiff city centre. It’s run by Tom Overton, a man who is passionate about helping people to be active. Tom and I both used to work for Sport Wales and completed a 3-day cycle from Fishguard to Chepstow many years ago so it’s been brilliant to reconnect and support his new social enterprise.
We used the bike storage facilities at The Bike Lock to store three bikes overnight so that no shuttle runs were required on the Saturday morning. My husband and our children travelled by bus into the city centre to collect their bikes and tuck into some brunch at The Bike Lock while our friend and cameraman Huw James and I cycled over on the cargo bikes.
I was riding a Babboe Mountain Curve e-cargo bike (charged by solar power at home). Huw was able to use a Raleigh Stride e-cargo bike for the day thanks to Pedal Power Cardiff, a cycling charity that have a wide range of pedal powered and electric bikes and trikes for hire. I’d recommend going to check one out and see how you might be able to use one for the school run or work commute. Make a day of it in either Bute Park or Cardiff Bay.
We had promised the kids ice cream (obviously) and I was aware that we might need to do a little detour into Llandaff North or Radyr, but to everyone’s delight, just as we rounded the corner into Hailey Park an ice cream van pulled in. We were first in the queue and everyone was delighted. The timing was impeccable as the van was there for no more than 10 minutes and then it drove off. It’s the small serendipitous things like this on human-powered journeys that are always memorable, especially when food is involved!
As well as encouraging the kids to explore en route, we got them involved in key elements of the journey such as map reading (Cardiff Cycling & Walking Map is a useful resource ) and using the ‘walkie talkie’ radios to communicate with Huw about filming. Kids love radios and using all the associated radio jargon, such as ‘Come in Mr Huw, this is Mr Cargo Bike, do you receive over?’.
After 4 hours on-the-go the kids’ energy levels were dipping. Max didn’t quite have enough energy for the final hill so fortunately we were able to pop him into Huw’s Raleigh Stride alongside the camera equipment for an uplift.
Once off the bikes, the kids had some renewed energy to explore the woodland area at The Acres where we had been given special permission to camp. The kids ran around collecting wood for the campfire, throwing stones in the stream and looking for bugs!
The Acres is a fantastic new health & wellbeing venue where you can practice yoga with a fabulous panoramic mountain view, soak up the beautiful woodland environment on a wellness retreat and lots more. I love it there.
We used a small 2-person tent which would hopefully sleep one adult and two children, plus a hammock for the other adult. The tent was pitched on a beautifully soft leafy woodland floor surrounded by bluebells. We strung up the hammock a few metres away and the kids enjoyed testing out the hammock then arranging the tent to their liking.
For dinner, I knew that I would have tired hungry kids so this was about making it simple but still enjoying food from a campfire. I had pre-cooked sausages and jacket potatoes which I wrapped in foil and which simply needed to be warmed in the fire. We also packed pre-buttered rolls for the sausages. We used our stove to make hot drinks and heat up some homemade spicy bean casserole which I had packed as a frozen block that morning.
We sat staring into the flames of the fire and enjoyed a really tasty dinner (if I do say so myself). The kids were obviously most excited about toasting marshmallows for dessert.
Did we get any sleep? Yes we did. Rich was the in tent with the kids who were out like a light and I spent my first night in a hammock and slept like a baby too.
Embarking on a self-sufficient, self-reliant, human-powered journey is what is at the core of true adventure. This adventure was all about travelling by bike, exploring what’s on our door step and immersing ourselves in the natural environment. Yes we were tired the next day but we were also refreshed and energised having spent 24 hours outdoors.
Where can you explore from your home? What adventures would you like to have with your kids? What ideas do your children have?
Tori is proud to be working in partnership with Robens, a tent-maker with an enviable heritage and reputation for producing award-winning technical tents for over 50 years.