Forest Camping Limited

We've just returned from a one night stay at Tangham Campsite near Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. What can I say, it was not the best experience we've had.
We arrived at 1 pm, the site was busy and it was a beautiful sunny day. We located our pitch, which was lovely and whilst the children rode their bikes and played in the forest, we unpacked and put up our tent. Some friends came to join us, for a couple of hours and they paid the warden the required fees for parking as requested.

We set up the BBQ, put on some quiet music and started to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Before I could even bite into a burger, the warden arrived to tell us that the couple who were camping next to us had complained, demanded a refund and left the site because of us!

The site was full of children, people and dogs and with that comes the general noise you would expect, so I was confused as to what we had done wrong? The warden told us to turn off our music as it was not permitted, and to make sure we did not move beyond our pitch, which was marked (not so clearly in our case) by some buried bricks. Other than that he was happy with where we had our BBQ, table and he promptly left.

So we started to settle down again. Less than an hour later a female Warden arrived to tell us that in fact our BBQ needed to be moved immediately to a more appropriate place, which we did and she asked when our visitors would be leaving? This was early afternoon and the website states visitors need to leave by 9 pm.

We were all beginning to look confused as we were not being loud, abusive or disruptive in anyway. Our only vice was that this was our second camping trip ever and maybe this was obvious to the more hard core campers?

We did not use the shop but the toilet facilities were very clean and the site itself was gorgeous. After cooking our dinner on the BBQ, we kept it alight to keep warm. Someone nearby had a chiminea going so we thought it would be ok, but then we received our third Warden visit. He told us to put water on the BBQ immediately or he would call the fire brigade and get them to charge us. So we put the lid on it!

The children were moaning because having been on some amazing camping trips with scouts they felt all they could do was go to bed, so we did just that. Music was blaring out from a nearby pub, dogs were barking, people were having fun and all we could do was lay in our tent thinking about the days bizare events.

Finally morning came and we packed up. My friend commented on hearing people around our tent in the night and that she had walked around in the dark making sure our bikes were safe. We did not think anything of it really until my car would not start and someone had left a towel hanging on the wing mirror. My friend then saw that the passenger door of her car (which was next to our tent) had been keyed in several places).

So although this site had beautiful scenery, was family friendly, allowing dogs (which is ideal I think) for us two women on our own, with four children, it proved to be more stress than it was worth.