There is something truly hypnotic about watching flames from a fire dance around and change colours between yellow, orange, red, and blue. Nature’s television perhaps. Combining the glow of hot embers with the hiss of escaping gases from burning logs and the gentle crackles from the glow of hot embers provides comfort as darkness falls. With a campfire as the source of heat and light it has remained the centre of social gatherings for campers in all countries.
If you’d like to experience a real campfire come and join us at Park Farm Camping on the beautiful Kent and East Sussex border.
The pitch has been selected but where will you build your campfire. You must consider wind direction, distance to your tents and belongings, through traffic, slope and low growing trees. The campfire must be far enough away from the tents and with sufficient room available to sit around it. Do what you can to contain the fire by digging a shallow trough in which to build your fire, or use river stones if available. At the end of your stay fill in the trough and replace any stones you have moved.
If you are not using the fire for cooking your evening meal try to get your fire going before nightfall. Building a fire in pitch black of night is not always an easy task. Start with tightly rolled and knotted newspaper, place light kindling over the top, then add heavier sticks and logs as the fire begins to take hold. Fire likes to climb so place wood as upright as possible, forming pyramids if you can.
Keep your fire going with natural logs. Do not burn treated wood because these give off toxic fumes and are harmful to our local environment. In addition, second hand timbers often contain nails and other metal objects that can be dangerous.