Real holidays for mums: YogaCamp at De Lemeler Esch

If you have young children, you will probably face the same challenge as I do: having little time for yourself, being continuously tired from the broken nights, always thinking about what you will cook for dinner, as well as keeping in your mind the shopping list and everyone’s agenda. Being a mum is a 24 hours job and a hard one too. That’s why I decided to join the YogaCamp at De Lemeler Esch. A weekend to enjoy with the family, but also with a lot of time for myself. I can say I just discovered the real holidays for mums: YogaCamp at De Lemeler Esch camping.

Yoga + Camping = YogaCamp

What is YogaCamp? It’s not only the combination of holidays in a camping with daily yoga lessons, but also the food truck from Holy Basil, massages from Masashi, a hot tub and many children activities at the De Lemeler Esch camping. The idea of organizing such a YogaCamp came from Irene, the owner and teacher at Yoga Ommen. She was enjoying yoga lessons during her holidays in Zeeland and asked herself why not doing a similar thing in Ommen. Once she was back home, she called the owner of De Lemeler Esch camping and explained her her ideas. And so started the YogaCamp at De Lemeler Esch camping.

Yoga lessons

In 2017, the YogaCamp took place from 29 Juli to 19 August 2017. There were two yoga lessons each day, one in the morning and one in the evening. They were 75 minutes long and during the week, you could have different types of yoga:  critical alignment, mindfulness yoga, easy flow, mix dru en hatha. As besides Irene, there were four more teachers: Jannie Pekkeriet, Jolanda Schoenmaker, Cecilia Huisman and Ellen Ruwe. If you want to try if Yoga is for you, you can also stay at the camping and pay per lesson (15€).

In 2018, Irene organizes YogaCamp18. Again you can join any of the three weeks from 21 July tot 11 August. This year, there´s also yoga for children.

The good thing about the the YogaCamp at De Lemeler Esch is that you don’t need to have any previous experience. You don’t need to be strong or very flexible. As Irene says, “you don’t need to fit in a picture. The end position (asana) is not the most important thing, but the journey to reach it”. And so, you can choose the intensity of your training. During the weekend at the YogaCamp, I followed three critical alignment lessons with Irene. This type of yoga uses the basis from hata yoga and focus on releasing the stress in the muscles and bringing back the alignment in the body. It’s a very relaxed form of yoga, but at the same time intense. Just after the first lesson, I could feel the difference in my back.

You don’t need to fit in a picture. The end position (asana) is not the most important thing, but the journey to reach it.

I really enjoyed the yoga lessons with Irene and the great location. I loved doing yoga surrounded by nature, feeling the grass in my feet and the wind blowing. The perfect setting to relax. Well, in addition to all of it, Irene puts a lot of effort on the end relaxation: she covers each one with a blanket and put a little bag filled with seeds in their eyes. I almost fell asleep 🙂

De Lemeler Esch Camping

The kids had a great time as De Lemeler Esch camping too, as it’s a really child-friendly camping. Indeed is the kind of camping we look for our holidays: in nature, not huge but with big spots per family and with clean bathrooms. It has lots of amenities for the children: all kind of playgrounds, a mud pool and even a heated outdoor pool.

The kids can join also a lot of children activities each day. Some of them were at the same time of the yoga lessons. On Saturday morning the weather was good and therefore the kids were playing outside, while Sunday the joined a workshop to make their own picnic bag. In the afternoon, they joined the story teller.

In the weekend, we didn’t have the time to try the swimming pool. Instead, we tried the wood heated hot tub. Our private hot tub! If you book a week arrangement, you get the option of using the hot tub once. You need to book it in advance and 1-2 hours before you want to use it, you need to make a fire inside the firebox. Then moving the water from time to time, if you want to speed the process of heating the water. I must say I fell in love with the wood heated hot tub and I wish I had one in my garden 🙂

Massage from Masashi

As if the yoga lessons and the hot tub weren’t relaxing enough, I also booked a one hour massage with Masashi. I combined a back massage and a Japanese face massage. Both of them were really good and I have to confess that during the second one I fell asleep. My mother joined us during the weekend too and she also had a foot reflex massage. She normally has them in order to soothe the pain derived from her previous cancer treatments. She was amazed by the “good hands” of Elly.

Elly has lived four years and Aruba, where she started the training to become a masseur. After finishing the classical massage course, she also followed a foot and head massage course. Once back in The Netherlands, she continued giving massages and opened Masashi. During the YogaCamp, she has a “massage tent” in the same field as the yoga field.

You can book all kind of massages and also mix them as I did. The price during the YogaCamp was 10€ per 15minutes. You don’t need to be a participant of the YogaCamp in order to book a massage. Anyone staying at De Lemeler Esch can book it. For me, the massage from Masashi was an essential part of having a pampering weekend 😀

Food Truck Holy Basil

Besides the yoga and the massage, we completed the pampering weekend by feeding our body with the vegetarian food from the food truck holy Basil. Basil and Ellen cook every day a different menu for breakfast and dinner.

All food was fresh, self-cooked and vegetarian ayurvedic, as well as surprisingly tasty. We had breakfast and dinner at holy basil and enjoyed the soups, the vegetarian burger, the wrap and the banana ice-cream. You can guess which one was the favourite plate of the children.

All in all, everyone had a great weekend. I enjoyed having the extra time for myself and the kids loved the playgrounds and activities of the camping. YogaCamp at De Lemeler Esch is a great idea as a family holiday and we would recommend it. In fact, we are thinking of joining it next year 🙂

This post also linked at Weekend Wanderlust and travel inspiration:

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