Worst was in Shankhill near Dublin one Easter many years ago. In the snow. 3 feet of it. And my Father had left the rest of us there for the week while he went back to work, supposedly to return the next weekend. We had all out clothes on, with the cooker blazing away inside the tent, inside our sleeping bags and were still frozen. The local church put out an appeal for blankets etc for us which helped! My Father only heard what the weather was like 2 days later (no mobile phones then) and came back for us.
Oh I have a few of each too. 1st camping trip with the kids was when they were 6 and 3,We went to mablethorpe for a weeks camping the kids thought it was great till we had a few thunderstorms,Phil and Shell couldnt sleep so they got up at 6am and started making a pot of tea then some bacon butties all of a sudden it came dark and the heavens opened ,I was still in bed cuddle up to Ash and Shell was in her PJs and treid to undo the door and got wet thourgh I mean dripping ,at 1st Shell screamed then started laughing and we all joined in god knows what the campers next door thought after 3 days we went home. It was the best holiday in away as we still talk about it now.
Billing aquadrome we have camping there on and off for years and some really good weekends there and some really bad ones.For those of you that camped there will know all about the freak winds you can get and thunderstorms we still see them as hoildays that you never forget.The worst was when we got broken into one august bank in 2005,out TT was only months hold and they cut a big hole in the window of the awning and stole our toiletery bag which aftershaves, perfumes , inhalers and other meds that we needed.We have never felt safe camping there since but we still go every july for a long weekend till hope fully they move The VBOA weekend.
The best camping ones are so many really , we love going to the Vale of pickering the site is so nice we allways go with freinds too,Devon last year was a great week with over 30 freinds out of the 30 was 7 teenagers we didnt have one problem with them so very proud of them. This year we are all going to Cornwall in july so really looking forward to that too.
Worst was in Galway one Easter - it was a late Easter too. We overhead the owner telling his son he would be away the next day, but to make sure all the doors were firmly shut cos there was a storm on the way. He didn't tell us though - which was nice of him ! We just happened to overhear from a field away because of some weird echo.
Anyway, the storm hit sure enough, and was followed that night by a severe drop in temperature (which isn't very high to start with in Galway) and snow. Lots of snow. I have never been so cold before or since. We had all our clothes on, and were inside fairly decent bags - but this all had no effect at all. We now and then put the cooker on too. Every hour or so I had to get up to clear snow off the tent as it was beginning to sag. At one point my hand was shaking so much I could hardly hit the snow. At 6am, after no sleep whatsoever we shook the snow off the tent, threw (and yes, I mean threw) everything into the boot of our little Citroen AX, and found a B&B (which is what you should have done Matshan). The look on the B&B's owners face was priceless - we must have looked like refugees !
Worst, either setting my hand on fire in the Lake District when an old primus stove exploded, and then having to walk 5 miles to a medical centre. We were staying next to some waterfalls near Rydel Hall and all of my mates spent the week swimming and diving off the waterfalls and I had to sit there holding the towels with a huge bandage on my hand. Or in the RAF bivvying in early Feb a few years back, it started out at -4C so felt cold and miserable anyway, then when I finally got to sleep it started to snow, I looked out of my bivvy and noticed that my boots had slipped out, and were full of snow, I never got warm after that for three more days. Best again in the RAF bivvying, this time in summer I woke in the night (to check where my boots were) to find a fox cub and it's mother sat next to me. A bit sad I know but that moment was awsome.
Best again in the RAF bivvying, this time in summer I woke in the night (to check where my boots were) to find a fox cub and it's mother sat next to me. A bit sad I know but that moment was awsome
I dont find that sad, memories like that are irreplacable.
By the way lovely pic of your dog in your gallery.
I remeber getting hypothermia on my first weekend away with the TA in 1986. I was on Salisbury plane, in a bivvy bag, under a hawthorne hedge (cos in February, it was the best cover I could find) and I was freezing in the wind and the rain. It's funny, and as others have mentioned on here, it's surviving adversity that kind of galvanises you and your peers as a group and drives you on to greater things. Best experience? Camping in Scotland last year on the bike. I tell you, waking up on Skye on a glorious sunny morning and looking at the sea as you step out of your wigwam (wooden hut used on 5 nites out of 11) is a humbling experience.
I must be one of the lucky ones. Never had a bad camping experience in the four years that we've been camping. Mind you, I always do my homework first and check out any prospective campsites fully before I book.
UKCS Campsite Search and reviews has always been my first port of call for every site we've ever visited - so much information, a must for all members if you ask me. It was through campsite research that I found UKCS in the first place, and very glad that I did too.
Cornwall 2004, just after the floods at Boswell (I think thats what it was called!)
We had a week booked at Monkey Tree Farm in Newquay and it was to be our first trip! I had bought a tent of Ebay and all the rest of the kit from various sources. We arrived on the Sat morning in the p*****g rain and eventually started to pitch our second hand frame tent, a litchfield it was! Rips in the main room and the mud valance was about 8" off the floor once over the frame. After much sweating, swearing and my missus eventually kicking the canvas and what remained of the frame around the field we were in, we went into Truro to buy a new tent!!
Ended up with a Gelert vis-a-vis thing and was completely cramped up in it! (had to be a cheapo coz it came out of the spends) We had a wasps nest right next to the tent and after 3 days of howling rain we decided to call it a day and head home!
Now we have a wonderful tent, lots of equipment and laff about our week at Monkey Tree, funny, there were suggestions of us never doing it again all the way home! Funny how things turn out!