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Hello Folks, Let me tell you what happended last week whilst away.

Spent the last week down Perranporth Cornwall at Tollgate Farm Campsite, arrived on Saturday 26th May after a 6 hour journey from Midlands. The owners are very friendly and helpful and showned us to our pitch. The sunshine was out to pitch our new Khyam Ontario 8 which went without no problem, kettle was on in about 45 minutes, Saturday afternoon spent exploring the site and found to be really clean and plenty for kids to do.

But then Sunday arrived and all hell broke loose, we woke up to driving rain and strong winds which so far the tent held up too. After spending the morning stuck in the tent and kids getting frustrated with each other plus OH, decided to venture out and drove to St Ives, spent watching the big rollers crashing into the harbour wall. On arrival back to campsite found the tent half collasped with various poles shattered. In constant rain and high winds and help from fellow campers managed to gaffer tape the poles back together and re-erect the tent. Had to bale out some water where the door had opened by the wind. We spent the next few hours trying to get reorganised and dry. All night long the wind howled, rain lashed down and tent was swaying to and fro, felt like we were in a sailing ship.

We thought that any minute the tent would disappear into the night and be left just in sleeping bags. Anyway we managed to get through the night without any problems and woke to sunshine which then lasted all week.

On speaking to the owners about the wind and rain, it was the second worst they had ever seen, comparing to the Boscastle tragedy. They went around the site trying to re-peg the guyropes on tents and caravan awning which the wind had blown loose. With the winds so strong some tents were torn and had to be thrown away, cutting some campers holiday short.

Overall after a ropey start to our holiday we ended up having a good week. Cannot praise the campsite enough as they were always helpful, clean toilets/shower block and the kids enjoyed the animal area.

Will be back to Cornwall, hopefully without the wind

No hasn't put us off, once tnet is repaired were off again for a long weekend somewhere, probably be Forest of Dean.

Do anyone know of other sites apart from the Forest Holidays which are good and can take the Ontario 8.

Glad to hear you're back safe and sound.

Doward Park has some good reviews (pitch restriction is 7m x 5m -don't know if that fits with your tent)

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/results3.asp?search=doward+park&by=sitename

We went to Greenway Farm Camping and Caravan Site the first bank holiday. Can definately reccomend it, lovely,quiet, clean and friendly. No child play area but the parents and groups played rounders etc.. in the camping fields( were no tents obviously, shows how much room we all had!)

Dave and Lorraine took over just over 4 months ago. There is a small drive to cafe, to the right a field for ehu and caravans, to the left of the cafe 3 small fields for 20 tents. They have no marked pitches but do not over crowd, infact the opposite.

Hot water in wash up area wasn't very hot but Dave had only just finished the block.

There is a brand new shower block with 2 showers and 2 toilets for the ladies and the same for gents( i think!!) but i never had to wait and they were full.

They are the cleanest and hotteset showers I've ever used( camping 5 years)

Dave and Lorraine are lovely, nothing too much trouble.

Definately reccommend if you like quiet sites with no bars,no entertainment etc..

Must do a review on it!

We were in Cornwall too, near St Austell, and the weather was the worst we have ever seen; anywhere! Don't know how you managed to encounter sunshine all week, Joness, since we only saw a few hours here and there over nine days, and it was largely due to our driving all over Cornwall in an effort to find it!

Tents were flattened, all over the site, but the Biscaya Vis-a-Vis took it all in it's stride, thankfully! Delta pegs were imperative, and lots more campers will be getting them now, on recommendation of how well anchored our tent was!

We had similar experiences in Devon over the Bank Holiday weekend. Arrived Saturday night in sunshine and put up the tent without a breath of wind.

We have a favourite pitch which we know is going to be exposed, but which has the most amazing views, is right next to a water supply and which does not overlook any other tents. We also know the direction of the prevailing wind and always double guy and cross-peg everything on the south side and use less guys on the north-side which is where we sit in the shelter of the tent.

... the storm came in from the north, didn't it!!

The main structure of the Rigipod held up fantastically, although one side did evetually blow in - purely because I hadn't pegged or guyed it properly. I was woken by the crash of a large set of plastic drawers being blown over, and then I saw the rain being blown in the half of the tent that had come unpegged. The wind also managed to blow undone the full length of a zip up door, so that side of the tent was pretty wet too.

The next night was forecast to be worse, but by then I had used everypeg and guy rope and the tent stood up brilliantly. It was definitely worth sticking it out as we had a lovely week after that - cool for the first few days but generally dry and we got to the beach most days and barbecued on three nights.

Came back on Sunday, it was forecast to rain ... but it didn't. Instead we had the perfect packing up weather - cloudy enough for there not to have been any dew on the tent in the morning, but not actually raining. Finished packing up and the sun came out properly for a couple of hours on the beach before returning home.