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Hi, I am new to this site having been pointed in its direction by a friend and I'm addicted! - to the site and to camping.  I have been reading all the terrible stories about what happened to other campers over the May Bank Holiday and counting my blessings.  I feel so bad for everyone who lost their tent or had it damaged and don't know whether I should put this on or not but we actually managed a successful BH!  Sometimes its nice to hear some good news so I will share mine.

My family - 1 hubby and 2 kids aged 2 & 6 - decided to kit ourselves up and try camping for our family holidays, it cost us about £700 to buy everything but when you think that is how much we are paying for one week in a cottage this August - booked pre-tent!, can't cancel mum is coming with us! and here arthritis won't do airbeds!- it doesn't seem much at all for years of holidays to come.  We went for a Khyam Quebec 8, mainly because of the steel poles and also the large living area, perfectly adequate for a rainy day!

Anyway we joined the C&CC and decided to go to one of their sites for our first trip, we were booked in at Hertford but when we saw the atrocious weather forecast we forfeited our deposit and went North!  We managed to get a pitch on the C&CC site at Kendal with EHU and made it up the M6 without any delay - 1st time ever!.  We got set up in about 2 hours, with help from fellow campers as it was very windy and settled down for the night.  The kids slept like logs, hubby slept like a log, I listened to the wind!  We had to pitch side on to the wind due to the pitch we were allocated, but our Khyam stood up to it with hardly any problem at all.  I know we were not in the windiest part of the country but it sounded like it during the night!  The wind did not drop all weekend but all that happened was a couple of pegs pulled out at the corners and on the guys - I have now ordered some Deltas which I found out about on here.  And the sun shone!! all weekend, in the Lake District! and we had some beautiful sunsets - I've put a photo of our tent under a red sky on here if anyone would like to see it!

So, all in all, a successful weekend, we are all bitten by the camping bug and can't wait to get out again. 

Firstly I'm glad to see you bought a Kyham, and you had a good trip!! Very good strong sturdy tent and like you our first camp with our tourer 400 included very strong wind on the top of a cornish cliff. When the morning came we were still very intact unlike some others.

Welcome to the wonderful world of camping.

Hi, and welcome to the site.  Glad it all went well for the first trip.  We were also lucky over the BH with the weather, we were at Barnard Castle C&CC site ... see it ain't always grim up norf! 

We started camping last year, and we bought a cheapish decent tent, Vango oregon 600 for just over £100 with the intention of upgrading if we enjoyed it.  We also likened/justified the cost of all the equipment to a week's holiday in a cottage/haven site.  Did plenty of tent watching over the trips we were on last year and over the winter bought an Outwell Bear Lake 6.  Oregon is in the loft just in case, or to loan to friends who might want to try camping.

'Eres to many more happy trips

Love the picture

Hi and welcome.  We started camping some years ago because we could only afford a week away in a cottage whereas we can now go on 2 or 3 holidays plus weekends.  Once you've got the camping gear, there are so many possibilities.

Once you have the bug, thats it for life

Wise choice of tent, our Khyam has withstood torrential rain without a single drop inside, definetly a Khyam convert now.

Happy Camping!

Keith

Hi,

We too, are camping newbies. It was only our second time camping on BH weekend, and our tent was distroyed in Weston. It hasn't put us off, and we have made plans for 2 more trips with the same family we went with. Glad it went well for your first time. It was my fault we went South instead of North last weekend, and I'll never be forgiven for saying" the wind will drop during the night" Ho Hum!!

Rich