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At the weekend we had 2 wynnster kestrels flattened in the vey high winds. they have the steel side supporting poles that run from front to back inside the tent.

Quite a few of the fibreglass poles had shattered, and the steel poles had bent.

We also had an outwell nevada , tunnel style , with fibreglass poles but no side supporting poles. This was undamaged.

We wondered if maybe the force of the wind bashing the fibreglass poles in  against the steel bars had caused them to fracture and break. and bend the steel bars.

Any comments?

I had deltas too, they were brilliant, held fast while normal pegs were being ripped out and bent. I had shared the deltas I had amongst our 4 tents and they certainly helped.

We have ordered more for the other tents already. Wynnster are sending us new poles for the kestrels, as a goodwill gesture, although it was purely bad luck that we had the wind change direction and suddenly it was gale force. the wind was then coming side- on to the tents.

 we had pitched the backs of the tents to the wind on friday, when there was only a slight breeze.

Hi Debbie

Just read your message! Blimey! what bad luck - was that its debut outing? We are booked to go next weekend subject to the weather! Hope the wind keeps away from our Kestrel!

Glad to see that you are getting new poles keep us informed how you go on

All the best

Jane

hi jane, yes it was first time and both the kestrels had the same thing happen. I will stress though, that the tents stood up to some horrendous weather on the saturday, and we were surprised they stayed up in that. We said , if they could stand up to that they could cope with anything. On Monday, we had gone out for lunch and it wasn't hardly windy at all, but while we were out, within an hour, the gale had started and we came back to find them flattened. I really can't blame the tents. we were just unlucky with the weather. We are going again on friday, our nevada is okay and the other tent I bought, you remmber my project bargain buy? My friends will be borrowing that one, hopefully  Its pitched in their neighbours garden at the moment, on a trial run to see if the patching I did holds out the rain.

Outdorkit were great, I emailed them, not complainig or anything, I knew it was all down to storm damage, just asking where to get replacement poles and they phoned the same day and offered us replacements free of charge.

I have posted about it on the appreciation thread too.

See my post, titled (what a weekend) in the camping section for the full details. LOL

Hi Deb

Well we are quite excited here! Cleared the van out and cleaned it and packed it ready for this weekends first adventure!! Are we early or what!! Got our camping gas sorted for the barbie and the stove and i've packed some plastic grates with the cutlery, pots and pans etc and the wine glasses ( of course! ). Just remembered we have nothing for the water so I'll be off tomorrow to sort that out plus a corkscrew!

Our friends have a chiminee fire thingy so we are taking that too as we have loads of space in the van. We will be singing (or at least making some sort of noise!)  round the campfire this weekend!!

I hope the weather holds out!

Hi Jane. I just had a few days at kiln park , haven site,only £1 a night,  in the kestrel.

i couldn't use the nevada as they only take tents under 6.5metres. So,

I managed to make up a set of poles from the two broken lots. my sister gave me hers, as we are getting new ones later this week hopefully.   I strung them up on Moday morning and went off on monday afternoon. i didn't use the side support poles, but there wasn't hardly any wind to speak of. It was great.

 The weather was fantastic, really hot and sunny, had the front off and used it as a canopy in the day, to shade as I was already sunburnt from the weekend.

Came home this evening as my son was missing his dad,as we'd been camping at the weekend too.

Hope you have a great time, I'm just leaving all the kit packed up in the living room,  hoping to go away again on Friday.

Oh yeah, the water container, just buy a 5 litre bottle of water with a handle on top  from tesco or asda, 99p, and refill that on site. You'd be surprised how little water you use in a tent, take the dishes to washup area, they have hot water,don't forget washing up bowl, they never seem to have plugs in the sinks, and it  saves your gas. And who wants to lug a great big water container across a field.

Corkscrew? Box of wine is better, then you won't run out  No chance of smashing the bottle, or it getting knocked over. if white, put in the freezer before you go.

Beefysmum, may i suggest you write a book with all of your tips, they seem to be never ending and everyone a winner

Clare

Debbie

Sound advice - wine box in fridge chilling away!

Everyone is looking forward to our first adventure! Roll on 4pm tomorrow when we set off - we're not going far so should be all set up by 6pm at the very latest.

I'll let you know how we get on!

Jane