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We've just a returned from a fabulous week staying at Heligan Gardens in Cornwall followed by a horrendous week at Damage Barton near Woolacombe in Devon!

Whilst the Damage site has the most wonderful sea views and large pitches, when it is windy boy is it windy!!  We survived 2 nights of 50mph winds which I have to say was the worst experience of our caravanning experiences. Whilst I was feeling seasick due to the caravan rocking and swaying with every gust, the caravan behind us was actually lifted off its blocks and pushed backwards tearing its awning at the same time  We saw numerous other awnings that were down due to snapped poles and had been ripped. We were fortunate that ours survived on its maiden voyage with extra storm straps, pegs and putting our landrover discovery across it to try and block the wind.

After 3 days of the wind, rain and then on the 3rd morning fog we gave up and came home a day early feeling not like we'd been on a holiday but a survival course!!

We also were on Damage Barton in late July/early August and also had high winds, rain and fog.   Sounds like the weather has not been too good down there all summer.

When the sun did come out (eventually) it was a beautiful site but really when it's windy, I would say it is probably best to take down awnings - even the best couldn't stand up to gales like that.  Our lightweight awning was bending inwards but as the poles were flexible, seemed to stand up to the wind better than some full canvas awnings.

*phew* glad to know we weren't alone in how we felt about it !!  We thought we were being a bit paranoid to start with and that everyone was looking at us thinking that we had put the awning up wrong. The windier it got, the more more we rocked and the less we slept we were so worried it was going to come down in the night!!  One of the poor families across from us in a very large tent sat in their car for a couple of hours to take shelter and on one of the nights the guy said that he got up every half hour from 10pm till 3am checking guy ropes.

I have to agree that the site staff didn't put any warnings out and when we said about it in the shop they didn't seem overly worried. It was a lovely site but we won't be going again.