Went camping for first time! Im40. Never again lol

I absolutely love these threads 😄, they're a good reminder that I have free will and I really don't have to do something I don't want to do.

I was defending the joys of camping to a friend recently and I thought to myself ‘if I suddenly became rich, and could stay in beautiful country houses wherever I fancied, would I still want to go camping?’ And the answer is, yes, yes I would. I’d probably camp more 😆

I would have top of the line clothes and kit in terms of quality - but I probably wouldn’t bother with things like EHU, or a really huge set up with all home comforts. I’d have something similar to what we have now for us and the small child, just better quality, plus a really light weight, bare bones set up that I could just throw in the car and escape on my own!

I have loved camping for many years, even before kids.
However I'm done with the packing, unpacking and laundry. I lost my total shit on return of a two week camping trip in Europe. No one lifted a finger while I did 8 loads of laundry including all the bedding and had to put all the camping cooking stuff through 3 dishwashers and then back into the attic.
Fuck it.

This was me as well.

IOW festival 2010. I did two nights out of 5. Then I booked a hotel and arrived at the festival site for the remainder of the festival rested, clean and showered.

I will never camp again.

Absolutely not. Camping is shit. 😆

I am far too sensitive to temperature changes/light/noise. I also only sleep naked, even in the depths of winter, so I feel forced to wear something, which stops me sleeping!

Devils holiday indeed.

I woke in the night at a festival and I was freezing. So cold I have never been that cold. I genuinely wondered if I might die in the night. Couldn’t go home as was over the limit and wouldn’t have been able to find the car. Put on all the clothes I had and lay there shivering and scared. Then woke up the next morning. Too hot.

It is the devil’s holiday.

I went camping this summer in Wales, hated hearing all the snoring in the tents around me and personal conversations as well as having to shower and pee in a communal block. Gross and weird that people like that.

Am on a beautiful resort in a wonderfully hot country right now. THIS is a holiday.

I went camping once. Never, ever again. I booked into a hotel after the second night (of no sleep) and left everyone else to it. Fucking miserable experience.

About 10 years ago, I had an amazing week's camping as part of a hobby camp with my two DC. We had borrowed all the camping kit. Not a drop of rain, perfect weather! Precious memories from that week.

We had so much fun, that I lost all my marbles and decided to splash out on all our own kit. I was so excited.

A few weeks later, we had a wonderful week in Wales (total sarcasm). We got soaked to the skin, having to take the tent down in the middle of the night. Water was actually coming up through the ground sheet. We were all miserable.

Another trip was so scary with the storm we thought we were going to have a tree come down on top of us.

And another long weekend was ruined by a storm in August. Had to leave for home early.

We never did have a dry, non-gale force camping trip in our own tent before we thought fuck it and sold the lot within 2 years of buying it. I shan't ever camp again!

Yanbu.
Too much work. Setting the tent up, filling up the water container, sorting out the gas oven.
Then if you need a loo you have to walk over a field which in the UK is often wet. Other campers make too much noise. Shower blocks with grim floors etc. I hate it. Also difficult to dry wet clothes.

I'm outsidey but I'm not outdoorsy. I am at peace with the fact that I can't do it, and I don't enjoy it at all, and that's ok!

Maybe it was too much with three nights when camping for the first time.

Like previous posters mentioned, it's important to have appropriate sleeping bags etc. for the weather, or you risk being too cold or too warm.

I love camping, it's so lovely waking up early hearing the sounds of the birds, and getting up and making coffee or tea on the portable stove, or even better on the campfire.

My first and last attempt at camping was way back during the 1970s on the hippy trail to Afghanistan! (There were no Taliban then). We did some camping and some nights in simple hotels. I preferred the latter because otherwise the girls got lumbered with the cooking. We travelled through Iran and Pakistan. Ive since been back as a solo traveller but never camping. I prefer the comparative luxury of a hotel.

YANBU. In my experience in order to make it vaguely comfortable you need so much gear it’s pointless. And trekking to toilet in middle of the night, being cold etc. last time we went it pissed down - I wanted to go home but it was too blowy to collapse the tent. Never again!

Yeah im not a fan. Either too hot or too cold.

I got put off camping for life,after going with the Girl Guides when I was 12/13. The first one was at the beginning of April,must have been the coldest April we'd had for years as I was freezing the whole time! There was a shower/toilet block on site,but it was about 500 yards from where the tents were pitched. I remember waking up one night desperate for a wee but being too scared to go across in the pitch dark. The previous evening, we'd been sitting around the camp fire telling ghost stories which goes some way to explaining my fear! I ended up waking my patrol leader to come with me. She was not amused.

Currently doing my crochet and watching deer run by, as my husband's lighting the BBQ to cook me and my daughter steak and salmon!

I'm in my mid-fifties and wouldn't want it any other way. Earlier this year we bought a gorgeous classic VW campervan for a surprisingly affordable price! You do need to have the right equipment though, we've got a decent size bed with memory foam mattress topper for example, I'm not a freaking martyr.

I don’t blame you! I’m fussy with sleep, and need a proper bed. Glamping is as far as I’d go!

Smidge is what you need to use to prevent bites

Micky Flanagan's take on camping holidays perfectly encapsulates my views on them🤣

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2bkXghN5Nc8

Micky Flanagan's take on camping holidays perfectly encapsulates my views on them🤣

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2bkXghN5Nc8

I say this too. Why stay somewhere shitter than your house 😂

Although I am a hypocrite as I like some things about camping. If the weather is nice and you have a decent tent and all the mod cons. My ex (who was a terrible person in so many ways!) was an excellent camper. She had EVERYTHING. Great air bed, modern luxurious tent, camping loo etc and she was a control freak so I 'wasn't allowed' to lift a finger or do any of the cooking and sorting things out which suited me fine in this one type of scenario not so much others 😂 and she just made it effortless.

We went camping for my birthday last year just before we parted ways and I basically enjoyed the lovely scenery and sat about drinking cider while she fussed and faffed over all the camping-related things. A good memory but I am in no rush to do it again.

You've not done it right!

I swore black and blue that I'd never go camping but my DC really wanted to. I was about 35, bought a cheap tent and went to a site with electric hook ups that offered lights and fridges as part of the deal.

A year later, I had an 8 sleeper tent, cooker, electric thingies, heaters, TV, fridges, fancy beds, cupboards, all sorts! I went with my DC and a friend with her DC. We camped with loads of friends with similar set ups, absolutely the best of times. We went all over the country but the worst time was when I'd upgraded the tent but brought the old tent poles with me and the new tent! We had to cobble it together and 14yr old DS was most affronted. 13yr old DS had lost all hope by then! Then we came back to said cobbled together tent after a day out to find a lady in floods of tears sitting outside who couldn't even string a sentence together. She was just crying and pointing! Turns out her and her family had arrived, were pitching up and a gust of wind took a tent pole which launched into our tent and tore a great hole! I gave her a hug and said I had a roll of gaffer tape 😆

Oh and the great idea friend and I had of camping with our DC and dogs in the February half term. The dogs had no water, had to lick ice from a bowl until we could smash it clear. I went first with my DC to set up, we clung together that night and I sent an SOS to friend to bring electric heaters, duvets, hot water bottles.

I miss those days!

I would rather poke my own eyes out with a stick than go camping. Hideous.

I love staying in the middle of nowhere, but I can do that in an isolated rural property that has walls and a bathroom.

I'm not quite sure what you expected it to be like, though?

Edit: I hated it when I was a kid too.