Camping- how do you cook when it's raining?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

We're setting off for our holiday on Friday night, first day of holiday is Saturday and the weather has forecast rain for the first week at least

This is our first time going camping, we assumed it wouldn't really be safe cooking inside the tent but what else are we meant to do if it's going to be raining so much?!

Trangia but keep away from children

What are you taking that you have filled a car and 240 box and have no table?

Can you buy a bigger box? We use a tarp for cooking under in rain with our electric hob or our tent technically has a large porch we could open the door on and cook in.

What’s in these 6! Large vacuum bags? As a family of five we took a small suitcase for clothes and vacuum packed only towels and pillows.

Another tip is to check your car boot if you have a spare tyre in there. There is lots of space around the tyre where you can pack things like torches, lights. Brilliant little dead space! Also second to put all bedding around the kids. We have two kids and a dog in the back and pack the sleeping bags and small suitcases in the footwells. Pillows around the kids heads, jackets and other squashy things behind the headrests. It is a squeeze and we have a big car, big roof box and still never have an inch of space left

Also when picking a spot if that's an option, see if there is a suitable tree that gives a bit of shelter, also good for sticking a big umbrella in

Remember to take some gaffa tape, it's invaluable when camping.

Never a truer word spoken!

We have a massive trailer and a roof box and we're still packed into the car like sardines when we go camping.

Tent
Porch
Footprint
Carpet
3 chairs
Folding baby seat
Kitchen
Stove
Gas bottle
2 air beds (1 double 1 single)
Camping cot
2 sleeping bags (1 double 1 single)
Weeks worth of clothes for 4
Cooking equipment (pans, utensils etc)
Fridge
6 towels (1 each plus 2 spare, DH insisted on spares)
Snacks and drinks for the journey

Thanks @barkette for the suggestion of the shelter. I've just ordered one! (Although sadly not available for this weekend's trip) have put off buying a gazebo due to the size and space in the car but I'm hoping this is much smaller??

Order tarps and rope to the nearest Amazon locker near your destination. Once the car is emptied at the site, go and pick up the order. Chances are you'll have more room on the way back as you would have used a lot of what you took with you.

Ok can you define a weeks worth of clothes?? Are you taking changes of clothes for evening etc? You say single and double sleeping bag..what rating are they? Are they going to keep you warm? Have you tried the airbeds out? You sound like you’ve got everything you need but maybe too many clothes. The reality of camping is T-shirt shorts day time. Pants socks and jumpers evening. If going out for tea then that T-shirt gets worn the next day etc. Just make sure you have enough to layer up as it goes cold of a night ..I always started wrapping up warm before I got cold as once my feet are cold I can’t get warm.

Too late for this trip but I'd recommend getting a Trangia for cooking. It packs inside itself to the size of a pan and then you just need a bottle of meths. That way you can get rid of the stove, gas bottle, pans, kettle etc. We also stopped using our BBQ and just buy disposables as despite having a large estate car and the largest roof box, we really struggle for space!

I recently took a 4 and 7 year old camping and took a fresh t-shirt for each day but shorts for every other day. Obviously this doesn't apply to the baby, they are filthy. Take 3 towels, not 6, kids can share.

Put the cooker under a bush. The saucepan will stop the flame from going out.

Okay, here's what we did last week with some iffy weather forecasts...

• cook your main meal earlier in the day if weather is better then
• look up local fish and chip takeaways nearby and their opening hours (we had fish and chips twice last week due to weather). Cost is usually cheaper than a pub
• pub (again look up prices in advance, do you have meerkat meals from getting insurance through compare the market, Tesco vouchers etc).

Check if your campsite has a laundry facility. If so, you can take less clothes and towels and wash/dry half way through your holiday. Take a couple of laundry tablets with you though.

I know you don't have much space so this probably isn't an option for now. We took a small slow cooker and cooked curry one day. We heated up microwave Uncle Bens rice with some water on our camping stove. It was really good on a colder day.

I find a good dose of planning really helps when camping during wet weather.

Not sure about all these people who never cook inside their tent, everyone I've ever seen camping cooks inside the tent when it's raining! We camped at the beginning of May (2° and snow that weekend) so there was no way we were standing outside over our camping stove!

And OP your list of camping stuff looks pretty minimal. That's got to fit in a car and roof box unless you have a Fiat 500...

Don't forget your mallets OP. Knocking pegs in with a shoe is a pain in the arse.

And your washing line and pegs.

Good luck OP! Hope you have a lovely holiday

DH dug his mallet out of the garage a couple of weeks ago! He bought some fancy pegs too, best not forget to pack those

Thanks Perrys, I hope so too! I'm going to take the dog to kennels shortly and then the car loading will commence! I'll come back later and let you know how it went.

The campsite has its own beach so with any luck, the forecast rain will sod off and we can have some sun!

Why are you taking the dog to Kennels? Part of the joy of camping is that did love it too and can come with us

As much as we love the dog, we don't want our holiday restricted by taking her with us. Cornwall is very dog friendly but there are still plenty of places that don't allow them.

We always have an electric hook up so I take my Von chef multi cooker pan. We use it in the porch if it's raining and it's great for breakfast fry ups , one pot chicken stews and for bolognese and chilli. We also have a Weber go anywhere bbq which is fine to use in the rain as you use it with a cover on. We just stand over the chimney starter with an umbrella to get it going. We only take a small single gas burner for when we want to cook rice or pasta and I've even used that in the rain with an umbrella and keeping the saucepan lid on.

Obviously if it's absolutely chucking it down the best option is the pub.

Where in Cornwall are you going to?

DH has gone out to buy a 500ltr roof box. We tried lots of different ways of fitting everything in. But most things are just so bulky and our car is SHIT. It's got a deceptively small boot

We are going to a campsite near Padstow that we've been to a couple of times before but hired a static caravan. You have a great view of the Padstow lifeboat station from the beach and you can go and watch the lifeboat practice launch on a Wednesday evening which is pretty cool.

Everything (almost) is in! Just need to shrink the pillows when we get up to leave tonight.