Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Tell me your horror camping stories

51 replies

deepsea · 27/08/2018 09:31

I am in a foul mood. It had rained all weekend. Children are so bored. I have used up all of my fun summer ideas/crafts/Betty Crocker cake mixtures/energy/money and just need to lie in bed for a day (at least) undisturbed.
They want to go camping and have everything out of the cupboard now, tents, sleeping bags etc and are busy packing toys in bags cheerfully. It is cold, it is raining and I have just finished reading the camping in Cornwall thread.

Please tell me how I can put them off! Even dh is not ‘adverse’ to the camping idea he thinks the weather is going to clear up!

I can’t face it on any level

OP posts:

peachypetite · 27/08/2018 09:33

Let them go and have some peace and quiet alone?

Popfan · 27/08/2018 09:37

Yes - send them off with your DH!

OhMyGodTheyKilledKenny · 27/08/2018 09:39

How about a compromise? Let them camp in the garden.

(Then you're near all your home comforts if they want to abandon the idea in the middle of a rainy day/night)

ScreamingValenta · 27/08/2018 09:45

Camping horrors - there was the time it hammered down and the tent started to flood because the ground was very hard, and DH and I had to run round trying to irrigate the grass by making holes with spare tent pegs.

Another time there was a high wind and the top section of our tent came off .

A self-inflicted one was where I drank too much red wine and had to get up and be sick in the awning at 5am. When I got up a few hours later, my dog had kindly 'cleaned it up' for me .

MargaretDribble · 27/08/2018 09:52

We went to a Christian camp with very prescriptive rules. All doors must face the same way etc. The way ours was pitched was contrary to the manufacturers instructions regarding prevailing winds.
There were extremely strong winds, a pole snapped and went through the canvas
We abandoned the camp and the tent joined the many, many others in the skip tent graveyard.
Not surprisingly they have relaxed the rules since.

DontMakeMeShushYou · 27/08/2018 09:56

One year the tent didn't survive a storm. But that was mostly because it was old and the fibreglass poles were splitting. It was a tent I'd borrowed. I've survived plenty of other storms since in my own tents.

The weather is going to clear up though and we are going camping later this week. Sorry, not much help.

DeadZed · 27/08/2018 10:02

Camping in the rain with DC is rubbish. Why not let them build a den in the lounge and camo downstairs while you stay in bed?

DeadZed · 27/08/2018 10:05

ScreamingValenta there is nothing worse than looking at a dog that has cleaned up vomit and not knowing whether to be make it live outside or being eternally grateful that you don't have to deal with the vomit anymore...

ScreamingValenta · 27/08/2018 10:08

DeadZed I was glad I didn't have to do more than wipe the area down, but the thought of what my dear dog had done did nothing to ease my hangover!

thinkofablinkingnamewoman · 27/08/2018 10:11

I went camping in Ireland as a student. Campsite one was in a farm field with a wooden shower cubicle in the middle. Went for shower, humongous spider fell off the ceiling and landed on my head. I screamed and ran out of the cubicle, to bemused looks from some of the other campers at this dripping wet naked woman screaming as if possessed.

I still go camping but I am very careful to check for spiders first

BlossomCat · 27/08/2018 10:15

Many years ago, dh and I were lying in our tent in the afternoon.we were camped on a flat bit below a slope.
We heard shouting from above, and saw through the small open flaps, a car carreering down the slope towards our tent.
I have never moved so fast!
Thankfully, the idiot teenager at the wheel was able to take evasive action, and it only went over the guy ropes.
I am always very wary of where I pitch my tent now!

I don't mind camping in the wind and rain, there's something about it that brings out the 'mother hen' in me, and I gather everyone close and enforce snuggles on them

honeylulu · 27/08/2018 10:18

Camped at a festival last year. Our teen who hates camping came under sufferance on the basis I promised to stay up and see the DJ sets with him. Unfortunately these went on until 2.30am. I was then woken at 6 by my howling toddler. It became evident she was quite unwell. Took her to the medical tent, they thought she had tonsilitis (she did). We decided to go home by which time it was pouring with rain and we were sliding in mud trying to take the tent down, passing howling feverish toddler between us. Gave up and went home without tent. Toddler ended up in hospital. H had to go back and collect tent next day. Never again!

Kahlua4me · 27/08/2018 10:18

Me and both dc had d&v whilst camping in Cornwall a few years ago.
But on different days and always overnight, so we would all go to bed not knowing who was going to be ill. Dh was fine the whole time.

When it was me I parked our car outside the toilet block and slept in it, just running in to the loo when necessary!

Not to be recommended...

Original poster

deepsea · 27/08/2018 10:19

Thank you all for making me smile and laugh, and I have been reading them to dh who is blanching visibly at the potential prospect of being up all night 😁 dc have stated we need ‘family quality time’ and that I just HAVE to be with them. It won’t be the same without me (whinging relentlessly) apparently. 🙄

OP posts:

tarheelbaby · 27/08/2018 10:20

Aren't all camping stories horror stories? As someone said on another thread, 'humans built shelters and moved inside them for a reason'. People think IABU but seriously, how if your standard of living drops, it's not a holiday. And then, when you're done, all the clobber has to be cleaned and stowed.

To be fair, in some situations, I can see the point - it's the only way to enjoy the stunning scenery of some of the world's most remote areas (think Alaska, the Himalayas) but that's not necessary anywhere in the UK.

Let your DCs camp in the back garden. But be warned, you'll have to clean all the kit and pack it away when they come in.

Kahlua4me · 27/08/2018 10:21

Ps I think you should go though, will be great fun and kids will be happy😀

Original poster

deepsea · 27/08/2018 10:23

No one is usually interested in ‘family quality time’ apart from me 364 days of the year... why now on cold rainy bank holiday do they decide this concept has some merit after all?!

OP posts:

Duchessgummybuns · 27/08/2018 10:24

Projectile vomiting 4 year old in the wee hours of the morning (not envy)

Original poster

deepsea · 27/08/2018 10:25

There isn’t enough wine in the world to make me want to do this tonight. Seriously I can’t even begin to tell you how much I do NOT want to go

OP posts:

ScreamingValenta · 27/08/2018 10:25

tarheelbaby Camping in hot weather is wonderful. Waking to birdsong. Crawling out of the tent straight into the glorious sunshine; al fresco breakfast; barbecue in the evening and sitting outside as the sun goes down with a few drinks and the dog snoozing at your feet. Camping is fabulous if you are a people-watcher too - settling down to watch new arrivals pitch their tents and so forth.

IgglePigglesAnnoyingGiggle · 27/08/2018 10:26

I don't have any stories for you because camping is my idea of hell, but in your situation I was cheerfully see them off at the door and have a lovely day or so to myself.

Basecamp65 · 27/08/2018 10:26

Just about to head off on our 7th camping trip of this year - pretty typical for us.

Went to my 125th festival this year as well

Not a single horror story - Sorry!!!

DianaTheHuntress · 27/08/2018 10:31

I remember camping in a very large tent at a festival with a huge bunch of friends. It rained all night and of course the tent started letting in water. I hardly slept as my feet were wet and cold. When I did get to sleep, I then awoke early in the morning to see one friend asleep in the foyer section of the tent with a river of rain water parting round the head of his sleeping bag and all the way round him while he slept on. In the background my shoe and apples if brought along as a healthy snack were bobbing around on top of a pond of water.

My friend’s car ended up having to be pushed out of a muddy bog at the end as it had rained so much. Other people were less fortunate and their cars were up to the wing mirrors in water!

The toilets and showers were freezing cold completely revolting, as has been the case at every British campsite I’ve ever been to.

It was hellish. Put me off festivals for life! No wonder everyone is pissed / on drugs all weekend at festivals - it’s the only way they could possible be bearable . And you probably won’t have that option camping with dcs. Don’t do it!

Blessingsdragon1 · 27/08/2018 10:35

Went camping at haven type place - ate McDonald's last thing at night but it was vile so put in the porch. Woke up at 5 to the tent being invaded by thoudands of sesgulls fighting over the food. Nearby campers were not amused - plus there was gull shit over everything

DianaTheHuntress · 27/08/2018 10:40

Oh that reminds me blessing; on the way home from the aforementioned festival, I stopped at McDonalds. I’d spent the last two days of the festival drying out a dress to wear on the last day so I’d be slightly clean. I then had to push my friend’s car out of the mud in the bog / car park. When her car suddenly started, I fell flat on my face in the mud, so I was covered heat to toe in shit stinking mud. We arrived at the drive through window, the woman behind the till said “excuse me, do you mind me asking what you’ve been doing”? So funny and I could laugh by then as I was in my then bf, (now dh’s), car and comfortable!

Flip

1 2 3