Ours was the only tent left standing on our Cornish trip last week - I think I am going off camping.

[MehgaLegs]

The wettest of wet weather ever. The site was flooded when we got there. We piad £250 to camp on a flowing stream.

Mud, wind, strange smells.

Gale force winds on Weds meant 1 in 5 of the campers went home. The skip was full of tents. Our friends salvaged enough poles from the skip to fix there tent.

I am knackeres. I would like to lay on a sunlounger and read a book.

Bizarrely I look back on last week with a strange fondness.

And LTH and I never managed to meet up.

that "strange fondness" will have you going back there next year

It's like banging your head against a brick wall...feels so fabulous when you stop

I was thinking of you all, as this is the first summer in 4 years we weren't camping in cornwall last week (does that make sense???)

Our house sitters had made up the beds, filled the fridge and the house was immaculate. It was great coming home.

The boys have put there little tent up at the end of garden and only come in for meals.

I have just emailed Lichfield tents to tell them our tent was fab in the gales and rain and how clever they are and that we now need something bigger and would deffo buy from them again. DH reckons it was a blatant attempt at getting a discount on a new tent. .

we had a house sitter too (a friend who was having building wrk done) so the house was actually tidier than when we left it , she had left us wine and cake and she had bought posh ultra soft loo roll
She's house sitting for us again this weekend whiule we go festivalling.

This sounds similar to our experience on Spring Bank holiday, I swore we would never go again and cried with frustration on the way home.

We have booked (and paid in advance) to go next week, If the weather is crap, I may slash the tent to pieces and completly give up.

oh no, that sounds awful

I have added a photo of our muddy pitch on my profile. At this stage it had dried out, it was a running stream when we arrived

ummm yes, its not always that bad though, just last year and this year my dh is in Wales in the rain at the mo......in the huge tent, we'll be joining him at the weekend if it dries up a bit.....

omg! we've just bailed out of S Wales and I have spent the afternoon happily baking stuff I picked in the garden (fruit and veg, rather than slugs I hasten to add).

I am planning on camping in Cornwall for the Whit Holidays next year - possibly near Padstow. Wondering if that's such a good idea now.

Why did you bale out of Wales you old wuss? Is the bunting not waterproof?

MehgaLegs...I thought you were going to buy a Cabanon Biscaya?

bramblebooks God sorry, have been thinking all this time you had a stream in your back garden, when actually it is a novel

apologies

omg MehgaLegs that was your pitch Were you really close to the tent next door, i couldn't make it out?

oh no Mega, what a shame

pmsl! wanted to be brambles, but it's taken, so stuck with an early ebay alter!

well slubbers me old diamond, I had an internal water feature in my tent, a creaking barn behind the pitch, gales forecast and a hankering to be with himself and a bottle of wine. heart emoticon. Anyway, the boys had a good time and we're looking forwards to getting away soon - as soon as the kind man from blacks has organised giving us the new waterproofing he promised today and I've painted the tent.

Do you have any spare apples? I have blackberries

(sorry for hijack, megha!)

... actually megha, can I borrow your housesitters? Not that I'm actually going anywhere, but I could nip out to do the weekly shop whilst they work their magic

Bramble a tonnes of apples. Help yourself when they are done growing

sorry mehga hijack over

yum! thanks slubber - I'm batch baking and freezing stuff at the moment!

megha - you have absolutely gorgeous kids. Glad we're away from our camping water features.

The tent in the shot is our friends but , yes they do pack 'em in. We are not going to that site ever again. It is expensive, the facilities are expensive and the site is crowded. Also they made no effort to look after their clients this week. Weather was extreme, site waterlogged, most pitches empty but they would not let us move to a dryer pitch as it was booked, despite the family who had booked it having left early. £4 to use washing machine, we suggested, as everyone had a lot of wet, dirty clothing they might waive/lower the price - no!

No effort was made to help out soggy, windblown campers.

slubber - the cabanon went by the by this year. Maybe next year although I have to say our litle lichfield tent was fab.

omg that's terrible - mind you we had a similar experience last summer with an over crowded, expensive campsite in Cornwall. But we did have fabulous weather which made it tolerable -that campsite (Trevornick near Newquay)was one of the reasons why we went to France this summer!

make sure you leave a review here and on ukcamping.

Which site was it btw?

I remember your post last year about wind noise. I took it to heart and bought a Cabanon (not a biscaya though, will need to sell a lung to buy one ).

Glad your Litchfield didn't leak.

You need to name and shame that site. How awful they wouldn't let you move out of your stream.

lol "at just call me Barbara" Mehgalegs, you do have bonnie bairns, I have never seen tents pitched so close!

I am not put off camping after being devoured by midges on Loch Maree, I never react to midge bites, but had over 30 of them after recent wild camping trip, I was in itchy agony for days, I forgot to apply skin so soft under my jeans! we slept on the rockiest outcrop dh could find, still I didn't mind.

saw massive dragonflies and dc paddled in the mild water on a sandy shore before the wind dropped and the midge descended in clouds.