anyone got a worse camping disaster than mine?

[PandaG]

Just back from first camping trip of the season. Arrived at campsite Fri afternoon, started to pitch the tent. I start putting the poles together while DH lays out the material.

DH looks at poles, says 'I have a horrible feeling...' and promptly confirms that he has packed the poles for out smaller tent, not the big one!

I suggest lookig for the nearest B&B but we do struggle on and pitch the tent after a fashion - tents are from the same range but one has 2 pods and one 4. Tent is just about habitable but wobbly and 2 pods are only 12" high.

Fortunately lovely friends came to join us on the Saturday, and brought the right poles down with them, so we repitched the tent properly - leaving ,ost of the stuff actually in it!

Come this morning we had to strike in torrential rain. Apart from that we had a lovely time!

So campers, tell me your tales of woe?

We went camping the other weekend without the inner tent (the only thing DH had to pack!).

Fortunately we have an Outwell with a SIG.

Unfortunately I now want a Bell tent!

I always want a new tent every trip, after having wandered round the site and eyed up the new tents!

We forgot the inner tent last May half term - thankfully we were only an hour away so DH drove back up for it. Then DS1 spent that night throwing up so we just threw the boys in the car by 6.00am and drove home leaving the tent and gear there! We spent the night back at home (was pouring down anyway), DS1 went to his grandparents and the rest of us went back down the next day!

We are setting off to the same site today (if DH ever gets back from work!) so let's hope we have better luck

We camped last year and (depsite me reminding him several times) dh left the bag with all of our clothes, towels, bedding at home... needless to say he went back for it AFTER pitching the tent!

We forgot the poles too! DH drove back (a 4.5 hour round trip) to get them. It was a bit mad as we could have stayed in our friends tents like me and the DC's did the first night but he was set on it!

We packed the wrong tent - thought we'd got the 2 bedroom/4 person one, but had a much dinkier one, plus had taken a grand total of 4 teenagers with us and one baby. Campsite wouldn't let us have 2 extra small tents for the teens, so there was only one, leaving me DP, DD and 2 teenage boys to squeeze in a 2 man tent....
Added to which DD refused to settle and we had a horrible evening - the next night I retreated with her to a B&B which was much nicer.
Plus DP decided to take fully laden car down a bumpy unmade road and nearly ripped the sump out.
We had another trip where the poles broke but just about held together with some tape and last year our roof box exploded on the A9 and scattered our wordly goods on the road. DP has just confessed it was his fault as he's forgotten to do up the clip on the front...we were rescued by a bunch of lovely scottish blokes who picked up all our stuff, lend us a rope to tie it up and then escorted up the the Kyle of Locash to get some more binding sorted.

We camped last year and pitched the tent in torrential rain. We were genuinely having a good time, actually - the children ran around in crocs and waterproofs and we were all laughing a lot. Because of the rain, we sent off one pair of parents to get a fish and chips for supper, which we all devoured with great gusto. The rain cleared late evening and the sunset was beautiful as the clouds cleared just in time for us to have a lovely drink outside the tent before we went to bed.

Then, after an hour's sleep, I woke to the sound of DD1 throwing up...a couple of times. We decided to abandon camp - the other family stayed. Then DD2 started being sick...and DD4 . And the other family's children were sick too. All the people who chose sausages from the chippy meal .

Very disappointing as it was our first camping trip with our bell tent and a lovely, lovely site. DH and my dad had to go back in the morning to pack up!

Lovely weekend camping last weekend with Mr S + landrover friends but being pg - airbed not comfy at moment so was up Sat pm/Sun am 0300 moaning at the noise of the party they were all still having! Very basic camping - portaloo, tap in corner of field type stuff - lots of rain Fri pm - hubby didn't shut door properly so very wet groundsheet next morning therefore wet bags, wet pants, wet socks, wet clothes - love it!! waiting for Mr S to finish restoring our vintage caravan we are "upgrading" to - in fact why isn't he working on it now!!!!!

Our tent was nearly set alight by drunk and inept neighbours somehow setting their gas canister on "flamethrower" mode and in their panic kicking it over to our pitch. Cue me desperately trying to alert snoring DP to imminent and painful death by roasting while he insisted I was overreacting. Then had to assist drunk neighbours to extinguish flaming gas - their attempts with glasses of water had been unsuccessful - and gently suggest that smearing body lotion on facial burns might not be as effective as cold water and visit to A & E. Haven't camped since, oddly enough!

exploding roofboxes, next doors flamethrowers, food poisoning and very cramping camping conditions all sound worse than our experience!

• our tent is nearfly dry now - is so big it takes days in stages in our tiny garden - I am now really looking forward to our next weekender and then our 2 weeks in the summer!

Any more tales of woe?

OMG, haven't laughed so much in ages! Now I remember why I can't bear camping. SO looking forward to my summer hols under a solid roof with flushing toilets!!

I went to Devon last year, put the new tent up and one of the poles snapped while putting it up. No replacement poles at local camp shop, Kyham couriered one to campsite but it took 2 days to get to me.

So I bought another tent from local tent shop. Drove back to campsite and unpacked it only to find one of the poles was broken before I even got it out of box.

Rang up the shop and sobbed down the phone, refused to go back to get another and insisted they came to me with another tent. Young lad came out with another tent and pitched it for me. He ripped a bog home in the outer as he was doing this. He managed to make a tent using the poles from one and the outer from another.

DH had stayed at home but it was at some point between Tent 1 and Tent 2 that I rang him up crying and told him if he didn't leave work and drive for 6 hours to get his arse over here I'd divorce him. He came!

bog home = big hole. Really must type slower and preview.

About 2 years ago went to a HE camp with 3 little ones age 1, 3 & 7 on my own

It rained

The HE people were really rude and unfriendly

The teenagers decided it was ok to stay up ALL night making horrendous noise and having loud conversations all night (needless to say i then let my 3 out to play football nice and early

I got attacked by mossies and my feet swelled up to twice the size - i could hardly walk and had to go to NHS walk in centre

I crashed the car on my way home and it took me about 6 hours on back of recovery truck

Never again will i camp and we dont HE anymore

ok...this happened when I was a teenager and I have never gone camping since...

Supposed to go camping with girl guides...fatal accident just in front of us on way to meet the coach, had to take massive detour and only just arrived in time.
My kit bag was left in a pile of water when unloading and all my clothes got wet.
2 of us in a four person tent...we froze each night.

Went horse riding...but one of the women fell off, broke her arm, and we had to stand there for 2 hours while the ambulance men got to her on a deserted moor as she refused to either walk or ride back to the stables.

Bus driver had a heart attack and died that night.

He was the para-gliding leader so I eneded up having to go caving with 2 men who were so misoginistic they must have trained Chris Moyles.
Went into the worst cave in the peak district. They took us through the smallest cave passage and one girl got stuck, had hysteria, kicked her legs screaming...I was lying behind her (we had to crawl through on our bellies). I ended up talking her back out. Had a torrential rain storm while we were udnerground, cave filled up with water, we almost drowned trying to get out. I did drown, they revived me, then hauled me up a rope through a waterfall, and then the van had broken down so we had to walk 4 miles back to camp wet through. Got back to camp where they had struck the tents already and ended up in a coach soaking wet for 3 hours.

Next day I counted the bruises on my legs: I have over 40 on each leg.
That day was school sports day and I was supposed to be doing the long jump. I hobbled to the playing fields.

I will never go camping again, it's not my thing.

To think I posted last week that the worst camping experience I had was dh forgetting our clothes..
Camped this weekend with some friends- I was really ill on Friday when we got there and almost went home but it passed after a couple of hours and all was OK. Then my friend got exactly the same thing on Saturday.
Worst was dd waking up at 11.45 last night being sick everywhere inside the pod she was sharing with ds. It was EVERYWHERE and she was too ill to walk to the toilet block so I had to boil kettles of water and wash her in the tent and brush the sick out of her hair. She then slept on a blanket and dh had to run into the bushes with her in the middle of the night when she had diarrhoea - no way she'd have made it to the toilets. I then spent most of the night jumping up wvery time she moved in case she was about to be sick again.
The campsite has a barrier that closes at 11.30 and you can't get out so we had no choice but to stay (we couldn't find security to let us out)

Bizarrely, we still had a good time!

As well as the exploding roofbox last year, I also took a tick off DD's neck, had a fraught conversation with NHS direct about Lymes Disease - nearly stabbed DP with a pen when de decided to drive off whilst I was speaking with the Doctor and lost the phone signal (I was cross) and ended up taking DD to local GP's anyway with a fat red finger - she been bitten by a horsefly at the beach!
Got invaded by midges in the tent - counted 40 bites on one arm - luckily I don't react to them.
Saying all that - I loved the Highlands. The kids love a bit of minor drama on holiday too

We're going to Wales this year!

There is no such thing as a camping disaster, only camping adventures!

My friend's dd (age 7) got bitten by an adder when they went camping in the New Forest. So she swapped a canvas roof for three nights on a camp bed in the local hospital. Luckily her dd was OK (just!).

Well take waterproofs!! Like full storm gear....

I took my dc to south wales last year. Arrived and managed to pitch in sunshine. That night I came down with Swine flu and the rain started.
So I'm 5 hours drive from home, not that I could have driven home then if I had tried, and the rain is coming down so hard that one of the poles snapped. It also became apparent that this tent was not designed for Welsh rain and started leaking.
It got so wet INSIDE the tent that the slugs and ducks were moving in, and all I wanted to do was sleep. My dc's (then 6 and 11) were stars bless them - they fed me sandwiches in my sleeping bag, and shooed out the loudest ducks.

I had taken waterproofs for the kids thankfully but ds (6) took about 15 mins to get more mud inside his than there was on the outside, then cos I wasn't really focussed, he got in his sleeping bag to warm up still in his clothes so inside the bag also was covered in said mud.

Haven't ventured into a tent again yet.

Well take waterproofs!! Like full storm gear....

I took my dc to south wales last year. Arrived and managed to pitch in sunshine. That night I came down with Swine flu and the rain started.
So I'm 5 hours drive from home, not that I could have driven home then if I had tried, and the rain is coming down so hard that one of the poles snapped. It also became apparent that this tent was not designed for Welsh rain and started leaking.
It got so wet INSIDE the tent that the slugs and ducks were moving in, and all I wanted to do was sleep. My dc's (then 6 and 11) were stars bless them - they fed me sandwiches in my sleeping bag, and shooed out the loudest ducks.

I had taken waterproofs for the kids thankfully but ds (6) took about 15 mins to get more mud inside his than there was on the outside, then cos I wasn't really focussed, he got in his sleeping bag to warm up still in his clothes so inside the bag also was covered in said mud.

Haven't ventured into a tent again yet.

Oops....how did that happen?