A little about camping, a marvelous holiday

Well folks

So here I am back from my hols in wonderful Cornwall, we had a few technical hitches the first two days, with the wind from hell.  Nowhere had this wind been forecast, no inkling of it anywhere, had led us to think there may be an issue before we got there.  Do remember this was half way through a promised month of heat wave.

The drive down was lovely, the very early start ensured the roads were clear practically all the way and we made it down to the campsite by just after nine.  Very pleasing progress. The sun had come up on the journey and there wasn’t a cloud in sight.  After the queue to get on to the site, it is a popular place, and a small discussion on where to pitch, our regular spots had been converted to electric hook up, most inconvenient, although we agreed it might be worth swallowing our camping pride and going with the hook up next year, for the sake of a quicker cup of tea.  We choose a lovely spot overlooking the dunes and the lighthouse on the edge of the site close to the sea and not too bad for the toilets.

Well by 10.30 the tent was half way up, and by 10.35 it was flat again, with 3 snapped poles and several guide ropes torn from their proper place.  The wind was bad.  We decided to put several heavy bags on what was left and concentrate on helping the other family we were on holiday with get theirs up and come back to it in a bit.  There were a lot of people flying tent shaped kites around the site that day.  Well one tent up and we returned to survey the damage.  It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, and after a shifty through the wonderful world of internet phones we found a camping supply shop and set out to buy new pole bits. Well the other half re-strung the poles and I got busy re-sewing on the guide ropes that had torn and also reinforcing the remaining ones, never travel without a sewing kit.  By mid-afternoon the tent was up, but the wind had not stopped and the bedroom pod taking the most bashing went again, luckily we had bought extras pole supplies and were able to quickly fix the pole again.  The day after we went out and bought the most heavy duty poles we could find and replaced all of the bedroom ones, just in case.  So we now have a practically bionic tent (we did rebuild it), that I’m sure will stand up to any sort of bashing the wind can throw at it.

The wind dropped after that anyway, but then came the rain.  No, on the whole we had a really good couple of weeks and came back rather tanned, but after a week of BBQ bans as the dunes were so dry and a real struggle to get a peg in as the ground was rock hard, the rain when it came was heavy and ran straight over the top of the ground not soaking in one bit. Our tent doesn't have a built in groundsheet so all of a sudden we had little rivers running through.  My ever resourceful other half set to work and dug little trenches, whilst I attempted to drill drainage holes with a spare peg, soon we were dry and secure again, feeling rather pleased with ourselves.

The rest of the holiday was filled with walks, swimming, body-boarding, and relaxing.  I tatted, practiced my ukulele playing, even read a little, as well as a little sight-seeing and next time I’ll tell you about some interesting little retro/vintage shops I found, once I have the photos sorted out. 

 Also there may be an end in sight to my job at last, remember the voluntary redundancy offer, so soon I will be able to get on with the purpose of Honey Pot Creations and start making some wonderful creations to get in my Etsy shop. 

Speak soon, luv ally x