it was 2010 and i had tickets to go to badminton horse trials. Went with a mate and it was much cheaper to camp down there rather than travel in and out. She had some camping gear so off we went!
Tent was a tiny 2 man dome tent out of argos. I'm 5ft 7 and i couldn't stretch out! First couple of days were ok, some rain but then some sun. 4th night arrived, and so did a massive storm. The tent was shaking and wobbling like mad. Luckily it held and whne we woke up in the morning, there were very few people still in their tents. Most had abandoned and slept in the car.
Didnt matter though, next year rolled around and with some upgraded kit off we went again. This year the friend isnt coming so i've thoroughly enjoyed buying all my own camping gear. Now i have my mom hooked and am trying to organise a massive family camping holiday (approx 9 of us!)
------------- 24th - 28th August Barn House Farm
2/3rd - 9th may 2016 - badminton horse trials
6th - 11th July 2016 silver stone woodlands
Our first camp was in May 2008 we had just bought our first tent, brother-in-law kept banging on about how great camping was so we thought we would give it a try.
We bought a Coleman Cedar Creek which was on offer at go outdoors and a few bits and bats, cooker, table & 2 cheap chairs, cheap airbed and sleeping bags and away we went.
We stayed for one night at the Serenity in Hinderwell North Yorkshire and we were absolutely frozen, we had gone with friends who were seasoned campers and they put us right on a few pointers and although we were cold it didn't put us off.
4 years on we now have 4 tents of various shapes and sizes and enough gear to set up camp twice over, every year we say we don't need anything else, but there is always something that we just need to buy lol
Needless to say we now go camping far more that my borther and sister-in-law do, think we have well and truely got the bug.
I can't remember exactly when I had my first camping trip, but it must have been in the early 60's with my parents. I have one memory of this camping trip which has stayed with me. In the days before camp-beds or airbeds, we had to make a mattress by filling a large Hessian sack with hay or straw from the local farm. I think it was called a “ pally-ass “ but we all called it a
“ friendly donkey “
My parents bought a trailer tent back when I was about 5 or 6 (36 now) and our first trip was to lower lacon at Wem, I remember the kiddies 10p ride outside the shop, and some ponies in a field near our tent. I hope to go back to Lower Lacon some time this year to take my kids.
1966 Wallasey Youth Club Camp in Welshpool on the N. Wales border.
Sounds well-organised, but was really just a gang of about twenty teenagers heading out for adventure with old, leaky tents piled into the back of a flatbed truck, into which the teenagers piled also! (Would be illegal these days!)
We had one loo for both sexes, in the farmer's outhouse. Tents were pitched in a field full of cowpats. I shared one of those tiny pup tents with a friend (good thing she was a good friend, as there wasn't room for one, never mind two!) It was about three foot high and five foot long and had no walls and no ridge, so when the guy ropes went slack it bowed in the middle.
The lads scared the hell out of us over the campfire, telling horrible stories about the 'Grey Wolf of Welshpool', a ghostly creature who was the size of a horse and could be heard howling for twenty-five miles up and down the valley. A mist came down after midnight and bathed the tents in dew, so that they leaked even though it wasn't raining! Above the mist there was a full moon, so you could see right across the field and it was almost like dawn all through the night.
My pal and I walked 14 miles round the local roads, just to prove we could do it. We only had sneakers, so we ended up with blisters, and I had a huge one on the ball of my foot. We got into big trouble with the team leader for not telling them we were going to be away so long. To tell the truth, we didn't KNOW we'd be away so long. We'd only intended to go around the next field, but we got adventurous, then we got lost!
The second night, the rain set in and at dawn we rolled up the tents and retired to the farmer's barn, where we had a really great time singing pop songs and playing various anarchic versions of 'I-Spy'.
When the truck came back for us, we piled in the tents and scant equipment, thanked the farmer for his kindness and headed off home. It was still pouring with rain, so we had to huddle under a tarpaulin for forty miles, holding it down with numb fingers.
The memories are as clear today as if it happened only last week. It was a terrific experience, and whilst I can't honestly say I enjoyed every minute, I did enjoy it hugely and would do it again any day!
It was good to do something like that at an early age, as I've never been afraid of 'roughing it' since, and though we camp in considerably more comfort nowadays, I still yearn for that tiny tent and the sleeping-bag which were the only bits of camping kit I possessed! Ah the simplicity!
Hedgehugger was on that trip too. I'll see if she recalls any more of the details.
What a fantastic thread, there are some cracking diaster stories on here!!
Back in the early 80's I had finished school/college and my 2 best friends and I borrowed a 2 man ridge tent, a sleeping bag each and a single gas burner and set off for Normanby Hall, near Sc**thorpe. To the proper campsite part? On no no no, in the woods where you aren't meant to camp we found a level patch and squeezed in. The basic supplies all started with the letter B, bread, beans bacon and beer. The nights were spent hiking in the pitch black, spotting the meteorite showers, telling ghost stories and putting the willies up each other (not in a Brokeback Mounatin sense!!) Around dawn we got up and explored the deserted country park, which had a lovely duckpond. In the early morning sunlight we could see hundreds of fish basking on the surface and we managed to poach several roach of about half a pound each which ended up being baked and spit roasted for breakfast. It was a bit anarchic, perhaps not behaviour I would condone these days, but god, it was fantastic. There was no one to annoy, we burnt off a lot of energy and, like most peoples first time, have memories that will last a lifetime. In many ways it was a bit of a rite of passage, and would I do it again - you bet!!
My first real camp was way back in about 1968/9 with my parents and two sisters. We had a pre-loved blue Lichfield frame tent which my sister and Dad put up: he'd colour-coded the pole ends with paint as most of the springs had gone...
We camped at Red Shoot Inn near the New Forest: seeing the site in the last edition of Camping brought back so many memories of that night. Dad using words I'd not heard before, a strange smell (we'd pitched over the cesspit I believe !) and eating pink Smash after tomato soup with frankfurters - all cooked on a 'bleuet' style camp stove in an enamel saucepan.
I can't decide if my born-again zeal is cos I like camping or whether I'm nostalgic about my past? Mind you, I am undergoing therapy as part of my course so who knows what's being dredged up!
------------- Camping - emotional resilience in action, a triumph of hope over adversity and antidote to virtual reality.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Do you remember your first time?
