Quote: Originally posted by brumb on 02/8/2013
Sarah you would have been driven crazy with the people next to us last week then. They had a camping sink set up outside and would happily go out for the day with the sink overflowing with dirty dishes, clothes all over the grass next to their pitch, dog bowl left out, BBQs from the previous evening left lying etc. I'm not one bit OCD but it drove me potty.
If any of you OCD people want to pop over and do my washing up, that would be fine. I wouldn't be offended by you walking across my pitch at all!
Although not a lover of Windbreaks, I feel obliged on occasion to place one at the front of our Tent, in order to give fellow campers opportunity to launch their football/frisbee/small child at something else rather than the faded old Outwell. It also adds variety to the 'Stare into the Tent' game for the more advanced players.
Having said earlier in this post that I didn't like windbreaks my words have come back to haunt me. On our recent camping trip we were surrounded by a large group who were very loud - kids and adults, who had generally no respect for any one else already pitched. We were made to feel that we were in their way, even though we had been there first. We went straight out and purchased windbreaks to at least give us some privacy and protect us from footballs etc!!
They really do have their uses,since first putting this post on I've learnt a hell of a lot from the responses....and a lot more respect for the humble windbreaker,and their owner's.
Well....funnily enough, just tonight I have been looking online for a windbreak. I have decided to make my own though, as they are all pretty unattractive, apart from the ones that aren't, and those ones are extortionate! I can buy windbreak poles for buttons on ebay, and have a set of 50s retro canvas curtains from my husband's late grandmother's house, just begging to be made into something lovely.
I want a windbreak or two for a few reasons. First of all to help with cooking outside, secondly for privacy reasons, and thirdly to stop other people inadvertantly tramping through our pitch. There IS something about a windbreak that says "Stop right there! Detour! Detour!".
If that is considered unsociable then I care not a jot....I don't go on camping holidays to pal up with the neighbours, although I am happy to chew the fat in communal areas, and in passing etc...
We aim to team them with an awning to create more living space, so we can eat outside even when it's raining.
If nothing else, it will deflect the attentions of The Staring Children. You all know the ones....they stand in front of you with those big eyes and blank expressions, not speaking, not smiling, just....staring.
It's worth a windbreak or two just to ward off the chilly infantile appraisal surely?
We have a windbreaker for keeping the wind out the tent when cooking and also to act as a safety net for incoming footballs mainly from my own son who no matter what direction he kicks the ball its always seems to be at the tent .
I also do like privacy at the end of the day it doesn't stop me being able to talk to other campers nor them being able to talk to me if they want to . It isn't a brick wall...
After our trip to the New Forest last week where we seemed to be on the flight path to the facilities, some folks almost tripping over the guy ropes in their determination to make a PB time, I pondered pitching our stripey-last-resort windbreak to create a diversion.
But, it did get me thinking and I came up with a potentially more 'natural' solution to the pitch encroachment problem: portable plastic hedging on spikes. Available in heath, hawthorn, copper beech or, for the really anti-social Leylandii, this stake-in temporary vegetation could add both beauty and containment to your pitch.
OK, they may not prevent the footballs nor dogs from wandering but that's when the windbreaks come into their own.
I think one or two WBs, suitably deployed for functional reasons are fine, but the wagon train/Berlin wall effect annoys me deeply for some unfathomable reason. It's the towel on the sunbed syndrome: I/we are more important and can make more of a claim to this space than you. But then I'm probably in need of some help and had a bad experience with rampaging WBs as a child .
Oh I do love a good debate and this one runs and runs
------------- Camping - emotional resilience in action, a triumph of hope over adversity and antidote to virtual reality.
Staring Children, I thought it was just us that seemed to attract that. They stand there, almost as if they know that you cant shout at them to go away. Occasionally they make the odd utterance - "Can I stroke your Dog", "Ive lost my ball", and increasingly often "Let me in Dad, its raining".
Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me how parents sat on neighbouring pitches sit there and watch there little darling roam around and invade others privacy, we actually watched one kiddie as he walked past our pitch stop and do a dynamic risk assessment before starting to try and climb one of the guy ropes to our front canopy! The poor kid was only 3 - 4 years and was only doing what a child that age does when left to roam, whilst his parents valiantly try and reduce the European white wine and lager lakes.
Shortly after this, the 1970's 'George and Mildred' style windbreak was deployed to good effect.
This has given me an idea for a separate thread, which will appear shortly....
Saw the mother of all windbreak set ups when away a few weeks ago! Two caravans who were together with awnings surrounding their whole pitch with around 15-20 muticoloured windbreaks to make a massive dog play area complete with child's stair gate to let them in and out!
On one hand I thought what a blot on the landscape but couldn't help thinking it was a genius way of keeping four dogs under control and would rather have that than dogs sniffing around our pitch or seeing bored dogs tethered all day.
------------- A problem shared is a problem halved
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Topic: windbreakers.....
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