Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 15/1/2026
..... It died in a gale at Salcombe sometimes in the 70s.
Mmmmm, Tent's and Gales!!!!
Fond memories ('cos we survived unscathed and many didn't!) of camping on Golden Cap in Dorset in the PTC Igloo once again, must have been about 1990. With the then partner and her young son. I didn't have a lot of camping experience, maybe a hand full of times, but they'd never camped before.
If anyone knows the region, they'll know the camp site is situated atop a cliff, arguably the highest point on the south coast, and not a lot of shelter from the elements from any direction! The camp site was quite new, the shrubs and trees planted to provide shelter were far too young and small to be of much effect, decorative but little else!
Well, one night a gale blew up, and even though the Igloo tent was significantly less influenced by wind than many tents, because of it's relatively streamlined shape and fully sew in groundsheet which stopped the wind getting in and lifting the flysheet, the wind did get under it and the SIG 'rippled' like a Lilo on a rough sea! It was a little disturbing to say the least. But going through my head was what happens if the pegs lift! - we're just going to blow away tumbling end over end in our canvas 'bag'!!!!!! Visions of grisly ends all mushed up hundreds of feet below on the beach did surface!!!!! Not a lot of options that seemed better than just hunker down and hope our weight was sufficient anchorage, opening the flap seemed certain to get no more than one of us out before the wind grabbed the tent and tumbled it and remaining occupants off to their doom!!!!!
When it quietened a little, I did venture to open the flap and peer out to see what carnage there was in the semi darkness. Greeted by a somewhat surreal sight, bearing in mind a LOT of tents of that era were frame tens, there were a few flattened/mangled tents and suggestions of people taking refuge in their cars, but perhaps the most lasting memory was the back lit silhouettes cast onto flysheets of so many people with arms above there heads holding on to tent frames!!!!
Come the morning when we surfaced after a 'rough night', and ventured outside, the camp site had become a ghost town, there was hardly anyone left on site, they must have packed up what remained of the gear and scarpered at first light!
Never been keen on clifftop campsites since then!
The first year I had the caravan, I stayed on a site on the edge of the Peak District, it was not exactly on top of a cliff, but it was near a gorge! Had a Deja Vu (Golden Cap revisited!) moment when a squall hammered up the gorge and the caravan rocked alarmingly, so much so my cup of tea was slopping around! The Poplar trees on the edge of the site were near doubled over and I expected to hear the crack of shattered trunks. Sat there with my slopping tea wondering at what point do caravans fall over! …. that and gratitude that I'd decided NOT to put the awning up!
Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
I have a feeling that my friend's ridge-tent was ex-army too, probably his dad's. I remember it weighing a ton and having huge wooden poles, no fly-sheet or ground sheet. All our gear, such as we had, went in the back of his mini-van, and we had the idea that if things got rough we could sleep in the back of that. Fortunately we had lovely weather and didn't need to.
I did have one bad experience weather-wise though after I got married and had bought a frame tent. It was in Dawlish and we had camped somewhere on top of a hill. A howling gale blew up in the night and we woke to find ourselves outside the tent which had blown over. We secured it as best we could before spending the rest of the night in our Mk2 Ford Consul. Me on the front seat and my wife in the back. It wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad. At least it was dry but the wind did rock the car quite a bit! We repaired that tent and had a few more holidays with it, and it is still up in our loft to this day. Last time it was used was in the back garden a as temporary home for the stuff out of our shed while I erected a new one. I think that was in 2015.
My first camping experience was in the early 2000s. My parents didn’t go on holidays so as a child, I never went anywhere so was very excited to try camping when I met my future husband. We bought a little tent with living area and set off for north wales on the early May bank holiday weekend. We arrived at the site and were told to pitch wherever we liked in the tent field which was already pretty full. My future husband spotted a little hillock and decided to pitch the tent on it. We had a lovely afternoon and evening but the rain started just as we were going to bed. It rained torrentially all night but we were snug and warm and dry inside our lovely wee tent. We heard a bit of noise during the night of people moving about but didn’t really think much of it until the next morning when we got up and discovered we were alone in the field and appeared to be on a tiny island surrounded by water. The field had flooded in the night and everyone’s tents had flooded apart from ours on the little hillock. It didn’t put us off though and we have been camping in tents, trailer tents and now caravans ever since.
Nowhere near as intrepid as the tent campers - although I did camp out in a few awnings at horse shows as a teen. In the early 90s my now husband and I took a detour when returning his boss’s exhibition caravan from a trade show. We got a pitch on the site next to Sizewell B , sat in an empty site bar, cycled along the coast path during an eclipse and went green laning in our Land Rover. True romance !
Later, our first trip in our own caravan saw it become our haven when working at a horse show in Caen. That was when our love affair with Normandy began, despite long working hours, lots of rain, supermarkets closing just as we arrived…
------------- Seeking luxury in unexpected places
Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
I went camping with my parents and brother to a pretty basic site in Abersoch every summer when I was little in the early 1980s. We had a frame tent. I don't remember much about the campsite, but the last time we went there was in 1986 - there was a huge storm and the tent blew away. I remember being massively excited as we had to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights. After that, my parents invested in a trailer tent and we started camping in France.
When I met my (now) husband in the 00's, we got a little Easycamp tent and camped by Lake Como which was fantastic. We invested in a larger tent with proper camp-beds when our first child was a baby, and have spent a couple of weeks in France every summer since then. We all love the freedom of camping.
I did some camping as a kid in the RM cadets and scouts. Can't remember when. Then a couple around 75 as a single guy in Germany while in the RAF.
Married in 77 and back to Germany in 78. We bought a tent and had several camping trips in Europe.
Came home in 81 when we sold our camping kit and trailer and bought a little 75 Monza 12 ft caravan.
Our car (a Datsun was a good tow car).
Had vans since now in our 70s and retired but not giving up yet😄
We decided to give up camping after suffering a gale in Montreux in Switzerland in 81. A horrible night trying not to go hang gliding in our tent🤐.
The in laws were caravanners so my wife was used to holidays in one.
I had driven a variety of vehicles with trailers in the RAF so could tow.
Post last edited on 18/01/2026 12:18:17
Post last edited on 18/01/2026 12:19:35
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
Tent, in the pine forests of Troodos Mountains in Cyprus, I’d be maybe 5 or 6, late 1950s, when my dad was posted there. Then (different) tent, all round Canada & the States early 60s when my dad was posted there. Then a VW pop-top camper-van in Argyll; camped as a Girl Guide in Singapore (big ants, monsoon rain). Etc etc.
Around 1981/82 Ferry Meadows in a 10ft Ace Airstream towed by a Xauxhal Viva (worst tow car I ever owned!). Margaret and I plus our two young sons. No onboard toilet, or fridge or electrics!
My first camping trip was in 1967 at the age of 3 months I am reliably told that we went to Inverness shire where my father was evacuated to. Camped right up to 1989 when my father passed away suddenly. In that time my parents went through 3 different tents.
after a break of 13 years or so of going abroad then getting married , went back to camping with my wife, then in 2010 we bought a cheap swift caravan to try. Enjoyed that up until summer 25 but was thinking of giving it up as we were not enjoying it but we recently bought a lot newer caravan and have again found that we are enjoying caravanning again.
Can't remember the exact dates, probably 67 - 68 ish. My friends and I had motorbikes and small tents. Favourite trips were to N.Ireland to see the motorbike races which were held on public roads.
Best race was the North West 200, followed by the Ulster Grand Prix. We saw a lot of the great racers of the day - Mike Hailwood, Agostini, Phil reed, Bill Ivy and others. We never made it to the Isle of Man.
Years later, living in Hampshire, married with a young family, we bought our first campervan based on a Bedford CF. Our first trip was to the New Forest where we discovered that we had forgotten the table top that formed part of the bed! We slept on the floor - and that turned out more comfortable than the bed (befor we made alterations).
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
It will be as a child back in the 80's, my parents won a brown & orange frame tent (you got to love 80's colour choices) in a coupon competition, we camped all around the Yorkshire I couldn't recall a particular site, but we had many a fun time.
It all came to an end when we got caught in the storm of 1987, my parents missed the weather repots as we where travelling between sites as my dad only had a tape player in the car!
Needless to say the tent was trashed, bent poles ripped canvass, they had it repaired but the love of camping was gone for my parents after that. On the plus side we got to go to Spain for the first time the following year!
Reading the assorted posts it slightly tickles me that many people's early if not first experiences of camping were often far less than ideal, but here we all are decades on carrying on camping with a degree of passion in most cases! Surely any sensible person would have learnt a lesson and run away to a more comfy hotel for future holidays! - Clearly no one can accuse me of being a sensible person!
OK I, like many, 'cheat' these days (and for past 8 years), 'camping' in a modern luxury caravan with all the comforts of home rather than 'roughing' it in a tent. That said, modern tents are pretty cosy compared to tents of a bygone era, SIGs and separate bedrooms eliminating drafts and creepy crawlies (and even bigger wildlife! ), and porch areas making nice kitchens to cook and eat in rather than struggling with the elements outside. Not to mention the ease of shaking off the excess water and packing a slightly damp synthetic tent, as opposed to the 'joys' of packing up half a ton of sodden canvas!
For my part, I'm a child of the 50's, whilst far from a truly deprived childhood, it did have it's 'hardships' that were commonplace for the era, like frost on the INSIDE of unheated bedroom windows (if personally cold, another 'layer' in some form was the solution to not dying from hypothermia! - it worked, I'm still here circa 70 years on!), and coal fires where your front almost burnt, whilst your back froze from the ice cold draft from windows and doors! I think that taught me to be durable and adaptable to circumstances, so camping was not viewed as such an intolerable hardship, you just adapted and coped!
I still camp in a tent from time to time, when the caravan is more of a liability than an asset, such as with our 'lads' trips to motor races in France where ferry costs, and large pitch costs, and accommodation for only two in the van when we need to house usually 5-7, really don't work in our favour, and a tent or two works significantly better. That said, we've reached an age where some are dropping out as can no longer cope with tents, but still two or three who are up for it.
Caravan, MH/camper, or tent, there is a great draw in the camping lifestyle and locations that is rarely met by a rental property or hotel, so long may the camping continue.
First trip was a guide camp on a farm near Torquay when I was 15.
We had canvas ridge tents. I woke in the early hours feeling a little chilly and opened my eyes to see the sky! It turned out no-one had pegged the bottom edge of the tent down and my nice smooth sleeping bag had slipped under it (we were camped on slope).
Lots of other adventures/mishaps but we all survived.
2004, Trevornick Holywell Bay, Cornwall. Id always swore I'd never go camping but the price of static holidays were ridiculous. Whilst browsing i came across their Eurotents and agreed to give it a go. Well, I loved it. We came home bought our own tent, a Campus Indiana 8, 21 years and several combinations of tents and a trailer tent, we now have a Gobur folding caravan and enjoying more trips than ever
------------- May/June - Spring Valley
Aug/Sept - Leekworth
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Your very first trip
, sat in an empty site bar, cycled along the coast path during an eclipse and went green laning in our Land Rover. True romance ! 
via mobile 17/1/2026 at 5:32am
- Clearly no one can accuse me of being a sensible person!
), and porch areas making nice kitchens to cook and eat in rather than struggling with the elements outside. Not to mention the ease of shaking off the excess water and packing a slightly damp synthetic tent, as opposed to the 'joys' of packing up half a ton of sodden canvas!
