Last weekend we went camping, up in the Cotswolds, with some friends, I&H and their kids. We'd seen that the heatwave that has covered the country since early June was due to come to an end, but that didn’t bother us, we’d been camping in bad weather before. And the forecasts weren’t predicting bad weather, as far as I could see; they mentioned that the weather would be “changeable” but I didn’t see anything more concerning than that.
TW & H had identified a very nice campsite, which was actually a field behind a pub – The Duke at Clifton. It was on a slight slope, but they had built up flat areas, and the grass was kept short. There were sinks for washing up, and the showers and toilets were actually inside the pub building – and accessible 24*7 with a code. They were very clean and a pleasure to use.
We set up camp on the Thursday, it was baking hot & sunny. If it had stayed like that I would have been very happy – but unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.
Friday was predicted to be the hottest day of the year, so we spent that at Banbury’s open air swimming pool. It wasn’t actually that hot, but it was warm, and the pool was nice. In the evening when we got back to the tent the wind had picked up a bit, and it looked like gusts might be as strong as 40mph which equates to a gale force 7, according to the website I looked at. Sleeping Friday night was a bit difficult, because the tent was flapping in the wind and being noisy. But no problems, overall. When I got up on Saturday morning I saw that another tent had been pegged out very neatly and tidily, and all the guy ropes had been used. I did make a mental note to do the same for our tent; it would probably make sleeping easier and less noisy, but unfortunately I never got around to it.
Saturday we spent looking around some local attractions, and bumping into old friends of TW. It was windy, and the clouds were fair speeding across the sky, threatening rain one minute and bright sunshine the next. It certainly was “changeable”. Unfortunately, when we got back to the campsite, we saw that the side of the tent had blown in. I hadn’t expected that! One set of poles had buckled, and the tent had a small rip in it where one of the guy ropes had pulled away from the tent. And the weather was turning for the worse as well... When the rain set in that evening, TW & I decided that cowardice was the better part of valour, and we retreated to TW’s mum’s house, which by luck was only 20 miles or so away. I was the first to suggest that we should go to the MiL’s, but TW was a bit reluctant to leave I&H and their kids. I&H were in a caravan though, and not “at risk” as we were. But after I’d popped up to the facilities in the pub, and the rain seemed to be properly set in, she agreed it was probably the best option. We were there and dry by 9pm, and sleeping indoors again, despite being on a camping trip... it was a little weird.
We had agreed that we would see the MiL on Sunday anyway, so I&H came over for lunch and a nice relaxed day. I (from I&H, not me) advised that we probably wouldn’t want to sleep in the tent that night, as there were puddles of water in it from Saturday's rain, so we stayed with the MiL on Sunday night too, but got up early on the Monday and headed back to the campsite for breakfast.
On Monday we visited two National Trust properties – Upton House and Charlecote Park, both of which were lovely to look around, and it was a relaxing day. We haven’t been to a National Trust property in ages, so it was good to get some use out of our membership – otherwise, what is the point of the monthly direct debit?
Monday night was nice, we ate in the pub. The hamburgers were delicious, and we were all sated. It was a shame that, after we went to bed, more rain came. The majority of it came at about 5am Tuesday morning, and we were all awake. Because the tent had blown in on Saturday afternoon and the poles had twisted, the integrity of the tent had gone completely on one side. Instead of the water running off the top and sides of the tent, it was pooling on top of the tent, and seemed to be creating a lake more than anything else. TW shook that off and the rain seemed to stop.
There was no point in taking the tent home, so once we had packed up the contents on Tuesday morning, we bagged the tent and threw it in the bin behind the pub. We laid our tent to rest in the Cotswolds, and I hope it is happy and peaceful there.
TTFN.
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