About Me

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Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it

Monday April 8th 2013 - G is for Gale Force Wind

This post is part of the A to Z Challenge.

Over the sixteen years I've been camping I think I've mainly been very lucky with the weather; most of the time my camping days have been very sunny, and though there have been a few dull and rainy days here and there I can only think of two occasions where I've experienced really bad weather.

The first of these was Easter 2003 when my partner and I went to a Norfolk site which is on a cliff top. We arrived on the Good Friday morning in brilliant sunshine and proceeded to erect the trailer tent which was an old 1970's model. The canvas had seen far better days, and as my partner tightened one of the poles the canvas stretched too far at a weak point, resulting in a foot long tear which was impossible to sew up, so we stuffed the gap with a towel and hoped it would be okay. Then late in the evening the wind came; it started as a gentle breeze at first but got stronger and stronger, making the canvas flap wildly and the trailer rock so much it was almost lifting off the ground, and we were worried that if it got through that tear in the canvas it would just rip the whole lot to shreds and completely destroy our 'home'. To be honest, with the wind howling with such force we were more than worried, we were scared, and rather than go to bed we spent most of the night sitting up and watching the canvas. The wind did eventually die down as daylight arrived so we were able to get some sleep, and when we woke again the sun had returned. In spite of everything the canvas had survived and we went on to have an enjoyable and sunny break, but when we got back home we went to the nearest camping store and invested in a new trailer tent - we didn't want to go through that again!

My second experience of gale force wind was on Anglesey last year (2012) during the Queen's jubilee weekend. My first two days on site were absolutely glorious but I woke early on the third day to pouring rain and a stiff breeze which gradually turned into a roaring gale, battering my awning with such force that I wondered if it would survive the onslaught. Taking it down in such a high wind wasn't an option though so I just had to sit it out and hope for the best. A walk round the site that evening showed just how much damage the gale had done - windbreaks uprooted and blown across the grass, becoming lodged under cars; a gazebo with sides which had large holes blown straight through them; the main field, which only the previous day had looked like a smaller version of Glastonbury, now resembled the aftermath of the holocaust. The grass was littered with collapsed and damaged rain-soaked tents, bent and broken tent poles and gazebo frames, and rubbish was strewn everywhere, testament to the force with which the gale had hit. Fortunately my awning survived and the wind eventually died down, but I felt really sorry for the families whose weekend had been ruined. British weather certainly has a lot to answer for!

7 comments:

  1. Winds are interesting, and dangerous! We are having a lot of wind today and up until later on this evening...always messy with leaves from all over, all over!! www.sandysanderellasmusings.blogspot.com

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  2. We've had gale winds blow through here in East Texas, too. Last fall and into winter I had so many trees come down on my pasture fence I had to get one side of the fence replaced. Of course, when the storms hit and the trees came down, I was out there in the rain and wind getting my animals back in the pasture. Not fun.

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  3. You're a brave soul. We live on the Gulf of Mexico coast and wind blows almost all the time, usually just hard enough to keep our wind chimes chiming.

    Jan at Website
    Beyond Acadia
    Faith Talk
    Swamp Lily Review

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  4. We camped once in what seemed like a major storm at the time - with 3 dogs, 5 kids, hubby and I - in a tent! Now that we have an RV, I'm hoping camping will be a bit more comfortable!

    I'm stopping in from AtoZ and enjoying reading your posts!

    Take care!
    -Cristyl @ www.mychillthoughts.com

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  5. Loved to camp as a kid, and wish I had more time to do it now. Talk about winds, it's very windy here (SoCal) today, and a bit cold for this time of year, especially after we just had gorgeous weekend weather. Good thing we're not camping. :)
    An enjoyable G post.
    Silvia @ Silvia Writes

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  6. We have been camping for more than 50 years. Started in a tent, now in vintage trailers but more recently in our tent again. We have watched tents blow away in the wind and trailers blow over on the freeway. Of all the weather events. the wind is the scariest to me. Wind warnings are scary on their own, regardless of where you are. It was a good decision not to take down the canvas in the wind. Do you have pictures you can post?

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  7. Hi, if you look at this post you'll find three photos on there but they don't really show the extent of the damage as the site warden had already been round with his van and trailer and cleared a lot of tents away before I took the pics, but they'll give you an idea of what it was like.

    http://tigermousetales.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/sunday-june-3rd-2012-how-to-empty.html

    (You'll need to highlight, copy and paste the link)

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