Monday July 18th 2011 - Leaving the tent behind

It was yet another glorious morning when I woke but also another work day so I had to think about packing up again later on, though I didn't need to hit the road until 2pm so I was in no rush. It was a shame really that I had to pack up at all - the long range forecast (if it was right) had given more good weather for the coming weekend so if I didn't have to go to work I would have stayed right through. It was a while later, when I was coming back from my dog walk and stopped to talk to a friendly group of campers further up the field who I had said hello to several times in passing, that I mentioned I would be returning to the site at the weekend and one of the guys suggested leaving my tent on the pitch. It's not the sort of thing that would ever have occurred to me and at first I was rather dubious as I wasn't sure if it would be safe but he said they were there all week so would be happy to keep an eye on it for me - and the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. It would save taking it down later on and would also mean that I could return on the Friday evening after work instead of Saturday morning, giving myself an extra night on site. I had to ask the warden if it would be okay first though, so I went to reception and put the idea to her and she said it would be fine for me to leave it - apparently I wouldn't be the first camper to leave a tent on site -  and she would ask her brother to keep a check on it for me while he was doing his daily bin emptying and grass cutting rounds. She also gave me a barrier pass for the rest of the week so that when I returned on Friday, which wouldn't be till about 10pm, I could just drive straight in and pay my site fee the following morning. So that was it - sorted!

When it came to actually packing up I left my bed, table and loo in the tent and just packed up the smaller stuff - I knew I was taking a risk in leaving things but it was a decent site and all the campers in that field seemed to be decent people so I was pretty sure that everything would be okay. So with not much to put in the van and no tent to take down it didn't take long to get ready to leave, but before I did I went round and checked all the pegs and double pegged all the guy lines just in case it should get windy while I was away, then gave my mobile number to the guy I had been talking to in case anything went wrong. As I drove out of the field and looked back at my tent still on the pitch I felt rather as if I was abandoning an old friend, but it wouldn't be for long - in only four days I would be back and it would be nice to have the tent waiting for me.