I cant stand it when people moan on or even pack up and go home when it starts to rain on a camping trip.
If you live in the UK as we do it is inevitable that it will rain at some point on your camping trip. I recently read a number of sites a forums suggesting to go to the pub or to eat those disgusting emergency survival pouches of food if the heavens open. Well that isn’t for me.
I am all for popping to the pub for a drink or tasty meal but we are supposed to be camping…aren’t we?
Steepleaze farm campsite in Dorset is situated off a winding road and to a degree in the middle of nowhere. So that was where we chose to camp. Little did we know how hilly the campsite was and in particular the spot we had picked with our partly converted campervan, was perhaps the windiest we could have found.
As the Citroen relay camper conversion was only part completed, with fitted Seitz windows and insulation so we pitched up a couple of tents and a gazebo for good measure.
TIP: even when pitching a gazebo half height in strong wind. The wind will win!
So far wind but no rain so we set to our campfire where we cooked some delicious trout which was cooked in foil with a good slug of white wine, dill and lemon. Side order of roasted new potatoes again cooked in foil with some oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Yum. Bar the wind and broken gazebo we slept well.
Day 2, waking to a bright sunny morning a BBQ was the plan for the evening, burgers, ribs, sausages, corn on the cob, you get the picture.
After visiting a local farm shop and local cider of course we headed back to camp.
By this time it was raining horizontally with the added fierce wind! True to typical British campers we proceeded to light the BBQ to start the evening dinner.
Moods were a little low as we tried to hide behind the wind break. But then rain turned to storm and things were looking…well like a wash out.
We clambered into the back of the van which was pointing head first into the rain. This offered the head chef instant protection so with some care moved the hot bbq behind the van. The back doors open acted as shields and although it was now dark, stormy and windy we felt we were beating the elements.
20 minutes later and a few cans of cider down we had a surprisingly delicious well cooked BBQ. It warmed us all up to have some hot food inside us and after a few games of cards we we wrapped up in bed fast asleep.
The moral of the story is had we have gone to the pub for dinner, not only would it be an easy cop out but would we have got the sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing we won against the elements in true camping style!
