Day 209/365: Camping trip aborted

[nanila]

This is the "view" through the front windscreen of our car for much of the afternoon. It normally takes about 3.5 hours to drive from south Wales back to the UK Midlands. It took us almost five to get home. I think the bloke was doing about 30 mph when I took this, due to the poor visibility and water sheeting across the road. And then it started to hail.


This was taken about an hour and a half earlier as we left Oxwich Bay, near our campsite. The condition of the sky in the photo is not representative of the majority of the weather we experienced there. The gale force winds and rain that had been predicted for the weekend arrived 24 hours early, and this was a very brief respite from the storm, which we used to visit the beach we'd come to see. The tent belonging to the friends who'd come to the campsite with us blew down at 3 AM this morning. They were forced to break it all down, repack the car and drive home with their kids (who are the same age as ours). I spent the rest of the night vividly reliving the sleepless, terrified hurricane experiences I'd gone through as a child in Hawai'i.

More photos from Oxwich Bay to follow tomorrow, but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy being warm, dry, and in a bed that doesn't get lifted off the ground by the storms outside.

Comments

[worlds_of_smoke]

D: D: I'm sorry you had to deal with that. It sounds scary af.

[nanila]

Thanks. Yeah, it wasn't the best night camping I've ever had!

[angelofthenorth]

we're about 30 miles away, and got it pretty bad - we had hail at one point, we think!

[nanila]

Yep, we had hail on the drive back, twice!

[omnipotent]

*gentle hugs* I’m glad y’all got home safely. That weather shot looks pretty bad—definitely the kind of weather you don’t want to be driving in.

Bloke & kiddos are cute! 💙

[nanila]

Thank you. Yeah, I was grateful not to have been the one behind the wheel. The bloke maintained calm, but once we got out of the worst of it, we stopped for a very large coffee!

[highlyeccentric]

Oh no! Everyone else rejoicing at the drought breaking, but i guess you got the worst of it...

[nanila]

I'm very glad the rains came, I just wish the clouds hadn't dumped the missing months' worth all at once!

[cmcmck]

It's been a weird day here in the Shropshire hills too- same combination of bright sunshine and tipping down at times.

[nanila]

It's back to Scorchio now, so I'm glad we got at least some rain!

[lurkingcat]

I'm glad you all got home safely. Camping in those sorts of conditions is no fun at all.

[nanila]

Thank you. No, it wasn't the best camping experience of all time. It was highly memorable, though!

[chickenfeet]

Had a few similar experiences including a serious thunder storm at Oktober fest in Kitchener, a storm on Arran that demolished most of the campsite but not our trusty little North Face tent and an Atlantic storm in Newfoundland where we survived the first night in our little tent on the beach in relative comfort before moving to a motel where the roof failed drenching us in our bed!

[nanila]

And then you put the tent up in the hotel room, am I right? :D

[davidgillon]

It's distinctly breezy* on fully the opposite side of the country from the incoming weather, so I don't envy you the Welsh coast experience!

* British understatement

[nanila]

It was bit blowy, wasn't it. It seems to be back to Scorchio again. I had to move into the air conditioned office today (I'm in London).

[st_aurafina]

I thought it was meant to be a bazillion degrees today in the UK? I'm glad it wasn't, but I'm sorry the camping trip was a victim.

Enjoy your coziness. I'm glad you made it home intact.

[nanila]

It's mostly been a bazillion degrees for the past seven weeks. It was good to have some rain. I just rather wish the missing months' worth hadn't been dumped on us all at once, on the one weekend we planned to go tent camping!

[fred_mouse]

*boggles*

Wait, summer weather like that? I mean, we're getting the odd day of rain like that, but today is sunny and 19 °C at just past noon. But if we got that much rain in summer I'd presume there'd been a cyclone.

I'm glad you are all home dry and safe though.

[nanila]

It was a little bit apocalyptic, I must say. Yay, climate change! :/

[lilysea]

I spent the rest of the night vividly reliving the sleepless, terrified hurricane experiences I'd gone through as a child in Hawai'i.

Aaaaargh! :(

I'm sorry your camping was triggering rather than relaxing.

[nanila]

It was not my favourite camping adventure of all time. :( Thanks.

[gwendraith]

So sorry you had to abandon your weekend, it sounds frightening for you. Your story brought back memories of camping holidays in north Wales many years ago and the similar weather we encountered, sitting in a (leaky) tent in a raging gale and heavy rain and hoping the tent didn't take off (which it once did). We never learned and always loved going back, and often got lovely weather :)

[nanila]

It did feel like the tent was going to take off! I'm glad it stayed anchored.

I'm sure this won't put any of us off going tent camping again. We've had lovely weather most of the times we've gone previously. We were bound to get unlucky sooner or later!

[rmc28]

I'm glad you're all safe home and dry.

[nanila]

Me too! Thanks.

And now, back to a weather forecast of nonstop Scorchio...

[rmc28]

I have taken to freezing bottles of water overnight and then I have icewater (almost) all day as they defrost.

[silveradept]

Oh, goodness. That couldn't have been fun at all. I've been in several downpours, and always glad to not be in them when I'm inside.

[nanila]

I have definitely been happier about sleeping outside than I was on that night. :/

[glittertigger]

Sorry you were so unlucky with the weather

[nanila]

Aw, thanks. We've been pretty lucky most of the other times we've been camping recently, so we were due for some bad luck!