Wet Wales.

Well that's something I never want to do again.
You see this is the third time that I have gone away to Wales camping and come home early.

Our holiday was a total wash out. Clearly we got fed up, or I wouldn't be blogging

We got there Saturday and set up camp, for far so good, except we had to try to beat the rain in order to make camp in the first place.

No sooner was camp made, than the rain came down;and down;and down;and down............

Sunday was spent in the tent watching the rain, when it rains in Wales it does not do it in half measures, Oh boy does it rain.

We didn't really mind too much on Sunday as we were fairly tired and enforced rest isn't so hard to do when you are tried anyway.
It stopped raining about 5ish and we went to explore the area, well we tried too but everywhere was so wet that we couldn't get our car out of the field and walking in the woods or around the surrounding area was sodden underfoot and the field had it's own waterfalls in some places.

We did go for a walk, but it was most unpleasant, what with sodden ground, wind and the threat of rain and not a hope in hell of getting the car off the camp ground. So we were fairly stuck there.

Monday was slightly better, but as the field we were in was fast turning into a sodden mud patch, after we had been told that we were in a good place to make camp, we spent the entire day moving the camp to a better field, where again we were informed that we were in a good space.
You see when I woke up on Monday morning to find a waterfall running through my tent, not sure what was worse the wet tent or the fact that we had to move it all.
You'd think when you ask people who know the site well, because they have been there for over 4yrs where is a good place to camp, that they would see you right.

So Monday dawned bright and breezy and we spent the entire day either, moving camp by hand, remember the car was fairly stuck, so we couldn't load it to move everything and in fact, I nearly didn't get it out of the field and had to zig zag it out of there, even then it was quite scary. I am rather pleased to say that I did better than some of the men there who also had to move vehicles and a few of them became stuck and needed pushing out of the field, which in fact I needed at the top of the hill but at least I had got that far without help.Or after we moved it all, we had to dry everything out.

Monday was a nice day weather wise, however we really had no time for anything other than moving and drying stuff out.
We went to bed Monday night, rather tired, but happy that we had got things done and we felt that at lest we could now enjoy our holiday. After all the staff at the site had said we would be in a better place and dry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah right.

About 4am, I was woken by a storm, lashing rain and howling wind. I tried not to think about it all and snuggled down to sleep some more.
I soon realised that sleep would be impossible as I could hear the water coming in my tent again and running under my ground sheet.
The rain just wouldn't stop and by 7am, I was up and dressed and ready to do whatever it takes to get warm and dry AGAIN.

When E got up (she had her own tent) she came into my tent and we had breakfast while listening to the storm. Eventually we went into the local town and had a good look round, it was a nice little place and we did take some photo's, which I will post later.
Eventually it stopped raining and we went back to the campsite.

Only it was still raining there and the tent was worse than ever and with no way of drying it out.
I phoned Francis, told him how wet cold and miserable I was and he said "Come home babes, it's not worth it"

It took over 5hours to pack up, not due to the amount of stuff, but due to the battle with the weather and not being able to move the car on to the field, as we may not have been able to move it with the weight in it.

We left at 7:20pm and no sooner did we cross the boarder between Wales and England than the sun came out and all the way home it was shining, sunset was glorious.
We came home to a great welcome from the men of the family, who unpacked the car and made us tea, laughed at our antics in the rain and said that we had lasted longer than they would have and that they would have come home on the Sunday.

I will never go camping in Wales again, I would happily go to Wales again, as it is a very beautiful country with great people, however it rains there...................A LOT.
Next time I go there will have to be a solid roof over my head and a solid floor under me.

As for the bell tent, well we are still awaiting their reply to a e-mail we sent them, as we feel that the product they sent us was unfit for the purpose we brought it for, it didn't keep me dry or warm and somebody needs to explain why and anyway, what sort of company sends out a tent with no instruction as to how to site it D'oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!