The plan for the first week of the Easter break was to spend the time in the Lake District. I have tents and I can camp. It would be a nice time. Penguin was travelling on the same day so we shared a lift to the north. The journey up was most pleasant. When I checked in to the campsite the people there asked me if I was aware there was a storm coming, they seemed to be mocking the weather as it was quite a calm day. I was aware the weather was going to be a bit wet. I got the tent set up. The rain started. It wasn’t too bad. I set off to Booths to get food for a few days. On my return and while I was cooking some dinner the wind started to gust.
I kept checking the weather app on my phone. The campsite had “360 degree views”, this sounds lovely until you realise that it really means at the top of a hill. There was cover from one direction only and that didn’t seem to be making much difference to the wind. Just after dinner it was gusting around 30kts. The tent was staying up but it wasn’t happy and the rain was starting to seep in. I had some thinking to do. I decided to sleep in the car, I could fold the back seats down and sleep lengthways in the boot with my feet towards the front of the car. I could put all my kit down the other side of the car. I emptied the tent.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and knowing now the outcome I should have removed the tent inner, shoved that in the car and then lowered the tent, stretching the poles to rest on the ground. During the night I slept quite well, I checked on the tent occasionally through the rear quarter light window. It looked ok. The car was hit three times by flying branches from a tree that was a good fifty metres away. The wind was gusting to 70kts. The weather was massive rain, sleet and occasionally hail. I staying in my cocoon until around 0800 when I decided I needed the loo and had to check the tent out.
Two poles had snapped. A lot of the tent pegs had been pulled out of the ground. Everything was absolutely soaking wet. The tent was still in place though. I decided to head for breakfast and a coffee and think what to do. I reckoned I could temporarily fix the poles and the tent would cope. But, the weather was still wet. Over the next few days the weather wasn’t really going to warm up much. The temperatures were due to stay around freezing overnight and around 5 or 6 during the day. This meant my tent would be cold and wet for the rest of my trip. I wouldn’t really have anywhere warm and dry.
I decided to head home. I could assess the tent damage properly. I could be in the warm. The weather at home was meant to be sunny and highs around 14C. I’m gutted I’m not in the Lake District. But I am also warm and happy. I’ll slowly eat through the food I bought and have some Cumbrian beer. The tent is currently in the garden drying out. Some clothes are hanging out there too to dry. There isn’t much wind and the sun is out. I have Hogwarts Legacy to play. I’m happy. Here’s to the summer trip and hopefully better weather. Rain is fine. Cold and wet is less so though.
