11th September 2024 Camping in the Rain!

We're back from 5 nights of camping and the weather has been horrendous 😫.   Our short summer has moved on and it feels like winter has arrived already.   Today, there's a north wind, and we put the heating on this morning as the house felt so cold. 

The journey was slow, and I was grateful not to drive!   I'm more used to country roads than motorways.  We saw a fair few European cars around the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth.   Goodness knows what these visitors think of English weather

We stopped off on the way to visit a friend and found refuge in a cafe at Highdown Gardens.  It's a place I had visited before, many years ago.  The one thing I remembered was the cave in the chalk cliff,  and I was pleased to see it's still there 🙂. 

I'm pretty sure the pond had been moved,  but I might be wrong.  The garden was beautiful,  even in the rain.

We continued on to the campsite and pitched in a brief interval,  before the next weather warning struck. 

Luckily we were visiting family members for a get together and they welcomed us with hugs, hot meals and airers to dry our towels and coats.   If we had been anywhere else, we might simply have packed up, or not have travelled in the first place.  There's something about a chronic condition that just won't let you give up 🤔😅.  Once inside our little Bongo we were cosy, but anything else on the camping side was just horrible.  We might just be a little but crazy 🤪 

Spending time with family was great fun though,  as always.  9 adults and 8 children ranging from 3 months to 11 years was just so entertaining.  Everyone bought along varied plates of food from sausages to salad and blackberry crumble to chocolate poo.  

We did pack a lot in!  Visiting friends, catching up, meeting new neighbours on the campsite.  Plenty of laughter.   Everyone discussing the weather and wondering when the deluge would stop.  Thankfully,  there were some breaks, but really our family got us through.

I'm not totally sure we would camp again in such conditions.   Our family did say we could just pack up and stay with them but I simply couldn't give in.  It's not in my psyche to give up.  You could say I'm stubborn.   Plus, I believe the iron tablets have definitely kicked in 💪.

We had a wonderful short break.  Packing up was interesting and we need to dry our shelter out on a good day, but neither of us would have missed it for the world.  Despite the weather,  we did manage to stay mainly in the dry.  Thank you,  Family,  for making it so much fun.  

❤️