My holiday story as promised, I had already written this up as a university task so here it is...
It was mid-July, the grass was a luscious green, the birds were chirping and the rain was pounding.
I was in North Devon, in a tent at 3am on a summer’s morning, however the birds weren’t chirping because of the sunshine - they were trying to find some cover from the gale force winds.
The field around me was becoming more like a pond and there were bits of awning flying around in the wind. I could see the waves lashing against the Devonshire cliffs even in the darkness of the early morning.
We all know the credit-crunch is affecting everyone’s pockets, and many believe this is why we have seen the increase of camping and caravan holidays. But after one-too-many holiday disasters for me you can count me out.
The Great British Weather is notoriously known as being “wet and dull”, but people still risk the weather when making choices that would otherwise break the bank. This is what happened to my family.
It had been raining all week, but nothing compared to what came on the second last night of our stay in Ilfracombe. I was in my sleeping bag lying awake at 2am, we had got back from the club and the rain wind was keeping me up. I was also worried about the water leaking through where it was making a puddle on the roof of our tent. I opened the zip of my bedroom compartment to find the front of the tent collapsed. For some reason I didn’t tell my parents I just lay awake worrying until my Mam woke up with the sound of my sobs.
Me and my Mam escaped to the safety of the car and were shortly joined by my Dad. Even the car was being shaken by the force of the wind. It started to get lighter at 4.30am and the full picture of the nightmare holiday started to show. There were tents completely flattened to the ground – almost everybody was emerging to try and pack up and go home.
Trying to take the tent down and fit everything in the car was hard. The tent had turned into a pool and was difficult to fold. The rain was beating down on me so hard I couldn’t breathe and I was soaked to the skin even through the 3 layers and waterproof jacket I was wearing.
Even with the little amount of room I had in the car on the way home, I felt a sigh of relief as we drove further away from Devon. I’ve always said the best part about going away is when you come home and see the Angel of the North, but I’ve never been so happy to see her.
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