Been feeling a bit better of late, and thought I'd try to get out just for one night. I decided to go to a pub that allows you to put a tent up, perhaps this was where the trouble started. Another chap decided to invite himself along, great I thought, a bit of company to shoot the breeze over the fire. He arrived first and after sampling a copious amount of what the pub had to offer by way of liquid refreshment, decided to put his tent up.
It was like watching an update on the Keystone Kops franchise - eventually he was collapsed in a heap of fabric, paracord and poles, upturned like a beetle and with his arms and legs waving at the sky. At this point, he flew into a rage, ripped up his tent, bent the poles, threw the whole thing into the river and wandered off with his rucksack, to be seen no more.
I got a brew on and up went my tent in a couple of minutes as ever, just as a family arrived with a couple of kids on mini-bikes without silencers. Half an hour of mayhem and one of them rode into the river along with the remains of matey's tent, and become entangled. His parents somehow held me accountable for this.
Brews and dinner later, I decided to settle down with the dog trying to get into the sleeping bag with me. Midnight was the signal for a group of drunks to start chatting away with one laughing in a raucous 'hey look at me I'm laughing' way. An hour of this and I called out to them that I'd be much obliged if whoever had brought his pet hyena would give it its supper and put it to bed for the night.
Come the morning, the dog is still trying to get into the sleeping bag but broke off to drool on my breakfast.
Oddly enough, it hasn't put me off another go, this time I think alone (Apart from the dog, and I'll take a spare sleeping bag for him), and a bit off the beaten track.
It was like watching an update on the Keystone Kops franchise - eventually he was collapsed in a heap of fabric, paracord and poles, upturned like a beetle and with his arms and legs waving at the sky. At this point, he flew into a rage, ripped up his tent, bent the poles, threw the whole thing into the river and wandered off with his rucksack, to be seen no more.
I got a brew on and up went my tent in a couple of minutes as ever, just as a family arrived with a couple of kids on mini-bikes without silencers. Half an hour of mayhem and one of them rode into the river along with the remains of matey's tent, and become entangled. His parents somehow held me accountable for this.
Brews and dinner later, I decided to settle down with the dog trying to get into the sleeping bag with me. Midnight was the signal for a group of drunks to start chatting away with one laughing in a raucous 'hey look at me I'm laughing' way. An hour of this and I called out to them that I'd be much obliged if whoever had brought his pet hyena would give it its supper and put it to bed for the night.
Come the morning, the dog is still trying to get into the sleeping bag but broke off to drool on my breakfast.
Oddly enough, it hasn't put me off another go, this time I think alone (Apart from the dog, and I'll take a spare sleeping bag for him), and a bit off the beaten track.
