I spent a month in a tent this summer
On a (very cheap) campsite in Cornwall. Low points included:

The temperature sinking to 4^oC - quite a lot lower than my sleeping bag was rated for. I woke up at 3am, colder than I think I've ever been before, and huddled into a ball to wait for the sunrise.

The temperature rising to an estimated 40^oC+ inside the tent as soon as the sun did rise, making lie-ins impossible unless it was overcast.

The wind keeping me awake all night by rattling my tent until it sounded like a troop full monkeys with maracas were dancing around me.

Eating a pasty that had spent two days in the passenger footwell of my car because I had nothing else to eat.

Getting up at 6am, in the rain, to chase a group of seagulls around and around my tent because they had stolen my cheese slices.

Having to hunt through my entire car on the way home for the 14p extra I needed in order to pay the toll on the Tamar bridge. I was only going to Plymouth to borrow enough money from a friend to get my car home.



That being said, some high points:

Being one of the first people to hear a great friend of mine was engaged, then meeting her fiancée.

The sunsets over Watergate bay and Fistral beach with a drink in one hand and music in the background.

Having a crack (unsuccessfully) at surfing.

Teaching my new friends power kiting in return for food, beer and floor space in their beautiful clifftop house.

Girls in tiny bikinis.

Girls in even smaller bikinis.

The experience of having no internet, no tv, no radio, no distractions and nothing to bother me.

Gail's breakfast rolls from the Harbour Hill takeaway, Newquay. Mushrooms, sausages, egg and bacon wrapped in two entire baguettes, all for only £3.50.

Seeing an incredibly drunk man in a morphsuit trying to eat an ice cream without removing his facemask, and wondering why it wasn't working.



I'm going back this summer.



Edit: Incidentally, the tent I used was an £8.99 job from Aldi. It is broken now, but it held together when I needed it to, and because I pitched it properly (maintaining a space between the inner and outer walls) I didn't once get wet.
( MatJ LOOK, Fri 30 Mar 2012, 18:46, 2 replies)

You get a click from me
because you mentioned my 2 favourite words.

Watergate and Bay.

My favourite place in the world. I want to retire and die there.
(MadBouncyDog Barking at the moon since, Sat 31 Mar 2012, 20:20, closed)

I just want to live there
As I'm a power kite instructor, it's not an entirely wild ambition...
( MatJ LOOK, Tue 3 Apr 2012, 18:42, closed)