[Closed] Bad campsite experiences...

Thankfully never had a bad experience camping.

I feel sorry for anyone camping near Debden this weekend though. One of the secretaries at work was telling me this morning that her and about 30 others are all going camping today for the weekend and they'll all be camped next to each other so they can get pissed and have a rave up. Sounds like my idea of hell. I said to her that'll be nice for the the other campers and her response "well f*ck em, if they moan I'll burn there f*cking tents down"

She's a real treat to have in the office. Vile Women.

stayed near Alston recently and dug this up from the last 'horror campsite' thread (they come round every couple of years).

It can't be that bad I thought after an 80 mile day and another 5 to the nice site (up an f ing big hill).

Shite it most certainly is. If you fancy camping in a scrappy with utterly dire facilities, off to the Alston garage you go young man. I cycled the extra to avoid it despite being pooped.

I stayed there while doing the c2c with work colleagues, fortunately we were the pissed rowdy bunch that everyone seems to find offensive! 😉

However the worst 'campsite' was on the same trip, Setmabanning - a hosepipe sticking through a stone wall was their idea of a shower... fortunately there was also a nice river running along the edge, so I had a bath instead!
We got the price knocked down to £2 a tent though so not all that bad...

when we came back there was a caravan literally touching our van
What is it with folks doing this? We

At 24/12 this year, one of our group returned to our tents to find an Audi A6 parked so close that he couldn't walk around his tent. The owner apparently got huffy when asked to move it. The same group later lit a fire-put thing 10ft from my tent (well away from their tents, of course) so we spent the night with smoke blowing straight into our sleeping compartment. And to cap it all they deliberately left a bag of their rubbish in front of our tent when they left. (Needed to step over one of our bikes to place it there.) Nice people.

Is there ever a good camping experience.

The wife refuses to go, easy to see why but I take the kids as they love the change of scenery, but every trip involves being kept awake or woken up by TVs, Music, Kids, Snoring.

Just hate it really

The worst one was last time at Hesketh Farm near Bolton Abbey was when other peoples kids came and played with mine. Que a broken kite and then some smelly little **** jumping around on my sleeping bag. GET OUT

Then the next boring a bull dog just came in the tent.

Just seemed to be full of, well you know the type

Is there ever a good camping experience.

Is there ever a good camping experience.

I have almost constant good camping experiences TBH. I've fallen asleep/woken up in places that 99.99% of people will never get to appreciate at their best, with not another soul for miles.

In fact, some of the [i]best[/i] experiences I've ever had involve waking up in those places!

That said, not many involve campsites.

peterfile +1

Camping is for hills and riverbanks, and few other folk around. 8)

Agreed. Camping+peasants=shite/misery.

On my bike tour in the States stayed at a few interesting camp sites. funniest story happened near Hearst Castle. 4 cyclists pull up at a state run camp site which was huge. We were the only ones there so the guy said we could camp in a RV pitch. We cooked our food, chatted about the day and at about 8 said good night. About an hour later a huge RV arrives and instead of parking in one of the 300 pitches available the park next to us. Cue manoeuvring the behemoth motor home air brakes hissing and people shouting left a bit, back up etc.

All went quite for about 10 minutes then I heard "Digger" Digger Digger" "Here Digger" Eventually Sue shouted I am going to strangle Digger, we heard whispering and then it all went quiet.

Next morning was woken up by someone loudly whispering "Digger" that was it I came storming out of my tent and was confronted by Digger the sweetest German Shepherd puppy 😆 You couldn't be angry with this little devil.

This is Sues version of the evening in her blog

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=171681&v=q5

Frequently ride through the campsite at Cannock it attracts all forms of life

Closed during Winter and covered in snowfall it looks beautiful. Similarly early Spring/late Autumn with just a few enthusiastic campers not parked on top of one another it's very tranquil.

First two weeks of the school hols 🙄

When we had the camper van our holidays often used to involve 1 or maybe 2 night stay at campsites, often just seeing where we ended up at the end of the day. This was mostly pre-school and hence outside of school holidays. We stayed at a lot of sites ranging from £10 to £30, and I can't say we ever stayed and one that was really bad. They varied a lot in terms of facilities etc, usually price dependent. Although not always, and the sites I would choose not to go back to are generally those that offered poor value. Or others that just didn't have a nice 'feel'.

We stayed at one lovely site with great toilets/showers (had family bathrooms which was handy with small kids), on site petting farm for the kids, overall a nice place to stay. Recommended it to friends, who went in school holidays and it was full of rowdy 'chav' families.

Have a few sites that we like going back to. Had the first week of the school holidays at one in Cornwall. Good clean toilet/shower facilities (Mrs90's must have requirement), a play park for the kids, and that's it. No shop, no onsite bar, disco, etc. Just a cake and pasty sale on the saturday morning run by the local flower arranging society, very much in the WI vain.

We were run over by a Spanish drunk parking his car on our pitch at 23:00. He parked his car not only on our pitch but on our tent. I woke up to hear Madame screaming and a car engine, and feel something pushing my foot.

Happily installed on a German campsite a bunch of Nazi hell's angels turned up with more beer than camping gear. We upped and left only stopping at reception for a full refund.

Was at Le Mans with the olds when I was but 8. Apparently about 3am a drunken Welshman fell into the tent, collapsing the ridge pole (yes a ridge pole, it was a long time ago).

I didn't hear a word of it - woke up in our friends massive tent the next day which is where we stayed for the rest of the weekend.

I've just remembered a scary camping moment (not necessarily a bad one though!) from a few months back.

We were woken from a deep sleep at 1am at Glenbrittle by a helicopter trying to land right next to our tent.

There was a period of about 60 seconds, with such incredible noise, downdraft and bright lights that I did wonder whether I was about to be abducted. It was so surreal given the remoteness and tranquillity.

Turns out it was MRT being dropped off after a rescue in the nearby Cuillins and I'd pitched in the best spot for landing.

🙂

lerk

stayed near Alston recently and dug this up from the last 'horror campsite' thread (they come round every couple of years).
It can't be that bad I thought after an 80 mile day and another 5 to the nice site (up an f ing big hill).

Shite it most certainly is. If you fancy camping in a scrappy with utterly dire facilities, off to the Alston garage you go young man. I cycled the extra to avoid it despite being pooped.

I stayed there while doing the c2c with work colleagues, fortunately we were the pissed rowdy bunch that everyone seems to find offensive!

However the worst 'campsite' was on the same trip, Setmabanning - a hosepipe sticking through a stone wall was their idea of a shower... fortunately there was also a nice river running along the edge, so I had a bath instead!
We got the price knocked down to £2 a tent though so not all that bad...

I've stayed at Alston, I had a shower there in the creepy toilets / shower block half expecting to be mugged at any time. I then camped in the camping section right next to the playing fields, about 100m from where the yoofs liked to play loud tunes in their cars. I got a bit paranoid about being the nights play piece so went off to the YHA.

My parents have a caravan at Setmabanning!

I agree the campsite is the pits, but when you're in a caravan its ok

A campsite on our Summer walk in Spain. Photo taken from our pitch. Numerous yapping dogs (one left in an overheating awning was showing signs of insanity), a family with a huge PA just for a birthday party, but at least they shut the barrier at 10:00 to stop the drunks driving in.

[img] [/img]

People next to us arrived late, made lots of noise then left their coolbox out for all to behold.

This was in Yosemite, and the 2AM visit from a Brown Bear left a lasting impression.

Now that reminda me- France. 10pm a French family of four arrive. Loud putting up of tent, kids laughing playing. This went on to about 2pm. 5am Im awake with a hangover from Belgian beer and they were cheerfully packing up again. Aliens, they must have been!

The Geese farm next to the campsite in the Surrey Hills (near Leith tower).

Quacking none stop but this was over rided by the sound of a huge air con sounding fan that magically switches off at 6am.

Was camping at Blair Atholl some years ago 2 families, so my mate got quite pissed and kept playing his car stereo too loud, late into the night, school holidays so the site was full. Anyway we kept turning it down and he kept turning it back up, eventually we went to bed and left him to it. My tent was a wee bit further away.
The next morning and his car won't start cause he had left the ignition on all night with the fan running, which we couldn't hear cause of the music. The only people with a set of jump leads were the people right next door. Cue a shamefaced and apologetically hungover mate getting connected up to their battery. We all sat at my tent and s****ed into our coffee.

I've usually had good camping experiences, though La Piscine at the foot of Alpe D'Huez was a bit mixed. The main problem was the noise at night. Most nights the bar staff would finish after midnight, at which point one of them would start their car engine the other side of the hedge from us, and leave it running for about half an hour before leaving. One night a group of drunk people were shrieking and laughing until 1:30 am when the red mist descended and I shouted "effing shut up!!!!" - which instantly did the trick!

PePPeR - Member
Different strokes etc, Duinrell was one of the best family holidays we ever had

+1
Well +2 actually as we have now been twice, second time with the inlaws in tow, both times where great had no problems at all

No stand out real bad experiences but did once turn up at a NT campsite in the lakes (years ago so can't remember it's name) with my wife (to be at the time), another couple and another single male friend to be told by the proprietor, in no uncertain terms, after he looked the two women up and down, that they didn't normally accept single sex groups!
Same campsite I think the kids stopped shouting and running around about midnight and started again at 5am

as per peterile and mattoutandabout ^^

mrs busydog and I have camped the past 20 years and never in a campground. We generally looked for remote forest/mountain locations where one could spend the weekend and not see another human being--a blessing of New Mexico is that such places are to be readily found with only an hour or two driving.

I did make a mistake camping once along a stream adjacent to an old abandoned mining town and we woke up about 3AM with a large herd of cattle milling about the tent, as in pushing up against it. We had a late start out on a Friday evening and I had chosen the place in the dark, but didn't realize that a rancher had placed several salt-lick blocks in the vicinity and the herd dropped in for a drink and a lick.
Cue 3 month old German Shepherd puppy and mrs busydog going ballistic.

[i]Is there ever a good camping experience.[/i]

Well this why the ADAC camping guide is your friend.