Friday 27 April 2018

Some Rather Posh Campers.

Here's another one of my anecdotes for you to read.  

It was about ten years a go and we decided to go on holiday in Galway.  We hadn't a lot of pennies so we just put some fuel in the car and bought a cheap small tent from Argos in Killarney.


The two lads had a sleeping bag each and we took the quilt off our bed and a pillow a piece.  Then we stopped at Aldi and bought some crisps and pop and some of those "El Cheapo" little bottles of French lager.  What more would anybody need for a camping trip?


We stopped at a beautiful farm come campsite overlooking a beach and the Atlantic Ocean.  The old currant bun in the sky was actually smiling and shining on us that day, for a change.  


It didn't take long to pitch our little tent and the two lads went paddling in the sea and we sat outside our tent and drank some of the French lagers.  It was a beautiful evening.


I started to question if there was any alcohol content in the lager?  Rather like that stuff you pay for at those big concert arenas and national football stadiums.  You fork out twenty quid to put you in the mood to see your favourite group put in a naff concert or your beloved football team fails to know how to win on the day.  Been there got the T shirt and paid for the lager and burger!


After half a dozen bottles of gnats pee lager.  We noticed a big shiny posh car pull up opposite us.  Its inhabitants duly unpacked everything but the Butlers sink and erect an enormous frame tent.  They then unpacked a picnic table and chairs and began to set the table complete with crockery and cutlery.  We couldn't help people watch and the teenage daughter piped up in a upper crust English accent:


"Mother.  Where's the tablecloth?"


Her mother rolled her eyes and with a voice like the mother in the Durrell's replied:


"It's in the wicker picnic basket!"


I asked my wife:


"What's a tablecloth?"  

18 comments:

  1. Still laughing! How brilliant is that ending! It's a real gem, Dave. Thanks for sharing and making the start of my day a happy one.

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  2. Thanks Valerie. It still makes us laugh now. Will post some more soon. You must have lots of funny tales?

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  3. I like the sound of your cheap, no nonsense holiday. Many many years ago I went to the States with a friend and the long and the short of it was that we didn't really have enough money for our travels. After a few days and nights on Greyhound buses, we bought a tent in a supermarket for $10 and located some campsites with some help and odd looks from locals. Our fellow campers were all in $25,000 camper vans and not another tent to be seen! We knew then why we got the puzzled looks when we enquired about the whereabouts of the sites, they were only used by campervans!

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  4. Hi Rachel. We have done the roughing it camping holidays and also luxury villas sun holidays.

    Your Greyhound bus cheap camping trip sounds like a good travelog book. I would love to do a Route 66 trip sometime. Israel appeals too

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  5. Oh this was funny. I love camping but would definitely not have a tablecloth to put on the table, and probably wouldn't have a table either! In fact we would be as minimal as you were, which is what camping is all about.

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  6. I am glad it made you laugh. You won't be opening a glamping site then? Thanks!

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  7. I kid you not, my BIL takes a carpet with them camping. one for each of the 6 pods on their enormous tent. We rock up with our little 2 man tent and use all of their stuff! ha ha

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  8. A carpet camping Sol? Is it magic? You two aren't daft. Thanks!

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  9. Oh your blog is a bit of a reminder !
    I took my 1st wife camping in N. Wales, cut out a square of turf for the fire pit, dug a hole for the latrine and got water from a stream she enjoyed it all.
    I went away to work on a profitable contract and returned to find a frame tent, camp beds, portable gas stove, table, chairs and cool box.
    No it was not camping as I knew it to be...

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  10. You sound like you have had scout or military training Heron? Have you seen what Glamping sites offer? One of my favorite once went camping for a week with ten Benson Hedges an apple, a box of matches and a bottle of Strong bow cider. His pals weren't impressed when his provisions ran out and he lived off their supplies. Thanks!


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    1. I was in the Sea Scouts for several years - might do a blog on that; there's an idea... ta Dave

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    2. Sounds like a good blog post Heron.

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  11. holidays that make memories

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  12. Yeah some good memories and some holiday nightmares. Thanks Dawn.

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  13. As children we enjoyed such holidays with our parents. Somehow 6 of us crammed ourselves into the tent and slept soundly on air beds, only the snoring of my father disturbed the peace of the farmers fields where we found ourselves every summer.

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  14. Thanks for that wonderful childhood memoir Gwil. You should write them down. You probably have already. Thanks!

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