Rhossilli surf, May Bank Holiday, 1997
The Premiere trip of the world famous ‘disco tent’. Really, the tent speaks for itself. ……..”Spacious, luxurious, room enough for TEN people”, said the AU. Cool, we thought, but alas, we had been deceived.
Upon arrival at the campsite, the aforementioned tent was eventually put up – not too taxing a task (even though we’d all had a few beers), as there was only ONE pole……hooray!
The first night passed without too much of an event, and we rose the next morning to a full fry up (?!) and then went paddling. Oh yes, and there was some good surf.
Then came the evening, and the pub was attended for dinner at an early hour. Everyone had far too much beer and Karen and Lou renewed long lost friendships with the tarmac and with some very nice people from Essex university who let them sit on the roof of their minibus and chat for HOURS….poor people didn’t know what they’d let themselves in for.
Upon arrival back at the DISCO tent we had a disco of sorts and then settled down to a night of torturous storms. This was the night of the infamous BEN – “my tongue slipped” incident. Not surprisingly, the tent did not provide a lot of protection from the elements and we all woke up the next morning in a puddle of rainwater that had come in through the ‘air vent’ on the side….mmm nice.
The next morning we again went for a surf and then followed a beach barbecue in the evening. For some reason, no-one wanted to sleep in the disco tent anymore, so we collapsed the thing. Jamie’s roastie toastie expensive tent with ‘non-bendable poles’ seemed like a very appealing option to Karen, Kev and Lou. So they made the fatal mistake of putting it up and then went to the pub.
Everyone else was clever and slept in the bus or found other accommodation, but Kev, Karen and Lou spent a night of veritable luxury in the tent of dreams. Their dreams were shattered the next morning when the tent was taken down to discover BENT non-bendable poles, on Jamie’s spangly new tent…..arse.
We left Rhossilli that afternoon, and headed for home. A bonza trip was had by all.
The moral of the story is…….never sleep in a DISCO tent unless you happen to be MAD and like sleeping in ponds. Oh and if you bottle out, sleep in the bus! (sorry Jamie!)