Bulls in the tent

So why do people go camping ? Apparently its a great family activity that bonds families-a revelation that hasnt yet dawned on me.
We have just finished 7 days at Anaru Bay north of Gisborne at a Doc camp in a borrowed tent.
Our arival welcomed 24 hours of consistant heavy rain that by three in the morning had filled up the base of the tent leaving us bailing water,digging trenches and trying to recall what aspect of this experience was meant to be fun.
We emerged in the morning in our wet and humble state to find a Hilton like house /caravan parked ten meters from us. They turned on their hot showers, popped the chardenay corks and spent their time watching their poor neighbours [ us-looked like squatter camp] trying to turn the flood away.The final humiliation was to see their little genetically modified rat,apparently a dog,walk over to the corner of our tent and drop his very big bundle and then trot back over to the mini Hilton so as not to get wet.
I can really see now why some people actually kill and eat dogs ! The spade in my hand would have happily turned into a dog beating, grave digging tool had Mr and Mrs Hilton not been looking.
So please remind me again, which part of this builds great memories.Or perhaps thats just the point.You will never,ever forget the times spent on your tenting holidays as you remain deeply traumatised for many years and will need to talk to others about it many , many times.
A friend of ours told how when they came back from a walk they found their tent was gone and moving aroung the field they were camped in. They were informed that the farmers bull had got into their tent,got trapped and was now running aroung inside the tent and around the field. Sure hope the kids werent inside it!!!

Other insights to survive camping:
-Place a trumpet on your picnic table while camping as it is certain to keep the campsites on either side vacant.
-The guitar being used by the noisy teenager at the next camp site makes excellent kindling.

So my advice is buy one of those mini Hiltons and terrorise all those poor people in tents.

So thats it from me.If you have also been traumatised from a camping holiday do write back to this site and perhaps over time we can start a internet chat room as we coach each other back into healing.

The sad thing about all this-we will be back next year to repeat it all again !