Gone campin'

[Yaneci DeNovi]

This past weekend I went camping. Normally I love camping, aside from the horrid night's sleep I get. This is due to two things, hard rock filled ground, and an overactive imagination that turns tree shadows into rabid animals or mass murders. Add to that the fact that I'd googled Skinwalkers [srsly, if you believe in things like magic and stoof, and or get scared easily, do NOT look them up] and spent a whole night reading about 'em right before my trip. Needles to say, I was extra jumpy.

Anyway we all, all being me, my daughter, her best friend, her best friend's brother, my mum, my mum's cocker spaniel and my step-dad, had one huge tent to share. My daughter's best friend's brother ended up nest to me in the sleeping arrangements, with me between him and the tent wall.

Well the first night, or rather early morning, I woke up to the sound of paws and sniffing outside the tent. I sat up and looked, as best as you can through fabric, then tried to lay down and go to sleep. I repeated this a bit, before waking up The Boy [my nick name for him as I kept calling him Devon & Even], not intentionally though. I was just moving too much. Anyway he sat up and I asked if that was a rabbit shadow on the tent. Right after I spoke, what ever it was jumped at the tent, and I screamed.

After a few minutes of looking at the shadow, some whispered convo along the lines of "What is it?" and "Is it a fox?" It jumped at the tent again, eliciting another scream from me, and this time gave a little bark I recognized. Breathing a sigh of relief, I unzipped the door to let my mum's dog in. I spent the rest of the trip enduring teases from everyone. XD

So anyone have amusing, or scary, camp tales?

[oxnerdpb]

My family and I have gone camping since I was a 'wee lil' lad. (I've always wanted to say that XD)

I remember, back before we got our motorhome (which makes camping a total breeze), we would tent out at some Lake or other (there are so many we went to that I forget which one). Well, we left a bucket outside our tent in case of emergency need of the restroom late at night since, at that time, most of the campsite restrooms were either too far to make it to in a reasonable amount of time or were dirty and often surrounded by late-night drunkards.

Well, it was on one such occasion, that, the morning after, I was leaving the tent when I tripped over the zipper and fell, head-first, into the bucket. Unfortunately, it was NOT empty. Needless to say, that was the worse day camping ever.

Other than that, though, most of my camping trips have been accident-free and rather enjoyable.

[Yaneci DeNovi]

Ick.. At least it was family member's.. err excretions, and not total stranger's.

My worst camping trip was when my daughter got attacked by bees, 17 stings in all. My mum swears they were Africanized bees. I think they were just pissed at the dozen or more people passing by their hive, going back and forth constantly [it was in a dead tree right on the path leading to the pond], plus barking dogs, screaming kids AND the fact my mum had peeked into their tree that morning, resulting in her water bottle smacking against it. They'd simply had enough. The fact that they singled her out among a group of 3-4 kids means she well could have unknowingly stepped on a bee [she had on hiking shoes because the pond has a fair bit of rock climbing to get to it].

Luckily the dad of one of the other groups of kids there grabbed her [due to the jumble of boulders anyone up top with my daughter probably would have dropped her had they tried taking her down, but because he was already down it was easier/safer for him to get her] and dunked her in the pond.

[Vixie]

i use to love going camping when i was little, but now i hate it, i dislike sleeping on the ground.. its a killer on my back! the last time i ever camped was last year at a music festival(Download Festival.. a british rock/metal fest). it was so COLD at night that me and my boyfriend had to buy extra blankets.. aswell as sleep with all our clothes on! it was a nightmare!

[oxnerdpb]

True, camping is hard on the body sometimes. That's why my family RV's most of the time now, though I'm finally separating (in a way) and getting back to my tenting roots.

And wow... 17 bee stings? I've never been stung, thank goodness, despite somehow having the luck to ALWAYS tent under a bee's nest. XD

I feel like I've been very fortunate to have very few bad memories of camping. It's something I enjoy, and a hobby I am not willing give up any time soon.

[Yaneci DeNovi]

Vixie I dun mind sleeping on the ground, especially if it means I get my favorite foods [camping was always considered a time for the families favorite foods we couldn't always afford] and best of all, time away from all the damn people in the city.

oxnerdpb I've been stung by many different bee type bugs. The worst was when I found a wasp [or hornet, I always confuse them] nest and one of them bit me right after it stung me.

My biggest worry was that was the first time, to my knowledge at least, that she'd been stung. I had no clue if she was allergic, or if the number of sting could make her allergic to future stings [as I've been told is possible]. She still loves camping, though she is more jumpy about stinging insects then she used to be.

[oxnerdpb]

Ah, true. I tend to forget allegies when dealing with bugs. I rarely get stung or bit (I guess the bugs know that I have bitter blood) XD

But yeah, that is a very real concern, though I'm jumpy around bugs no matter what (They just disgust me) especially when they get on me or in my face.

[Yaneci DeNovi]

I dun mind most bugs, just the ones that commonly bite and or sting.

[Rin]

Never gone camping...dunno if I ever will. XD

[Transcendence]

Well, I cant really think of a crazy camp tale like that. I know that I haven't had very much luck at camping in my life time. I used to have horrible memories of camping in Maine with my dad and step mom. They fight all the time and it was pure torture for me. Not to mention that I always seemed to have my period so I couldn't go in the ocean.

I know when it gets down to it my biggest story has to be in 6th grade my classmates and I went on a camping trip. It was a great adventure at first, but it turned out being a horrible experience. The whole trip was basically based solely off playing tricks on people. I was lucky enough not to let this happen, but tons of people would come back to my cabin with silly string and chocolate syrup on them. Horrible. On top of everything else we had mice in our cabin and it rained the whole time.

Because of the infestation and the leaking roof the girls that were living in the cabin moved to the cafeteria. While there a teacher made advances on my and my friend when we were in our pjs. Needless to say we were very scarred by this. To this day I am horrified that we were hit on by a pedophile.