By: Blonde Two

Oh my flipping goodness that was exciting.  We saw the weather forecast for Okehampton this afternoon and the amber wind warnings but nothing had quite prepared the Two Blondes for the reality of holding down a giant piece of canvas during gust after gust of gale force wind.

I have been around tents for a while and have seen a few blow over but I have never seen it happen to quite so many, or to big wheelie bins or to Portaloos (don’t want to go in those now!)  I think it took Two Blondes and eight or so blokes to manoeuvre our our canvas into the right position.

Tent Carnage

We have left our marquee (the weather made the decision about which tent a lot easier) pegged down without its legs on.  All of our kitchen kit is stuffed underneath so if the marquee has gone when we go back up in the morning, our kit will have as well.

It was quite an adventure and we did see a couple of minor injuries from rope burn etc.  As you can see from the picture, lots of smaller tents, ours included have been pegged out with no poles in an attempt to make sure that they are still there in the morning.

It was pretty horrendous but team work got us through as ever.  It was nice that everybody on site was helping each other – this isn’t always the case at Ten Tors Base Camp but there was a definite “all in this together” feel to the place today.  Blonde One was offered shelter with a group of Scouts while she waited for the rest of us.  Later this whole group charged out of their warm marquee to “catch” someone else’s not so warm one as it blew past the window – if you are from Exeter College, your tent is with some Bristol Scouts who are kind of mid field and down wind of you.

I will try to keep you updated – for now we are safe at home but have no idea where we might find our tent in the morning!  Odd thing is that my hair looked better tonight after a good old Dartmoor battering than it did this morning after a shampoo and blow dry …