Skipworth Reserve Trip 2019

Wet and extremely windy. Those are our memories of Mt Hope. The campground is behind the community hall for a donation. We got there just before the storm.

We decided to raise the tarp to allow us to cope with the imminent rain. The day had been warm so the slightly cooler temperature was nice. We had the tarp rigged and suddenly the wind whipped up and ripped out most of the pegs. The poles all on the ground and the tarp about to do a kite impersonation. We had to quickly grab the tarp and start again, this time with bigger pegs. Almost done, we were fighting quite strong wind by now amid spots of rain.

Just a couple poles to go and the rain started ro get heavier. By the time all the pegs were in it was time to retreat to the car. We waited out the storm for over half an hour. About 15 or 20 mm of rain before the rain eased of and we resumed setting up. The area was now all slushy mud. Even the area covered by our tarp was quite muddy.

The pegs had all nearly ripped out and the wind was getting stronger. Medium weight pegs were replaced with very large sand pegs. By now these hammered way too easily into the now soaked ground. We flipped the camper partially onto the small tarp we had for a ground sheet and folded the floor under to reduce how much would get wet and muddy. It looked like a terrible set up but we were attempting to mitigate the amount of mud we would need to clean of later

The wind dropped and we finished this make shift set up and then prepared a very late meal. By now it was after 9pm NSW time and we were very tired. I went to sleep very quickly.

It seemed I had only just gotten to sleep and I was suddennly woken. Thumping, scraping, bumping and very loud noisy flapping. Suddenly a massive clang. That woke Pam up as well and I said "That did NOT sound good".

I crawled out of my warm bed to a shockingly cold experience as I exited the tent. The wind was strong and gusting. It seemed it had made its way here via the south pole. It ripped the warmth from my body. The noise had been a pole ripping out one of the sand pegs and flinging against the trailer. The next pole was poised to follow. I found the hammer and belted the peg in a bit further back. The ground was now so soft t came straight out again so I had to find a better spot.

About another meter back from my ploughed previous spots I finally got a solid anchor. Just in time though as the wind whipped up even harder. I lowered all the poles just above the camper tent but it still seemed precarious. I decided to add two more poles on the windy side and also run a coye of ropes to the fence posts nearby. With that went back to bed. The flapping reduced a bit but was still quite loud.

I realize that the annexe which was folded over the tent roof was blowing back over. If it blew right through it would get wet and be difficult to stow next day. Another trek outside to tie the annexe fly down securely. A last check and I headed back inside. Sleep was elusive for some time as the noise continued. I opened the rear windows a crack to check that everything was not ripped apart.

Next morning the wind was still strong but the rain had gone. We decided to pack up and haav breakfast later. I then discovered how close all the pegs had been to coming out. Had I not added the extra poles and pegs the whole structure would have let go easily. Every peg was easily pulled out of the muddy ground.

It seems the camper trailer attracts more than its fair share of rainy weather. Perhaps we can hire out as rain makers.Read more