UKH

After staying at Bosherston’s overflow campsite last bank holiday weekend, I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse. But it seems it can, and will:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/17/tents-britons-camping-gear...

Just sit it out for a month or so. Not long until that glorious day when Google maps turns red as the whole country straps a pile of bikes across the back window of a faux-by-four that's not gone further than school or Tesco for at least 10 months, and has a driving refresher on the M6 with the rear view mirror pointed down to keep an eye on the overexcited back seat occupants and any remaining attention given to arguing with the navigator.

It's not the campsites I give a monkeys dongle about, it's the effect on 'wild camping' sites right by the road just waiting for another assault from the ignorant and feckless.

I see this as a business opportunity, I have MANY tents sitting in a cupboard. Time to rent them out for an extortionate fee!!

You could then let the cupboard as well.

Pretty shrewd marketing from Decathlon, convince a newspaper to run a story saying tents are selling out then sit back as people panic and buy all the stock you have left.

I'll bet Ikea are doing well, too - shifting all those cupboards....

Perhaps you aren't aware that there is a world freight crisis, the shortfall of goods being transported is of the order of 30%. I've had to turn down orders because material isn't arriving, another of my suppliers says they can only deliver what is in stock and everything else is unknown delivery date and price (ca 6 months lead time. The spot price for a container between the major economies is minimum 10x last year.

My local Decathlon ( in Germany) is half empty.

The prognosis is that things will improve after Xmas, possibly.

I get the shortage of materials is an issue in a lot of business now, but the cynic and ex salesman in me thinks this particular one is a bit of a ploy. Tell people they can only have a tent if they buy it in 3 weeks and they will buy one to make sure they don’t miss out, even if they were not necessarily going to before. Why so many business sell things as limited time offer and while stocks last. Create this so called FOMO phenomenon. Helps no one other than the person selling all their stock.

No idea why it’s different here as I thought most decathlon stuff came from France and would be similar everywhere but my nearest one was pretty normal last weekend in terms of stuff available no empty racks or anything. (Or in the aisles I went down tbh I didn’t look at tents). Might just be a slower turnover of stuff

Hope things improve for you sooner than that and you can start to get back to more normal business.

Think of the positives. A lot of barely used tents will be on Ebay come winter.

I thought that about bikes.

I'm still waiting. 

The fear is that they will be crap cheap tents and they'll end up left at the side of a river/road/footpath rather than on ebay.

Crap and cheap aren't the same thing, of course.  You don't have to pay much for an adequate weekend away tent.

Yes. I can’t wait for the glorious 31st.

Ive agreed, not too reluctantly, to work as a favour for someone. It will be mint. Paid to sit in traffic jams whilst all around are having a shitter. People follow vans that seem to know where they are going to avoid the jams. I will use little known rat runs that narrow to trap caravans and big 4x4 and moo haha in my rear view at the carnage I’ve caused.

Nah, no danger of that. Only thing they'll follow is the middle lane.

It’s when the middle lane runs out that you get them.

I live near a perfect trap. 3 lanes verge to 2, then meets another dual carriageway and then a hill. Always gets them and they always go rural

Our village has a better trap.  Only a couple of miles short of quite a few large caravan sites we have an old door/porch feature with lovely circular columns which sticks out and cuts the road from two lanes into 1. Saturday morning traffic chaos with caravans neatly wedged everywhere. Record is a queue about 7 miles long! 

In case anyone thinks they could knock the posts down, they are cast iron and after the second time they did get knocked over my dad was asked to fix them and decided to slot the columns down over old railway tracks and then fill them with concrete.  They haven't moved since but do have quite a few battle scars.

I was at bosherton weekend just gone. Tbh, it wasn't very busy imo given it was so close to the summer holidays. More campervans than I've seen before in the field. 

Not so many climbers. 

Maybe it'll be fine?

In West Cumbria today and the campsites looked only about 60% full?

This'll be me on Sunday, though not in a faux-by-four, in an S-Max that we have inherited due to the ULEZ.

Can't wait........

Stock looked pretty good in the Stockport branch yesterday? There family tents are very good value/quality. Bought one last year to replace the campervan and love it.

Ah, right, maybe you can help figure something out then...>
The summer holidays are 6 weeks, right? Why, the hell, does everyone HAVE to go away for the first week of them? I mean, has nobody with school-age kids ever thought "you know what, if I take my time off work *next* week....." ?

My wife is a medic. They share their summer holiday weeks out between the team to ensure they can avoid cancelling any clinics. We got wk 1 and wk 4. Not everyone can cherry pick their holidays.

Regardless of traffic and people (I AM the traffic etc), I'm just be excited to spend a week in the Lakes in a tent with my family and friends.

No judgement aimed at you, sorry if it came across that way, but.... I mean... everyone goes this weekend. Next weekend roads are quiet again. What's the deal? Is there some memo?

No problem. Most our our children's classmates families are off on holiday today (broke up yesterday). Never used to go on holiday as a child in the first week as it's my birthday but as a parent, especially after a year like this one, I must say I am desperate to get away and am glad I am going at the first opportunity! 

The Lakes were rammed last weekend, the Inn's campsite in Wasdale was packed out worse than a festival. Tents alongside the Wastwater and throughout Duddon, plenty camped up near Scafell as well.

Well you could ease the problem by choosing not to travel during that week.

Becuase the days are longest and the weather's most reliable.

True, but cheap = throwaway in many people's eyes, especially those in poxy modern houses without any storage.

Why the f*** would I travel that week? That'd be insane.

It's starting.....

The NT at Wasdale Head have a good policy: only book to a low capacity. I usually go somewhere cheap, or roadside up on the passes, but given the whole summer-shithole-situation we're in, I thought I'd book a campsite this time.

You have to book (and in the summer hols now, it might be totally booked up), but once you're in, it's incredibly spacious, quiet and pleasant. Not even midgy, dunno how they achieved that part. It's expensive so I did feel a bit like anyone without a decent amount of cash was being priced out, but at the end of the day for me it was worth the money.

Guess that's what you get when you've got a massive, well-funded organisation that's got something of establishment about it. Money talks, on every level - even when it comes to camping in the Lakes.

First three weeks are at a premium, when England is still at school.

I suspect it's just as busy for the other weeks, just notice the transition at the start.

Excellent tip. Given the blustery week ahead I might convince my partner to re-route from Cornwall to the Lakes for some big wet mountain days...

It's likely you weren't the only person to think of that, as the NT campsite at Wasdale Head is fully booked until mid-August.

Oh it is, it absolutely is. I expect you were just fortunate.

some thunder and lightning forecast up here later in the week

Been up in the Lakes for a few weeks and pleased to see quite a few new pop up sites around. Far more than normal.  Hopefully that should help take the pressure off the not wild, wild camping in the valleys and next to the roads.

Ran over from Seathwaite to Wasdale Head before 0700 today and was slightly surprised to see the family frame tent pitched by Styhead Tarn. Fair play for lugging that up there!

Yeah you have to kind of respect that.