We thought you might enjoy the pictures and highlights of a report sent to us by Bernie and Paul Nolan of Cardiff's Gold Family Group's infamous camping trip to the Gower in 2012. It may be two years ago but the memories are still fresh in their minds! We hope their recent weekend in York was less blustery.
'We are lucky to have many talented people in the Gold Family Group, including doctors, teachers, a dentist and even a Deacon. What we don’t have is a weather forecaster! The two outdoor events that we have staged so far have coincided with the wildest, wettest, windiest weekends so far this year. The barbecue in April was a washout (although we had a contingency plan and enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon in the Hall instead). Our next adventure was camping at the Hillend Campsite, Llangennith, Gower. Surely the weather would be much nicer come mid June. Wrong! People camping at Hillend last weekend could be put into one of three categories. 1: the very sensible (who had camper vans); 2: the pretty sensible (who used low tents pitched in the lee of their cars) and 3: us! Bernie and I borrowed a tent from our daughter who assured us that it was spacious and waterproof - it was. However, she forgot to tell us that it was so tall it needed a light on the top to warn low flying aircraft - not the best idea when the wind is gusting 60-70 mph. After a brief fight with the conditions all the tents were erected successfully. Gareth, Val and Steve and Jan were staying in a nearby cottage and the plan was that they would join us for a barbecue. If you’ve never tried lighting a barbecue in a force 10 gale then take a tip from me - don’t bother. Fortunately we were invited back to the cottage to eat there and thanks to the ladies we all enjoyed a lovely meal then spent a most wonderful evening together. 
At about 1 am we decided to return to our tents, assuming that they were still there. They were - I’m glad that I tied ours to the car! By now I had been out of bed for 20 hours, done a day’s work and then some, had a couple of glasses of wine and about 3 months ration of fresh air. Theoretically my head should have touched the pillow and that would have been that. Wrong! The noise inside the tent had to be heard to be believed, the wind noise was greatly amplified and the sounds coming from the tent itself were very alarming. At about 5am Bernie and I were still wide awake. She retired to the car and I tried to soldier on, but at 6.30 realised that the only real solution was a cup of tea. I went to the car to get the tea making stuff and discovered that Neil had had the same idea. As the other campers rose it became apparent that the only one to sleep successfully was baby Izzy - 4 months old and totally unfazed by the whole experience! Nobody fancied staying another night, so we packed up and returned to the cottage where we all enjoyed a Gower breakfast (a a full English with cockles and laverbread.) We listened to the rugby then decided to head for Rhossili where the winning entries in this year’s photographic competition were taken. Afterwards we descended on a local tea room where we all enjoyed various Lattes, Cappuccino’s and hot chocolates. Yana and Neil, Roy, Jess and Izzy and Bernie and myself agreed that we had had enough fun for one weekend and left for home (and the others, I believe, returned to the cottage). And so the $64,000 question. Would we do it again? Personally I can’t wait!'
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