Most of us who went to Fernihurst that weekend will remember it forever and in my opinion anyway, the stories won't get worse as time goes by, they can't, because the experience couldn't get any worse than it was, regardless of how often it is told.

The majority of the group decided we would go up Friday afternoon and we were all set up before dark, ready for one of our 'fabulous fishing weekends'. It was extremely hot that evening so I opened every thing in the van. After tea we set ourselves up outside with plenty of mossie repellent and fluid to prevent dehydration. The evening went well, with plenty of good cheer and revelry. Towards midnight there was quite a lot of lightening on the horizon, with it slowly coming closer and then some light rain so we decided it was time to call it a night.

 It was still very hot so we closed down some of the windows without locking them and went to bed, drifting off to sleep with light rain sounding lovely on the roof. Next thing I woke to find splashes of water coming in on us. By the time I got up the rain was really starting to hammer down, so I closed two of the vents tight, but as we had an aeriel wire out through the centre one and it would not shut properly. I did what I could and then shifted the radio sets and anything else in range to safety. By then the lightening and thunder was coming thick and fast and the rain seemed to be coming in everywhere. I shut all the windows I could and went back to bed, but the rest of the night was spent up and down, mopping up water, trying to close down things that refused to stay shut and praying the whole thing would hold together. In the end I just stayed up wandering round with the torch. The thunder and lightening continued for hours, with the rain pouring in around the door seals and the wind rocking the caravan till I was sure it was going to turn over.

I must have dozed off some time towards morning because I awoke to reasonable quietness, except for this horrible dripping sound and when I walked through the kitchen found it completely flooded with water again. I threw down some clothes to mop up the water and sat down thinking to myself it was all over. However, my joy was short lived. I had been vaguely thinking about the train coming when I suddenly awoke up that I wasn't at home where it wouldn't have be anything unusual.--- We were out by the river and if there was a train coming there really would be something wrong. It was awful once I realised what the noise must be, It got louder and louder and when it hit, I thought we were really finished. If anything it seemed worse than before.

 However morning did come and we were still alive. It was then I realised that except for a few fleeting moments over night I really hadn't given much thought to how everyone else was getting on.

 I heard a voice and decided to venture out into what was a very sorry looking camp site and also a lot of very sorry looking campers. Of the four tents put up the day before only one was still standing. Several had been torn in half and part of one I saw later on the other side of the river.

One of our members Bill, had taken in the poor bedraggled victims from the tents and it was his opinion that without their help his annex would have gone too. I don't think anyone got through the night unscathed. The only tent left in one piece, did so we think because it was surrounded by vans. However everything inside was wet through and its occupant, Edna, said it was the worst night she had ever spent in all her life. Her family tried to get her to abandon ship during the night but she wouldn't because she thought that might be the end of it.

 Every van had leaked somewhere which made me feel a bit better about our poor old thing. Nothing was in the same condition that it had been the day before and though the rain had stopped, the wind was wild which made it hard to get back to normal.

 A few of the group decided they had better give it up and head home, especially those from.the tents as everything they had was wet through. We had heard by then that there had been over three inches of rain, so even if we had wanted to I think it would have been touch and go getting the van out.

 While we were out deciding what to do next, we saw a man walking up the road towards us and someone jokingly said perhaps he's lost his tent. When he reached us we found he was wet through and needed help. He had launched his boat and started out only to have the wind turn it over. He was lucky to not be at the bottom of the river with his two shot guns and the rest of the contents of the boat.
 

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