Your Holiday Disasters (or near disaster) Thread.

[raleighnut]

Simple, types like her keep me busy.

Why assume it was a woman ?

Mind you a pet peeve of mine is people parking with 2 wheels on the pavement but there is a very considerate European woman lives a few doors down who generally parks 18" to 2' away from the kerb. This forms a most effective 'pinch point' that prevents the numpties who think that 30mph is a target not a limit and would happily do 40+ along a residential street from treating our road like Mallory Park.

 

[screenman]

Why assume it was a woman ?

Mind you a pet peeve of mine is people parking with 2 wheels on the pavement but there is a very considerate European woman lives a few doors down who generally parks 18" to 2' away from the kerb. This forms a most effective 'pinch point' that prevents the numpties who think that 30mph is a target not a limit and would happily do 40+ along a residential street from treating our road like Mallory Park.

Just testing to see if it was spotted, I am famous in the motor trade for not being able to park a car. That does not mean I do not park it safely just if I take it off the line up to work on then put it back when finished it is easy to spot.

 

[NorthernDave]

Two spring to mind.

Decided years ago to give camping a try and booked into a very well rated campsite in North Yorkshire on the fringes of a small market town.

It was a really nice site, so we set up without issue had a walk into the town for a look round and got back at about 5pm and got the BBQ going for some tea. Although the campsite had lots of tents up there were very few people around.
Bloke a couple of tents down started chatting with us, and gave the great news that there was a party of about thirty people celebrating a 40th birthday and they'd kept him awake until 3am that morning. Apparently they'd all gone to the pub which was why it was so quiet.

We turned in at about half ten, they arrived back from the pub at around 11:30 and proceeded to sit round drunkenly talking loudly for the next three hours. Which was annoying.

The other was a bit more serious - we booked a holiday of a lifetime to Mexico. The first week was excellent, we did a couple of tours (Chichen Itza was amazing) and really enjoyed it. Then Hurricane Wilma arrived - at the time the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the Carribbean.
We were confined to our rooms for three days and basically anything outside was wrecked, the rain was so intense that we woke up to find two inches of water covering the floor of our 1st floor room! We got away quite lightly compared to Cancun, which suffered major damage including trashing the airport.
The irony is that we'd specifically chosen those two weeks as they were almost at the end of the hurricane season and there had never been a hurricane in that area in that fortnight.
I have to say that Thomson (TUI) were bloody useless throughout, including eventually flying us back to Gatwick after telling everyone on the evacuation flight it was flying to Manchester first...

 

[Brains]

First holiday without my parents.
A friend who had been grape picking the previous year had met some Moroccan lads, who had invited him to Morocco
So off we went.
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

Train to Dover
Ferry to Calais
Train to Paris
Get on the overnight sleeper to Madrid
We have a Dutch Professor and a young just married Moroccan couple in the compartment with us. We do not have a single common language between us, but no matter it's only for the night.
A very disturbed night being bumped all over the place and we seemed to be going backwards as much as forwards, By the next morning we are still in France and only a few hours south of Paris.
Overnight there had been a 3 way train accident ahead of us. Lots of people injured and killed.
It was all over the press globally.
Our one night on the train turned into 3 nights and 4 days
We finally arrived in Madrid early in the evening .

Across from the station we spotted a bar, as we were underage we wondered if they would serve us!
We walked in and ordered beer. We Got Served !!
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

A tall American walked over, and said "You boys need to get outta town NOW"
"Why?, it's great, they serve us beer" we replied
"You boys need to get outta town NOW" he repeated.
At that point the bar went quiet ...
All eyes turned to the TV over the bar.
There was a shoot up going on in the Parliament in Madrid. A military Coup was under way
(Quite how the American warned us before it had happened has never been explained)
We left the bar, went back to the station and got on the first train heading south
It took us to Toledo

Toledo has the biggest barracks in Spain, it was the center of the Coup.
It was all over the press globally.
Unsurprisingly we had no problem finding a nice B&B for a very good price.

The next day we continued south to Gibraltar.
When we got there the border was closed.
So onto Algeciras where we got a ferry to Tangier.
Tangier was the worst place I've ever been to, but that is another story.
We ended up in Casablanca and met up with the Moroccan friends for a week.

Then headed down to Marrakesh by coach.
During the journey we passed multiple convoys of tanks, troops and other military hardware.
We know what going on here, it's another military coup! The last one was OK, so this one should not be a problem.
We arrived in Marrakesh, strangely were were the only tourists, so we go to the most expensive hotel in town, 67p per person per night.
We get the penthouse suite. We order beer on room service, it cost more than the room !

We sit back on the roof with our beer and watch the artillery barrage in the Atlas mountains some 60 miles south.
The Polisario Front were in the process of invading Morocco.
It was all over the press globally.

Needless to say when we got home both of our parents where practically apoplectic, assuming that we had been killed in either the French train crash, or the Spanish military coup or the Moroccan invasion.

 

[raleighnut]

First holiday without my parents.
A friend who had been grape picking the previous year had met some Moroccans, who had invited him to Morocco
So off we went.
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

Train to Dover
Ferry to Calais
Train to Paris
Get on the overnight sleeper to Madrid
We have a Dutch Professor and a young just married Moroccan couple in the compartment with us. We do not have a single common language between, but no matter it's only for the night.
A very disturbed night being bumped all over the place and we seemed to be going backwards as much as forwards, By the next morning we are still in France and only a few hours south of Paris.
Overnight there had been a 3 way train accident ahead of us.Lots of people injured and killed.
It was all over the press globally.
Our one night on the train turned into 3 nights and 4 days
We finally arrived in Madrid early in the evening .

Across from the station we spotted a bar, We wondered if they would serve us!
We walked in and ordered beer. We Got Served !!
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

A tall American walked over, and said "You boys need to get outta town NOW"
Why, it's great, they serve us beer we replied
"You boys need to get outta town NOW" he repeated.
At that point the bar went quiet ...
All eyes turned to the TV over the bar.
There was a shoot up going on in the Parliament in Madrid. A military Coup was under way
(Quite how the American warned us before it had happened has never been explained)
We left the bar, went back to the station and got on the first train heading south
It took us to Toledo

Toledo has the biggest barracks in Spain, it was the center of the Coup
It was all over the press globally.

The next day we continued south to Gibraltar
When we got there the border was closed
So onto Algiceras where we got a ferry to Tangier
Tangier was the worst place I've ever been to but that is another story
We ended up in Casablanca and met up with the Moroccan friends for a week

Then headed down to Marrakesh by coach
During the journey we passed multiple convoys of tanks, troops and other military hardware
We know what going on here, it's another military coup! The last one was OK, so this one should not be a problem
We arrive in Marrakesh and go to the most expensive hotel in town, 67p per person per night. We get the penthouse suite
We order beer on room service. it cost more than the room !

We sit back on the roof and watch the artillery barrage in the Atlas mountains some 60 miles south.
The Polisario Front are in the process of invading Morocco
It was all over the press globally

Needless to say when we got home both of our parents where practically apoplectic, assuming that we had either been killed in the train crash, or the military coup or the invasion.

Now that's a holiday

 

[ColinJ]

I used to go to the Costa Blanca every March for a cycling training camp holiday in the sun, usually accompanied by a pal who was fitter than me.

Group rides from the hotel were split into 4 groups ranging from group 1 (long, fast rides) down to group 4 (shorter, slower rides with more stops). My friend used to go out with G1 or G2 and I would go with G2 or G3.

The near disaster didn't happen to me, but to my friend. One day, as usual, he set off in the group before mine and by the time I set off the other group were out of sight. We headed out NE on the N-332 coast road and eventually turned right to descend to Calpe. There is a roundabout with a fountain in the centre of it on the descent into town. As I was going round it I spotted my pal sat on the pavement on the far side of the fountain, head in his hands. I stopped to find out what was going on and discovered that he had cuts and bruises to his body and an injury to his head! I asked what had happened and he replied that the road surface was incredibly slippery*** and his bike went from under him at the back of his group. Nobody in that group had even noticed that he'd gone down.

I checked him over. Fortunately, it looked like his injuries were fairly minor but I was concerned about him having taken a knock to the head. I asked if he wanted to be escorted back to our hotel but he was having none of it. He decided to do his day's ride with me and my group instead of his original group. We got back on our bikes and spent 10 minutes chasing my group down.

*** The roads in that area don't get much rain so an oily residue slowly builds up. When it does rain, the road surface can become extremely slippery until the residue is washed away. We worked out that wind had probably caught the spray from the fountain and blown it across the road. Here is a picture of said roundabout, with small fountains round it. (I'm sure that they used to be a lot higher whenever I rode past - perhaps they had complaints from other people crashing there?) PS The ambulance was not for my friend - ha ha!

Other Cost Blanca road slipperiness... We went out one day and the lightest of light drizzle started. Our group leader immediately declared the ride unsafe and took us to a nearby cafe to shelter and drink coffee while we waited for the drizzle to stop. I thought that it was ludicrous, but bit my lip... After about an hour we finally got going again. I had let a gap of about 10 metres develop between me and the rider in front and went to stand to accelerate after him. Without warning my back wheel slid from under me and I fishtailed across the road. Ah, so that is what our esteemed group leader meant by "slippery when wet"!

 

[cougie uk]

First holiday without my parents.
A friend who had been grape picking the previous year had met some Moroccans, who had invited him to Morocco
So off we went.
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

Train to Dover
Ferry to Calais
Train to Paris
Get on the overnight sleeper to Madrid
We have a Dutch Professor and a young just married Moroccan couple in the compartment with us. We do not have a single common language between, but no matter it's only for the night.
A very disturbed night being bumped all over the place and we seemed to be going backwards as much as forwards, By the next morning we are still in France and only a few hours south of Paris.
Overnight there had been a 3 way train accident ahead of us.Lots of people injured and killed.
It was all over the press globally.
Our one night on the train turned into 3 nights and 4 days
We finally arrived in Madrid early in the evening .

Across from the station we spotted a bar, We wondered if they would serve us!
We walked in and ordered beer. We Got Served !!
Two young lads, a load of money and free time, with no experience of travelling without adult supervision, what could possibly go wrong ?

A tall American walked over, and said "You boys need to get outta town NOW"
Why, it's great, they serve us beer we replied
"You boys need to get outta town NOW" he repeated.
At that point the bar went quiet ...
All eyes turned to the TV over the bar.
There was a shoot up going on in the Parliament in Madrid. A military Coup was under way
(Quite how the American warned us before it had happened has never been explained)
We left the bar, went back to the station and got on the first train heading south
It took us to Toledo

Toledo has the biggest barracks in Spain, it was the center of the Coup
It was all over the press globally.

The next day we continued south to Gibraltar
When we got there the border was closed
So onto Algiceras where we got a ferry to Tangier
Tangier was the worst place I've ever been to but that is another story
We ended up in Casablanca and met up with the Moroccan friends for a week

Then headed down to Marrakesh by coach
During the journey we passed multiple convoys of tanks, troops and other military hardware
We know what going on here, it's another military coup! The last one was OK, so this one should not be a problem
We arrive in Marrakesh and go to the most expensive hotel in town, 67p per person per night. We get the penthouse suite
We order beer on room service. it cost more than the room !

We sit back on the roof and watch the artillery barrage in the Atlas mountains some 60 miles south.
The Polisario Front are in the process of invading Morocco
It was all over the press globally

Needless to say when we got home both of our parents where practically apoplectic, assuming that we had either been killed in the train crash, or the military coup or the invasion.

Sweet baby cheeses !!

Er any plans for this summer ?

 

[slowmotion]

I think you have to set out on holiday with a bit of a sense of adventure. I like looking back on the memories of cancelled flights, cockroach-infested bedrooms, sinking ferries and predatory villains who very nearly fleeced me.....and worse. Surviving dodgy experiences is a whole lot more satisfying than drifting through perfect ones.

 

[BrumJim]

This is a hotel I stayed in on the north side of Mount Etna about a week after we left:

and when the lava had cooled down:

 

[gbb]

Closer to home, when the kids were kids we had a camper trailer we used quite regularly and one year set off for Torbay, somewhere we'd never been. We set off and it was raining, ah well. We arrived, it was raining, it never stopped raining all week. We couldn't dry anything, we ran out of things to do, everything had a red tinge from the sand it just turned miserable and at least we were off the floor in our wheeled platform...people had saturated tents and were packing up.
We called it a day a week early and with some gladness set off home up the M5.
It was like a scene from the Vietnamese countryside, mile after mile after mile of waterlogged fields either side of the motorway, right through Somerset, there must have been hundReds of square miles of flooded fields.
Next day we heard they were closing many of the campsites and I suspect the south of Britain had had record rainfall.

 

[oldwheels]

Generally my holidays have been good cos I camp but there is one phenomena that gets right up my nose, why when you put a tent in a reasonably empty field and go for a walk (OK to the pub but hey ho) then on your return find someone has put their tent up right next to yours when there's a whole bloody field to use.

I arrived at Shinness near Lairg to an empty field with my Transit camper. While I was away a tent arrived and pitched with their guy lines almost under my wheels. Large field and nobody else there at that time. I was leaving at 0500 heading for home and fell over their guy lines several times and left my old diesel running with the exhaust facing their tent door until the engine warmed up.Made me feel much better.

 

[oldwheels]

At Rosemarkie on the Black Isle I could see some activity on the other side of the bay. About 2100 a rave started with mind blowing volume and continued until about 5 the next morning. I got no sleep. The village must have been shielded from the noise or the police would have been down but the sound carried perfectly over the water to the camp site.

 

[Salad Dodger]

My wife and I are lifelong campers and caravanners, so we have had our share of less than ideal weather holidays, but only once ever have we packed up and come home....

We were due to have two weeks in Wales. First week in the south, on a site overlooking the Bristol Channel. Second week in Anglesey.

After the first three days of much rain, two nights of badly broken sleep due to gales threatening to uproot the tent with us in it, we and the dog were all cold, wet and thoroughly miserable. For the first time in 30+ years, we packed up and ran for home.....

Sorry, Wales, to scapegoat you. By way of balance, we also had a couple of glorious annual holidays in St David's. Wales at its best!

 

[TheDoctor]

Flew to Athens, got a ferry to Crete and had a lovely time.
Got onto the overnight ferry to go back to Athens and went to sleep. Woke up still in Crete - sailing cancelled due to a storm.
Booked flights to Athens and went to the airport. ATC then went on strike - domestic flights all cancelled for the day.
Looks like we're not getting our BA flight from Athens back to LHR.
We finally got flights to Luxembourg at about midnight, got four hours sleep, then a flight back to City.
Would not recommend...

 

[nickyboy]

When I was about 12 we went camping near Tenby in Wales. Ok for the first couple of days on our big frame tent (one of those you can stand up in) on the campsite

Weather took a turn for the worse. Rained every day, wind got stronger. This was at the time of the Fastnet yacht race and this was the year of the Fastnet disaster with a huge summer storm destroying the yachts

Needless to say our frame tent wasn't designed to withstand gale force winds. Woken up at 3am by Mum. Dad was holding onto the frame of the tent and the poles were buckling.

We had to jump up in our pyjamas, gale force winds, pouring down. Tents were being uprooted and blowing across the campsite. We chucked everything in the trailer and the car, loads of wet stuff on our knees all the way home

Tent was a write off. We never went camping in the UK again