About Me

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Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it

Tuesday June 7th 2016 - I think I got hit by lightning but everything's fine

After the previous day being so dull I woke that morning to a bright blue cloudless sky and a sun which, by only 8am, made the tent far too warm to sit in even with the door completely rolled up. After a leisurely breakfast and a couple of chapters of my book I decided to have a mooch round the shops in the village; I wanted to get a new wipe-clean plastic tablecloth (a cheap one would do as it was only for use on my tent kitchen unit) but neither of the hardware shops had any. I did however get a couple of brilliant bargains from the charity shops - a nice orange sleeveless top which I put on as soon as I got back to the tent, a leopard-print skirt and a gorgeous chiffon-type blouse in cream and black with small cheetahs dotted here and there. It was new but rather see-through and needed something underneath it, so now on a quest for a vest-type top with narrow straps I decided to drive over to Llangefni and have a mooch round the shops there.

It must have been my lucky day as the first charity shop I went in had just the thing I was looking for, and I also found a brand new and very stylish pair of white casual trousers with gold trim on the waistband. They were a perfect length and fit, and for only £3 were an absolute bargain - and they look so good I'll be putting them away for when I next take a holiday in Italy. My next bargain came from the local market - a small cheap bum bag which was ideal for carrying my phone, van key and a bit of loose change when I was wearing cycling shorts and t-shirt with no pockets.

It was while I was walking back to the car park that I noticed the sky - although the sun was still shining the bright blue had gone and dark grey ominous clouds were gathering not far away. I'd just got back in the van when the sun disappeared, there was a flash of lightning, a loud clap of thunder and the heavens opened with a downpour of biblical proportions. Hoping it would stop just as suddenly as it started and I could then go on to somewhere else I stayed put for a while but there was no sign of it letting up so I decided to give up and go back to the camp site.

Just out of Llangefni the deluge had turned one side of the country road into a mini river; the flashing and banging continued and my windscreen wipers couldn't go any faster. I'd just rounded a bend and was on a straight stretch of road when it happened; a lightning flash and clap of thunder both together and BANG!!! - something hit the passenger side of the van. I didn't know what it was, and in that rain I wasn't stopping and getting out of the van to find out, so as both the dogs and I were all okay I carried on driving. By the time I reached the outskirts of Benllech the rain had finally slackened and stopped, and down the hill in the village itself the sun was out and it was as if there'd been no storm at all.

Back at the tent I inspected the side of the van for any damage but could see nothing. If my wheels had thrown up something from the road it must have been a fairly big chunk of whatever it was to make such a loud bang, in which case I would have expected to see a dent or mark on the bodywork, but there was absolutely nothing. So had I been hit by lightning? I'd felt nothing at the time, the van hadn't been affected in any way and there was no damage to the bodywork, but as I can think of no other explanation then maybe I had - otherwise I guess it's just another one of life's little mysteries.





12 comments:

  1. Another wonderful read. That must have been frightening if you had been hit by lightening. I don't like it as the flash upsets my epillepsy.
    We seem to get alot of storms here in Bournemouth.
    Happy travelling.
    Yvonne.

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    1. The loud bang didn't scare me, just surprised me and had me wondering what had caused it. I don't mind thunderstorms but they frighten Sophie and she will hide in a corner until the thunder stops.

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  2. Just catching up with your latest batch of posts. This one sounds a bit scary! Also as if you might have gone home with far more clothes than when you arrived.....

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  3. I certainly did Anabel, but those things were just 'me' so there was no way I would have come out of the shops without buying them :)

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  4. Wowza! Just reading about your driving through all that rain was scary and then to have a BANG! You're a brave woman, Eunice.

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  5. Thank you Susie, though I don't think of myself as being brave - being on my own I just have to get on with things, though I suppose having always had an independent personality helps.

    Driving through that rain was actually nothing compared to the day I came home - but more of that in a later post :)

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  6. That sounds really scary. I hate thunderstorms but to be hit by lightning, oh my goodness, I'm so glad you are OK. I really like Llangefni for the shops and market. Have you been on the Dingle walk there? It has a lovely boardwalk and is really nice, well on a nice day it is anyway!

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    1. I went to the Dingle briefly a couple of years ago and walked along the boardwalk, this time I stayed on the path and walked right up to Llyn Cefni so that will be in a later post

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  7. Yikes, that's not something you want to happen every day.

    Glad you were all OK.

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    1. Thanks Jayne, we were all fine, and thankfully whatever it was hadn't done any damage to the van.

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  8. OMG scary. So glad you and the dogs were OK. x

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  9. We were fine but I wouldn't have liked to be out in that for much longer. At least when I got back to the village the sun was shining again :)

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