Departure

I have discovered a way to feel immoral without actually technically doing anything wrong. 

1                     Go camping in Cornwall.

2                     Have a great time.  Talk loudly and heartily about fresh air and sleeping well.

3                     Check the weather forecast.

4                      Discover that torrential rain is forecast for just when you will be taking down your tent next morning.

5                     Go very quiet as you imagine driving all the way back to Hertfordshire with a car full of wet stuff and spending the following day drying it out.

6                     * Bottle out and book Saltash Travelodge

7                     Take the tent down a day early.

* The immoral bit.

This is the second time I have done something similar and each time I have felt guilty about following my head rather than my heart and deserting the campsite early.

That evening, Carenza and I walked into Saltash to admire Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s amazing rail bridge across the Tamar.  I said to Carenza, “It’s not raining yet.  Maybe I made a mistake, bottling out early.”

But the following morning, as we toured the grounds of Cotehele House in the pouring rain, I knew that even though I may have lost the moral high ground, at least I had been right to pack up early.

If only I had been equally decisive about the journey home.

I had misgivings about leaving  Cornwall at lunch time on a High Season Friday, but did it anyway and spent eight hours crawling along in heavy traffic.  Perhaps Divine Justice was punishing me for my flaky attitude to camping.