Firstly, for anyone new here – don’t be overly alarmed, Gary is the name of our gazebo. But within the context of injuries suffered by camping equipment, poor Gary is in a bad way. His first substantial injury was sustained last summer, but I patched him up using piece of string. Sadly a further worse injury was sustained this weekend!

Given it’s nearly Easter my neighbour and I were hosting an egg hunt in our gardens for our neighbours. Gary had the important role of keeping the rain off the hot cross buns! About 10 minutes before the guests were to arrive, I noticed Gary wasn’t looking too good!! Firm peggy of the guys sustained him through the morning, but with tears on two sides, I don’t think he can go up again without substantial repairs.

He served us faithfully throughout lockdown and for many camping trips and garden parties. He’s been up in the wind and the rain and the snow and the baking sun – and his insides have been smoked by our cooking fire! We’ve had good use out of him and I guess it’s to be expected that it’s taken its toll on him.

It looks like the roof canopy should easily detach from the airbeams, so replacing the canopy should be possible in theory. A practical problem might be that the Air Vale shelter has been discontinued, but we will see if we can source one somewhere. We’ll let you know how we get on.

Further posts about gazebos available here.

L