What's the weirdest shelter you had to sleep in while camping?

When I was a student nurse, we had to go deep into the mountains for outreach programs, it was usually an entire month, where there's barely anything other than sleeping bags and coal cooked meals. No electricity, and most of the houses we were supposed to visit (because they had sick people in) were miles away from each other; sometimes we even have to walk 6 hours straight through the mountains, no roads or whatever, and just relying on "man made" landmarks, like a tree that fell down, etc; no street signs or whatever. Here we had to sleep in anywhere we could just to get a roof over our heads, and one time, we had to sleep on a shelter at a cemetery. What's the weirdest place you had to sleep in?

 

I remember when I was a student in secondary school and the students body organized a riot over various grievances. It got out of hand and riot police were summoned to deal with the students. We had no alternative but to jump over the fence and camp deep into the sorrounding coffee plantation for the night. The shelter involved students interlocking in angles to act as insulators for each other against the biting cold.

 

While hiking the Appalichian Trail, we finally reached the place were I would get off the trail for awhile and rest my feet. We found a little store, where we could get refreshment and I could call for a shuttle ride. It was late and I could not get a ride until the next day. Near the store was an old shed that was kind of down in a gully, tall grass everywhere. It was falling down and dirty and creepy. But it was somewhat of a roof over our heads. We snuck in there and got out our sleeping bags. That night, it rained and rained.... and rained. Thunder and lightening, the works. We stayed somewhat dry. The next day, my shuttle driver picked me up and got me a place where I could get a rental car for the 1000 mile ride home. I felt unwell the whole drive. So when I arrived, I took my temperature. 103.4 degrees. I had to go to the emergency that night. dehydration had caused a bladder/kidney problem.

 

There was this time I went to visit with a friend at their rural home. Its a bit hilly and most houses seem to be built along valleys.

It was during one of those rainy seasons and that night there was a heavy downpour. The first thing to be affected was electricity supply, so there was a blackout.

Then the worst happened, because of what we came to learn was a drainage blockage, the house got flooded. We opened the doors but the flood kept flowing.

We couldn't sleep on the beds because they were now on a filthy cold floor. So we opted to go up and spent the night between the roof and the ceiling.

 

Growing up in the state of West Virginia as a kid allowed for many a night to camp out under the stars. I can remember some of the craziest things we found to use as shelter. Some of the weirdest items we utilized were taking floor mats out of a couple abandoned cars, and we laid those on top branches to resemble a teepee. Thank goodness it was a nice night, because I do not think that shelter would have held up to heavy rain.

 

When in Afghanistan under a old USSR tank to get out of a sand storm we had a lot.

 

I slept buried in the sand on the beach one night. I started the night just sleeping but the wind laid about midnight and the swarms of misquotes came out and started eating me alive. I just dug a hole and buried myself except for my face and covered it with a towel. It was a little chilly and honestly the sand was warm and felt good. I slept real well until early the next morning when a dog found me and started digging me up. I don't know who was the most shook up...me, the dog or the lady that was walking the dog.

 

Darned good thing the dog didn't take a tinkle on you.

The lady would have most assuredly fainted, for I'd have gotten up out the sand screaming, "It's the day of the Resurrection! It's the day of the Resurrection! Praise Gawd Awlmighty, I'm gonna meet Jesus in the sky!"

 

ROTFLMFAO!!!

 

Hahahaha!!!!!!!

Now that I have caught my breath... that was a clever idea for beating the mosquitoes. (I'm filing this tip in my memory for future reference.)

 

When I was in the Army in Panama I “camped” once in an old pre WWII coastal gun emplacement and another time in the ruins of an old Spanish fort dating back to the 1500s. Another time it was in an old Incan ruins in Peru. All interesting, and in particular, we ended up sharing the old coastal gun emplacements with bats, so that was a short stay.

 

Tents, tarps, leantos, debris huts, sheds, campers, trailers, under a canoe, but never anyplace strange

 

My list of weirdest places would be long. But the weirdest would be down in a deep crevasse, roughly 3/4 mile up from the face on the Robertson Glacier, September 1980. It is one of my most horrific survival experiences. It may actually the most horrific. Near death with hypothermia off and on again for five days. Eating Mountain House freeze dried meals "DRY" right out of the bag, and washing it down with mouth full of snow.

Then it got dangerous......seriously dangerous.

An interesting side note: Glaciers are always moving. When you are down in the glacier it is quite loud, and rumbled/vibrating.

 

Wow... that just took my breath away to read!

Ok, having known you for about a decade, I have finally concluded that you are part feline, and that you have used up several of your nine lives already....and that your remaining lives have been scared into hiding.

This probably means you will outlive me, and maybe most of the members of this forum, lol.


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I once slept on a no-canopy 20 person life raft tied to a near-offshore oil rig.

It was better than a water bed with no puns meant.

The rope frayed from rubbing against some flotsam / jetsam ...... modern term is floating/semi-submerged trash ......

Fortunately, I am both an early-riser and prudent. Corrective action taken.

As an aside, on another thread I had mentioned my field gear loadout for emergency evacuations included a small mache with - chisel tip - . The maritime and naval folks who work around inflatables of all sorts use this type of tip: minimizes the accidental punctures.