We had something of a hiatus after that and when we returned to camping in the early 2000s we were back to wire ones as the super-duper ones had gone west. Then in 2005 we stumbled across an army surplus store in Derbyshire which was great if you needed a deactivated torpedo or a helicopter engine. But, fresh in that week they had a pallet of industrial-quality tent pegs. They weren’t yet priced up so I enquired, and they were 10p each. “Hmmm, I’ll have £3.00 worth” I announced in a flurry of enthusiasm.
Now 30 of these in the back of the car did make it handle rather differently, but we were glad to have a bit of a surfeit of them, once in the ground they were sometimes difficult to retrieve, to the obvious surprise of the groundsman the next day in the lawnmower....
....these were left in a site at Silverstone after our sledgehammer malfunctioned....
....and these were left at Le Mans in France after we needed to vacate the site at about 4am without waking our neighbours
They were great for all manner of tents & gazebos....
....doubled-up if necessary for particularly pesky gazebos like this one in Belgium
In Germany we had an urgent call from our advance party making sure we brought the sledgehammer – “because you’ll fffflippin’ need it.” You can see the dead wire pegs which were an epic fail
So, progressing to the Bongo, these ex-MoD pegs were ideal for our drive-away awning
....or just for the pull-out awning....
....with a tennis ball over the top to protect ankles.
They did require a bit of effort to get them in the ground....
....but we’ve never lost an awning yet and don’t intend starting now.
We’ve toyed with these new-fangled rock-pegs but they’re not the same thing.
The original 30 pegs we got have lasted well....
....they’ve seen us through two sledgehammers
But they’ve been used & abused plenty, in some bad ground....
....which has taken its toll....
....making them a bit unsafe to use now....
....or downright dangerous where pieces have been broken off.
With no possibility of more from the same source even though we’ve looked plenty of times in recent years, there was nothing else for it but to get some made – and galvanised....
....which should hopefully last us another 10 years or more
