UKC

OK, I'm putting myself forward for this award. 

All week I've been salivating at how amazing the mountains have been looking (online). Moved things around at work, shifted family commitments etc. to get a day off. Planned to venture up to North Wales before most of it melts this weekend, which consists of a considerable amount of driving, for what would have been about 5 hours stomping around in the snow. Also cut short my climbing xmas party last night so I could get up early, and make sure I could get back to my work xmas party tonight. 

2 hours into the journey it turns out that in my haste to get out the door, I've not only gone and left my boots in the porch. Goddammit. 

Being philosophical about it, I could have got all the way and only found out last minute, and I was going solo, so it was only me that suffered from my numptiness rather than dragging any climbing partners out (which almost happened).

Mostly I'm writing this to exude the disappointment because I'm now sat at home, after dropping the kids into school, looking at a crisp bluebird sky slightly depressed thinking about what could-have been.

But... who can top that?

In reply to Derry:

Nothing recent, but a long time ago I had a 1 AM flight.

You'd think that knowing your AM's from your PM's would be childsplay. Needless to say, I did not get on my flight.

When I couldn't find my flight on the board it took an endless amount of time for me to figure out what went wrong. 

Stupid is as stupid does.

In reply to Derry:

Whats wrong with supermarket wellies for the day?  🙂

In reply to deacondeacon:

B3 supermarket wellies?

In reply to montyjohn:

To add to my list. I once turned up at Heathrow instead of Gatwick (for a climbing trip). thankfully had enough time, and just about enough money to get a taxi with time to spare. Hopefully that's all for a while now. Tough lessons to learn.

In reply to Derry:

I had a long and painful mime and guidebook-pointing conversation with a ticket office lady who spoke less English than I spoke Mandarin while trying to get a train from Xi'an to somewhere. After quite a while and much exasperation on both sides a local stepped in and explained to me that I was, in fact, in the bus station.

In reply to Derry:

But... who can top that?

Same thing only with one boot...

In reply to gravy:

Go for a nice hop around the mountains?

In reply to gravy:

Used to work in an outdoor centre. My mate was issuing boots and this bloke said: ‘Could I have a size 44 boot please?’. ‘Actually, they come in pairs’ my mate replied, who got the response ‘Actually I only have one foot.’

In reply to Derry:

Years ago i was sitting at my desk at work and my boss walks past. I said hi and then he looked ar me and said weren't you meant to be on a training course today? I had booked a 3 day course in another part of the country with hotel, travel etc and completely forgot about it.

In reply to montyjohn:

A few years ago, we checked out of our hotel in India in the middle of the night and crossed the town with all our bags to get to the station for our 04:00 train.

The train was waiting at the station so we sat down in our seats and put our face masks on to settle down to sleep.

Got woken up a few minutes before the train was due to leave by someone claiming we were in their seats. We very groggily got up to check our tickets. Definitely in the right carriage, sat in the right seats. Definitely on the 04:00 train.

They checked their tickets. Their tickets were also for the same seats, same carriage and same time.

They checked our tickets. We were in the right seats. We were in the right carriage. We were at the right time. But we were on the wrong day; we'd turned up 24 hours early!

No chance of getting a rickshaw from the station at that time without pre-booking it so we spent 2 hours on the platform, then had an hour of waiting outside our hotel for the owner to arrive, very surprised to see we were back again. Think we ended up wasting most of that day catching up on sleep.

In reply to Derry:

I once missed a flight by 2 days. I'd booked it at the travel agent weeks before and there'd been some confusion during the booking process. Came to the week of travel and I thought about checking the date I'd booked whilst wearing my posh watch which has 31 days in every month.  Because I'd not worn it for so long I'd not checked it was showing the correct date and it was 2 days out, so I simply assumed that in the confusion I'd booked my flight for the Sunday and not the Friday....

In reply to Derry:

Years ago I arrived late evening in to Berlin Coach station to catch an overnight service to Prague. Sadly, the service was seasonal and didn't start for another month. Slept rough in the station that night and made some friends..

I've missed two flights both alcohol related.

Another travel related, I once woke up with a start on an overnight train and realised it was my stop so grabbed my stuff and got out of there quick sharp. Once on the platform I realised I didn't have my shoes on. Some kind soul flung them out of the windows as it pulled off.

In reply to Derry:

2 hours in to your journey is about the threshold where I might be a contender.

I've driven slightly longer than that for a day trip to the coast on a nice spring day to do some sea kayaking.  Unloaded the boat and carried it down to the slipway, got changed into my drysuit and done all the pre-launch faff and only then realised I hadn't brought a paddle.

In reply to Derry:

It's a bit late to be making helpful suggestions now, but perhaps B3 Plas y Brenin wellies? 
(Though I guess for a single opportunistic day trip, the day would be half gone by the time you could pick them up and get where you're going.)

In reply to Derry:

I have a selection:

Staying in Roybridge and drove to Cairngorm car park to find that I had no boots.  Hired a pair in Aviemore (Scarpa Cumbres, the most comfy boots that I'd ever owned, and the hires were still comfier than the then current Nepal Extremes).  Got to the crag and turned back, because none of the poor souls actually on it were able to move because of the wind).

Got to Glen Brittle to find we had three rock shoes between the two of us.  The second wore trainers...

Moving further afield,  got to the Meteorological Station on Mount Kenya to find that the food had never been put into the landrover.

At a hut a long way away from anywhere in the Rockies, to find that one of the party had brought projectile D&V.  Spent a day doing our best to clean the hut.  It was touch and go if the victim would die of his ailment or 'external factors'.

And, the perennial favourite, arriving at the foot of a sea cliff abseil, sans ropes....

In reply to deepsoup:

Exactly. The thought had crossed my mind, but I was heading to Cadair Idris to save some time (headed from the south), and I've tried to hire from PYB before for friends and they'd already run out for their own groups. 

In reply to deepsoup:

funnily enough, I was speaking to a friend of mine today who claimed to be the queen of doing stupid sh*t like this, also forgetting a paddle after a mammoth drive. One reason why I always pack a split paddle. But then again, on today's gaff, I wouldn't put it past me to forget that too

In reply to Derry:

Parked car, lifted out rucksack containing lots of expensive kit, rummaged about in boot, shut boot, lock car and go off on hill. Return to find no rucksack as I'd neglected to put it back in the car. 

Twice.

Both times I got everything back.

The first was left on the street outside my mate's house in a small Scottish village. We'd got back at about 0200 or so after a day trip to Glencoe and Polldubh.  Village gossip reported that a couple of ne-er do wells had been seen driving by not long after. My mate and I went round to ask if they'd seen anything, with a "we won't be calling the police" flavour to the enquiry. It turned up in a field about a week later, huge rack including two full sets of cams scattered about but nothing missing.

Second time was in Seathwaite (the Borrowdale one). Walked over Green and Great Gables and down to the Wasdale. Camped overnight and walked back over Sty Head in lashing rain and sleet the next day. Really looking forward to getting back to the car where I had a rucksack of dry clothes waiting for me, or I thought I did. Someone had picked it up and handed it in to the cops in Keswick. That had a load of winter kit and a Nikon FM2 with a fast lens on it. 

I aspire not to be third time unlucky.

In reply to Derry:

Me too.  (Well, technically both paddles are splits.)  But they travel together so I'm always going to bring them both or, as on this occasion, neither! 

These days I have an actual checklist for the essential kit and always run a quick idiot check before setting off.

In reply to Derry:

Went away for a weekend in the Lakes with a previous girlfriend. Arrived there to find we'd left her walking boots behind - fortunately, the weather/walking was fine for just trainers.

Went mountain biking once only to find whoever had packed the car had left my saddle and seatpost behind! Fortunately, the trail centre at the forest were kind enough to lend me some.

Mate of mine once turned up for a biking weekend with 2 front wheels after packing the wrong wheel bag.

On train to work once, after getting back from holiday the previous evening, I suddenly realised I was at my stop, grabbed my stuff and hurried off the train. Wasn't until that evening that I realised I'd left my scooter under the seat

Nearly missed a flight home earlier this year when BA cancelled the flight we were booked on and put us on a flight 24 hours earlier, without bothering to tell us! Fortunately, I noticed the discrepancy on the BA app on my phone and got it changed to different flight on the original day.
I'm always paranoid about missing flights/ferries or turning up at the wrong terminal without passports!

My wife went shopping last weekend with eldest - parked car, got out, realised she hadn't picked up coats for either of them, so came home to get them. Told her she should have just bought a couple in M&S and then returned them on the way home!

In reply to LastBoyScout:

My friend went shopping at Meadowhall. She came out of the shops laden with tat and couldn't find her car. She said she walked miles round the car park pressing the unlock button and looking for the flashing lights until she finally found it.

In reply to Derry:

I once turned up at the wrong airport for a flight.

Luckily, I was early and had plenty of time to get across London.

Or at least, I would have done - if I'd gone straight to check-in instead of going to the bar to drink beer and watch football.

In reply to compost:

My in-laws have a story of a trip to America many years ago where they went to one of the massive shopping mall places and, cut a long story short, ended up with mall security driving them around the parking lot* to find the car!

* they don't have car parks there

In reply to Derry:

Once took the channel tunnel out to bleau on the Friday night. As the French are less concerned about migration than the Brits, it was only when we got back to the tunnel on Sunday night, about an hour before the last train left, that we discovered one member of the party had brought her boyfriend's passport instead of her own.

They let us through to join the queue eventually - five minutes after the last train had left.

There's sod all on the other side of the border checks, so it was an uncomfortable night with five in the car and a lot of coffee required for work on Monday.

In reply to Derry:

Boots seem to be a recurring theme! 

I forgot my rock shoes when heading to the Wye valley.   A slightly painful day ensued at Shorncliff as I stuck my big toes in to pockets on Bitter Battle Tears and smeared my way up No Musketeers Direct.

The second bootastrophe was finding I had forgotten my touring boots after battling the snow up in to the Peak.  Funnily enough, no one hires ski boots in Derbyshire.

In reply to Derry:

In the days of plastic boots I started walking into the Northern Corries in some discomfort. Not remembering them being that uncomfortable I stopped to check what was going on. I'd basically been walking with the shells on the wrong feet. I guess I'm not the first to have done that though.

Sitting in a pub and spotting it was a full moon myself and a few mates decided upon a moonlit ascent of the Black Spout Gully on Lochnagar. We found a sober mate with transport and drove a couple of hours through the night, walked into the corrie only for it to completely cloud over and the weather to close in. Didn't check the forecast beforehand so a disheartened trudge out.

Not me but an old acquaintance once watched the inner of his new Quasar disappear off across Loch Torridon after forgetting to peg it down whilst getting the flysheet on.

In reply to Derry:

This summer my flight home was cancelled due to a fault with the plane. I managed to find a flight to Amsterdam, and then needed to work out a flight back to Manchester. I found one with EasyJet and booked it online only to realise it was in a weeks time, there being no spaces left for the date I wanted. I managed to get most of that refunded less the idiot fee. I then managed to find a flight back to the UK except it went to East Midlands rather than Manchester. Due to trains not running and nobody on the flight driving to Manchester I had to get a taxi back.

In reply to Derry:

Just pop into v12 and buy new boots ! 

In reply to SFM:

Yep, done that.

Also, I'll bet I'm not alone in being very relieved to arrive at a good spike runner in winter, miles out from the last bit of gear and not in a restful position, to find that the last thing I'd put on was my rucksack.

In reply to Derry:

Ha! Cadair Idris. What size are you? Should have given me a call. 😂

In reply to Derry:

A long time ago, a mate turned up at Pen y Pass on New year's Day to do the Horseshoe without the inners for his Koflachs. We packed out his shells with spare socks. Uncomfortable and unstable, but a good day was had.

In reply to Derry:

Arrived at 0500 at Pen y Pass car park for a jog around the Welsh 3000's and all three of us had assumed someone else would bring a map and compass

Ditto at the bottom of Ben More and Stob Binnen for a snowy walk, but at least we did have the SMC munroes guide so some pretty pictures of the route.

In reply to Derry:

James Cameron the journalist (in one of his books, sorry forgot the title) told 2 stories of his ineptitude on a hike/ camping trip up into the Himalayas:

[1] they brought a petrol stove but only took paraffin with them (or vice versa). Consequently the stove wouldn't work at all and they couldn't heat or cook anything

[2] they hired and brought a translator so they could speak to locals. Unfortunately when they were far up into the mountains they discovered he could only translate Hindi-Tibetan-Hindi (and not Hindi-English-Hindi or Tibetan-English-Tibetan as they had hoped and planned). The translator could not speak a word of English and so was totally useless to them

In reply to Toerag:

I once missed a flight to Norway by several pints and two bottles of wine and a new girlfriend.

Glad I missed it, the fella I was going with was a bit of a numpty, and my plan B was to crack on with the Munro’s! 

In reply to Derry:

Think I’ve posted this before, but it’s a good ‘un:

Been at a conference in Preston and was catching the train back to Wigan. I asked someone in the ticket office: ‘does the next train at platform x stop at Wigan?’  ‘Sure does’ was the reply. So I waited on the platform listening to QOTSA on my shuffle. The train pulled in so I jumped on. As it pulled away I was convinced I heard the tannoy announce: ‘Next stop is London Euston.’  Bugger. The train ticket inspector had to write ‘stupid Northern fecker’ on my ticket so I wouldn’t get charged for the return journey from Euston to Wigan  

Interestingly, I did recall seeing the Preston ticket office worker run to my platform, appearing to scout around. Reckon he was looking for me but was so close to me he didnt notice. 

In reply to Derry:

Probably most folk have a few embarrassing tales like this. Like a friend leaving his boots in the car park on Crow Road in the Campsies in a downpour, driving away without checking - ok, it was me, and I did myself a favour as they were almost the last boots ever to have a leather midsole and external welt and they were fiendishly uncomfortable. 

In reply to Derry:

I'll put myself forward for losing the braces from my winter trousers and ending up doing a fair impression of a gangsta rapper while wandering across the flattish bit between Pen y gadair and Mynydd moel on Cader Idris today (it was a bit chilly), hoiking my keks up every 30m after the elastic waistband gave up the ghost. Trying to jerry rig a bit of 3mm bungy I found in the top of my rucsac between the loops for the braces, whilst still wearing the trousers and about 5 layers on top involved a lot of swearing. Good news is that Decathlon do a spare pair of braces for a £5 and I can hopefully get a set of belt loops sewn on to the trousers as well to avoid any further arse baring incidents.

In reply to Deri Jones:

With my own eyes I saw Tony Wilmott arrive at Tremadog without his EBs.... he only had a pair of bendy boots with him, having left his EBs (or similar) behind by mistake. He then said "Oh well, on with the plan" and led Vector with the greatest ease in the boots, again, I watched this with my own eyes, I was right below Vector 

Edit, obv a long time ago, he died in 1972, never forgotten, RIP Tony

In reply to Dave the Rave:

Did he forget his boots?

In reply to Derry:

My worst is ditching work early in Japan, where you loose all respect from colleagues for such things (good thing I had none), to go surf a rare secret spot that breaks only once in a blue moon.  I drove like mad and turned up with an hour or so left of light.  It was pumping, no one out, and I had left my fin key at home so couldn't attach fins to the board.

A year or so ago, my partner and I walked out to the Suileag bothy to stay the night and walk up Suilven the next day.  Packed in coal, a bottle port and one of whiskey, venison, potatoes, and peppers to cook in the fire.  We had a grand night until it was time for bed when I realized half-drunk that I'd left my sleeping bag in the van.

More recently my partner and I got a rare sunny window for a day's sport climbing.  Drove an hour to the crag, warmed up, got the rope flaked out, and I had forgotten to put my harness in the bag.

Anyway, I'm glad it's not just me!  

In reply to Ciro:

Coming back home from a skiing holiday one year, getting the coach to the airport. We thought the route was a bit odd, but assumed the tour operator & driver knew what they were doing.

When we arrived at Grenoble, it became obvious they didn't know what they were doing; we were supposed to be at Lyon. Fortunately, after we pointed out the error, we managed to get to Lyon in time, with the fastest check-in and boarding known to man...

In reply to captain paranoia:

For someone of a certain age I am finding these stories very comforting. 

In reply to Derry:

I travelled out to Moscow in late 90's, spent a few weeks there and then went out to the airport for the flight home - checked in my baggage at first kiosk, went to the second kiosk to be told that my visa had expired at midnight the previous day so I was technically in the country illegally so was marched into the bowels of the airport by armed guards and questioned  - I was eventually chucked out of the airport, with my luggage, and the flight gone.

Went back in to Moscow to my mates, my visa now expired, back then the police would stop all foreigners for questioning and you had to show your visa - a few scary days passed, couldn't get a new visa so had to just go back to the airport, up to the BA desk, plead and then the steward took me to the ATM, withdrew all my money and then came with me to all three security desks where I had to bribe them to pass me through so I could get my flight home.

Fun times, I now make sure that when I need a visa it runs over by a few days.

In reply to subtle:

I also had a similar experience in Moscow, luckily I didn't have visa problems, but the English guy in the queue in front of me did. He was marched off somewhere as his visa had expired the day before (was it you?) and I always wondered what happened to him.

In reply to stubbed:

Hah, it may well have been - although seemingly it was relatively common to have "visa issues" when leaving, being marched off and basically having to bribe your way back - my issue though was that I missed my plane so did then have a visa issue.

A fun place to visit back then, I believe it has calmed down since those post communism cowboy days

In reply to Derry:

Many years ago when I still lived in Worcester and climbed with the WMC we had a trip up to the peak one friday night. It wasn't till we got to Eric Bynes' that we found I'd left the tent in my garage. 

In reply to Derry:

That's literally the sort of thing I occasionally have anxiety dreams about. Arrrgghhhhh!!!

Once drove from home in NE France to the east of Switzerland for a few days ski touring only to discover that I'd forgotten my skins.  Managed to borrow a pair from someone else in our group who had a spare pair but they were a little too wide so traversing on icy/hard snow was a little bit interesting.

A friend rather than me forgot his rucksac on a trip to Ben Vorlich from Stirling but still joined myself & another for a lovely winter walk with his sandwiches & thermos in a shopping bag which he carried all the way to the top having declined our offers to carry his stuff. He did get some strange looks from other walkers, especially on the top half when he had shopping bag in one hand & his ice axe in the other

In reply to Derry:

It was a near miss, but a few years back my wife worked for the local authority as the education visit advisor. She wanted to combine a week's skiing holiday with a week checking on various school ski trips to make sure everything was being done right and according to the information submitted (good job, as of the five, two were pretty shonky and one was a shambles).

I did the research, worked out the best way to get five different trips covered, car hire, accommodation and so on. Turns out there are two places with the same name, but in two very different parts of Austria. Thankfully I noticed in time, but only because I happened to look on Wikipedia out of idle curiosity. Could have been a very embarrassing realisation as we left the Dolomites and headed to the north of Austria instead of the south.

In reply to Derry:Many years ago in the pre internet pre mobile phone era, I had to get a flight from Oslo to Kristiansund to join a survey vessel. Unfortunately I got on a flight 5 mins earlier from the adjacent boarding gate in Oslo airport to Kristiansand. When we started to descend after about 30 mins into green surroundings at Kristiansand,  I began to realise that I might be going to the wrong airport especially as I was the only person with a thick winter jacket. When  I arrived the SAS ground crew had a good laugh, put me up in a cheap local hotel and had me on the first flight to Kristiansund via Oslo. I then had to spend another night in a cheap hotel there as the survey boat hadn’t arrived 

In reply to Derry:

OK everyone, these stories are quite cathartic so thanks for that. But the story doesn't end there for me...

I attended my works xmas party last night, told my boss about what an idiot I was... she laughed and said "just go tomorrow if you want". WIN! So, sober party, repacked everything when I got home, alarm set, boots definitely in the car, ready to leave...... Car wont start ARGGHHHHHH. dead battery (from the cold rather than my numptiness leaving a light on or something similar).

I sat there thinking, "what can I do?" ...I could have jumped in the missus' car and left her a nice surprise of a non-working car for the day, but I figured it just wasn't meant to be and crawled back into a 3am bed, for the second time.

In reply to Derry:

First company car, pale blue Mondeo. So young, so chuffed, so stupid. Drove to heathrow, parked car, didn’t take notice of zone in carpark, no idea what my reg is.

Flew back from wherever, spent an age walking around a carpark full of pale blue Mondeo’s hoping the next one would flash its lights as I clicked the key fob.

In reply to grectangle:

I’ve put my harness on, racked the gear and wondered where the rope was - the answer was, at home.

Have also abseiled to the base of a sea-cliff and partner and I look at each other and realise neither of us brought the rope down.  In our defence, we had just been distracted by a pod of orca going past at very close quarters.

In reply to Derry:

All this flight chat has reminded me of another one. 

Wife and I were invited to spend a weekend in Florence with visiting Family. The only cost we had was to book flight so naturally we did that nice and early. 1 week to go we checked details and cue panic as we couldn't find any confirmation e-mails anywhere. Transpires we we looked but didn't book them. So much for the cheap weekend in Florence! Still, it was a great weekend despite the cost.

In reply to BRILLBRUM:

Dinto.

Drove from Devon to Earls Court.  Parked somewhere 15min walk from the station.  After a trip on the tube to the City and back realised that now in the darkness, I had no idea which direction the car was in, let alone a street name.

Hailed a cab, explained the stupid country boy type issue to the driver.  Based on only 2 things I vaguely thought I had passed, maybe, within 10mins he found the car. Legend.

In reply to Derry:

The Burst Pipes thread has just reminded me of one I did...

Previous house, many years ago. There was a floorboard in daughter's bedroom that wasn't totally flat. When I looked under the carpet I found that it was only nailed along one side, which explained why it wasn't flat.

I can fix that, thought I, got some brads out and the trusty hammer. Tap, tap, tap, TAP, psssssssss, oh sh*t, run downstairs and quickly turn the water stopcock off.

So that's why it's only nailed along one side - followed by call to plumber.

In reply to Derry:

I’ve set off for a bike race without my bike.  

In reply to Yanis Nayu:

I’ve set off on a camping trip without the tent.  Realised about an hour away from house.  

In reply to Sealwife:

Both rather fundamental eh? 😂

In reply to Derry:

A driver using a sat nav to get to G12 9PF asked for directions. It was a street I had never heard of and having previously lived in G12 9PF, I asked the driver for the bit of paper with the address on. If was GL2 9PF.

Gloucestershire not Glasgow.

My own recent numptydom was a panic attack 30 mins before the start of a guest online lecture from USA that I had arranged. My phone alert said I was due to fly in 60 minutes and I did not have passport and luggage. Thankfully the flight was the next day and my numptydom was just putting date into my phone incorrectly but definitely provoked a panic attack and desperate checking of flight details in email.

In reply to Derry:

I once got on a bus and ended up falling asleep. When I woke up I panicked and jumped off at the next stop only to find myself on the opposite side of the road to where I’d got on in the first place

In reply to Sealwife:

Went down to Lulworth for a boys' camping weekend. Mate turned up, went to put up his tent. No poles. We tried to persuade him to go and buy a cheap tent locally, or some poles, but he drove home and back to pick up the poles; about four hours.

In reply to captain paranoia:

Friends of mine took a marquee to Glastonbury. They lived on the Isle of Wight and left it too late to book a car on the ferry, so they lugged all the kit over as foot passengers and got a lift to the festival. It was only when they went to put it up that they realised they'd left the poles on the ferry. Said poles were 3m long. I'm not sure how they managed to get a lift without thinking how easy it was to get the kit into the car...

In reply to Sealwife:

I've done the tent without poles one weekend.

Not as bad as the team member who made us tea and porridge one morning using the paraffin instead of water. 

In reply to Derry:

I once got to the trails and realized I forgot my mountain bike. No idea how my brain managed that.

In reply to Derry:

University weekend in North Wales. We were in the first minibus that arrived, got ourselves sorted out, one of the guys couldn't find his sleeping bag, surmised it must have ended up in the other bus.

Other bus arrives, search ensues, no sleeping bag - he ends up sleeping in a load of borrowed clothes.

Following morning, daylight search reveals missing sleeping bag wedged under one of the seats of the minibus he arrived in!

In reply to Derry:

My mum lives in Brittany. I have been going there at least twice a year for 25 years, mostly using the ferry between Plymouth and Roscoff. When returning, there is a bit on the road near Carantec where you can see see the ferry from afar, docked and awaiting you. Thoughts of food, drink and cabin fill your mind. So when it is not there, but there is instead a great big white boat looking just like it sailing off into the distance, it is not good for one's composure.

The lesson, it turns out, is to read your ticket. Glancing at it even once would help. Just because the afternoon sailing has always been at 15:00, it doesn't mean that it might not one time decide to  sneak off at 13:30.

In reply to Ciro:

That reminds me of my passport story - Stopped off at a hotel near Dijon on our way back home on a Euro road trip. Put my passport underneath the leaflets in the room when we went down for dinner in case anyone broke into the room and only realised when we went to check into the campsite in St.Malo the next evening after a whole day's drive. There was no time to safely drive back, get it and return in time to catch the morning Ferry.  Made sure we were first in the Ferry queue, luckily French customs let me on with my photo driving license.

In reply to overdrawnboy:

In the early days of Sigg bottles, I was party to a very serious accident where somebody got petrol and water bottles mixed up, and didn't realize the mistake because the cold temperatures meant that the petrol didn't smell very strongly.

Since then, I have always labelled my petrol bottles with a very large and obvious 'hazardous materials' sticker.

Be careful out there.

In reply to BRILLBRUM:

I once parked my car in a hurry at Edinburgh airport. When I got back I couldn't even remember which car park it was. I spent a couple of hours searching three of them.

In reply to Rob Parsons:

A few years ago in a campsite in Namibia we were cooking dinner. I was tending the veg on a gas cooker. I asked my friend to add a little more water. We had put petrol in one of our empty water containers. In the dark she got the wrong one and poured petrol in to the simmering vegetables. It was quite spectacular. I flung myself on the ground thinking the gas cooker had exploded. I got away lightly with a painful but not seriously burnt hand and some singed clothing. My friend, also thinking the gas cooker had exploded, poured more petrol on it to put the fire out. This was even more spectacular........

In reply to Derry:

Not climbing related, but photography.

I (as usual) was working away for a week a few hours drive from home. A fair bit of research went into places to take photos of while away. 

I had packed my wellies, looked at the tide tables so I could walk out about a mile off the shore at Cleathorpes to get a photograph looking back in at the twinkling night lights after dark.

All went well, tide was out, stars were out, lights looked fantastic. I set my tripod up and then opened my camera bag up. It was heavy on the walk out, but found out that the camera body was missing all I had was a bag of lenses! A quick phone home confirmed that my camera body was sat on a shelf at home 200 miles away. I walked back to the shore with my head hung low.