Sleeping in a tent without a roof

It was an unforgettable experience at the campsite when your tent buddy let you sleep comfortably to survive the night in nature.

It was 11:30 p.m. Everything was dark, and the sky was mysteriously foggy. I could feel the cold water dripping onto my face.

“Hey, buddy. You awake?”

I could hear my tent-buddy whispering next to my ear. Half-awake, half-asleep, I noticed that the rainwater was hitting us much more strongly and making a noise for a much shorter and shorter period.

“What is going on? Should we move to a different place?”, I asked without fully comprehending the situation and feeling appalling and unpleasant.

It had been a good night until we experienced this rain until that time. It was all perfect EXCEPT for one thing. We set up the sleeping mat in the tent. Placed the fluffy sleeping bag on it. Getting into the warm bed and looking up at the beautiful stars...

Wait, but why would we look up at the skies and be privileged to see stars even though we were sleeping inside the tent?

The tent that we were using was so roofless and it did not have anything to protect us from the rain. I borrowed it the other day from the club. As an excuse, it was my first time going overnight hiking and I did not know that we were supposed to bring the poles which supposedly functioned to raise and support the backbone of the tent.

Being very surprised by my silly mistake, my experienced fellow hiker attached the tent to the edge of the branch of the small tree in the campsite with ropes, creating the tent-like architecture for us.

We could not add the rainfly across the top of our tent because the ropes attached on top of the tent prevented us from draping the fly, but it was enough to sleep in the tent if it did not rain.

Unfortunately, however, the weather was not on our side on that night. Unmercifully the rain was hitting us harder than before. As my tent buddy advised, we ran into the public toilet with a proper roof next to our tent and discussed our plan for that night.

My fellow hiker was calm.

He proposed to crash into other club members’ tents and sleep overnight. It was already midnight, and I was afraid of waking them up despite the tough hike earlier that day. But I had no choice.

Holding sleeping equipment that I needed for sleep and running into my friends’ tent, I asked if they were awake and happy with letting me into their tent.

There was silence. “Are they awake? Will they let me in?” Waiting for their response anxiously, one of our fellow hikers opened the zip of the tent and took my sleeping bag for me. My life got secure.

Waking up and getting out of the very tiny tent with three people, I was contented with having a good sleep. I could not even believe that stormy rain happened last night. It was a bright shining morning. Probably it was in a dream, I thought.

Looking at the tree next to the tent, however, I could see our wet backpacks hanging out over the tree. My tent buddy did it for us before he went to bed. He was still snoring in the tent with the proper roof to sleep.

If I had stayed in the city and spent time at home during the break, I would not need to experience this inconvenience; however, at the same time probably I would not have recognized the kindness that kept relieving me during the hike.

If you want to meet new friends and learn to support each other, I encourage you to join the AUMC (Adelaide University Mountain Club). Even if you do not have experience, it's okay! They are open-minded and willing to support you to enjoy the hike together.