Adventures of a newbie caravanner
This story happened on: 31/10/2012
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I must have had a rush of blood to the brain. With no previous experience of a touring caravan, I jumped in with both feet and bought a brand new caravan- no half measures like getting a reasonable second hand one and seeing if we liked it. I even threatened to announce on Facebook that my daughter was a member of the ‘Caravan Club’. That didn’t go down too well.
So the adventures began!
We nearly gave up on our very first trip out.
We booked a local club site, only six miles from where we lived, to “try out the caravan”, figure out how all the bits worked and to put up the dreaded awning.
No matter how we tried we could not manhandle the caravan out of its storage slot to hitch it up but after catching our breath, and turning the air blue with a few choice words, we eventually managed to hitch up and left for our site.
The site was great, especially for first timers like us. The pitches were level and the roads nice and wide so I decided to reverse in. Oops! Big mistake. At this time I hadn’t done my training course with the Caravan Club and I could not get the caravan anywhere near the pitch- never mind near the centre. I was panicking as the car was howling at me (I had forgotten to turn off the reverse parking sensors) and my wife looked like a demented naval recruit learning how to semaphore. I unhitched and with the help of a neighbour we pushed the beast into position.
I had read a couple of magazines and the club’s essential guide to caravanning, so we managed to get the caravan reasonably level, more by good luck than good management. Got connected up to the water and electricity, but the waste pipe was too short to get to the waste drain- second mistake. The kind couple on the next door pitch were full of useful advice after years of caravanning but made the comment “the worst row you will have is when you try to put up the awning”, boy were they right. In our defence I must say that my daughter could draw better pictures when she was in reception class than those provided by the manufactures.
To all the awning manufactures out there you could easily produce a short DVD or get a video on their website of how to erect your awnings.
After all the trauma, we had a great evening meal, a restful night and a very quick shower the next morning- the hot water system was still a mystery (thereby hangs a tale for a another episode).
We learnt a few key things that day; caravanners are a great and helpful community, waste pipes must be long or things can get messy and that we should definitely get a motor mover fitted.
paul56
Caravanner from South Yorkshire