We've just come back from our first trip in our first caravan.
We picked the 'van up on Friday evening, looking up at the sky and considering that this may not have been the ideal weekend to pick for a trip to Kirkoswald in England's wettest county™.
Ambling up the M6 from Preston, as the sun set somewhere behind a distant raincloud, I gradually began to relax enough about the large fibreglass lump that was tailgating me.
We arrived on site just in time for the rain to ease. This allowed our daughter enough time to stagger sleepily from the car to the caravan but not enough time for us to find the winder, assemble the Wastemaster nor, indeed, to unhitch the car. Having possibly misunderstood the instructions from the nice man at Campbells we thought we could survive without gas for the night and use electric heating.
We awoke to heavy rain with our noses frozen to the duvet. The good news was that the fridge had succeeded in keeping the milk cold. During a deceptive pause in the precipitation, we ventured out to set up the gas. We knew we'd got this right because we then spent the next twenty minutes sitting on the sofa, drinking piping hot espressos as the blown air heating assisted in drying out our trousers.
The decision was taken that perhaps now would not be a great time to try assembling the awning. This decision proved fortuitous since it scarcely rained so much as a drop from that moment until we returned home this evening.
We had a lovely weekend. Mains Farm is in a delightful setting and has splendidly friendly owners. We may well, next time, spend rather more time enjoying the scenery and rather less enjoying the caravan itself.
------------- Looking for Danish caravan site ideas for 2014
After a lifetime of caravaning we put up out first awning (without instruction or even a picture) in the Pi66ing rain, my daughter asked it we could give up and find a hotel.
Next time it took 7.5 minutes.
I still remember our first trip when we made tea in an empty bean can, forgot the kitchen bits, not even one spoon did we have ;-))))))
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.