The motor mover and Aberbran club site.

This was our first visit to the Aberbran club site near Brecon. We don't normally use club sites as we prefer Centre rallies and CL's but due to recently cancelled rallies, we decided we needed some 'chill out' time as we both work full time and missed being out with the van.

Aberbran seemed ideal as it's not far too reach from Cardiff.
We have stayed on Brynich (now called Brecon Beacons) while on a rally and enjoyed it so Aberbran, although being a few miles outside the town of Brecon, would be a nice change.

Before I go further with this story, I must take you back a few days when my caravan was serviced (along with the troublesome motor mover). The van past it's service flying colours and the service engineer assured me the motor mover is now fixed (loose cable on a motor).

So come Friday afternoon, I finished work early and loaded up the van. An hour later, the wife turns up from her job (notice she turns up AFTER the van is loaded!). Now the car and van are ready, along with it's owners.
Steadies up, the car reversed to the driveway entrance and with remote control at the ready, I switch the power on at the key then try to engage the rollers onto the wheels....... which bounces off! No matter how much I try, the flaming mover refuses to engage. With time ticking away, we resort to man (and woman!) handling the van and eventually hook up and away we go.

Now I have heard from others that Aberbran is narrow due to it being a train station in the distant past but I found out for my self exactly just how narrow!
Anyway, we leave Cardiff and join the A470, just about beating the heavy traffic leaving Cardiff. During the journey to Brecon, the wife and I discuss the motor mover and the service engineer. She said he had it moving on the driveway so it was working then. I reply that the flaming thing isn't working now!! (maybe the mover has taken a personal dislike of me?). As we draw closer to Aberbran, we agree that moving the van onto the pitch can be done either with the car or pushing it by hand. How wrong we were!

The Aberbran club site is well sign posted so turning right off the main road, we start heading down a country lane. After travelling it, I suggest you stay in low gear and pray you don't meet another van coming the other way!

Entrance to the site is easy to find and as you carefully turn in, your faced with a road going up a slope (see, told you about the low gear!). At the top of the slope, you pull in by the Warden's wooden hut. By the time I got out of the car, she was there waiting for us. We had booked a pitch without an awning (we were there just for the weekend) and after a chat with her, it was decided that a grass pitch closer to the entrance would be fine. I was handed a paper map of the site with the pitch number circled. I then handed the map to my navigator (wife) and we drove on. "you just passed it" says the navigator. I'm thinking, 'why didn't you say earlier' but just gave her a strained smile. No problem I say, we can drive on and turn around on the first empty pitch. Now as I'm driving forward, I start to realise what people were saying about Aberbran being 'slightly' narrow. The further I drove, the narrower it became. I then pulled up on an empty pitch and the fun starts. Now I admit, I am no expert at reversing the van. Especially after owning the van only for the 2nd year.

After much faffing about, it was decided to unhitch the van, turn it around and hitch up again. This time we stopped near our pitch. Holy crap! there's a large tree to get around, meaning I would have to reverse at an angle. By now the stress levels were starting to rise and no matter how I tried, the angle of the van seemed wrong the closer I got to the dreaded blue peg. At this point the wife suggested we look for help. Now being a man, I was determined I was going to do it myself. After a few more attempts even I was beginning to agree with her. But as I looked around the vans and motorhomes, no one came out. In my mind they were all sat there enjoying the evenings entertainment!

Suddenly a knight in shining armour came forward. His name was Peter (his wife's name was Primrose and they came from Wiltshire, staying on site for several days). We tried unhitching the van and pushing it onto the pitch but the jockey wheel by now decided it had enough and dug into the wet grass. Peter could sense the high stress levels and retired back to his van. Out of sheer desperation, I tried the motor mover again but the blasted thing still refused to engage with the wheels. Much cursing of the service engineer, I hitched up yet again and with gritted teeth, finally got the van about right on the pitch.

So if you do venture to Aberbran, make sure your motor mover is working correctly or be damned sure your good at reversing your van!

And yes, after setting up the van, with a cup of tea inside me (I'm sure the wife hide the wine from me, fearing I would knock it back in one go!) I started to enjoy our stay. It's a lovely, well kept site and very peaceful. Just the place to chill out no matter what the weather.

Almost forgot, I think it's the only place in Wales where you can't get a digital TV signal so take a book or like me, a laptop and a handful of DVD's!

Also my thanks to Peter and Primrose, club members for over forty years and 90 years old! He was the only one who offered to help us.