Windy...?! Let's play Caravan and Awning Hide & Seek!

There’s nothing like getting away to the lovely little C.L.s we have all come to love dotted around the country. The peace. The quiet. The views. The seclusion. The working farms. The animals. The agricultural machinery. The tractors. The trailers. The usual farming implements that never seem to be used…

After a three and a half hours drive – pitch up, legs down, awning up and kettle on. Time to relax for two weeks at our favourite little C.L. in the whole country – Pwllgoed in Tudweiliog, North Wales. Usual lovely warm welcome from the family, the kids running up to see us when home from school. So looking forward to the break and lazy days in the sunshine with friends joining us a few days later with their caravan. All good so far and lovely to be back. Second Home Sweet Home in the ‘van.

The first evening it got a little bit breezy. We’ve had worse but it was becoming uncomfortable with the whole caravan shaking, being tugged in all directions by the awning. So we had to get up in the night to tighten the guy ropes, put the storm strap over the awning, as well as the Isabella storm ties inside around the poles and the Isalink storm guys around the front and sides too. All the poles inside were tightened up with the good old Hercules. Our car was repositioned to the front side of the awning and along the front of the caravan to offer some protection. Taking the awning down was just not an option in the middle of the night, far too dangerous and practically impossible with the two of us. So we tried to go back to sleep, didn’t do very well as the clock ticked and the wind blew.

Next morning we noticed it had dropped quite a bit but was still breezy in the beautiful sunshine. We were a bit surprised to see the C.L. owner’s 4x4 pick-up parked right alongside our awning, providing us with some much needed protection. How thoughtful and kind of them to do this for us. It was left there all day for us as a brilliant wind-break. We set about tightening it all up and checking no damage had been done. It was forecast to die down so we hoped that the worst of the high winds would now be gone. How wrong could the forecast have been?

So evening 2 came – some high gusts were occasionally hitting us again and the 4x4 pick-up was replaced for us. This time we had a big green tractor with a silage trailer in tow right alongside the awning. That’s the biggest ever wind-break but it still felt like the awning would be gone by the morning and the ‘van having to battle another night to stay upright. Very unpleasant. Another sleepless night…

Another beautiful sunny day and our friends would be joining us the next day so looking forward to their arrival. Again hopes of the winds dying away were dashed with yet more gusts off the Irish Sea. One big green tractor removed and replaced. With yet another bigger green tractor! That did the trick. We actually got some sleep that night.

Our friends arrived the next day and we all started with laughing at the photos of our little caravan and car being totally blocked by the tractors and trailer – looking as though we were playing a ludicrous game of caravan/awning hide and seek from the Caravan Club C.L. Site Inspector!!

We would not have set off when we did had we have known that the wind was going to be so bad – we live very high up and the caravan is actually staked down in the garden so we are more than used to high winds at home - this was totally unpredicted.

Without the kindness and thoughtfulness of the site owners, Huw and Eleri Chidley, we may be writing this saying how we ended up with a total disaster having lost the awning, caravan and probably ourselves injured too. So next time you’re on a farm C.L., don’t think of all the agricultural machinery as rust buckets laying around doing nothing or just some more piles of scrap or part of a defunct tractor collection – think of them as potential wind-breaks that could just save you and your caravan and awning!

We absolutely love going down to Pwllgoed, with the beautiful scenery and such lovely hosts, lovely local shops (go to Parc Stores up in Morfa Nefyn for all your groceries!) and The Lion Hotel down the lane for good traditional pub food and a warm welcome, as well as the unique Ty Coch Inn on the beach. We attempt to learn a few more words in Welsh every time we go and so far are failing miserably but here's a "Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi", or a heartfelt sincere thanks!

If there is ever an award for a C.L. going over and above the call of duty, well, they would win hands down for protecting us from the gale force winds.  However, they couldn’t do anything to help when a few days later, we had an earthquake practically under our feet. The sunsets over the Irish sea are quite stunning. Never a dull moment at Pwllgoed and we can’t wait to get back!!