Our First Ever Caravan Trip

Our First Ever Caravan Trip. 

We picked up our new caravan from Campbell’s at Kirkham on Tuesday 7^th September 2010.

Our first trip in our new caravan was to the Forest Holidays caravan site near Beddgelert in North Wales. The site is about 10miles from Betws-y- Coed.

We left home on Friday10th September around 11.00 but didn’t get to the site until gone three in the afternoon, after struggling to hitch up the caravan as the motor mover Campbell’s had fitted was not working correctly. 

Once we got off the storage compound the journey to the site went off with no problems, and considering this was the first time we had towed a caravan for such a distance that was good news. It helped that we were using a courtesy car at the time as we had ordered a new BMW 520 and BMW had delivered the wrong car a few days before, so they lent us an X5. a big 4x4 with a reversing camera  that helped hitch up. 

The site was a large site set in a forest. There were no reserved pitches so we spent 15 minutes driving round to find a nice pitch. Once we selected a pitch it took another 20 minutes or so to get the caravan into position.Campbell’s better fix that mover quickly! Once we got into position we started to unpack. What a  job! 

As it was our first trip most of the equipment and kit was brand new and need unwrapping. All the pots and pans, crockery, cutlery, glasses etc. needed to be unpacked and washed before it could be put away. We had to get water and sterilize the Aquaroll, and all the caravan water pipes. This only took about half an hour, but we couldn’t have a brew till it was all done. Anyway it didn’t take too long and we were having our first cup of tea. 

Once everything was put away and the bed made we tried to phone home to tell the children we had arrived, only to find out that in the middle of this forest there was no mobile phone signal so it was off to the reception to see if they had a pay phone. Not a good experience! After waiting in the rain for a few minutes for a call box to become empty we phoned home only to be greeted with the answer phone. £1. gone . We then phoned our daughters mobile only to say hello for less than a minute. £2.50 gone. A few minutes later we phoned her at home and had just enough time to say we had got to the site and ask her to phone everyone else and let them know we had arrived safely. £3.50 gone. No wonder nobody uses payphones anymore! Anyway back to the caravan for a nice hot meal and another brew. 

While walking through the site to the reception we realised that we hadn’t picked a very good pitch after all! Ours was very wet and muddy, while all the others were made off crushed slate and were dry, clean and easy to walk on. Oh well, first big lesson learned. 

After dinner we thought we would settle down to a relaxing evening watching “Last Night at the Proms” on our new T.V. only to find out there was no chance of getting any T.V. reception, never mind a phone signal. It was a good job we had a couple of DVD’s with us. 

We had quite a good nights sleep, and didn’t wake up until 9 O’clock. It was nice to be in complete darkness at night for a change. In the morning we had a cooked breakfast. Just bacon sausage and toast, but very nice. 

After this we went to Porthmadog, a small harbour town about half an hour away. After doing all the usual High street tourist shops we found a little café and had a coffee and a piece of cake, then had a walk around the harbour before heading back via a drive through Festiniog, to cook dinner. 

It had been raining when we got back to the site so we checked the weather forecast. Tomorrow was going to be sunny, but raining again on Monday, we got back to the caravan and it was clear we had chosen the worst pitch on the site! After some thought we decided we would stay an extra day until Monday and so decided we had to move pitches. Again we had problems with the mover, but after some tricky reversing we had moved pitches and were all set up again after about an hour. It was worth it. It rained most of the night but there was no mud at all on our new pitch. 

We had invited our neighbours round to share a couple of bottles of wine with us after dinner that night. John and Ann were also new to caravanning, this was there forth trip. They were staying for 10 days, after having three trial weekend trips. They were a retired couple fromPortsmouth. John was retired from the Navy, and Ann was a retired care worker. They were both very impressed with our caravan, so much so that they took a spare leaflet we had back with them. We had a nice evening and a reasonable nights sleep getting up at 9 O’clock again for another cooked breakfast. 

Sunday was sunny as the forecast had promised, and we decided to go to Betws-y-Coed, a town we had visited many years ago when the children were little. The town hadn’t changed at all. 

We had a nice walk along the river before calling at a café for a drink and some cake! This caravanning is no good for dieting! Before heading back we had to do the obligatory shopping and my wife bought a couple of fleeces. 

That evening we went to John and Ann’s caravan for a drink. There’s was a small caravan that he said was 14 years old. It was in very good condition. We gave them our e-mail address and John promised to get in touch when they got home. 

Monday rained. It rained from getting up to getting home. 

We couldn’t face packing up until we had our bacon and eggs! We sorted out the inside of the caravan hoping the rain would ease so we could sort out outside. No chance! There was no point in both of us getting wet so of course it was me who went outside. By the time we were all packed up and hitched to the car I was soaked to the skin, luckily I could get changed in the caravan before setting off. Glad we gave up camping in a tent! It was about 11O’clock when we got going. 

More problems with the mover didn’t make it easy to get the caravan in place back at the storage site. A phone call toCampbell’s tomorrow, were not very happy with them at the moment. This should have been properly tested. At the hand over the said the reason it was not working was because it was a brand new battery that hadn’t been charged. I won’t fall for that one again! Anyway we were back home for 3 O’clock. 

All in all it was a good weekend. We learnt a lot about caravanning on our first trip. The caravan has all we want. It’s warm, has all the home comforts including a good shower and a comfortable bed. 

It will be a while before we venture out again, probably next spring, but we are looking forward to it, and to planning our trips over the winter.