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WOW

We have just come home from our first week away with our caravan and we absolutely LOVED IT!

We had a few adventures on the way - all because we were so inexperienced - but to be honest it just added to the fun of the holiday.  We both agreed it is the best holiday and the most relaxing we have ever had!  Our son was pretty good and the 3 dogs were brilliant - apart from trying to stretch out on the bed with us most nights (considering they are not even allowed upstairs at home, you can imagine their joy at finding 3 human beings in BEDS that they could actually reach!)

The second day of our holiday was almost a disaster.  We had set up our super gazebo (bought instead of an awning as we figure we will get much more use from it than from just an awning)  My husband and 12 year old son slept in it on Saturday night, and loved it.  Got up to brilliant sunshine on Sunday morning so decided to drive somewhere to run the dogs for an hour or so.  Picked up a few bits of shopping and came back to the camp site - no gazebo!  Our first thought was that someone had stolen it (someone pinched the hubcaps off the van when we stayed locally on Friday night!) - and when we saw 4 fellas manhandling it we jumped out to challenge them.  (After all it was pretty expensive and OURS!)  It transpired that as we had not pegged it down or used guy ropes (niaively thinking we didn't need to cos the weather was fantastic!) and the wind had risen alarmingly, the damn thing had not only blown away, but one of the legs had pierced the ceiling, ripped and wrecked it!  We were not amused - but soon saw the funny side and were also very grateful it hadn't hurt anyone or anything!!!!

So the rest of the holiday was gazebo -less, but we managed and still had a wonderful time.

This morning we decided to leave very early (5.30am) to avoid the traffic.  We were doing really well and almost ready to go when all of a sudden the front of the van collapsed!  We had let the legs down first, then the jockey wheel somehow gave way!  We managed to get it all back together and no apparent damage - apart from probably waking the whole campsite with our efforts to be quiet!  We did the 200 mile journey home in just over 4 hours so it was worth leaving early ish ( 6.45!)

All in all, we loved every minute and can't wait to go away again!

Glad you had a nice time. We had a couple of silly mishaps on our first trips, but you soon get the hang of it and something to laugh about later.

Valerie

We started off very locally because the M25 had an accident on it and huge tail backs - but we had already collected the van from storage!  So we stayed on the Isle of Sheppy (where my husband is from and all his family live!)  Then we left on Saturday and travelled to Weston Super Mare where we stayed in the most chocabloc site I have ever seen in my life.  They were not too friendly, the shop was never open when it was supposed to be and the "take away" restaurant was also not open at the times it said on the door!  We stayed there for 2 nights and then went off down to Cornwall.  Found a fantastically quiet little site - there was only one other van on the top field with us and the rest were quiet too.  We stayed there for 3 nights.  We knew of a place near Weston that we wanted to stay at but they didn't have space on the way down, so we rang them again and booked for Thursday and Friday nights.  It was absolute bliss! 
We proved our friends and family wrong (luckily) as we had nothing booked and everyone said we would be spending our holiday in motorway service stations because everywhere would be full at this time of year.  I think we were lucky and only found a couple of places that would not accept the dogs (we have 3) and only a couple that were full!  Apart from that we were fine!  We printed off a list of sites and phone numbers, drove to an area, and rang from nearby to see where to go next - it was all part of the big adventure and we loved it!

Yes, we are converts!