A family conference and subsequent vote results in plans for a beach weekend on the South Hams coast – hooray! In a family of just three people the voting is swift, decisive and at times divisive. But there seem to be no hard feelings about the prospect of a couple of nights pitched up- near Bigbury and Bantham beaches on some of the more unspoilt stretches of coast in South Devon. We’re a
bit skint all in all this month but it’s a short drive and the camping pitch is very reasonably priced…we feel that if we can rein in the ice-cream consumption and avoid eating out, we should be able to bring it in under £60 for the weekend.
Excellent!The sea, we are reliably informed by some die-hard surfie mates of ours, is shrugging off its winter chill and warming up nicely. So, I root out wetsuits
(will I really squeeze into that, I wonder) and two vintage body boards from a bygone era…it is time to initiate our small son to the joys of a South Devon beach summer!
Ah, the ‘van. How we have missed it. It’s true that we all still feel ridiculously proud whenever we return to our hard standing pitch to collect it for a weekend away.
It’s perfect, we think, just perfect for our little family. When it comes to packing the van, though, it seems clear that I have over-estimated the amount of gear we can comfortably fit into the rear storage lockers…the wetsuits and body boards do take up a fair bit of space and we’ll be venturing along the coast to Wembury where the rockpooling is fabulous, so we absolutely do need the nets and buckets…our son’s scooter seems to travel with us wherever we go and then there are the dogs’ beds to fit in…
the Packing Police are frowning…my long suffering husband is not at all amused.
It’s at this point that we realise why so many motorhomes and caravans have roof or rear mounted storage boxes on their ‘vans…no matter how brilliantly designed the interior of your ‘van is (and ours is uncompromisingly German, balancing utility and comfort very strictly indeed!) there always seem to be some items left over that can’t be jammed into the built in lockers…So, we add a storage box to our ‘must have’ list which means that I start to research one online on my phone on the way down to the campsite, starting of course with Leisureshopdirect.com’s selection of
Caravan and Motorhome Storage Boxes. We decide to stick with Fiamma and go for a roof-mounted storage box
(as we already have a rear mounted bike frame). We secure a hefty discount
(thank you Leisureshopdirect!) but it still weighs in at over £300…
Hmmm, that £60 quid for the weekend is starting to inflate, but it really is an ‘essential’ we tell ourselves…When we get to the campsite the sunshine is blazing down and we are delighted to be shown to our pitch. We already have a set of Motorhome Levellers which we use to get the ‘van level
(I can’t abide it when the wine doesn’t appear level in my glass!) and we’re feeling pretty smug that we have thought ahead enough to purchase a set. The dogs are evicted from the ‘van and lie panting in the full sunshine so it is time to roll out our awning.
Good grief, we realise this is the first time we have been touring when the use of the awning to protect us from that rare phenomenon
the sun has been necessary!
Wahoo! We are really touring now, we think! All manner of excited activity ensues
(we don’t care anymore that we look like we are ‘new to all this’ and everyone wades in with suggestions, directions and advice, whether they know what they are talking about or not. Usually not.) Imagine the disappointment, then, when we discover that there is a small tear in the fabric of the awning which we hadn’t before seen, in fact there are two, about an inch long each. Within minutes we’ve added a Repair Kit to our list of must-haves. At least this time it will cost us just £13 or thereabouts.
But still...The dogs are OK, now, and we flop down next to them on the grass in the shade, looking out towards Hope Cove, across the fields.
This is the life…contented smiles, and self-satisfied sighs all round. Until, that is, we start to check out the set ups of the other campers around us. Tent campers, caravanners and motorhome campers are pitching up all around us and we notice one glaring similarity between their kits and one glaring omission in ours.
We have no chairs. How can this have happened? We always had camping chairs back in the day when we tent-camped. But those have worn through yonks ago and we’d never thought to replace them for the ‘van. Chairs of all shapes, sizes and dispositions pop up around us and we watch with envy as folk recline, tilt and prop their drinks in handy arm-rest holders to the right and left of us…
and we are very, very jealous. Surely reclining camping chairs are not a ‘necessity’? They can’t really be called a ‘must-have’ can they,
especially as this was supposed to be a cheap, £60 tops weekend away…but the ground suddenly feels hard and lumpy and we have nowhere to relax outside without a wet doggy nose pressing itself into one of our ears…
and we’re back on line researching again…Now, by our standards, this really was a straight-forward problem free trip. If you want to hear about some of our earlier disasters, check out our other
motorhome blog entries
(promise not to snigger, now, won't you?!):
- Inaugural Outing.
- Oops!
- What is that noise?
