A Holiday to Remember
Got home today from a holiday we will always remember! Go to our first CL and just couldn’t get the van a decent bit of pitch to get it level, then the flush on the toilet worked intermittently! We had only got the van back from service too! Rest of the five days were fine. SatNav on our VW played up and tried to take us down a very narrow road that turned out was in the wrong direction and OH reversed into a tree while trying to turn. Whilst on a day out and sat at a set of traffic lights with the handbrake on, the old chap behind starting tooting at us and starting shouting at my OH accusing him of reversing into him!!! We hadn’t - and our dashcam can prove it! Our chocolate lab took unwell and ended up at the vets for three nights, CT scans, X-rays and ultrasounds and surgery (£2500 but insured) due to someone discarding corn cobs in the bushes rather than the bin on the CL! Ended up having to stay an extra night to let the dog recover. When we got to our last CL for one night, flush stopped working altogether and half the electrics with it! Thankfully we are home and hoping for no more mishaps!
Anyone else as unlucky as us?
Comments
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Oh dear! Not a good trip then.
Sorry for your troubles and woes. They often say troubles comes in threes. Hope your labby is better now.0 -
Don’t know why they did away with manual flush. Electric not that reliable but at least you can keep a bucket by the loo for flushing.
Fridge failure in Southern Europe has happened a couple of times and that can make life extremely difficult.
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We’ve had a few holidays like that with motorhomes and caravans. It got to the point where we were amazed if nothing went wrong. It’s a wonder we’re still going, really. Fortunately things have got better (I hope I haven’t just jinxed us by saying that).
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Four years ago we went back to Steamer Quay site after 30 years absence to stay for 4 nights. Dog taken ill and taken to local vets who diagnosed diabetes. In and out of vets for tests for next two weeks but nothing like your bill only £550. However it was interesting managing without EHU for two weeks since Steamer Quay has none but you soon learn to cope with amount generated by solar panel.
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I do hope your dog is well on the way to a full recovery, and that things have settled down.
I agree with Tammygirl, planning can't stop these things and you'll soon be laughing about it. At least you have pet insurance!
Our first proper trip away was a bit of an baptism of fire, but we stuck at it and are now in our 12th year! We headed off stopping at Boroughbridge C&CC site, lovely pitch sideways to the river. Bitterly cold, son came to visit us, didn't know about closing the engine vents! Fire on full, duvet draped from overcab bed to floor, son left. Then strong winds rocked us all night, made OH join me in the facility block - it was rocking so much thought we'd go sideways into the river, since learnt to face into the wind! An uneventual day followed and we were going off next morning, awoke early and knew things sounded different - looked out of the window several inches of snow 😲. Once sorted etc spoke to the wardens and checked the forecast, decided to head off to meet friends as planned. Had a great time with them.
We reckoned if we had survived that and were laughing, we were 😂😂😂, we could enjoy our new hobby regardless. We certainly are and do enjoy!
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Our latest trip, 17 nights (Cambridge, Lincolnshire and Suffolk) had a few issues. In Lincolnshire we had our Credit card cloned at a fuel station on the A1
Then both dogs became very unwell, picked up some sort of tummy bug/virus. To top that the cars Sat Nav decided to take a short cut between two A roads when we moved on to Suffolk which ended up with some light panel damage to the O/S of the caravan (over hanging branches) 99% sorted now by myself. Both dogs still not fully well 3 weeks later and now on antibiotics.Funniest thing was one night at White house beech site, the dogs needed to go to the dog walk (if you can call it that) at 3.30am, would you believe there was someone else in there letting their dogs do their business at that time of the morning
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Sadly I must have jinxed us. We came out with the caravan last Saturday. Thank goodness it was Saturday, as we often start our trips on Sunday, and that would’ve been even worse. It all started with OH checking the oil and water on the tow car but, for some reason he decided to check the brake fluid level too, and managed to lose the cap in the engine compartment. It didn’t fall through onto the road. He rang our local dealer, then took my car to pick up the replacement, except it was a radiator cap instead. Panic! A 35 mile round trip to another dealer got us the required part. Some two hours later than planned, we finally got on the road with the caravan from our storage site.
We encountered traffic jams in the usual places on the A27, followed by an accident with the air ambulance in attendance. Having decided to stop for our lunch between Chichester and the M27, we found all the laybys closed. Tired, thirsty and hungry, we had no choice than to press on until we could stop at the New Forest. Things got better after that, until we were within the final couple of miles of our destination. The written directions for our site were online, but not on the “enjoy your holiday” email/map that I’d printed off and, in spite of having looked on Google maps in advance of our trip, and using the given post code, we ended up down a very long country lane, barely wider than the caravan.
We were extremely fed up when we arrived on site, but the warden was very kind and helpful.
Unfortunately that wasn’t quite the end of our woes. The toilet won’t flush, so the watering can usually used for filling the flush tank is now sitting in the shower for doing the honours.
So, there you go. Most of the time it’s great, but some of the time it’s not.
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What do they say about 'the best laid plans of mice and men'? With the machinations of modern cars and caravans it's perhaps fortunate when we do have a holiday without problems. Just into July, we ended a 6-month holiday in France. First, one of the window blinds went wrong. Dismantled and repaired it but after a few days it failed again. The taps started to lose their strength of flow, and right at the last day the on board pump packed up. As we were going straight to Morn Hill for a few nights on the way back from France, I had to buy a new pump (Winchester Caravans) - they had just the one in stock (same model) and that was another £100 on top of the holiday expenditure. Haven't repaired the blind again yet - will use the curtains for that window instead. If it has to be replaced, that's another £98.
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