Looking forward to the new seasonin our "new to us" Gobur folding caravan

Hi

We’re planning our year ahead and really looking forward to our first full season in our “new to us” Gobur folding caravan. We bought it in August from Gobur inNorfolkand enjoyed a few weeks camping last year but plan to take it abroad this year.

We’ve been caravanners for  over thirty years but, about 10years ago we had an accident on the A1 on the way to Durham and our much loved Van Royce ended up on its side on the carriage way. It put us off towing a caravan but not wanting to give up camping we bought a Conway Cardinal hard top trailer tent, it was, at the time, a reasonable compromise. We used it extensively but the camping year is short when under canvas unless your one of the “hardy campers” brigade.

Old age and arthritis made us have a rethink and we bought an Auto sleeper motor home.  We became really involved in the Motor-homers world, travelled throughEuropewith the help of the club and had lots of adventures and, with semi retirement and more time, enjoyed seeing more of Britain. Four years later we realised that for us it just wasn’t the relaxing time that traditional caravanning had been. There’s a feeling of moving on, never putting your feet down quite. While its easy to pack up to move you have to plan where to park if you want to explore, and I missed being able to just turn into a side road to see where it might take you. Not a good idea with a large van, side roads have a habit of becoming rather narrow and I’m very good at finding Fords to paddle through and gated country roads or farmyards to negotiate.

Our few weeks in 2012 in our folding caravan have proven our choice is perfect for us. We have a trailer to tow which has no wind resistance so more economical and, you just almost forget you’re towing, it’s a dream. It takes minuets to erect on site and then you forget its a folding caravan because it has all the comforts of a conventional caravan, lots of space, comfortable seating available in a variety of layouts a toilet compartment, a 4 ring hob, (no oven but we hardly ever used ours) hot running water a 3 way fridge and plenty of storage for crockery and store cupboard essentials. Lots of extras available to suit all needs, ours has a motor mover and we bought an awning, one specially designed for the unit and its one of the easiest awnings I ever helped put up.

Anyone feeling anxious about towing or wanting to tow with a smaller car should give these folding caravans a serious look. Our lovely “nosey neighbours” on the campsite were most impressed when invited to have a look inside. Once you’ve got over the square look was the remark it’s a really gorgeous modern caravan, and we quite agree.

I would only add that the service we received from Gobur was amazing. They’re obviously used to people coming some distance to see them; they found us a superb B&B for the first night and then had our van ready for us to collect next day. Then we were put through a thorough training program on putting up and down so when we left we were confident we could do it ourselves “and did” without any problems. The usual on site audience were quite impressed.

Keith and Anita Smith