Arthur Bostrom- Caravan Club Newbie!

Hi, this is my first blog - so welcome. I’ve been touring the UK for about 8 weeks now in my beautiful new Bailey Orion 430-4 with a brilliant itinerary planned by Sarah Simmons at the Caravan Club! My welcome to caravanning so far has been great, apart from the weather perhaps! I began my caravanning life with a Caravan Club Manoevring Course at Alderstead Heath, Surrey in a blizzard and now, about eight weeks later, I’m hitched at the new site at Strathclyde Country Park, near Glasgow, ready to perform at the King’s Theatre Glasgow tonight in “Birdsong”. In the intervening weeks I’ve stayed at a mixture of Club sites and CLs from Plymouth to Malvern to Ipswich and now Glasgow. I’ve 17 more weeks of the Birdsong tour to go- so maybe I’ll see some of you out there.

Favourite moment so far? Having successfully reversed and pitched level at my first CL site, the stunning Abbot’s Shingle CL @ Botany Hill near Farnham in Surrey, I put the kettle (and the heating!) on and settled down for a coffee looking at the beautiful woodland glade that surrounded me. A movement in trees opposite and, in the cold winter sunlight, two deer emerged and passed within about ten feet of the caravan! I remember thinking to myself “I think I’m going to enjoy this caravan lark”. The CLs I’ve visited have all been great, although some have been little more than mudbaths after all the heavy rain and snow, and I think I’ve been on a very steep learning curve since my course two months ago with Keith from the Caravan Club. The thing I’ve appreciated everywhere though has been people’s friendliness on caravan sites and, on the couple of occasions when I’ve found myself in dire need, help has always been there, either from the brilliant wardens or a concerned neighbouring caravanner who has seen my struggles and come out to help. Like Phill at the lovely CL ‘Hilltops”, in Brixton, Devon who helped me move off after 48 hours of torrential rain had made pulling away difficult. He has beautiful rare-breed ducks who wander about the site in the daytime- they seemed to be enjoying the pools of water left by the deluge!

I’ll be blogging regularly on here on such subjects as “Naming Your Caravan”, “Don’t Worry, We’ve All Done It....”, “Beginners Mistakes” and general feedback on the sites and people I meet on the road. Right - off to Glasgow and into costume for tonight’s performance at the King’s Theatre!

www.arthurbostrom.com

www.birdsongthetour.com