PRICELESS
PRICELESS OR HOW I STARTED CAMPING.
I guess the first time I went camping that I can remember was when I was the ripe old age of 12, living near Marlow on Thames, I joined the Sea Cadets and part of our training was to have mock battles with Maidenhead cadets, the fact we were in a rowing boat and they were in an MTB boat ( Motor torpedo Boat ) did give them the edge slightly, we use to camp up at night on the banks of the Thames about a mile from Henley and take in the warm summer breeze the smell of the countryside, the sound of the animals at night and the burning of log fires and finally crash out under the stars in tents.
Thirty-five years later and having gone through many vehicles, jobs, partners and tents, I became the proud owner of a White VW T25 transporter, for the pricely sum of £ 3000.00 pounds, what they called a Weekender mainly because some cowboy converted it from a parcel van to a makeshift campervan in a weekend I guess, unfortunately it was at the time of the White Van Man craze, this was a time when certain individuals got great pleasure in breaking windows and dancing on the tops of vans showing off to their girlfriends that they to could dance like Michael Flatley of riverdance fame.
I was at that time working at Gatwick and at weekends I would go down to Pevensey Bay C&CC site East Sussex with my wife and dog ( both gone now and I miss the dog ) I have such memories of those days. the upside was my campa would cruise at 90, sorry 70, slip of the pen, get under height barriers, had plenty of room for my 6’5 frame driving wise, and length wise but of course it didn’t have a pop up roof it did however have a pop out window when ever you shut the side door without thinking it would pop out, most annoying when your getting ready for bed after a few jars still it was all I could afford in those days, the van not the window. Price of repairs £ two much so I sold it for £ 100.00 pounds with a rotten exhaust. which would have cost me £500.00. oh an it had no M.O.T
Moving on, some years later after a few more cars I thought wouldn’t it be nice to go camping in South Wales and revisit Pendine beach, the Gower peninsula etc, so without further adieu I purchased a tent from Tesco £20.00 plus about the same for the gas stove and gas, lilo and pump ( I know, I know ) and headed west, as soon as we past the sign saying Cymru welcome to Wales the weather turned for the worst, torrential rain and high winds
the site was a CL, Bush Farm, Killgetty it had running water both from the sky and taps, a toilet, which is all you need really, so then it came to putting up the tent, not an easy task when it’s pelting down with rain and windy to boot, still with the help of a young family who had been observing from the side lines at some old bloke with a bad temper it was up in no time.
Exhausted from my ordeal it was time for bed it was then I noticed that my feet stuck out of the tent and with the fear that some ferocious animal would take a liking to my toes and drag me off into the woods, like a badger or something more scary ( perhaps I’ve watched to many horror movies ) I slept in the car.
That was the turning point for me, left the tent with the owners of the site, I wouldn’t be using it anymore and drove back towards Kent, as soon as I saw the sign saying welcome to England the bloody sun came out and it turned out to be the hottest Thursday for years, typical.
Well to cut a long story short I searched the internet for sometime and travelled all over the place including Brighton and guess what, I found a motorhome one mile from my house.
brought it home and hit the gutter of my bungalow, knocked the awning light off and scratched the paintwork, repair price in all £. still trying to find out.
With all the things that had gone wrong since I took up camping in tents, campervan and now Motorhome a lot of people would hang their keys up and go on package holidays, but the enjoyment and experience, the people I’ve met and memories, will always be PRICELESS.
