A big thanks to all for your help

On a recent trip to Bourton On The Water I experienced first hand the friendliness and helpfulness of the wardens and fellow caravan club members.

We arrived on site at lunchtime on a Sunday afternoon in a brand new caravan. We selected our pitch, unhooked, set up and unpacked the car. I then went to turn on the gas only to find it was leaking from the gas connection lead where it is connected to the caravan regulator.

I spoke to Bert the warden who lent me a toolkit as I didn't have a big enough spanner. I found that, when the workshop had swapped over my gas bottles and connection lead, they had not fitted an 80p washer. Bert gave me directions to the nearest caravan dealers (a 30 mile round trip) and I was just about to go and fetch a new washer when I found that only the 12v electrics were working.

 Despite being connected to the main supply, there was no mains power coming into the caravan.Blare, my new neighbour, let me try his electric lead in my caravan to no avail. I tried different combinations of my lead, then Blare's lead in different bollard outlets, but still got no mains power. Whilst I was running around trying different leads in different outlets I was on the phone to the where we had the caravan from and was on the verge of taking it back to them that night to get the electrics tested . As you can imagine I wasn't very happy, what with this being a new caravan and all.

It was at this point that Bert came over and tested the bollard to find that the outlets I had been using had tripped. He then tested my lead and found that it was faulty. I later found that this was because  a wire that had come loose. In order to save on any excess weight, I had brought my old lead which was only 18 months old, leaving the brand new lead at home. Boy did I get it in the neck later from may wife  about this -"what are you saving it for" was about her only printable comment.

Graham, my other new neighbour then came over and lent me his spare electric lead for the week. After getting the new washer for the gas connection, our meal was cooked and life was perfect again.

Without Bert, Blare and Graham, we would have taken the caravan back and had our holiday ruined. As it was, we had a fantastic, relaxing week. I want to say a big thank you to all.