Safety Warning - Be Vigilant

Did many risk assessments as part of Highway construction BB. Also did many projects. some extensive and expensive and some less so. 

Also I always used to ask what is the cost of something going wrong (both in terms of risk to people and to costs of construction regarding ground surveys etc).

The risk of loosing a few hundred quid might be real but the effect of the actual cash loss negligible.

I can remember when married with a child, at college away from home myself, and family in a mobile home I lost £50 in tenners on the residential home car park in very high winds. I went back with a torch and found the money trapped by the wind against a kerb. At that time it was a critical amount of money (45 years ago). If I lost £200 now I would be a tad miffed but no longer critical. 

The only time our caravan has been broken into was on a municipal site in the Aude, and we were one of about eight units there.  It felt safe, people were friendly, the village was 'lively', but the caravan was broken into on the only night we were both away.  I was back in England, as my son had problems, and my OH was invited out for dinner by friends and decided to stay the night.

To be honest nowhere is absolutely safe, which is why people should be careful what they carry with them when on holiday!

That doesn't mean I think gangs of robbers have training as anaesthetists, buy drugs which put people to sleep, and drive around campsites and aires hoping that they find the one van with enough of a haul to make it all worthwhile.  I think they are opportunists, who get in and out as quickly as possible, and take anything on view - so don't leave valuables in easy reach.  I doubt they will turf you out of bed to get to the space under the bed, or find the few spaces that only you and the caravan manufacturer know about.  Leave a 'dummy wallet' out, if you must, with a couple of euros and some card substitutes and even a dummy bunch of car keys .................. and that will perhaps be all they take.

It was a dark, dark night when we stayed on a remote Aire outside a village in rural France earlier this year.

Just us, a few birds, rabbits doing what rabbits do and no lights in the vicinity for a mile or so.

We had sat on the banks of the slow running river alongside us in the warm evening air and had enjoyed our nightcap before retiring to our bed.

We were woken from our slumbers in the early hours of an April morning by soft voices whispering in the grey river mist outside our Motorhome.

Car doors and boots were being opened and closed quietly, a quick peek through the blinds, and we saw shadowy figures moving in the gloom.

Who and what did they want?

Were we in danger and what could we do?

I knew that the doors were locked but a Motorhome is always susceptible with it's thin plastic windows and our bodies were tense and worried.

As the minutes passed the voices grew louder and car doors were heard banging repeatedly as more and more arrived on the Aire.

With baited breath we lay and waited for an unknown fate that may lay in the hands and actions of those just beyond our vehicle.

Time passed slowly, with fitful sleep, until the dawn eventually broke, a sunny day ahead, and I intrepidly stepped outside to try and find who the newcomers to the Aire were and what threat they were to us.

I was greeted by the smell of bacon, sausages and burgers cooking on a nearby barbecue.

Yes, about forty fishermen had arrived for an all-day fishing contest at the banks of the river.

Much hand shaking, numerous “Bonjour Monsieur” and participating in the array of 'breakfast' food sizzling on the barbecue were offered.

And accepted.

After moving to a more secluded part of the Aire and consuming a bacon baguette and a cup of England's finest brew we once again set off to travel, nay, meander through the delights of France's rural centre.

Worries? – very rarely.