Hello

[val]

Hi all.
My name is Val and I live in Forfar, Scotland with my other half Graham.
2 years ago we bought ourselves a cheap 5 berth caravan to try it out to see if we liked caravanning, needless to say we absolutely loved it and we are now on our third caravan, improving on the caravan everytime we upgrade

We tow with a Toyoto Rav4 (so plenty of power and room)!!!!!!!!!!!
Our first was a Fleetwood Garland which was I think a 1997/8 model, then we upgraded to a 2 berth (2000) ABI Brooklyn which we thought was great with the end bathroom but it was always me who ended up having to make up the bed and it was very inconvenient if one of us was up earlier than the other for getting a seat so we have now upgraded again to a Swift Islay (2001) 5 berth which I absolutely adore, we have converted the seating area at the rear to a double fixed bed (by buying a mattress to fit) and have already been a way for a weekend recently trying it all out. We are off to Pitlochry in June and to Grantown on Spey in July so if anyone is ever debating on going caravanning I would wholeheartedly tell them YES....best thing we ever did

 

[Parksy]

Hi Val, welcome to the Practical Caravan forum

You seem to be following a similar path that we took when we began caravanning, starting off with a cheapie to see if we liked it and upgrading our caravan to get the features that we wanted and enjoying the lifestyle more and more.
Most of us will agree that taking up caravanning is the best thing that we ever did, the next best thing was joining this forum

Maybe a slight exaggeration

but forum members like to share advice, tips and information or just have a chat to fellow caravanners so I hope that you will enjoy using the forum almost as much as you enjoy using your caravan.

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Val
Welcome to the Forum..
Pitlochry is a lovely timepiece place. I and Lady Villa eloped there many years ago and got married in teh registry office at the back of the Alliance and Leicester Building Society. That's gone now.
The site at Grantown on Spey is an affiliated one to the Caravan Club. The facilities are excellent. We stayed there a week so bit a little extra and had a fully serviced pitch. Hopefully you can post some of your pics.
Your latest caravan reminds me of my favourite malts which all come from Islay

 

[colin-yorkshire1]

hi Val, welcome to the forum,
we have been to all the places you mention, we love that part of the country but for us it is 8hr trek so you are lucky,
which site are you using at pitlochry by the way, we used to go to milton of fonab by the side of the river on the lower side of the town,
it is half a mile walk into town along the river and over the salmon ladder on the dam wall,
the last time we were there the gold panning championship was being held at wanlockhead just up the road and was a brilliant day out.
colin

 

[Gagakev]

Hi Val, welcome aboard always nice to have new ladies come and join us (and keep us men in check)

Keep enjoying and keep us posted.

 

[Mel]

Hi val, welcome. We went to speyside two years ago and did a bit of the whisky trail. Had a lovely time. We stayed at the C&CC Speyside site which was fine but a bit dated. The entertaiment was provided by the Mancunian warden who was not a happy bunny and felt that the C&CC had not treated him well. As we pitched he said, "You've probably come for the Whisky, don't get it at the distilleries, thats for the Japenese and american tourists. Its much cheaper in Lidl." We had not towed the van for 10hours to go to $£#@$$ Lidl!
mel

 

[Beachball]

Hi val welcome to the practical caravan forum any questions you have there are a great bunch on here and you will get a answer...

 

[Tramontane]

Good Evening to everyone, I am a newbie to online forums,but, decided to join prac.caravan because myself and my partner have been subscribers for some years now and love the magazine. We have been avid campers for the last 30years.
Our first foray into caravanning was with a Cristtal Moorea, I did like this van,especially the kitchen, also the fixed bed was great.
Unfortunately the company went bump, just before the caravan was severely damaged and was out of action for months. We realised no parts were now available so decided to get rid. We bought a new Bailey Pegasus from Discover Leisure, which promptly went bump!
We had the van's 1st. service by a company in Bridlington. Our 2nd.service was done last week, by a different company, who informed us that a wheel bearing would need to be replaced and that damp was present in all 4 corners! This caravan, by my reckoning has covered no more than 800 miles. I would like to know any other subscribers problems,if any.
I used to live in Scotland and en-route to Pitlochry on a job, I was up above the town when the sun came out and I had to stop my van and admire the view, thinking it doesn't get any better than this.

 

[val]

Thanks to everyone who has commented to my post.
Unfortunately we never made it up to Pitlochry as I ended up in hospital having an operation just before we were due to go and really didn't fancy caravanning with a sling on, but hopefully will make it there if not this year certainly next year....but in 2 weeks time we WILL be in Grantown on Spey and believe me I cannot wait so looking forward to this well earned break both for me and my lovely partner Graham as he has had the hardest job of looking after me whilst I recuperated .......We stayed at Grantown on Spey caravan park last year and had a ball, beautiful site and yes we are paying the extra and having a fully serviced pitch too, lovely people up there, and made to feel very welcome which is always very nice!!!!!!
The other half is golfing in the visitors week competition at the local golf club and I will be relaxing and recharging the batteries, just hope the weather is kind to us too x

 

[val]

A little update on our fixed bed in the Swift Islay, found the foam mattress rather hard after a weeks holidaying so have now bought a memory foam mattress topper to put over top of bed, this was bought from a ebay seller who has all different sizes to match all caravan beds so if interested well worth a look. Company is L & S Prints.
But just last week we went for a wander around Perthshire Caravans and have fallen in love with my NEXT new van....a Swift Charisma 550 absolutely love it so have to most certainly save the pennies for that one