Link-up social group

[valerie_5112016]

About 10 years ago, my husband and I found ourselves caravanning alone much of the time with no children. We felt we were missing out on socialising but, with truly no offence, really could not settle to 'rallying'. We set up Link-up - a group where people like ourselves - 40-55 ish - children grown up - simply name sites or CLs and join up for the most informal of weekends - no rules, nothing organised other than the Saturday barbeque or the local pub meal.

It was very successful and groups in Lancashire and Cheshire are still going strong. So many lovely weekends and holidays have taken place , with much sharing of life events, birthdays and Christmas 'do's' - strong friendships formed.

Four years ago, we moved from Cheshire to the East Midlands. We have had some lovely weekends locally ourselves and still meet up with the Cheshire group but would enjoy meeting local couples with similar sentiments - absolutely NO rules or organisation - simply turning up and coming and going but feeling that there are others to chat to .

If you are interested, please email williamsvmg@aol.com - we look forward to hearing from you.

 

[Guest]

I think you have an excellent idea, although why restrict it to certain geographical areas? As a result of living and working overseas for a long time, we never had the opportunity of building up a 'local' group of friends, and like you do not really go for the Rally scene. I saw a similar scheme in Australia where we found a lot of retired people doing the 'BigOne'. That is driving around Australia around the coast. It usually took them all year and they would arrange to meet with friends at 3-6 monthly intervals in certain parts of that country. We were quite envious especially as we could not get residence in Australia as we were too old.

We also like the East Midlands area as we lived there 10 years ago and still return even although it is a 6 hour drive from where we now live. We may take you up on your invitation but as we are about to head to France for 3 months caravanning, I afraid it is unlikely to be this year.

Anyway, good luck with your scheme.

 

[JandP]

Hi we think this is a great idea we live in the south east and have just started caravaning again. We have bought a quite old 2 berth sprite caravan to see if we still love caravaning as much as we did when we had the kids with us... now they have all flown the nest.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

I think it's a great idea too. Neither of us are into the rallying scene, so something like this could be ideal, and as we live in East Anglia, it's not too far away. :O)

 

[Surfer]

UKcampsite do something similar in all the regions. They can be found at http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk. We not into rallying as the wife really hates it, but she loves going to the UKcampsite meets because everything is informal and you don't have to join in anything. On the last meet a couple of us went to the local pub for a few drinks and had a great time. Prior to that we were total strangers. in the evening someone orgainise a BBQ and people wandered over as and whn they felt like it. They also do a big meet once a year and at the last one there was in excess of 300 caravans and tents. Meets are definitely better than rallys. We live in the West Midlands so meeting up would be out for us. There is a meet coming up at Oakham in Rutland shortly.

 

[gypsy]

Hi Valerie, we live in the East Midlands and we tend to tour on our own, but we are a little older than you, we are sixty, so there are not many clubs for our age group, we too used to Rally but it changed so much over the years, it became very cliquie, and us older ones seemed to get pushed to one side. so we did't bother going anymore.

 

[gypsy]

Hi Valerie, we live in the East Midlands and we tend to tour on our own, but we are a little older than you, we are sixty, so there are not many clubs for our age group, we too used to Rally but it changed so much over the years, it became very cliquie, and us older ones seemed to get pushed to one side. so we did't bother going anymore.

Oakham is only 30mins drive for us.

 

[valerie_5112016]

I have just logged in again - and six couples have now responded one way or another - great !!!! I am slightly embarrassed to tell you all that, ironically, we have just returned with a mud splattered van from the National Rally at Tatton Park - we met up with 14 Link up friends so a good natured time was had by all but , still, we all did our own thing barring the Saturday night BBQ and my BIG BREAKFAST on Sunday - so that gives you an idea of the type of weekends we (don't ) organise.

We have nothing organised for June, then go to France (Loire) in July - anyone interested ? Val Williams

 

[valerie_5112016]

Hi ! It's val again - my letter is now in Caravan Life and so, with summer holidays, we are leaving the idea of Link up until towards the end of the summer and see how it develops. Last time we started, we began by all meeting in a pub on a Sunday and then took it from there as each had an idea for a CL e to come to everything - it is very fluid. Hope summer holidays are going well. Look forward to speaking to you all in late summer.

Val and Ian

 

[mav156]

hi,sounds great however iam only 37 and just become single so caravaning like you suggest would be a great way for me to make new friends,i also ilve in east midlands

 

[Lol1]

We are booked in for the PC readers rally (nearly called it a "meet", there...), but after that anything would be considered. I like the idea of meeting first to see how the land lies, I like the idea of meeting in a pub even more............

Shall we start naming prospective dates?

 

[lolly_5087162]

We are up for another "meet"

keep us posted!

Lolly x

 

[ginandtonic1988]

We are up for another "meet"

keep us posted!

Lolly x

What happens at rallyes? What the difference tween a rallye and a meet? Sorry but I'm new to all of this!!

 

[ginandtonic1988]

What happens at rallyes? What the difference tween a rallye and a meet? Sorry but I'm new to all of this!!