Marking your territory

[LizziePope]

How do you mark your pitch? Practical Caravan columnist Martin Roberts takes a light-hearted look at the matter in his latest blog. Just click here.

 

[Gafferbill]

How do you mark your pitch? .

I don't......no awning........no windbreaks.....zilch

Some people take liberties if you let them........I can usually persuade them not to
Once had a couple think they were going to pitch their tent 4 feet from my caravan doorstep in a vast empty area without marked pitches hmy:

 

[emmerson]

Sadly Lizzie, what MR describes appears to be the way touring is going today,but not QUITE so aggressive! Windbreaks all round the pitch,satelite dish up and all blinds down tells me "this is mine, keep off".Having been caravanning now for close on fifty years I can remember evenings when half the site would sit around outside, chatting to whoever happened to walk past, but this cannot happen now, because nobody appears to sit outside, or if they do, its behind the windbreak, so they can't be seen.What used to be a wonderful social hobby is now becoming isolationist, I'm afraid,and that is part of the reason why Herself and I are thinking of winding the legs for the last time next year.

 

[Raywood]

I think the problem often arises because people cut across your pitch often only inches away from your window so people feel the need to defend themselves. We are generally sociable, so do not use windbreaks, although we have one, but do try to get pitches backing on to a hedge or fence to stop people walking over the pitch.
There are some people who do want to keep themselves to themselves and as long as they do not bother us then we are happy to let them be, it is there right to choose how they want to live.

 

[Martin24]

Difficult one. People do seem to be generally less pleasant than they were which is why we stick mainly to CL's and CS's where people seem a little more friendly. Still a lot of blind shutting going on though. Okay so we are to many a worst nightmare when we pull up. Three children, three dogs and the cripple as well. We do pop the windbreak up around the dowg pen but that is to greatly reduce barking opportunities and make a much more pleasant environment for everyone. We also use another windbreak around the cadac as necessary.

 

[Dustydog]

Some very good friends always put up a barricade of somewhat expensive windbreaks around their pitch.
Two reasons:
1. Keep the dogs safe from wandering.
2.Allegedly topless sun bathing. Never seen it myself.
Are these people less sociable? NO.
Do I use these breaks.NO.
I like to feel free. A lead checks the dogs and SWMBO IS shy :blink:
It really doesn't matter.

 

[Mel]

Surely, we are all free to enjoy caravanning as we want to. What is the problem with wanting privacy and marking out your pitch. Who decreed that we all have to be sociable and talk to our neighbours. Each to their own, live and let live, etc. I like to chat to others but if I clearly want to say " b#gg#r off and leave me alone," isn't that up to me.
Mel

 

[SueF]

My husband uses solar powered lights round the very edges of our unit, especially if we have our son in a pup tent outside. This is supposed to serve two purposes. One to remind us where we are (not that we forget particularly) and two to remind people at night where the pup tent is (and awning guys) so that people do not fall over them. Other than that we do not mark our territory at all.

 

[Parksy]

I rarely bother with windbreaks unless there is a chance of somebody stumbling into our porch awning guy ropes or tripping over the grey waste container on dark nights which has happened now and again.
I would never use them to mark my territory for the simple reason that I enjoy meeting different people from various walks of life and I've enjoyed some great conversations at times.
I can understand why some caravanners use windbreaks for the benefit of pets or children. Each to their own if they want to use windbreaks it's fine by me.

 

[GrahamE]

Solar lights for us, either by the guy ropes on the awning if used or along the EHU lead if it runs along way to the post. (colour changing bubble ones at that).

 

[Gagakev]

Is this bloke for real?????

One of his blogs says he uses a PETROL can to fill his toilet cassette.

The next he wants to ban mobile phones on site's.

This one he's on about picket fences, trenches, electric fences etc etc.

Will his next blog be .....AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PlumbersWife]

We usually only put up porch awning for weekend trips and only take wind break for longer trips for sunny days for a quite read. Or I will sit outside of the wind break with drinks and biscuits and chat to one and all.

 

[Keefanmaxx]

Mrs Keith and I are still relatively new to caravanning, and we do wonder why people arrive and erect a coral of windbreaks. We put the awning up, which is where we usually sit in the nicer weather or on the grass of the pitch if there is some.
We do have a windbreak, but that's just to provide some shelter if we're cooking on the Cadac. :cheer:

 

[RayS]

When I first started this hobby / way of life / obsession awnings were rare and windbreaks virtually unknown. As were sat. dishes in caravan TV ipads and all the rest, including package holidays to the sun.

Since then - perhaps influenced by some of our Continental cousins (think towels on sunloungers) we have all become much more territorial. This plus some change in the standards which were rigorously applied when I was 8 rather than 80 in the way children behaved in public, have led to the current situation of defining boundaries.

So our use of formal big sites has gone from usual to only-if-we must and the CC website is searched for CLs with EHU and adults only as the criteria.

Europe is a different matter, and being retired we can avoid the most popular sites ad school holidays. In Spain, perforce, it has to be the coastal sites for winter and spring, but we find the population to be much of the same age and opinion as we are so harmony reigns. Autumn in France we use mainly camping a la ferme and enjoy tranquillity and the company of like minded folks of various nationalities.

Before I get blasted as a sad old git well out of touch with reality, please remember the great virture of our hobby is that it allows and provides for a wide variety of interests, prejudices and people and that is why we all stay with it.

 

[pensioner]

The only territory marking we do is to put a solar powered light alongside each of the large metal stakes that the awning storm straps are secured to, as catching a foot on one of those at night could be very painful.

 

[saint-spoon]

We visit the New forest quite a lot, the sites which have the ponies roaming free. As there are no fixed pitches for most of the sites and there are animals roaming free it is advisable to use wind breaks to make some semblance of a home range and to keep the animals out. Saying that up until this autumn we were campers and tenting in such an environment is obviously different to caravanning. I must say that on the whole I have yet to witness the whole windbreak demarcation thing on a fixed pitch site, I have got several wind breaks and will use them as required but that is not out of a need to block out the world but out of necessity such as cooking on the cadac and so on (I used my fishing umbrella on our last trip for this purpose).