Your first caravan holiday
- Thread starter LizziePope
- Start date
- Nov 11, 2009
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Love to respond but the old 35mm Agfa slides are in boxes in the loft. But the first trip was to Shell Island near Harlech in 1970 when we were students. I had a Humber Hawk and its been downhill ever since!
No photos either i'm sorry to say.
Summer 1967 Sprite Alpine + Ford Cortina GT Mk 1
Repton, Derbyshire to northwest Scotland - Ullapool, Alnahara etc. No fridge, no double glazing, bucket and chuck it type loo, open flame gas fire BUT good weather, plenty of safe places for the odd night wild camping, grass growing up the centre of A roads, luckily took a couple of petrol cans, used something call Tiger Coils to fight off the midges (midges 1 Ray 0).
Wonderfully comfortable and dry after years of basic tent camping over the same area.
Summer 1967 Sprite Alpine + Ford Cortina GT Mk 1
Repton, Derbyshire to northwest Scotland - Ullapool, Alnahara etc. No fridge, no double glazing, bucket and chuck it type loo, open flame gas fire BUT good weather, plenty of safe places for the odd night wild camping, grass growing up the centre of A roads, luckily took a couple of petrol cans, used something call Tiger Coils to fight off the midges (midges 1 Ray 0).
Wonderfully comfortable and dry after years of basic tent camping over the same area.
Unfortunately we also have no photos, but I can remember it as if it was yesterday!
Brand new ABI Monza, 12', 4 berth, no fire, water pump on floor, gas lights and a 12v battery my dad lashed together, thin sleeping bags, 2 burner hob and grill, porta-potti - that was it!
Off to Mark from Leicester, stayed in an empty field with no facilities except water and chem disp. It was late March (Easter) beautiful but SO cold. I was 11 and my brother was 8...
I've been hooked ever since!
Brand new ABI Monza, 12', 4 berth, no fire, water pump on floor, gas lights and a 12v battery my dad lashed together, thin sleeping bags, 2 burner hob and grill, porta-potti - that was it!
Off to Mark from Leicester, stayed in an empty field with no facilities except water and chem disp. It was late March (Easter) beautiful but SO cold. I was 11 and my brother was 8...
I've been hooked ever since!
Loch Rannoch, Perthshire - many moons ago in a Mustang Stallion. Foot pump in the floor for water, Solid glass windows that misted up and had to be wiped every morning, gas lamps, porta-potti for the loo, bucket outside for waste water - they were the days!
Photo's long faded, curled up at the edges and in the loft somewhere.
Photo's long faded, curled up at the edges and in the loft somewhere.
Happy New Year all! Thank you for sending these in. I'd love to use them in the magazine. Would that be OK?
Parksy
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- Nov 12, 2009
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The same caravan with the same saggy Salou porch awning at a site near Pershore, Worcs. The caravan was our first, an Eccles Topaz which was bone dry and well looked after when we bought it a few weeks before this picture of us making another classic beginners mistake by pitching directly under a tree.
Parksy
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- Nov 12, 2009
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Knowing the forumites I'm taking the risk of much ribald comment but here goes....
On our favourite Welsh beach at Tre-Saith, just down the road from there the first picture was taken at Aberporth.
Carole is obviously doing her best to hold my stomach in
On our favourite Welsh beach at Tre-Saith, just down the road from there the first picture was taken at Aberporth.
Carole is obviously doing her best to hold my stomach in
Some great snaps there, thank you very much for sending them. Let's hope that encourages more people to join in.
Hairstyle hasn't changed then Parksy??Parksy said:Happy New Year to all at Practical Caravan. This is from an early trip to Aberporth, Ceredigion. Note the saggy porch awning
Our first caravan trip in 1965 when I was a kid was a round trip of over 5000 miles in 3 weeks. We travelled from Cape Town to Bulawayo, then up to the Victoria Falls, back to Bulawayo and the onto Salisbury (Now Harare) and then back to Cape Town. The caravan was a CI caravan and had no hot water and only gas lamps. The fridge worked on gas and had a tiny freezer. We were two adults and two kids in the caravan.
My second trip in a caravan in 1971 involved me towing a caravan for the first time from Salisbury to a spot in the bush north west of Bulawayo. The nearest town was about 60 miles away. I think it was a Gypsy caravan caravan also with no hot water and with gas lamps and a tiny fridge. We made our own road through the bush and camped by a river which was dry at that time of the year. We were three adults and I slept in the awning.
There were some pools of water in the river and you could see the game drinking from them. One night I woke up and found myself staring a leopard in the face. I shooed it away and surprisingly it left the awning area. The awning was not closed up due to the heat.
Our toilet was the nearest tree and you dug a hole then covered it up, however one of the other guys thought he would do his business over what appeared to be a deserted antbear hole. Unfortunately it was still occupied and the antbear shot out hitting him on the bum and knocking him over. We heard the shriek from him as the antbear hit him, but this was soon replaced by howls of laughter from us as we realised what had happened.
One night for some fun when it was dark we went to the otherside of our employees camp fire and switched on a tape recorder that played a lion growling. Unfortunately it backfired on us somewhat as they all shot into the caravan leaving us outside. However after demonstrating to them it was a tape recorder we eventually persuaded them to vacate the caraven. It must be remembered that at that time portable tape recorders were virtually unheard of which is why initially they thought it wa some sort of witchcraft and a lion would jump out of the tape recorder.
My next trip was in about 1987 down the south coast of Natal to Margate with a fold up caravan with 3 kids and the wife, but that is another story. LOL!
My second trip in a caravan in 1971 involved me towing a caravan for the first time from Salisbury to a spot in the bush north west of Bulawayo. The nearest town was about 60 miles away. I think it was a Gypsy caravan caravan also with no hot water and with gas lamps and a tiny fridge. We made our own road through the bush and camped by a river which was dry at that time of the year. We were three adults and I slept in the awning.
There were some pools of water in the river and you could see the game drinking from them. One night I woke up and found myself staring a leopard in the face. I shooed it away and surprisingly it left the awning area. The awning was not closed up due to the heat.
Our toilet was the nearest tree and you dug a hole then covered it up, however one of the other guys thought he would do his business over what appeared to be a deserted antbear hole. Unfortunately it was still occupied and the antbear shot out hitting him on the bum and knocking him over. We heard the shriek from him as the antbear hit him, but this was soon replaced by howls of laughter from us as we realised what had happened.
One night for some fun when it was dark we went to the otherside of our employees camp fire and switched on a tape recorder that played a lion growling. Unfortunately it backfired on us somewhat as they all shot into the caravan leaving us outside. However after demonstrating to them it was a tape recorder we eventually persuaded them to vacate the caraven. It must be remembered that at that time portable tape recorders were virtually unheard of which is why initially they thought it wa some sort of witchcraft and a lion would jump out of the tape recorder.
My next trip was in about 1987 down the south coast of Natal to Margate with a fold up caravan with 3 kids and the wife, but that is another story. LOL!
and still she can't get her fingers to meet!!!!! only joking Parksy, as i keep telling the otherhalf... more to cuddleParksy said:Knowing the forumites I'm taking the risk of much ribald comment but here goes....
On our favourite Welsh beach at Tre-Saith, just down the road from there the first picture was taken at Aberporth.
Carole is obviously doing her best to hold my stomach in
Our first caravan trip.. now there’s a story.
It was for my birthday in 1980 that I had a gift certificate for a garden centre. We lived near Cardiff so went for a ride on a bank holiday to Raglan Garden Centre to find it closed so on the return home saw a caravan salesroom, near Abergavenny and stopped and the rest is history. We came away having bought a CI Sprint. 4 berth with bunks for the kids.
No running water, porta potti, no oven just 2 burner gas hob, glass windows and no main electrics, just an extension lead from caravan to car.
Our first trip was to a rally at Donnington with our local Red Dragon Caravan Club.
Photo’s attached.
Our first holiday was then up to Blackpool, slept in a layby on the way up. Sorry no photo’s of that trip.
It was for my birthday in 1980 that I had a gift certificate for a garden centre. We lived near Cardiff so went for a ride on a bank holiday to Raglan Garden Centre to find it closed so on the return home saw a caravan salesroom, near Abergavenny and stopped and the rest is history. We came away having bought a CI Sprint. 4 berth with bunks for the kids.
No running water, porta potti, no oven just 2 burner gas hob, glass windows and no main electrics, just an extension lead from caravan to car.
Our first trip was to a rally at Donnington with our local Red Dragon Caravan Club.
Photo’s attached.
Our first holiday was then up to Blackpool, slept in a layby on the way up. Sorry no photo’s of that trip.
Parksy
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- Nov 12, 2009
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Thanks for adding the lovely pictures Peteden.
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Top Tip: Please don't use Microsoft Word to pre-edit your forum posts, for various reasons modern software sometimes has problems with the hidden coding used by MS Word and your posts may fail to occasionally load to the message board.
Notepad is ok for text pre editing or you could click 'Preview' in order to check your content before submitting it via the 'Save' button
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