Hooray for the Hillhead site!
For the benefit of those who have been living on the planet Zog, here's a brief resumé of the activities of the Caravan Club. The Club is the largest country-based touring organisation in Europe and represents the interests of more than 850,000 caravanners – a sizeable chunk of whom are motorcaravanners.
The Club has the biggest members-only site network
in Europe, and it manages many public-access sites on behalf of local authorities and commercial concerns. Add in a network of CLs – Certified Locations, which are places with permission to take up to five members' vans on their land/farm/pub garden – and one can see that they've pretty much got campsites covered. Only they haven't, not really.
Up to now, the Caravan Club has always assumed that its members wouldn't wish to visit a karaoke-and-chips-style, high-facility holiday park. Now they are not so sure, hence the purchase and subsequent redevelopment of Hillhead Holiday Park, close to Brixham in Devon.
My partner, Flora, and I were delighted to stay a few days, in our Auto-Sleeper Medallion. while attending the official opening of this campsite, which we reckon represents a change of tack for the Caravan Club.
Our verdict was that it was a good family site with a grand, happy-go-lucky atmosphere, smashing for children of all ages, and that it was a valuable addition to the Club's site portfolio.
Members' verdict? Well it is booked solid for the rest of the high season – so much for any worries over a lack of demand for this type of park.
I was concerned, though, to hear some fellow writers being unbelievably sniffy over this type of site. Surely there is room for all types of campsite and all types of camper?
20-20 vision
RDH Motorhome Hire and Sales at Beeston, near Nottingham, has been offering its potential customers a really useful package of 20 special offers for 20 weeks this summer, which adds value
to the firm's already well-received ranges of Chausson and Benimar motorhomes.
The '20-20' promotion had been named (you will not be surprised to learn) to celebrate RDH's 20th year in business.
As part of the celebrations, RDH held an open weekend recently during which customers past, present and future were invited to view
its full range of motorhomes while enjoying a drink or two and some tasty barbecued grub.
Add in a melodic live band and you can see why everyone appeared to be having a good time. And I mean everyone, including those with mobility problems. Why? Well, RDH has always had top-dollar disabled facilities on its sales site and previously offered a factory-fitted, wide-door conversion on some of its range of vehicles.
Now, the company has gone one stage further by commissioning a production coachbuilt motorhome, designed from scratch for easy living for those who use a wheelchair.
The Eurable (geddit?) features a wide-opening door, wheelchair lift, open-plan washroom and accessible kitchen. It is all put together by Benimar so it should be
a high-quality build of a thoughtful design.
Congratulations to RDH and Benimar on this worthwhile initiative. Not only that, my hamburger was tasty, too!
The score for my visit… why, 20-20 of course.
Cash consumer
In my August column (p51),
I referred to the fact that it
was time that Flora and I changed our motorcaravan 'Fenland Princess' for another. Although we haven't yet changed, I have been giving the matter some thought, especially in regard to the
old foldin'.
We are not great ones for fitting every motorcaravan gadget or gizmo known to mankind, though there are a few bits and pieces we consider essential. Furthermore, it is extremely likely that we will part-exchange a motorcaravan with all of these essentials on board, for one with few (or none) of them fitted. A sad state of affairs for somebody such as myself with deep pockets and short arms.
The exact list of approximate costs appears below, so I won't go into details. Instead I will cut to the chase: this fairly modest list of 'add-ons' comes to a mighty £1560 – a substantial chunk of our £30,000 budget for our next new-to-us motorcaravan. Food for thought, eh?…
Radical Rover
In response to my request for photographs of motorhomes that used to be something else in an earlier life, Richard and Maggie Petter sent in details of their motorcaravan.
They take up the story:
"We wanted something that could tow a horse box, cross muddy fields, wash down a horse after exertion, that was comfortable to sit in and effortless to drive, and had servo-assisted brakes."
So, they bought a Range Rover that had been converted to a motorcaravan with a bit more motor in it than most.
It started life in 1976 as an ambulance based in the
West Country and was a special order, built with an extended chassis.
It was decommissioned from the Devon Ambulance Service in 1984 and then converted to a motorcaravan using fittings from a yacht chandler. It's a two-berth conversion with space heating, hob and grill, fridge, Porta Potti, sink and exterior shower."
Now for what Peter and Maggie called "the interesting stuff". It still has the original V8 engine which produces 135bhp @ 5000rpm, and 185 lb/ft torque @ 2500rpm. It has a kerbweight of 2 ton 12cwt, suspension which has been uprated with gas shocks, and new rear springs which give a 2in lift to the back end (and which has seriously improved the handling). Fuel economy
is 17.5mpg (minimum).
Thanks very much to Peter and Maggie for sharing this special van with us. Remember, if you've owned or know of a motorcaravan that used to be 'something else' in another life, please send me some photos and a few details.
At home with the Bancrofts...
...keeping up to date with the family's trials and tribulations.
Update 1. Regular readers may recall that I recently had a whinge about the frequency with which the front brake pads and discs needed replacement on our VW
LT-based 'Fenland Princess', and also over the VW van and independent brake specialists' inability/reluctance to help.
Well, my spanner man has solved it now, no thanks to the franchised guys and gals. Uneven wear was being caused by distortion of the calliper slides (also known
as 'bolts' or 'retaining pins'). To be on the safe side, inspect these every other time the front pads are replaced.
We think this applies only to 1997-1998 LT 35s.
Update 2. Earlier in the year our daughter and heir had her ancient Ford Escort TWOC'ed (taken without owner's consent) and trashed. Despite having firm evidence from individual independent witnesses regarding the identity of the perpetrators, the local plod didn't have the resources to follow the matter up… (so that's alright then).
Furthermore, the insurance company failed to pay out because after the first attack, during which most of the windows were smashed, we didn't immediately have the vehicle re-glazed and so (the company claims) "contributed" to its theft just 12 hours later.
In my defence, I had covered it with a tarpaulin and it is difficult to justify spending so much on a vehicle that was already a total loss. The insurance company was informed immediately the initial damage had been done. The company took two weeks to return our phone call by which time, of course, it was too late. I'd take the matter to the insurance ombudsman if
I wasn't too busy having a nervous breakdown.
WiFi? Why not?
As somebody who is still in the slow lane of the 'information highway' I have only just learnt what WiFi is all about. Apparently, it stands for 'Wireless Fidelity'.
Let me try and explain the importance of this to Practical Motorhome readers. If we stay in our motorcaravans on the Maustin Caravan Park at Kearby, near Wetherby in Yorkshire, it will now be possible to use a wireless-enabled laptop computer in your motorhome to pick up emails and to access the internet. So, there's no need
to traipse over to the site's technology suite in its restaurant, or for any connecting wires. If not the first, then this is one of the first sites so equipped.
The Yorkshire Tourist Board reports that the caravan park's guests are already making use of this new facility, so I have deduced that the owners are ahead of the game and not at all off-course.
I thought WiFi would be used mostly by people enjoying a working holiday, but it appears that it is very popular with holidaymakers who wish to send personal messages, and find information about routes, weather and what's on in a particular area.
To me, the most important feature on both my mobile phone and my computer is the 'off' button, so us Luddites shall continue to enjoy the other first-class facilities on this family-run site which nestles in the heart of Emmerdale country. And Maustin Caravan Park is not just hot
on technology, either,
it also takes environ-mental issues seriously and so has been given
a David Bellamy Gold Award for Conservation. Indeed, Red Kites released into the wild from Harewood Bird Garden can be seen here.
Is everything shipshape?
As a major shareholder in The Peninsula and Oriental Shipping Company (P&O), I was particularly pleased to have received a copy of its report entitled People, Environment and Community 2004.
The report does have a slight air of 'the minutes of the AGM of the mutual admiration society' about it, but having said that, it is in my opinion an honourable attempt at a 'green' audit.
P&O obviously takes its responsibilities seriously: setting targets to lower the impact on the environment of running a major transport system, improving re-cycling, and lowering the consumption of fossil fuels and other natural resources.
According to the report,
the company has met or exceeded the overwhelming majority of its targets, analysed what it has achieved, made adjustments in the light of experience and set itself even more targets.
As P&O inhabits the real world, I doubt that everything the company does always
has a positive effect on sustainable development and that it is always socially responsible, but nevertheless
it has shown, firstly, its commitment to being a socially responsible operator and, secondly, it has measured its progress in an objective way.
Incidentally, I lied earlier: I'm not a major shareholder, though I do have 1000 units of the company's concessionary stock, and very useful they've been, too, over the years!
Happy motorcaravanning!
Gentleman Jack Bancroft |
