Caravanning for beginners – Top 5 things NOT to do when you’re getting started
We’d both been campers when we met, one of us favouring good weather conditions and group camping where others helped with the heavy lifting – the other having had their heart set on a caravan at some point in their future.
Never a pair to be accused of rushing decisions, 12 years later, there he was – our Safari Swift ‘Dave’ joined the family, and though I’m reluctant to throw in this old cliché – we’re never happier than when we’re away in our home on wheels.
That said, it’s not the easiest of endeavours when you’re just getting started, and there’s a reason that caravan sites have traditionally been the stomping ground of the retired. It pays to have time on your side as there is so much you need to learn and do for and on your trips, but once you get into the swing of things, it’s a fantastic way of seeing the country and beyond, or even just seeing more of your local area. It’s amazing what you find when you just look in a slightly different direction.
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But, it’s easy (and likely) that things may go wrong when you’re just starting out. We’ve had some fairly substantial hiccups along the way, so here’s a good old Girl About Top Five things NOT to do when you’re off in your beloved van.
- Don’t be a bull in a china shop. Caravan furniture is a bit flimsy. You can’t go around shutting cupboard doors with the same gusto you would in your kitchen at home. Everything is slightly more delicate – and incredibly hard to replace.
You certainly don’t want to accidentally stand on an opened bottom cupboard door, because it will come off its hinges and cost several hundreds of pounds, several hours browsing caravan parts websites, and the employment of a caravan servicer who had never seen anything like it…as in, “She’s made a right bloody mess of that hasn’t she?”
My advice – treat everything gently and cautiously, it’s a pain to fix and doesn’t half put a dampener on a 50th birthday weekend when you’re the one that’s broken it…
- Always check the cartridge. It’s likely that once you get into your groove, you’ll establish jobs for all the family that help to ensure that everything gets done quickly and you keep on top of the elements of camp life with minimal disruption to your break.
For us, that loosely means that I meal plan and food shop, buy and get everything ready to load into the van, plan the itinerary whilst we’re away, and try not to break things. Chris does everything else.
One of the jobs that can put people off van life is having to change your own toilet, and yes, it’s not the best. Your toilet looks like a normal one inside, but everything goes into a removable cartridge that you access from the outer side of the van and empty into a designated disposal area on the site.
As you can imagine, there is some scope for this to go wrong. If for example, someone went to the toilet when the toilet cartridge wasn’t in, what would happen is everything would end up pouring into an empty hole in the side of the van, which for some reason is also where some of the electrical wiring is.
This then leads to someone having to wipe and clean it all out by hand, whilst hoping nothing has been permanently damaged. Pretty grim, yes.
My advice – always loudly communicate when you’re off to change the toilet cartridge, and always listen to others, especially when you’ve had two GnTs. Because believe me, that’s the last thing you want to be doing after a drink…
- Travel light, and travel well. If you’re anything like us, outfit choice and variety slims down significantly when we’re away. Your van will likely have a couple of areas that you can hang clothing in depending on the model, your shower usually has a rail that doubles up for clothes, and we also have a cupboard that has hanging space.
Don’t make the mistake of doing a long journey with clothes hanging in the shower, we found that movement inside the van led to the hangers marking the shower wall – like I say, they’re flimsy old things really.
My advice – if it needs to be hung up, I probably wouldn’t bring it. When you’re on the campsite your clothes should be planned for warmth, comfort and how easily you can get them on in a communal shower block. Think dry robes, not ball gowns!
- Toilet before travel. If you’re travelling with kids, you’ll know that their toilet cues are slightly different to that of us grown-ups. No matter how many times you ask them, they’ll usually need to go just as you’ve left a beautiful service station.
Well, when you’re in a caravan you can’t just quickly whizz the car into a turning, jump out for a wild wee and then throw a three point turn and hit the road. Not least because you’ve usually got a queue of irritated people snaking along behind you at 50mph.
Unfortunately toilet stops need to be planned more carefully, especially if you’re travelling overnight. Many service stations don’t have dedicated caravan parking, and instead you park up in the lorry park, so always best to plan ahead for where would be more caravan friendly on the route you’re taking.
Though, where kids are concerned, we know that’s just wishful thinking. If you’re anything like us, you’ll still find yourself crouching behind a car door at the side of the A30 in Cornwall whilst your child does the biggest poo you’ve ever seen, having screeched into the first layby you found that looked long enough for the van… even though no one needed anything at the services you’d just left.
My advice – Plan, plan, and then plan for when the plan goes out of the window.
- No red wine in the van please. It’s just not worth it team! Having knocked a full glass of white off the table, down the front cupboard and into the curtain runners and seeing the mayhem that caused, I can confirm that the only saving grace was that at least it wasn’t red.
The average caravan is less than 20m squared, and you’re living and sleeping in that space. That’s going to be a much better experience if it doesn’t smell like wine.
Trust me, you’ll thank me for this advice…
If you’ve found this helpful and would like more tips and tricks for caravanning for beginners, let me know what you’d like to know more about. If it’s possible for it to happen, the chances are it’s happened to us! @girl.about.lancahire
Happy camping!
