We bought a 2005 Island Star Caravan about a month ago. The back story is that my husband Ian has this dream to travel around Australia before he gets too old to do it. I’m on the other hand not ready to retire, so the compromise was to buy a caravan and do some short trips to see how we fair, more importantly can we travel and live in such close proximity to each other.
This our maiden trip: I booked a long weekend away to the Twin Waters Caravan Park – Mandurah: I had already cleaned and packed what I thought we required in the van, for example kitchen equipment enough for 4 people, you always must have a couple of spares. Ian had sourced the electric extension cords etc so we are set to go it must have taken us an hour to hitch the van up to the car plus and minus a few squabbles about the order in which things were done and finally we set off, I must say we were both very excited. Ian’s new extension side mirrors were working well and had not blown off as we had been told could happen – although I do think they need to be extended out further.
We arrived at the Caravan Park, were allocated our spot and then came the reversing into the space. It felt like trying to squeeze and elephant into a matchbox. Ian did well, he’s really good at reversing such a big vehicle finally it was in place – now to prepare everything: we have a ‘lift mate’, its like a jack that lifts the caravan so it makes life easy, Ian set this up and I let down the leg supports to hold the van, the back ones were fine they reached the ground level, however the front ones could not they slipped forward and could not hold the weight of the van – I told Ian that the front legs don’t support the van – he nodded. I continued to open up the van and explore all the windows and vents, when to my shock I heard a loud bag and the van falls down – a man came running across to see if anyone was hurt – when I go to the front of the van – I see Ian had let the Jack down, needless to say the van then collapses – he looks amazed as if to say “what is all the fuss” – he then realised that the front legs weren’t holding the van – to which starts our first mumbled argument in the caravan park – because we didn’t want people to hear us argue – I said “how could you be so stupid, leave the Jack attached” no someone might steal it – really!!!! And so, it went. The Jack is still in place. After that all seemed to go relatively well – we put up the awning only to find we were missing a couple of hooks, never-the-less Ian made it work. We sat down to our first drink – wow we made it and only one argument.
Not long after a group of 4 younger people pulled up to set up camp next to us – we thought oh no, noise all night, the boys were in their early twenties and the girls had school uniforms on, so maybe year 12 I’m guessing. Out of the boot comes the tent, the chairs and the eskies – about 10 mins in the fighting was on for young and old – ‘no it goes this way’, ‘no this way’ – for fucks sake I’m going if you don’t stop telling me which way it goes’– ‘you’ve got it back to front, the door goes this way’ says one of the girls, the boy says ‘what does it matter’! I laughed and said, “I’m so pleased to see and hear you arguing, it makes setting up all normal when you argue” they laughed, and I think they tried not to argue as much – I was pleased when their tent was up – at least no one went home. It made me realise everyone argues….. this is normality when setting up camp.
We were tired so when it came to dinner, I decided that fresh bread rolls, cold meat and salad with a jam buttie for desert – way to go camping. We finished off the night playing Qwirkle and then went to bed.
Saturday was a rest day – I always finding sleeping away difficult on the first night, there is nothing like your own bed – the caravan bed was not too bad, I did feel slightly claustrophobic, therefore left the windows slightly open so we could feel the breeze throughout the night – breakfast was a treat, we used our new Coleman mini grill – bacon, eggs, sausage and grilled tomatoes – alas I forgot a kettle and toaster – so out came the billy, it took ages to boil, but finally we got our cuppa.
We went out in the afternoon, first to Yalgorup National Park – some of the wildflowers were beautiful – we also visited the Thrombolites a rock-like microorganism formations, at lake Clifton – they look like alien eggs – huge alien eggs ready to hatch…… finished of the afternoon with a beer at Cape Bouvard…… it was back to the van for a quiet evening another game of Quirkle and then bed – we were up with the birds, cuppa and toast for breakie and then drive home …. Packing up the caravan was equally as stressful as the awning got stuck, it’s funny how quickly you forget how to do something you did a few days before -a few passer-by’s came and helped us, a very friendly bunch of people – they said practice makes perfect… and so endth our first caravan trip…..the deal was that the driving was a 50 / 50 agreement, I was driving home much to Ian’s dislike, but i am determined to be able to handle the vehicle if I need to, again practice makes perfect. I must say it did feel heavy pulling the caravan but I did it – too soon for learning how to reverse the beast need a bit more time before I tackle that one – hopefully our next trip will be in 4 weeks until then…. Ciao P
Reflecting on life! 