On Monday 30th March I trundled the Beast down the road to Queensburgh Caravan Park, motorbike and all. I unhitched and started to play with my giant radio controlled toy driving it back and forth with the attached "movers" until I heard a bang and the front end sagged. Obviously hadn't tightened the jockey wheel shaft enough and now my van is praying to Allah. No worries I'll jack it up using the front stabilizers, yeah well exactly 90 seconds later I bathed in sweat as the beast is a bitch to lift. Just got that sorted when I hit another snag. The soil on the site was soft in one section and the jockey wheel ploughed a huge furrow before bringing everything to a grinding halt. Fortunately the owner, Pieter, came by and said he'd round up some labour to help. It took four of them to lift it enough to allow me to drive the thing snug up to a wall so that the tent would be on the site and not in the road. Once they had all departed and I'd had a shower to cool off, I decided to try putting up the awning. What I had forgotten is that the poles are stored across the front of the van in a locker..............which was now so close to the wall I couldn't get the sodding things out. I slept on it! Actually it was my second night in the van the first being on Sunday in the Turners garden where I was storing the thing. The shower has now become the store-room but it is nice to have somewhere close at hand to empty the bladder at night.
The following day I told Pieter the sad story and though he frowned a lot said he would be round after lunch. As they'd had previous practice it only took one move to get it where the poles could be extracted and I soon had Pieter giving me a lesson on how to put the awning up............I didn't have the heart to tell him I owned a van for 5 years in a previous life. So now it's time to try and remember where I stowed everything when I moved in. Have a TV and PVR which is still loaded with recordings from months back so have something to watch but am waiting for the Easter rush to have a snoop and see which is the best satellite set-up. Will be here for another week then it's off to the coast somewhere - still wondering whether to go north or south. I was afraid the this outfit would be a lot of PT and it is proving to be just that so will probably drop anchor for a month in the next spot. I do still think that a camper would be a better idea but it is not as flexible. Not in any hurry though.
