I've never had a caravan before but I have always thought that I saw the attraction of hitching up and following a map to a destination, planned or random, setting up and settling down for a few days to enjoy the splendid scenery of this island of ours. By and large your timetable is your own, and that probably is what makes caravanning so relaxing as a holiday choice. I suspect.

I say that I suspect this is so because I haven't actually been anywhere yet! I searched for and bought our little trundling palace near Edinburgh and hitched it up to bring it home. My inspection of same was cursory and it didn't help that I had no-one with me to offer advice. I rattled a few panels and everything sounded solid enough. Outside was a little rough, but I considered this nothing that a little TLC wouldn't fix. The inside is very nice and homely. Roomy enough and with nice fixtures. Everything is there, hob, grill, oven, toilet, shower, water heater, fridge, gas heater...so hitch up and tow home. Maybe I should have taken it as an omen when my old Xantia died on me ten miles into the homeward journey with new caravan! Thank my lucky stars that I was with AA relay and a very nice man took us home. The Xantias problem was terminal by the way!

Wifey was delighted with her new holiday home and set to work making it sparkle. All the nooks and crannies were cleaned out and soapy water liberally applied to everything. It looked really well after all that attention. Looked really well until I started to pay attention to the nooks and crannies........turns out I bought a fixer-upper opportunity. Heres my story...