Bailey unicorn III Seville

We have just bought a caravan. A slight surprise as we always thought we were 'campervan' types and that was our retirement dream. But, after careful reflection, we decided a caravan would be best for us and the type of travel we want to do. Of course, my dreams of towing Arwen behind the van to far flung destinations just took a major hit but life is full of compromises and I can still take Arwen to these places and merely camp on board her instead. It will of course, be without 'her-indoors'. She loves the outdoors but doesn't do tents, all the result of a promise made which failed to live up to its intentions......I promised the Vendee in France would be wall to wall sunshine with great beaches and pine forests in August. So we went camping. It turned out to be wall to wall rain, gales and floods. And around 4" of water around the tent. Don't ask about inside!  She forgave me but she has never been in a tent since. That was some 15 years ago.  Yet she has slummed it in some horrendous backpacking hostels and lodges across Central America since then with a smile and good will.........go figure.

Our reasons for getting a caravan are simple really. We tend to base ourselves for a week at a time at different places before we move on. We like to get under the skin of a place. There is nothing wrong with a camper and, in fact if someone offered me a free VW camper van, I'd bite their hand off. The issue is we saw so many campervans, large and small, get themselves stuck in Sicily; or restricted on where they could do in Cornwall and Pembrokeshire. We felt every time you wanted to go somewhere you'd have to sort the van before leaving. Yes we could tow a car behind and carry bikes but we came to the view that we liked the flexibility of having a 4 x 4 car, the bigger space interior of the van and awning etc etc. To each their own I guess.

We do plan on towing the van down to the Falmouth area next early summer and then popping back up for Arwen and basing ourselves down there for a fortnight or so sailing the helford etc. Her- indoors is up for that.

Caravanning is so new to us and there has been so much to take on board, from storage sites to insurance, from motor movers toAlko safety features......mind boggling stuff but it has kept me busy in my first week of retirement.

I will blog more about our caravan experiences as we embark upon this new adventure. It won't overshadow adventures in Arwen but I probably will start a new blog about our travels, caravanning, etc on a new site and keep this one just for adventures with Arwen and my wood working projects. I'm rather attached to this blog. It has been going a long time and although I doubt there is much of substance on it, it has been my online diary of my sailing adventures in a boat 'wot I made' for many years. It, along with the YouTube channel have huge sentimental value.

For the record, the caravan is a Bailey Unicorn III Seville model, spacious, tasteful (as her-indoors likes to point out) and about as big as we can tow on our car. Our car was called 'Zebedee'. So there was only one name for the caravan and no it wasn't 'Brian'. We felt our caravan was a 'Florence', 'Florrie' for short.

Ah the good old days of the BBC. They don't make them like that any more. How sad.