Caravans.

[krizon]

Shadow, most of us on here have a good rant about something at some time. But you seem to be in constant ill humour recently and your sour remarks about 'breeding' and not affording a stay in a hotel are bizarre, to put it mildly, in the context of caravanners. Who cares what type of holidays people take - a few weeks cruising at sea, a fun time at Butlin's or Disneyworld, walking, cycling, riding, skiing, going on a retreat, whatever they wish to enjoy, including caravanning - each to their own. Hotels are anathema to many people, especially those who've been forced to stay in them, frequently and lengthily, on business. So, strange as it must seem to you, some of us don't automatically associate a hotel room with unbridled joy.

I'd never realised that a stay in a hotel was mandatory in order for a holiday to be called a holiday, or that hotel guests were socially superior to the millions who prefer staying in tents, safari lodges, log cabins, chalets, self-catering apartments, rented villas, guest houses, motels, inns, or with friends or relatives. Do be sure to inform us when you're next taking a break, and your chosen method of accommodation, won't you?

 

[Grand Armee]

Glad you aren't travelling along the highways here in Australia Dom, since every man and his dog either owns a caravan, trailer or boat.

One of my best holidays was spent in a caravan. I have been to America, Fiji and Mexico, and stayed in various hotels, but I'd rate this as probably the best holiday. It was with my parents, brother and I at a beach up on the central coast, about 3 hours north of Sydney. We spent 2 weeks up there, sitting by the beach, fishing, swimming in the water, having campfires each night and roasting marshmallows under the warm Australian sky. Each night we'd bbq our fish that we had caught and the meat we had bought. It was tranquil staring at the stars and just taking in the serenity.

Actually funny we are talking about this, since my parents are down south this weekend about to buy a caravan!!!!

 

[Desert Orchid]

Originally posted by krizon@May 27 2007, 12:39 AM
some of us don't automatically associate a hotel room with unbridled joy.

The back seat of a Cortina did it for me norty

 

[ovverbruv]

 

[Griffin]

Originally posted by Desert Orchid+May 27 2007, 07:07 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Desert Orchid @ May 27 2007, 07:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-krizon@May 27 2007, 12:39 AM
some of us don't automatically associate a hotel room with unbridled joy.

The back seat of a Cortina did it for me norty [/b][/quote]
I hope that Cortina wasn't used to tow a caravan!

 

[rorydelargy]

Originally posted by Kathy+May 26 2007, 10:50 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Kathy @ May 26 2007, 10:50 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by Phil Waters@May 26 2007, 07:49 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-Kathy

@May 26 2007, 11:44 AM
I can afford to stay in probably any hotel in the world (for one night!)...

I own a hotel and the cost for one nights stay is £4,000,000,000.

Shall I book you in?

Yes, please. Could I have a single room please next to the lift shaft and no breakfast. :shy: [/b][/quote]
That would be extra Kathy

 

[Bar the Bull]

What a curious thread. Either Shadow is the creation of a brilliant satirist, or she needs to take a long, hard look at herself.

Unloveable.

 

[Songsheet]

One of the nicest hols I have had was on a cooking course in Apuglia. The most pleasant of a very nice set of guests was the founder of the Caravan Club and his wife (I'm not quite sure if that is the correct title but I believe it's the oldest and most popular of the caravanning clubs).

I am sorry, Dom, if I missed a golden opportunity to make your life better by not poisoning poor Donald but he was a charming gentlman who, I believe, did a lot to make caravanning popular and easy but also made a mint out so doing.

Good on him, I say!

 

[archie]

It's the usual thing about a minority (although, in this case, quite a significant sized one) giving the majority a bad name. The majority of caravanners coming to North Wales go along the A55 which is quite a reasonable dual carriageway and many poodle backwards and forwards without too much problem. Unfortunately there are a number of significant hills along the way and it's not uncommon to see one caravanner doing 60 in the outside lane overtaking another doing 58 in the inside lane. Ditto with HGVs on their way to Holyhead.
I live about a quarter of a mile from Barlows caravan site and my main complaint with caravanners is the way a number behave when they reach our green and pleasant land. The main offence is certainly letting dogs run off the lead even during lambing but littering, lousy pedestrianism and just plain rudeness like gazing through the front window are all a feature of the 'season'.

 

[Merlin the Magician]

I had to endure caravan holidays when my kids were young! As monies was @ a premium, I think that I had about 4 holidays GT YARMOUTH and CORNWALL a few times...Then chalets at various places MINEHEAD, DAWLISH WARREN, ISLE OF WIGHT, GT YARMOUTH,CORNWALL etc but one could only afford that type of holiday with three children so you had to live to your means......

But I stand by my original thread, that towed caravans need to travel @ night, then and only then, will you see an improvement in the hold ups that occur daily through out the summer months, speaking as a driving professional who earned a living travelling the roads of this country IN MY 54FT ARTIC tractor and trailer, 32- 44 tonnes...................... :angy: :rant:

 

[krizon]

Archie, I'm intrigued by 'lousy pedestrianism' - are they dull, boring folk with poor conversational skills, or are they pavement-clogging slowcoaches, fond of stopping dead in the middle of the walkway and gazing into the windows of stores they probably have at home? I'd respond to the window-gazing by peering through theirs - "just seeing what they're like inside" - and see how they like it! But to be fair, having lived in four popular seaside areas now, I know that one always gets pavements clogged by any tourists, regardless of their mode of transport or accommodation. Why, I believe that even those staying in the Sea View 'otel are known to stoop to window-shopping, along with the hoi-polloi, if not the riff-raff.

 

[Desert Orchid]

Originally posted by Merlin the Magician@May 27 2007, 07:07 PM
But I stand by my original thread, that towed caravans need to travel @ night,

I'd agree to that if HGVs were also restricted to travelling at night.

 

[Warbler]

It's developed into a funny old thread really hasn't it?

Initially I was prepared to give Dom a little bit of latitude and assume she was indulging in one of those slightly irrational rants that we all have from time to time. The sort of thing that you lace with slightly ridiclious over statements which add to the effect, and in doing so helps makes oneself look partly demented and endearingly unreasonable by way of compromise.

Since then though a rather insidious piece of slightly poisonous snobbery seems to have taken hold loaded as it is with 'broad brush' personal judgementalism, the derivation of which I wouldn't like to speculate on. At least Marie Antoinette offered the peasents cake!!! (well the town mob to be precise, as the French Revo was a largely Parisian affair rather than a French one).

A "Brilliant Satirist?"

I'm wondering whether she isn't in fact a closet Socialist whose postings are designed to spur marginal and apathetic ex-Labour voters (like myself) into re-engaging the ballot box, by re-surrecting the ghosts of conservatism past, and laying bare the naked truth and pervading attitudes that still fuel the party's engines and lie just below Cameron's facade?

I think in fairness to Dom, and the holiday making direction this has gone in. There is an inverted snobbery that works too, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't guilty of it periodically. The most enriching, rewarding and stimulating holidays I've had, have involved independent budget travel, which quite apart from saving money brings you much closer to the people and spirit of the country in question. Sure you have the odd experience!!! but this is a small price to pay for the sterility and thoroughly unenjoyable experience that the semi-detached existance of insulating yourself in a haven of expensive hotels and laid on packages provides. Sure I've used the odd expensive hotel when its been required for various reasons. Visa requirements (Cuba, China, Soviet Union) Hospitality package (Japan) or last resort emergency (Peru) but I'd prefer to go the cheaper more down to unearth route on 95% of occasions, which usually involves arriving somewhere in a morning, spending that morning hunting out and negotiating a price for a room, and then staying for so long as i chose before moving on to the next place I fancied.

 

[Aldaniti]

Not entirely sure where the "cheap" bit of caravanning came in? we just had to fork out 9k for a used van that is pretty "middle of the road" we could of stayed in a few hotels for that money but would not want to even if I was paid

 

[Diminuendo]

Originally posted by Merlin the Magician@May 27 2007, 08:07 PM
But I stand by my original thread, that towed caravans need to travel @ night, then and only then, will you see an improvement in the hold ups that occur daily through out the summer months, speaking as a driving professional who earned a living travelling the roads of this country IN MY 54FT ARTIC tractor and trailer, 32- 44 tonnes...................... :angy: :rant:

Absolute rubbish Merlin and you know it. Caravans do not block up the main roads anymore than HGV's, horseboxes, motorhomes, etc.
For those interested there has been more caravan activity than normal this year. The caravan club is celebrating 100 years of existance and so to celebrate there have been a large number of rallies organised, many this weekend.

 

[Merlin the Magician]

Originally posted by Desert Orchid+May 27 2007, 08:34 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Desert Orchid @ May 27 2007, 08:34 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Merlin the Magician@May 27 2007, 07:07 PM
But I stand by my original thread, that towed caravans need to travel @ night,

I'd agree to that if HGVs were also restricted to travelling at night. [/b][/quote]
D-O they do mate or have you not seen the night trunkers ie. Royal Mail plus a few thousand companies that run similar contracts TESCO, SAINSBURY'S ETC.

My firm ran 4 night trunks(so the tractor units were used day and night along with a variety of trailers) two to the midlands (car companies with castings) one to Exeter(covered Cornwall shipbuilders and housing, engineering companies) one to Amesbury(covered Southampton areas these were then picked up and distributed during the day and retuned empty so this went on for 5 nights of the week...........

 

[Muttley]

D-O they do mate or have you not seen the night trunkers ie. Royal Mail plus a few thousand companies that run similar contracts TESCO, SAINSBURY'S ETC.

That hardly constitutes HGVs being restricted to overnight driving, Merlin.

As it happens, I regularly get stuck behind Tescos lorries heading out of the Crick distribution centre on the A5, doing no more than 40 mph at peak times.

 

[krizon]

I've never found caravanners hogging the middle lane at 65 mph precisely, neither letting out left-laners or right-laners, as I have ordinary cars, old vans, and people towing those titty little garden trailers. I say live and let live, although I might, just might, have to consign them to Room 101 if they combine their caravan with an old Volvo! (The new ones, thank goodness, no longer look like biscuit tins and seem to be driven by people willing to move beyond 55.5 mph.)

 

[ovverbruv]

HGVs must travel in daylight times, or us shopkeepers would never get any break from our stores, as our deliveries would have to be taken in at 4am. It is unrealistic to ask for this to happen.

For all the people moaning about HGVs, caravans, horseboxes etc, is your journey really so important that you can't have some patience and tolerance?

 

[krizon]

It's a very impatient and intolerant country, o/b: if you stick to the 30 mph or 40mph restrictions in build-up areas around here, you've always got some turniphead up your jaxie, trying to shove you into going considerably faster. Once you're able to move over, off they blast - and then you're right behind them at the next set of red lights. Duh!

 

[Desert Orchid]

Ovverbruv, I was being entirely facetious. HGVs could never be restricted to nights therefore neither could caravans.

I agree that patience and tolerance are watchwords here. Lose either and you're more likely to end up in an accident.

 

[Kathy]

Many foreign vehicles use our roads by night and at the weekends, something our drivers are not allowed to do on many of our EEC's neighbours roads.

Here in the UK alot of deliveries are made during the night, especially for large companies like Marks and Spencers who cannot afford the downtime for deliveries during the day, and so allow many deliveries during the night so that the consumers can see all the new food on the shelves and the clothes on the racks when they arrive in the stores with very little disruption.

Many HGV drivers-many from the continent do not abide by the UK tacho laws and drivinbg restrictions and very often end up in ditches, drivingon the hard shoulder or worse killing and maiming innocent motorists. These are the drivers that should be targeted and taken off the roads. I understand the dreadful accident last August in Kent (?) that killed a family was caused by an English HGV driver who was over twice (or was it 3 times) over the legal alcohol limit. Not all HGV drivers are professional!

Many people may find caravanners slow, but on the whole, I bet they are some of the safest drivers on our roads.

Horseboxes (with good reason) probably drive slower than many caravans and are probably just as guilty as clogging up many a road, as do HGV's and tractors - although hopefully you rarely see a tractor on the motorway. Anyone, as far as I am concerned who pays their road fund licence is entitled to drive at a reasonable speed, any time, day or night on our roads in whatever vehicle they choose to drive.

Right, next question hands up who are members of The Caravan Club on here....

 

[Shadow Leader]

Constant ill humour, Jon?? Au contraire, my dear - it's the reverse! We even met up for a while recently during which you surely must have noticed what excellent humour I've been in! It tends to be when I'm in particularly good spirits that I am a little more, outspoken shall we say, and enjoy a little rant!

One or two observations -

Mounty - how are the dear bairns? All 11 behaving themselves? Hope you've got them all trained up to pick your pots for you, make the blighters earn their existence.....

Warbler - socialist, me????? :laughing: :clap:

Archie - that's pretty much my point (although you've put it better than me!!), it's the caravanners driving at 55mph in the middle lane to overtake those doing 53mph that snarl everything up.

When it comes to horseboxes and tractors, at least they serve a purpose ~ they are a necessary evil as they have to be on the roads. Caravans however need not be - they are merely a nuisance to everyone bar the person driving the Volvo towing it.

 

[Mounty]

Shadow, hater of caravan owners you might be but did you have to curse them with torrential rain for the bank holiday weekend - you evil witch

All 11 kids fine, well not really, they're out doing their paper rounds at the moment and it's pissing down. Eldest (13) is really annoyed as he has to help the four-year-old with hers.

 

[ovverbruv]

Originally posted by Shadow Leader@May 27 2007, 11:45 PM
When it comes to horseboxes and tractors, at least they serve a purpose ~ they are a necessary evil as they have to be on the roads.

I reject your premise Dom, Horseboxes do not have to be on the roads, owners of horses choose to transport them to places, they are not forced into it, the same as caravaners choose to go on holidy in a caravan. if you allow a concession for horseboxes your entire argument (silly as it is) disappears