Rising prices

I don't know what the Caravan Club are up to with their pitch prices. Last year I spent a couple of summer weekends on the economy (non-electric) pitch at Clachan for £3 less per night than a pitch with a hookup. It was not worth doing in cold weather as I reckon even in summer without the gas fire on I was using about £2 per night in gas however in July and August it was fine and I was planning to do the same this summer. Unfortunately someone, in their wisdom, has decided to make the charge for an economy pitch at Clachan (and also at Altnaharra) exactly the same as the charge for an electric pitch. That means the so-called economy pitch will be more expensive when I take the cost of gas to heat the water and cool my wine into account. The only advantage in booking it will be that I will know in advance which pitch I'm going on, thereby reducing the time between arrival at site and sitting with a glass of wine in my hand and a pizza in the oven.

It will also be cheaper for me, as a solo caravanner, to go to Bunree with hookup and a heated toilet block in April or Morvich with ditto in October than to go to Clachan, with no toilet block, in those months which is ludicrous. Are they trying to dissuade solo caravanners from going to Clachan and Altnaharra? Those are precisely the sort of sites solos like! I think it's time the Caravan Club realised that we don't all tour as couples or families and we don't want to pay for electricity we are not getting!

Rising Damp

I have just got the caravan back after a winter spent in two different workshops. I knew it would be away for a while getting the accident damage repaired but I hadn't bargained for finding damp in the shower room on my last trip of 2015. The caravan is quite well ventilated (ie draughty) and so has never suffered from damp, even over the winter months. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to me, water had started getting in along a seam at the back of the caravan and became noticeable when the shower room wallpaper started bubbling. The plywood underneath felt spongy and when I stuck my damp meter into the spot, it read 45%! I booked the van into Wallace's at Kirkcaldy as soon as I got home from holiday and left it with them a week later. When the panel in the shower room had been removed we could see that the damp had travelled from the back corner along two wooden battens. Fortunately we had caught it before the wood rotted but it still cost over £500 to get the leak sealed, everything dried out and a new panel fitted inside. The moral of the story is to check for damp regularly and act on any reading over 20%. I had decided to save money on servicing by getting a mobile engineer to service the caravan in 2014 and 2015 but it turns out to have been a false economy as he didn't pick up the damp problem. That back corner had been reading 20% when I last had a proper damp check done in 2013 so the early indications were there. Next time I will act on them sooner.

PS. Glencairn Coachworks in Leslie, Fife have done an excellent job on the accident damage. The only difference is that I don't have a nearside fog light now because they couldn't get exactly the same tail light fitting for my old Bailey. The more modern version has a reversing light in its place.