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Jinxed again!
May I apologise to all caravanners in the UK, for returning to touring after a break of 15 years?
We began caravanning in 2000, because we thought our daughters would love to visit new places and have the excellent experiences I had as a child on caravan holidays with my parents and sisters.
Having laid out rather a lot of money on a new Coachman caravan, we hit a major snag.
Foot and mouth disease arrived in the UK in 2001, which restricted our travels.
Luckily, we were members of the local Caravan Club Centre, which organised several enjoyable weekends at the fabulous Pembrey Country Park, in South Wales. There were
Easter egg hunts and other activities, which gave us many happy memories. The children made lots of friends and keep in touch with some of them to this day.
Time passes, children grow, and I’m sure many readers with teenagers will sympathise with me when I recall that boyfriends appear on the scene! Suddenly, my daughters didn’t want to holiday with us anymore – even though foot and mouth had disappeared long ago and we had travelled much further afield over subsequent years. Eventually, in 2006, we decided it was time to sell the van.
I didn’t stop missing caravanning, and then in June 2019, my eldest daughter, now a mum herself, said she thought that my grandson, Alfie, would love touring and those great experiences that they’d had. So the decision to get back on the road was made for me by others!
Last year, we returned to touring, with several weekends at Pembrey and other locations around the Gower area. We would pick up our grandson from school on the Friday, so were tied to distance in case of emergencies. True to form, he loves it.
So, having removed the winter cover from the caravan in March 2020, we looked forward to a year of holidays and breaks throughout the South Wales area. Lo and behold, Covid-19!
So, may I humbly apologise to all, first for taking up caravanning in 2001 during foot and mouth, then returning to it this year through Covid-19?
I really hope that the restrictions are eased for good now, there are no further outbreaks and I can stop being a jinx!
Ryland Williams