★ Star letter ★

My wife and I decided that after 40 years of tent camping, a little more comfort was needed. Last month we set off from home, towing our new Swift Sprite Alpine 4 to Coverack, Cornwall. Being a first-time caravanner, I was very nervous, but we had a clear M5 and almost empty roads all the way to Helston. We missed the junction to our campsite, Coverack Camping. Our sat nav cut in and told us to drive straight on for 1.5 miles. What it didn’t say was that after you enter Coverack towing a van, you are at the point of no return. The road down was steep and got narrower, with nowhere to turn. Pedestrians gave us odd looks as we passed the lovely bay to our left and quaint houses and shops to the right. They were tucking themselves in to allow us to pass. ‘Next right’, the sat nav said. Sheer dread hit me – an uphill, 90-degree bend, just big enough for a family saloon. I pulled left as much as I could and just managed to negotiate the bend.

Then that sickening crunch: I saw in the mirror a wall clinging to the side of my new van. People stopped and stared. I managed to back up a little and get through with millimetres to spare. Now an even more

| NOVEMBER 2021 daunting problem arose – climbing out of Coverack! By the time I had negotiated School House bend and stopped a few times to allow cars coming down to find somewhere to hide, then performed a hill start on an almost vertical slope, my clutch was smoking like Thomas the Tank Engine. Somehow we got to the top and our site – a child ran up to ask if we were on fire! News travelled fast and we were quickly approached by Jake, the owner, who was wonderful. He couldn’t repair my van or get me a clutch. But he tried every way possible to make us feel better. Lesson learnt – don’t follow sat navs to the letter. Now I phone ahead and ask about road conditions and routes to avoid.