One caravanning couple who have discovered the joys of a seasonal caravan pitch are Linda and Trevor Jones from Rotherham. They keep their tourer permanently on a pitch at Waterfront Country Park, West Stockwith, Nottinghamshire. Here’s how they’ve found it…
“We started off as campers,” explains Linda. “Our children loved camping holidays and so did we. We carried on camping once the children were grown, but after one holiday in Devon, where the air-bed let us down, and our friends having already purchased a small touring caravan, I told Trevor that our weekends away as we had known them were over unless we got a caravan! He must have known that I meant it, because he went out and bought our very first, new-to-us, little tourer; we absolutely loved it.”
Permanent pitching
“After upgrading our caravan three times in the first few years, we then bought a caravan with an island bed.”
“Getting the caravan in and out of storage was a chore and we found we were visiting the same place over and over again, so we eventually decided to site it permanently there, with a view to taking it on the road touring a couple of times a year.”
“The cost didn’t bother us, and we put a large awning onto the caravan for more living space while we were there. And at that point we stopped touring with it. This meant we saved on storage fees, and the insurance is cheaper as we have given up touring.”
“Plus, we could have our weekends in the caravan without the extra fuel cost of towing it. All in all, it wasn’t costing us too much more.”
“We had toured with the caravan almost every other weekend from April to October. But our seasonal pitch is on a campsite that’s open all year, so we use it a lot more and stay longer than the weekend whenever we can.”
“We discovered our permanent site, Waterfront Country Park in West Stockwith, north-east Nottinghamshire, while touring. It’s a rural site, not too big, in a lovely location with nice walks for us and our dogs.”
“There’s good fishing nearby, and pleasant places to call in for a drink and a meal when we don’t want to cook. Like I said, we started visiting the site on most of our outings, so
we simply decided to stop there.”
“As we no longer have to worry about the caravan’s weight, we do have a lot more in our van now than we did while touring.”
“It’s great, everything is there ready for us, all set up. We just plug in the electricity and fill the water barrels, whenever we use it. It’s become our home from home, and we have met some very nice people there who have become friends.”
Enjoying good company
“We use the caravan all year round, and there’s no towing in bad weather or setting up in the dark.
“I do sometimes miss touring and seeing all the different places, but just turning up whenever we want to, and enjoying the company of our friends, more than compensates.”
“Touring is a wonderful experience, one we are glad we have had, but we would recommend seasonal siting if you have a favourite place, because it gives more opportunity to use the van without having to get it out of storage, hook up and tow. We’ve been sited for seven years, and we love it.”
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