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MOTORHOMENEWS

~ A personal take by Christopher Macgowan on tourism, travel and motorhomes.

MOTORHOMENEWS

Monthly Archives: July 2015

Brighton Caravan Club Site.

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by chrismacgowan in Sites

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Brighton, Caravan Club, Christopher Macgowan, Destination Site, motorhome, motorhomenews

   
   
I’ve spent a few days at the CC’s Brighton site. If ever there was a site in peak condition this is it. It is a hugely popular 17 acre 215 pitch site on the east side of the town and is open all year. Brighton of course is a fabulous place with a lot going on; throw in a bit of sunshine and the seaside and no wonder the site is popular. Indeed during my stay there was not a spare pitch to be had and it is very much a “destination site” with holidaymakers booking up sometime ahead to accommodate school holidays and term time.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

A long leisurely CL lunch

26 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by chrismacgowan in Uncategorized

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macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews, Orford

image

With friends this weekend at a CL in Orford Suffolk.

Bliss!

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

“Caravan” by Gareth Iwan Jones

19 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by chrismacgowan in This and That

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#motorhomes, caravans, Christopher Macgowan, Dr Stables, Gareth Iwan Jones; motorhomenews, The Caravan Club

  
Photographer: Gareth Iwan Jones.

On a warm summer’s day in 1884, Dr William Gordon Stables, accompanied by his two daughters and a Newfoundland named Hurricane Bob, set off from his Berkshire home for what was to become the first British caravan holiday. ‘The man who is master of a caravan,’ Stables wrote in anticipation of his week-long wagon trip around the Home Counties, ‘enjoys the perfect freedom denied to the tourist, whose movements are governed by the timetable.’

More than 130 years on, millions of Britons still agree. Shunning the lure of low-cost air travel and package holidays, these libertines have been doing it all themselves for decades, and that won’t change soon. The Caravan Club – founded in 1907 to ‘bring together those interested in van life as a pastime’– currently has more than 2,500 badged sites, enough for an average of one for every 30 square miles of the country, and over a million paid-up members. An Englishman’s home may be his castle, but it can always be improved by some wheels, it seems.

Last summer, the Bristol-based photographer Gareth Iwan Jones, 33, undertook a mission to capture the caravan community in its natural environment, in sites from the southern tip of England to the bitter lochs of Scotland. Hiring a three-birth motor­home (a 2010 Elddis Autoquest 180 Sun­seeker) with his wife, Kim, also 33, Jones zigzagged 2,393 miles across the country, visiting 32 caravan sites, pausing at each to take portraits of the visitors and collect fragments of their stories.

Though he admits to being familiar with the taste of charred sausages and the dull drum of rain on metal from caravan holidays to Southwold as a child, Jones considered himself outside the culture when he began his journey. ‘It was all pretty new to me,’ he says.

The idea stemmed from his love of ‘hobbyists’; his previous projects have included ferret enthusiasts and child gymnasts. ‘Most of my work focuses on how people spend their leisure time, and I’ve always thought of caravanning as a wonderfully eccentric, colourful world full of quirky characters,’ he says. ‘It is, but I was humbled by how friendly and open everyone was. Not a single person declined.’

Managing to depict the minutiae of caravanning without appearing super­cilious, Jones’s images, which feature a mixed cast befitting their itinerant theme, have now become a book, Caravan: A Great British Love Story.

‘Caravanning is not the easiest way to relax,’ Jones says. ‘There are obstacles to overcome at every turn. Even the morning expedition across cold wet fields to reach the shower block can feel like triumph over adversity. But the rewards for sticking with it and embracing the challenges are numerous.’

Just as the pursuit’s famous fans look like the unlikeliest of bedfellows (the former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, the England football captain Wayne Rooney and the thoughtless fictional amphibian Mr Toad are three well-known caravan owners), Jones insists there is no ‘typical’ enthusiast. Instead, regions attract their own, distinctive crowds. ‘I noticed that in the north of Scotland there was a much larger percentage of younger couples and families who had made the journey up there, while middle England tends to draw more over-60s, for some reason.’

Despite those differences, Jones found something common among his subjects’ motivations for hitting the road in the first place. ‘People love the quality of time with family and friends that caravanning affords,’ he says. ‘It appeals to our basic, hard-wired instincts, if it is for only a week.’

Caravan by Gareth Iwan Jones (Frances Lincoln, £12.99) is available for £10.99 plus £1.99 p&p from Telegraph Bookshop 0844-871 1514; http://www.books.telegraph.co.uk

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

Am enjoying my new Ecocamel SoftWater shower…..

11 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by chrismacgowan in Technical, This and That

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#motorhomes, #showers, chrismacgowan, Christopher Macgowan, ecocamel, motorhomenews, shower

  
You don’t really want to know this but I cannot function properly unless each day I kick off with a refreshing hot shower. And that applies not only at home but even more so when I am travelling in the motorhome.

Ecocamel has come up with the seemingly impossible combination of a really good water spray, some new soft water technology and yet a shower head that uses less water than earlier versions and a lot less than ordinary showerheads. With a 100litre fresh water tank in the motorhome, the sort of water economy I am getting with the new showerhead makes life a lot easier when I am on the road whilst still delivering that all important “charge” to get me up and running each day. The design of the new unit is very high tech – air is drawn in through the air intakes and mixes with water to increase the pressure and forces the water out to significantly boost the power of the shower.

So I get my power shower each morning and use less water.

More from http://www.ecocamel.com

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

In this heat I am sometimes just happy to be home.

05 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by chrismacgowan in This and That

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#motorhomes, chrismacgowan, Christopher Macgowan, heat, motorhome, motorhomenews, motorhomes

  

I’m trying hard not to complain about the heat but sometimes, just sometimes, it’s good to leave the motorhome on the drive and enjoy being at home. I guess like all Brits, given half a chance, I am prone to complaining about the weather at all times and under all circumstances but I will admit I am finding 28˚C to 30˚C a struggle.

Am I alone on this??!!

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

BCA caravan and motorhome sales move to Nottingham.

01 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by chrismacgowan in Marketing, Motorhomes

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BCA, caravan, chrismacgowan, Christopher Macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews, Nottingham

  

As the summer heatwave arrives at last, the thought of a staycation in the UK becomes even more appealing. And more and more people are enjoying a break in their own caravan or motorhome so they can enjoy the best of British summer weather, whenever it arrives.

 To meet the growing demand, BCA now stages a twice monthly Caravan & Motorhome sale at the Nottingham centre, with sales taking place every second and fourth Thursday of the month. With a wide range of vehicles to suit every budget, the early sales have attracted large crowds with nearly 100 motorhomes, RVs and caravans sold.  

 The next Caravan & Motorhome sales, scheduled for 9th and 23rd July, are also expected to create a lot of interest. The sale is entirely undercover with pre-sale viewing from 9.00 am, while the motorhomes are driven and the caravans towed past the rostrum, giving potential buyers every opportunity to see the vehicles.

 BCA’s UK Operations Director Simon Henstock commented “The first sales at the BCA Nottingham centre at the start of June attracted big crowds of buyers who bid strongly on a range of vehicles, from caravans to luxury motorhomes. And we’re expecting strong demand for the July sales too, as there are vehicles to suit every budget”.

 Vehicles lined up for the 9th July sale include a 2010 Auto sleeper Broadway Motorhome, 2011 Auto Trail Frontier Comanche Motorhome and 2014 Bailey Unicorn Barcelona Caravan. Sales start at 12 Noon.

 Visit the BCA website at http://www.bca.co.uk

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews
 

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