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MOTORHOMENEWS

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

MOTORHOMENEWS

Category Archives: General

Winter really has arrived.

04 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, Sites

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Cambridge, camc, chrismacgowan, Christopher Macgowan, snow

A brief overnight stay at Cambridge CAMC was accompanied by a snowfall overnight. All a bit of a surprise but, after all, it is December.

Why are we British always taken aback by the tiniest amount of snow with inevitable traffic disruption?

I used to live in Canada and we kind of just got on with it!

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

An early Happy Christmas!

26 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by chrismacgowan in General

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#holidays, #motorhomes, @motorhmenews, @regentstreet, chrismacgowan, Christmas, Christopher Macgowan, regent Street

I was in Regent Street on Monday and despite the lack of tourists and customers it was looking like Christmas. So, uncharacteristically, and breaking all the date conventions I am sending an unfeasibly early HAPPY CHRISTMAS to one and all.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

CAMC National 2021

09 Friday Oct 2020

Posted by chrismacgowan in Exhibitions and Shows, General, Motorhomes, Uncategorized

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#motorhomes, @candmclub, @motorhmenews, Christopher Macgowan, Nick Lomas, The National


The Director General of the Caravan and Motorhome Club,  Nick Lomas, has today announced that The National 2021 is cancelled.

The logistics of organising such a huge event are significant and the risk of forced cancellation – possibly at short notice – because of Covid-19 are simply too great.

Sad but understandable.

Bearing in mind that I witnessed last month the Southampton Boat Show being cancelled at 4pm the day before it was opening I am pretty sensitive to the cancellation risk. Equally I and many members will sorely miss this annual gathering.

Christopher Macgowan
@motorhomenews

Fife Council should be less hostile.

24 Friday Jan 2020

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, Travel

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#motorhomes, @motorhmenews, Christopher Macgowan, Fife, motorhome, motorhomenews, Scotland

Sir, – Every year a huge wealth migration in the form of European and southern Englander’s campervans takes place up to, and back from, Scotland.

These visitors are for the most part multilingual, cultured, responsible and wealthy people and are among our best customers, vital to our own survival as a Pottery Cooperative and to the likes of the Pittenweem Arts Festival and other venues.

In the rest of Europe, tourist towns and areas provide a mostly free campervan service for overnight stays; they are recognised as being an important tourist adjunct.

Crail Pottery was founded in 1965, and until 2015 campervans freely used the Marketgate for overnight stays; a summer average of five or so vans a night, with their average spend of £100 or so each, vital to the co-operative.

In the old days, jobs for young people were important. However, probably a majority of the area’s new demographic includes non-local retirees, working commuters and second homeowners who now, quite frankly, find tourism a nuisance.

Hence the community councils persuading Fife Council to erect signs originally forbidding any campervan parking in Marketgate during the day and at night, now modified to forbidding overnight stays.

So the campervans moved to the likes of Kingsbarns beach, where I go often, and now they cause very little trouble and present little danger.

My family is probably one of the biggest employers in both Crail and Anstruther. Do jobs for our young people no longer count? Why is Fife Council so hostile to campervans, resulting in them travelling to routes like the North Coast 500?

Have they never thought how many millions would be brought into Kirkcaldy High Street, Leven High Street, Burntisland and so on, by providing free campervan service areas on the sea fronts? Especially for Kirkcaldy with its rail connection with Edinburgh.

The simple facilities campervans need is an area of land, a tap, litter bins and a wastewater disposable point.

I therefore urge Fife Council to erect notices welcoming campervans to Fife as they now do in the border towns, to remove the hostile signs in Crail and provide the facilities these pleasant people require.

I served on Crail Community Council for many years, in those days tourists were cherished and jobs for our young people were paramount.

As a walker and lover of Fife countryside I visit these local ‘problem sites’ frequently and never find a problem.

The season is very short. If we could get campervans to visit in the winter, it would benefit the community greatly and mean more jobs for our young people.

We must provide our campervan visitors with what they rightly expect from a civilised European country.

Stephen Grieve.

Crail,

Fife.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

 

The Caravan and Motorhome Club at Beaulieu.

09 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, History

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#motorhomes, @candmclub, @motorhmenews, @national_motor_museum, Beaulieu, caravan and motorhome club, Christopher Macgowan, motorhome, motorhomenews, New Forest

The Club has a strong presence at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu – a stone’s throw from the ever popular New Forest Black Knowl site – with its records stored, looked after and catalogued. The display booth tells the history of the Club and shows a video of today’s club and what is on offer.

Well worth a visit with dedicated motorhome and caravan parking and electric car charging for those who have moved across to the future!

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

Great day this weekend at the Beaulieu “Simply VW” event.

16 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by chrismacgowan in General

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#motorhomes, @motorhmenews, Beaulieu, Christopher Macgowan, motorhomenews, National Motor Museum, New Forest, Simply VW, VW

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

Idyllic, Perfection, Can it get Better?

03 Friday May 2019

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, Sites

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#motorhomes, @candmclub, @motorhmenews, bunree, camc, caravan and motorhome club, chrismacgowan, Christopher Macgowan, Fort William, motorhome, motorhomenews, The Caravan Club, Top Ten

I guess we all have our Top Ten Favourite places where we’ve stayed; I certainly do and my holiday in Scotland enabled me to stay at the Caravan and Motorhome Club’s Bunree site near Fort William. It’s certainly in my top ten.

We all have the luxury of having a mix of favourite sites, places, activities, books, films and so on. Writing this blog takes me back to when, in a former life, I did a lot of radio and TV work where you learned pretty quickly you need to have a clear favourite and spit it out without missing a heart beat. At the end of a radio interview I would frequently be asked what my favourite bit of music was to take the programme into the next sector. No opportunity there to diffidently mention a top ten. (For me it was always Mike and the Mechanics “The Living Years”) One hapless MP being interviewed along side me seemed unable to choose her favourite book and the interviewer rather unkindly remarked that if she couldn’t answer a simple question like that there seemed little hope for her career.

When asked for my favourite book back in those rather high octane days I often wondered if as a laugh I might say it was the ACSI Guide to all the aires in France.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

North Essex Centre hospitality.

24 Sunday Feb 2019

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#motorhomes, @candmclub, @motorhmenews, anglia region, camc, Chelmsford City Racecourse, chriatopher macgowan, chrismacgowan, North Essex Centre

Chelmsford City Racecourse is the venue for this weekend’s gathering. Thank you to the Centre for last night’s generous hospitality.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

The 2018 CAMC AGM.

28 Sunday Oct 2018

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#motorhomes, @candmclub, @motorhmenews, @XPFreedomUK, AGM, Christopher Macgowan, York

The 2018 AGM was held yesterday at York Racecourse. Great to see so many club members and colleagues attending.

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

The New Forest, Black Knowl and Beaulieu.

06 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by chrismacgowan in General, Sites

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#motorhomes, Beaulieu, Black Knowl, Brockenhurst, camc, caravan and motorhome club, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Christopher Macgowan, Hampshire, Ian Fleming, motorhome, motorhomenews, National Motor Museum, Roald Dahl, The New Forest

A delightful stay in The New Forest this week at the Caravan and Motorhome Club’s Black Knowl site near Brockenhurst; as you can see, the autumn colours are now well advanced.

A visit to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu and a glimpse of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the soon to be opened 50 years Celebration Exhibit. Ian Fleming will always be remembered for James Bond but he wrote the story for his son Caspar with Roald Dahl – and the film’s director Ken Hughes authoring the screenplay. (Blogger David Bird kindly sent me a photo of Chitty towing a caravan so the car is even more famous than you might think!)

A lovely week indeed!

Christopher Macgowan

@motorhomenews

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