Potential Market, Synopsis and list of Chapters
*Government statistics show that there are 500,000 touring caravans and 120,000 motorhomes in the UK.
Over 1 million people take touring caravan holidays each year, and the Caravan
Club alone has 850,000 members.
*(Source – Annex to National Caravan Council report 2006 to House of Commons
select committee)
Photo pages to accompany Uneasy Rider - Confessions of a Reluctant Traveller here: http://web.mac.com/alisonpritchard
Synopsis
Having decided to hire a motor caravan and take it across the Channel for a holiday with our two leggy teenagers, we realised after the first night that we were at least five years too late for us all to fit comfortably into such a vehicle. Two weeks of treading on each other's feet did not put us off however, and a mere ten years went by before we acquired our own camper van. With our former accomplices by then making their own way in life, just the two of us headed for Spain, this time a 'one-off' to sate my fascination with a book by Laurie Lee – As I Walked out One Midsummer Morning.
Our 'new' vehicle was not quite as reliable as its former owner had led us to believe, but my practical-minded other-half, Harry, always sorted out the problems to keep us on the road.
After our circumnavigation of Spain we tried and failed to find a buyer for the van, but rather than leave it to rot on the drive, we decided to take it to Italy the following summer. Like the pain of child-birth, we'd forgotten the difficulties of the previous year.
Unfortunately, the charms of our little home-from-home continued to evade prospective purchasers for several years which meant that we found ourselves repeatedly heading for Folkestone and the Eurotunnel every Spring.
Equally, each time we reached the shores of England some 3 or 4 weeks later, we swore never to do it again…
List of Chapters
Warning! This book is a collection of themed chapters chronicling several trips and therefore can be read in any order. It is not a guidebook.
2/ The Parable of a Parador … Why it's not always a good idea to get a wish fulfilled
3/ "No Woman, No Cry" ………. If you're of a nervous disposition, don't travel in May
4/ Willcommen, Bienvenido, Welcome … or not as the case may be
5/ Inauguration of the Innocent …"Beam me up …"
6/ Space-Tales from Under the Awning …How to while away the hours without the box
7/ Et In Arcadia Ego ….. Staying on the dark side
8/ Et in Aranjuez Ego … A paler shade of dark
9/ On How To Find…a Campsite … Not as easy as you might think
10/ "...we've got a problem…" Part the first … Small Problems
11/ "...we've got a problem..." Part the second … Bigger emergencies
12/ Noises Off … Always something there to annoy us
13/ More Noises & Other Nuisances … More noises and other nuisances
14/ When in Rome … Trials and tribulations in the Eternal City
15/ Shouting in the Sistine … The Vatican's a funny old place
16/ A Hitch-Hiker Guides … to Montserrat … For once, a good turn is not punished
17/ Money, Money, Money … Down but not out in Casino… and elsewhere
18/ An Arpeggio on the Campeggio – Brief Encounters … La Dolce Vita on a Florentine campsite
19/ Pompeii – Cave Canem … Dogs, mushrooms and ruins though not necessarily in that order
20/ Venice - Vaporetti & Victimisation… A Grand Time on the Grand Canal and a Put Down in Punta Sabbioni
21/ All Our Pitches are Flat …as is Holland
22/ Apes, Rocks and Pizza… The ins and outs of Gibraltar
23/ Fuentes!… Water, water everywhere
24/ Top Ten Tips, for what they're worth… someone wanted some, I forget who…