I'm writing about a subject everyone might know a lot about - getting up to speed with something very different from what you have been used to!
This is about my 'new' caravan, the pre-owned Swift Corniche 15/2 that I bought in January from the Sussex dealer I've used for a very long time. They've known me for years, and I think they have sold me a pretty good caravan, one that won't go wrong and lose them a longstanding customer. They want me to bring the caravan back next year for a service, and every year. But given its age, little things are bound to crop up as it ages further. Wear and tear will take its toll - I take a lot of holidays! Initial snagging issues will be dealt with under the guarantee they gave me, and I'm easy in my mind about that. This post is going to discuss how slow I'm being in getting to grips with it, as a place to cook, eat, sleep and wash in, and of course to tow from place to place. It's almost like starting caravanning all over again, despite doing it for twenty-four years. (I started in 2002)
After two months of ownership, I am still impressed with the Swift, but everything about it remains unfamiliar and only half-known. I'm still peering into manuals to find out how this or that works, or why it doesn't. It hasn't been straightforward to transfer the habits and knowledge I'd developed over twenty years with the old caravan - an Elddis Avanté 362 - to the newer Swift.
Both are two-berth caravans, but that's where the similarity ends. Really they are different animals.
For instance, the Swift is longer, and catches the wind more when being towed. It's also heavier. So Sophie my car - a diesel-engined Volvo XC60 - has more work to do. I've had to slightly change the way I tow. And until I'm really used to the different handling, I can't insist that I'm totally relaxed and confident with the Swift out on the roads - or at least not for the first ten miles or so. Experience in the coming months will turn towing the Swift into second nature. Strangely, when I've reached my destination I'm finding it easier to reverse onto a pitch, or onto my drive at home. The Swift is noticeably less likely to jack-knife when going backwards, pushed by the car, than was the shorter, lighter and more skittish Elddis. Is it the extra weight? Or because the caravan's wheels are further from the back of the car? Whatever, I seem to have more fine control - provided I go slowly.
The Swift's internal layout rear of the two front beds (daytime seats) is completely different from the Elddis. It's taking me time to work out where to stow things so that I'm not constantly walking the length of the caravan. The Elddis was so small that it took only three paces to walk end to end. Now it's five paces in the Swift. Or seven pigeon steps. Well, I've gained a lot of space! I can swing cats. But despite all the extra cupboard space, it isn't easy to work out the best way to store things so that I'm not endlessly moving to and fro. And I'm still finding it hard to remember what is stowed away in each cupboard.
There isn't a single routine task that has survived from the Elddis intact, just as it was. Even hitching up to the car when moving on. I'm having to learn how to do everything that little bit differently. My various daily tasks - once well-practiced and slick - are presently stilted, and frustrating because of it.
Do I miss the simplicity of the Elddis? Even though it was cramped and strapped for storage? I'm a little wistful, yes. But it's gone. And I so much prefer the Swift for its comfort, warmth and its luxury touches: it is truly a home from home. And once I get fully used to it, it will take me through the next ten years - my final ten years of caravanning - in some style. The Elddis wouldn't have been able to survive that long: it was coming apart, and might have become unroadworthy. This one won't.
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