Our caravan is showing its age. The harsh sunshine, plus wind and rain, certainly takes its toll on caravans down in the Cote d'Azur. But this year we noticed that there were many caravans with breathable covers over them. What a good idea. And if it extends the life of the caravan, then it is well worth the initial cost.
But first, the very dirty roof had to be washed. I volunteered, but quickly realised once on the roof it was not going to be an easy task. The photograph was taken before I started, when I was still clean and dry. No wonder I was smiling.
I scrubbed and scrubbed, and mopped up the dirty water as I went along so that I did not get water on the annex. Walter kept me supplied with buckets of clean water. Before long I was covered in very dirty water. And worse still I had to sit in the dirty water because it was impossible to keep working on my knees. The job took three and a half hours. I was sodden, but the roof was sparkling clean. A definite gold star for me.
The next job, remove the aerial and two chimneys, as they would eventually tear holes in the cover. Walter completed the necessary unhooking of flues and aerial wires below, while I pulled the chimmneys and aerial off the roof. Joint effort there. Of course the heater cannot be used now, just a warning to family members who use the caravan. Not that we have used the heater anyway. The other chimney was for the exhaust fan for the stove, which was fairly useless and will not be missed.
Then Walter went up onto the roof, with his basket of flashing tape, and adhesive. Plus a foam ball and two metal soap holders, and for what purpose you may wonder. Clever innovations. Problem solving. Hope they work.
A slight diversion with the photograph below. Photos out of order. A view of the camping ground, across a sparkling clean roof.
But back to our innovations. First the foam ball was put on the protrubing pipe, where the aerial was fastened. The foam ball is now held down with flashing tape. Nice and soft under the cover.
The holes that were left after the chimneys were removed, are now covered with metal soap holders, well glued down and with flashing tape underneath. All that is needed is a bar of soap, for decoration. The soap holders do not have small drainage holes in them, by the way. We checked that one out first.
The caravan, nearly packed up. And yes Margaret Kazmierczak, the caravan is a bit like Mary Poppins' bag, when you open it up, everything comes out; an annex, ground cover, two fridges, five chairs, four tables, a camp larder, a plastic drawer unit, plus all the electrical gear for cooking, and not forgetting the coffee machine and foamer of course.
And now it was time to open the box, which held the new caravan cover. It had never been released due to the concern that once unleashed we would not be able to get the cover back in again. But in actual fact we discovered that the cover comes with a bag. Very useful. The covers are not small. But the box has been useful, as a stand for putting all and sundry on.
Now you may wonder about the silver balls on top of a broom and a stick. Batons for a drum major? No, they are designed to lift the cover onto the roof of the caravan, without ripping it. We bought three small sponge balls, one for the pipe on the roof, and one for each stick. The sponge balls came in packs of three, very convenient. We covered the balls with tape otherwise the sponge balls would have disappeared into the depths of the gigantic cover.
Another slight diversion. There was an ants nest under our annex matting, and by the time we lifted it up, they had made two small holes in it, and were busily collecting our baguette crumbs. Amazing creatures. And then in the early evening another colony of ants tried to invade and an almighty battle occurred, with the original settlers winning, in the end Very interesting.
Once we locked the caravan, we began putting on the cover. Luckily we had already practised by helping to put on Derek and Rose's caravan cover, so were quite confident of success.
Walter, using the wooden baton, eased the cover over the protruding ball covered pipe.
Altnough we still managed to get the cover on a bit crooked at first, it was actually quite an easy task and only took 20 minutes. We were determined to work together co-operatively, and not have a disagreement. It helped that it was early morning and cool.
The caravan, securely covered, all ready for winter storage.
Only one problem! Walter left his nearly new covered sandels in the van. And as it was an English cover on a French van, the zips were on the opposite side of the van, not on the door side. At that point we decided against taking the cover off, so that he could retrieve his sandels, so now he has to travel home in his rubber flip flops. He could have very cold feet once he gets closer to home.
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