19 Sep 08
The Caravelle and I have come to the end of the road. Quite literally: the End of the Road festival at the Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset. And, unsurprisingly for the summer of 2008, it's raining.
This year's festival season has been an absolute washout, with one brief flash of sunshine in July and then a whole series of wet weekends. Obviously, this is nothing compared to battling Hurricane Ike - or indeed, pumping out water from flooded homes on this side of the Atlantic - but I think a bit of a moan is justified.
Lucky I've had the Caravelle to camp in, then: it has done fine service as a solid roof and home-from-home at numerous weddings, festivals and other overnight events. It might not be the full California camper van conversion, nor is it fitted with the optional Sleep Pack (as detailed earlier ), but its rear seats do fold down flat to form a bed-size surface. With a blow-up mattress or cushions, and some blankets to hook up to the window-blinds to act as impromptu curtains, it beats sleeping in a tent, whatever the weather.
We went to Wales in August for the Green Man festival and rain of near-Biblical proportions for three days threatened to blight the whole trip. It was relentless, the mud was knee-deep in places, there were few places to shelter and many a tent was abandoned with bedding left to float. Me? A full eight hours of blissful dry sleep both the nights I stayed. I was especially smug since, being too tight to pay extra to go in the designated camper van field, I was parked up in the general car park right by the exit and a solid road. Not only was it dead quiet at night, I didn't have to pay £40 to be towed out of the quagmire by a tractor.
