Saturday September 11th 2010 - Forward and reverse

I woke just after 7am to a lovely sunny morning and hoped it would stay like that all day - I didn't really fancy the idea of learning to tow a caravan, and getting to grips with all the various technicalities involved, in pouring rain. I could already hear signs of life coming from the caravan next door so with no time to linger I got up and put the kettle on for breakfast. With tea and toast made I mixed up Tiger's formula milk so it would have time to cool down before I gave it to her, then after a very quick breakfast I took the dogs for a walk down the lane and back. After settling the dogs on their beds in the awning I gave Tiger her medication and put some milk, water, and a small amount of food in her pen, then disconnected the awning from the van. A few minutes later Roz emerged from her caravan and we were ready for off - she wasn't exactly sure how to get to the course venue from the site, so as I was already very familiar with the area it was up to me to lead the way. It only took a few minutes to get there and we arrived bang on time at 8.45am - and so began a very busy day.

The morning started in a classroom, there were twelve of us altogether and after time spent on registration and introducing ourselves the two instructors gave us a breakdown of the weekend's activities before taking us through an informal 'lecture' and question and answer session on the initial stages of caravan towing. At the end of the session we were taken over to the canteen for morning break, then out onto the large car park to get to grips with hitching and unhitching using our own vehicles. We were split into two groups, and with two caravans to each group we were each able to have several attempts. The next step was actually towing a caravan in a figure of eight round a cross-shaped course made up of a double line of traffic cones, with only just enough room to get a caravan between them - when it came to my turn I really didn't think I would do it, so I surprised myself by going round four times without touching a single cone. When we had all had enough attempts to be reasonably confident at forward towing it was time to adjourn to the canteen for lunch.

The afternoon followed the same pattern as the morning - a classroom session and a coffee break followed by more practise outside, this time reversing in a straight line. Yet again I didn't think I would do it, but remembering what I had been told, observing my partner's directions and taking it slowly meant I did better than I thought I would, and I managed to stay in near enough a straight line. With the practical session over with we returned to the classroom for a debrief (I've always wondered why it's called that - it makes me think of someone losing their underwear!) then we were free to go.

Arriving back at the caravan site I found Tiger in her pen outside the awning and no sign of Sophie and Sugar - a quick investigation by Roz told me that they were in her caravan. Her little girl, who absolutely adores dogs, had insisted to her dad that they go in the caravan so they wouldn't be lonely, and Niall had brought Tiger outside as it had got too warm in the awning.

After thanking him for looking after them all I attached the awning to the van and set about making something to eat and mixing up some more milk for Tiger before feeding the dogs and taking them for a walk round the site - I didn't need to go far as they had been out several times during the day. On my return I gave Tiger her medication and put her back in the awning, then went to spend an hour or so with Niall and Roz, chatting over a coffee and discussing what we had been doing that day. The weather had been good to us, staying sunny all day, so the practical elements had all been very pleasant, but we both agreed that it had been a very tiring day and we were more than ready for bed when the time came.