When our kids were very young we borrowed a trailer (called a caravan in South Africa) and camped with friends at a seaside resort called Salt Rock, north of the city of Durban where we lived. That was the holiday that really got us thinking of camping holidays.
Our third trip was a tenting holiday in Zululand at Cape Vidal in Zululand. My fondest memories of that trip were the monkeys playing in the trees and on the tops of our tents, and the absolutely beautiful white sandy beaches. How I miss that part of the world.
Our fourth camping experience was in a canvas tent trailer that we bought used from a friend. South African made and, we thought, absolute luxury because we did not have to sleep on the ground.
Then we left South Africa in 1989 and moved to Ontario, Canada. Back to tent camping. We bought a dome tent and whatever else we needed, such as air mattresses, sleeping bags, and propane cookers etc. We really enjoyed camping from time to time until one trip in 2000 when we camped in Northern Ontario and the rain never stopped. I vowed and declared right then and there that I was not going to sleep on the ground again, without a floor under me and a solid roof over my head. The following spring we bought a 17 foot hybrid, called a Bobcat. It was tiny, but so much luxury! At the time we had my late father living with us and he was in failing health, so the following year we traded that in for a 21 foot Trail-lite Bantam. He was a lot more comfortable in that and did quite a few trips with us. Pretty soon we got tired of the tent ends, having to open and close them, then having to open them to dry out if we packed up in the rain, and the condensation we got inside, especially in when camping in the fall, so we traded up again. This time to a Rockwood 25 ft Solid side travel trailer. We loved that trailer and used it for several years.
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| Our Rockwood 25 ft trailer parked at Watkins Glen State Park, Site 50 |
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| Triple R Regal 30ft GXS |
As we were approaching retirement, we then decided to upgrade to a C Class motorhome. We had been keen on getting a Triple E which is Canadian built and has superior insulation. We found a Triple E Regal 30 GXS at a local dealership. So we traded the Rockwood for the C Class.....big mistake! It was way too small (for us) to full time in. We used it for a year as part timers but only lasted 6 months of full timing in that. So again we were looking for something bigger. We eventually settled on the 2007 Jayco Super C that we had for 3 years.
The Jayco had some bad build problems and was not really suitable for fulltiming. So we bit the bullet and traded it in on a 2005 Newmar Dutch Star. We lived in the Dutch Star for 3 years and then we bought a park model in Cedar Beach Park in Ontario so we no longer needed a large motorhome. It was also 11 years old and things were starting to go wrong. So some bullet biting again and we sold the bus and bought a small 21 foot trailer and a truck. Is this too small? We shall see.
Somewhere in the beginning of this blog there are some pictures of our previous camping trips.
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