On Tuesday I went down to the New Forest and fitted my super-clever refillable propane gas system which will keep us warm and toasty when we are in the mountains this winter and will never run out because we can always find a service station which serves LPG (Autogas). I may have to remind myself that I said that but hopefully not!
Anyway, once having fitted all the cylinders and tubes and things then of course it needed to be tested, which involved me in going to an LPG pump to fill up with gas. The nearest one was in Pennington, a few miles away, so I managed to turn the van around using only a two or three point turn and headed back towards the gate with a smile playing around my lips and just possibly a snatch of a tune on my breath. Which was, of course, when it all went horribly wrong.
As you can see from the photos which accompanied the last posting, there is a large amount of overhang at the front. What this means is that the top section is big enough for two people to sleep in there - but it also means you can't see upwards when driving forward. I was so busy concentrating on lining up to go through the gate without being at an angle to it (the gate isn't a huge amount wider than the van) that I didn't see that there was a low branch very near the gate. It was over 3 metres up - but unfortunately the van is about 3.2 metres high, so we made contact.
Now, the van weighs approximately three and a half tons so it doesn't stop easily except by using the brake and although I hit the brakes as soon as I heard a noise, it carried on forward about six inches. Since the branch is very solid and the bit that encountered the branch is made of glassfibre, it suffered somewhat. I didn't have the camera so I can't show you, but it doesn't look quite as pretty as it did.
Since we were expecting a storm at the end of the week (i.e. today, and believe me we have it now, it's blowing a gale out there) we decided, after getting the gas, that the tear would need to be patched up to prevent the bodywork from filling up with water. A piece of polythene sheeting about two foot square (60 cms for those who don't do Imperial) and a lot of gaffer tape actually produced a rather neat repair. I'm expecting to go down on Sunday to do other work on it so I will take the camera and you will be able see the effect. I'm taking it to the menders on Monday who will look at it and tell me if they can fix it.
Not an auspicious start to my motorhoming career - thank goodness I got insurance with a protected no claims bonus.
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