we are in a similar mode to yourself Aaron, we are member of CCclub and CMH club and my understanding of site booking with the Caravan and Motorhome Club is that ou are not required to leave a deposit so people block book site as soon as the season starts if the change their mind in the last minute they have lost nothing. Most club site have great facilities but like Randa said many people with WWBs wont use their caravan instead preferring to use the sites.
We went away last year during the break in lockdown and the Winderemere site we stayed at not many people took any notice of the regulation in place at the toilet/ shower block, and the wardens made no effort to enforce them. complaining just brought a shrug of the shoulders.

You’re not on your own Brian. We had a miserable week away last August in Suffolk. Again the weather but also no facilities so camp shower in the awning. Masks on and personal details handed over just to have a very socially distanced beer out in a pub garden. Masks on to buy a bag of chips then sitting freezing on a bench whilst we ate them. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t have been happy without the mask and the hand sanitiser.
We haven’t booked anywhere yet this year. Our hope is that when the weather permits we will try and find a little CS/CL somewhere, if we can’t use the facilities what is the point of a Club site? The problem will be if the weather is bad as we won’t want to put the awning up in the rain, then we can’t shower. Back to the tent days of a strip wash and washing hair in a teeny tiny sink 😂
We’re living in hope that by next year we will feel comfortable enough to head over the water, I really hope so as I love my Eriba and don’t want to give it up but I can hear a little voice in the back of my head querying just whatI’m thinking 🤔

Now 'Steady the Buffs!'

Wot's all this defeatist talk I'm seeing?

We sold our campervan last July and swapped our Yeti for a Scala (v nice cars BTW).

Last year, absolutely nothing, except we moved house to a fabulous barn conversion with a lovely unique and crazy garden. Our double garage is a couple of minutes walk away on the far side of the barn development and has no power. We have a large drive at the bottom of the garden, so the car is kept nearby.

We want to get back to Eriba Tourings to allow us to holiday and allow me to follow Mrs SDA to her various holiday centres where she runs holidays for those who like to sing. No Roger, sit down, you don't qualify. Singing has been banned since about March 2020 and is off limits 'til at least June 2021. Apparently it's almost like using mustard gas to expel air from lungs and expectorate over people.

So, rather than think about de-Eribaing (perish the thought) we are looking to get back into a Triton 420. So please, please help us dig one out and let's get this show back on the road.

Adapt and overcome, we decided last year to use our Eriba toilet in full anger to overcome the covid ablution restrictions. We bought a second shower curtain and a short extending curtain rail to cover the back wall. To be honest it was the best move we made as we were no longer tied down to when the toilets were cleaned. The only pain we found that nowhere was open for a meal or drink..
We won't be selling our our Eriba anytime soon..

Frightening thought.

Motters just 3 to 4 years into retirement and I've been at it for 15 years. Gulp.

Mmm - a very sensitive issue Aaron has raised for many of us but I guess we can only read of other members experiences, process them and relate these to our own personal circumstances.

Like others the pandemic has hit our family very hard and we are trying each day to cope with our loss as best we can. I can see people's frustrations, which on some level we share, having stayed on 3 sites during the Covid related restrictions. The behaviour of thoughtless people perplexes and irritates in similar measure.

However for us our Troll and the promise of some level of future "normality" (whatever that means) is so important to us. The thought of getting back on a site and pitching the van, opening a bottle of wine, firing up the Remoska, in short doing the things we love, despite some restrictions & irritations, is something that keeps us going - a much needed shot of positivity.at a difficult time........................

Sorry if I sound like some kind of lay preacher. This is where we are at and I understand that other people are in a different place.

MikeT

Colin

I hope you don't mind me saying but what a brilliant job you have both done on the house...............dare I say worth the effort.

Good look with the new house search.in the sunny South.

Mike

Nice looking bung Colin, sorry to hear of the issues though.

We put our place on the market mid 2019 with a view to buying the place we're now in. But two weeks before we actually got a buyer this place went SSTC. So we cast around and found a new build bungalow on a biggish new development. Several weeks into buying the bungalow this place came back on the market, so we extracted ourselves from Kier's clutches and moved here last August.

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This talk of losing the will to caravan and moving house is very relevant to us as well.
A combination of serious circumstances had caused us to reconsider our lifestyle with the result that we decided to sell up and move into something smaller. Obviously this had ‘Eriba’ ramifications, meaning storage. We embarked on a massive decluttering and put the house on the market. It sold within 2 days and we had our offer on an apartment accepted. Everything seemed sorted but something didn’t click and we realised the change wasn’t appropriate. Still not entirely convinced it won’t happen at some point but certainly not imminently. So the Eriba came back from storage after only a couple of weeks (no refund of any part of the year’s fee!)
And life has returned to a more stable kind of strange normality (but with hugely reduced clutter) with the Eriba as a real focus of the things we love to do.
That’s the point really, Aaron Calder has described something that has probably lurked in many of our minds but in our case we will be trying very hard to get back to normality with our Eriba front and centre!

Nothing daunted we have booked five weeks along the south coast in August and moved our two ferry bookings for Spain and France to to next year again, having moved them once already. We had six days away in our Eriba last year and enjoyed every minute. It is not easy to stay positive but us Eribans are made of stern stuff. I don't relish cold showers in the van but it still feels like luxury to have a loo and kitchen after years of camping in a small tent. Not had much experience of caravan ing in the UK but we live in a beautiful island with lovely people waiting to welcome us to their sites. I love being able to move freely from place to place in Europe using the ACIS book and hope to get back to it next year. Must agree having to pre book every inch of a holiday isn't what I am used to. Cheers and happy travelling everyone.

We have just had a week at the Mablethorpe C&CC site. All facilities except the elsan were closed (apparently reopening from 17th May in line with the next relaxation of the rules). We managed just fine and really appreciated having hot water on tap.
Having not used our Eriba since October 2019, we had of course considered the future but for now will be hanging onto it, and look forward to more trips in due course.
Made a great call taking down the awning the evening before we left as it was very dry, and lashing it down the following morning.