Caravaning

Family Tour 2018 Day 15

Day 15: Coventry to home (130 miles)

There and back again.  Our final day of travel was a "short" of just 130 miles. We drained down the water system, packed up the caravan and attached it back onto the car, before hitting the motorway and main roads to get back home.  Nothing much to report, other than the "friendly" car driver that was sat on the inside lane doing about 55 miles an hour, who matched our speed when we attempted to pass them.  Not wishing to push luck or any of that, we didn't try and have a race to see who could go fastest, but let them "win" and settled in behind. A few junctions later, the driver was kind enough to give us a single digit "salute" as he took his exit.  Oh well, at least we maintained the moral, and legal high ground by not trying to force in front!

Back home we soon had the caravan back on the driveway, and the feeling of openness and space that a house has over the caravan.  Even now I look back at the photos, and the distance traveled on a map, and am amazed at the adventure we had, how much we managed to fit in to 2 weeks.

Final Thoughts

Here are a list of the sites stayed, along with links to 

All told, we covered just under 2000 miles, with about 1700 of them towing.  That said, we used about 360 litres of diesel which seems scary in itself! That made our average consumption 25 MPG (or for those of a metric mindset 11.3 L/100KM).  I must confess I was expecting to be driving up and down steep roads in the highlands, having driven through areas of the UK such as the Yorkshire Dales.  But, for the main part, roads mostly followed the bottom of valleys, rather than up and over the tops of hills.  I think this helped greatly in not using as much as my pessimistic expectations.  The fuel bill worked out at less than £500, and when the costs of campsites are added, brought the cost of touring to about £630.  I think the value for money of the holiday shows, with different views (almost) every night, and being able to stay in places where there is little else in the way of tourist accommodation.

I would happily do something like this holiday again, though another time, I think we are more likely to spend a day or 2 getting to an area, and then have the caravan as a base camp, rather than moving on every other night.  That way we can get to see and enjoy an area much more fully.  I think that was the biggest downside, that we were not in any one place for very long.  But it has given us a flavour of what there is to see, and we will be back again.

I think my top place to visit from that holiday had to be Skye, as there was just so much beautiful scenery.  As for my favourite camp site, that goes to the Altnahara club site.  So close to the Loch Naver, right out in the countryside.  Sometimes campsites can feel a bit like a car park, this one certainly did not.