Lee Buchanan kicks off a series of motorhome mishaps on the path to becoming a proper motorhomer
Our motorhome adventure started when shopping for a kettle. We had spent a couple of nights camping at a lovely woodland spot. On the Saturday, the skies clouded over and, after checking a weather app, it showed light rain was expected for an hour.
Six hours of torrential rain later, we emerged into a lovely, albeit damp summer evening. Once the bbq was lit and a curry cooking away nicely, we reflected on those six hours with no way to boil water for tea as we had forgotten our camping stove. The following morning, we packed and headed for the local camping shop to buy a kettle.
Two hours later, we were the ridiculously proud owners of a two-year-old Elddis Sunseeker 115. Collection date set, we returned home and spent pretty much three weeks watching YouTube, reading MMM and trying to understand what to do.
Whilst we had been casual campers, we had no idea about grey water, toilet cassettes, gas lines or anything else! Collection day arrived and, after the paperwork was completed, we had a tour around our newest family member (christened MoHo) and the workings of it. Driving away from the dealer that first time was so nerve-wracking; whilst I am a confident driver, it certainly made me concentrate.
For our first trip away, we went to a site that we had visited before, one that we knew had good facilities, was easy to access and only 15 miles from our house. We checked in, drove to the pitch, connected the electric, filled up with water and gleefully jumped inside… to discover no power!
Now, we are total newbies – we’d had a 10-minute run through at the dealer, and it all seemed straightforward. Many presses of the main power button, various light switches and the water pump button later, we understood (gradually) that some functions worked and some didn’t.
Lights, good. Water pump, good. Microwave, bad. Phone charger, bad. Using the most scientific method possible, we switched-it-off-and-on-again and realised that the main power cable needs a firm push to seat it properly and, hey presto, power appeared as if by magic.
We had decided that we don’t want to cook in MoHo for two reasons: we don’t want the cooking smell inside and I really like cooking and I like to see what’s possible. So, our cooking method of choice is a Cobb BBQ, a charcoal-fired oven that has cool walls so can be placed on any surface. Dinner that night wa
