Back at the beginning of the summer we had ordered and taken delivery of yet another drive-away awning; I had spotted a Sheltapod whilst reading a post on a campervan group and was very taken with it’s versatility and simplicity. It arrived on a glorious day and within minutes and still in my pyjamas, I had it unpacked; only to find they had sent the wrong colour! The box definitely said the awning was orange, as we’d ordered, but the awning inside was grey. I immediately found and started a live chat with the company to see what we needed to do. It only took a few minutes to sort out the problem. We were given the option to either send it back and wait a few weeks for a replacement or keep the grey one and they would send us a blackout screen, free of charge. Well what would you do? I thanked them for their help and carried on unpacking the awning. We were checking all the parts when we discovered one of the poles was broken. So it was back to the live chat where I attached a photo to get it sorted out. I have to say, Sheltapod’s after-sales customer service was second to non that day and, true to their word, the blackout screen and a new pole arrived the following day.
As our garden was way to small to fully erect the awning and I was desperate to try it out we decided to take it along with us on our annual family picnic in Clumber Park. The park is vast with areas of woodland, heath, pasture and a lakeside visitor centre, criss-crossed with country walks and cycle trails. I have been going there since I was a child and we have taken our children and grandchildren regularly. We generally turn up one of the side roads and find a small grassy spot we can call our own for the day. Needless to say, as ever in this family, nothing went entirely to plan. Firstly, we had to pre-book at £5 per adult and £2.50 per child making it double the old car parking cost. Thankfully we are members of the National Trust so Paul, myself and all the kids were free. But pre-booking meant that we couldn’t choose not to go if the weather was bad. It was a cool, dull day. We umm-ed and ah-ed but decided to risk it. We should have known the day was doomed when we got to the A1 and joined the three lanes of very slow moving traffic through the roadworks. Kate was even more unfortunate, ending up having to wait for an accident in the middle of the roadworks to be cleared.
On finally arriving at our destination we found that no-one was checking our bookings on entry to the park. We just drove in as normal and headed towards our usual spot; only to find that due to this ghastly COVID, Clumber Park had shut off every side road which meant we couldn’t get to any of our usual little picnic pogs. They were only allowing folks to use a handful of areas along the main drag. Which made social distancing a bit of a joke since everyone was herded into the same few places. We didn’t want to go down to the visitor centre car parks since they were just that, with nowhere to set up our picnic or for the kids to play so we drove the full length of the park, finding nowhere which wasn’t right on the roadside. Our frustration levels were at boiling point as we turned around and returned to the start of the main drive where there were a couple fields open. By the time we finally found somewhere to set ourselves up Kate had arrived. The boys all headed off into the woods to play pirates or fight Fortnite battles whilst the girls helped set up the picnic. We did have a brief spark of excitement when they found a tiny toad which, of course, had to be examined.
Paul was in his usual family gathering grumpy mood and the atmosphere was more sullen than cheerful; which wasn’t helped when the family trying out their trailer tent nearby let their little terrier type dog wander into our little enclave, upsetting our dogs who were on their leads, as they should be. We tried to shoo it away but, because it could smell our food, it wouldn’t budge. It’s owners did nothing until Netti grabbed it by it’s collar and hauled it back over to them. They were that awful type of dog owner that thinks their dog is so sweet and harmless that it can’t possibly be a nuisance and everyone should love it’s antics just like they do, so they continued to let it roam free and it returned to us within minutes. It took a bit of pointed chuntering and gesticulating at them on my part but they eventually got the message and came over and took it away.
Despite all these frustrations I still wanted to try out the awning but by now the mood was positively surly and Paul was very reluctant so it was bound to go wrong. It all started when the instructions disappeared; I thought they had blown away in the now stiff breeze; and we had to put it together by guesswork. Since we haven’t yet fixed an awning rail to the van we had to use the straps thrown over the top of the van to hold it in place; not easy against the wind. We managed to thread the poles in but then couldn’t get them onto the pins to hold them in place. We finally got it setup and rolled into sun canopy mode so we could sit and enjoy our picnic. One cup of coffee and a few sandwiches in I looked over the top of the van to see the blackest clouds I’ve seen in a long time rolling towards us. I just had time to utter the words “It’s black o’er Bill’s Mother’s” before the breeze turned into a pre-storm wind, the temperature dropped and we felt the first spots of rain. We hurriedly unfurled the awning from sun canopy to full awning; one of the versatilities of the Sheltapod; fetching the whole picnic under cover before the storm broke.
And it did. As the lightening flashed and the thunder crashed the rain lashed at us, blown sideways by the now howling gale. There were eight of us huddled in the awning with the rest cowering in the van and cars. We were stuck there for what seemed like an age waiting for the storm to blow over. I do have to say though that the awning stood up well to the battering. As the thunder rumbled into the distance and the skies brightened the rain turned into that thin drizzle which seems to seep into every nook and cranny. We packed away the remains of our now soggy picnic and decided to call it a day. The rain seemed to be dying out and there were a couple of small patches of blue sky, but not enough to make a pair of sailors trousers so rather than wait any longer we took advantage of the break in the rain to take the awning down. Since it was wet through, once the poles were out we just bundled the whole lot into the back of the van. We were a very despondent group as we drove away from the park. What was annoying, though, was that by the time we arrived home the sky was blue, sun was shining and it felt like a mini heatwave! Well at least we could get the awning hung out to dry.
Love the tiny toad
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