The Nitty Gritty of Caravanning by Ken and Maureen Hay

This glove box sized book (A5) contains a wealth of information. We found Ken & Maureen’s advertisement in Caravan World and contacted them by email. To date, we have not found it in our local book or camping shops. Maybe they haven’t discovered it as yet as Ken and Maureen live in Western Australia!

The aim of the book is to pass on the experience Ken & Maureen enjoyed during their trip around Australia from May to August 2000. They bought the van to do the “Big One”, fell in love with the lifestyle and will do a lot more caravanning. Their target audience of people thinking about doing such a trip will grow in the near decade or so as many of the baby boomers take retirement and enjoy the rest of their life away from work.

Subjects covered include everything from choosing a van to what to take to their experiences on the road. It is published in Arial font, which makes it different from most books, which are published in a serif font such as Times Roman.

The first aid section in itself is a sufficient reference point to make the purchase of the book worthwhile. In case of an emergency, it would be very handy to have written information to help alleviate panic, especially if you are miles away from home.

There are many references to articles in magazines such as Caravan World or Caravan & Motorhome for further information. As it is not always easy to get back copies of such magazines, you might have to search around for these further details. National parks only get a tiny mention, correctly warning that domestic animals are not welcome there but there are no details of state forests, many of which allow dogs under owner control. These points could be addressed in the next edition or reprinting. There is no obvious mention of free camping. There is no reference to books such as Camps Australia Wide, Boiling Billy Publications etc. that would be of incredible benefit to travellers planning their journey.

We totally agree with Ken’s statement “The time is right for a re-think of the structure and function of caravan parks”. He points out quite rightly that there is a lack of accommodation for caravan and motorhome travellers when such parks encourage permanent residents, cabins, on site vans, resort style fittings such as 5 star restaurants, etc. Caravanners and motorhomers do not want all these extra services - our research shows they want a safe and clean place to stay overnight while they do their exploring during the day.

The front cover does not do justice to the book - the back cover is more impressive. We liked - the size (easy to use) and the honest content. We would have liked more photographs, as the sea of typed text is a little hard on the old eyes. To our knowledge there is nothing quite like it in the bookshops. As Ken & Maureen say “The book is intended to be a good read more than anything else - it is not a manual or a travelogue”. With that in mind, it would be an ideal to book to sit in a comfy chair beside the camp fire and dream…………