However, the most memorable VAT moment on a campsite was our
previously mentioned attempt to have a fire. Now this counts as a genuine
bonus because it was a very cheap activity - just buying the wood at the store.
Add on (hard) labour costs and it does become less of a bargain however –
even though we had Emma’s frostbitten butt to take home as a souvenir!
Moving on from a campsite generally involved just reversing the setting up
procedure. One night when we were just going out for dinner this went a little
pear-shaped however. We drove off our plot and round the campground to
the exit but just as we were leaving we noticed a crowd of campers waving
and shouting to us. As soon as they attracted our attention I realised what
they wanted. It was not a 'good riddance to the British' unwelcoming
committee; I had forgotten to unhook us before we drove off! I jumped out
and found the electricity cable snaked out behind the van. Fortunately it had
just pulled out of the camp socket and not damaged this or damaged itself.
More fortunate than that was the fact that we had not been connected to the
water supply - a screw on connection that would surely have damaged the
site's pipeline or our water hose or the vehicle. Funnily enough we only forgot
once!
One additional factor to consider when leaving campsites was whether
or not to dump. Dumping was not as gross as it sounds. It merely meant that
because our van did not have a flushing toilet or a permanent sewer hookup
we had to empty the waste water (grey water) from our sink and the contents
of our chemical toilet down into a sewage hole every so often. Okay, so it
was as gross as it sounds.