Touring
The best places to see autumnal colours
This will be my first autumn as a motor caravanner and I am keen to make the most of it. Can you suggest the best destinations for me to visit to find the most vibrant autumnal colours?
Carys Mayne, Stockport
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Answer
ELIZABETH SAYS
Sheltered Middle England is a good place to start – at any rate you need to go somewhere away from the strong westerly winds that remove or kill the leaves too early. Still air and possibly pockets of frost allow the colours to develop. Bodnant Garden, www.bodnantgarden.co.uk, protected in it's valley in North Wales is a fabulous place to visit and is one of the most beautiful gardens in the UK.
The majestic garden around Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire is also worth a look as this is full of huge specimen trees. Alternatively you could try one of the lovely Arboretums around the country, Westonbirt near Tetbury is magnificent.
You could also stay on one of the Camping and Caravanning Club Forest Holidays sites that are scattered around the country. For earlier colour the great swathes of purple across high moorland is fantastic. In the North York Moors there are beautiful trees in the Roseland valley and heather on the moors above.
UK stopovers
We are just about to buy our first motorhome but are concerned regarding the laws in the UK. Can you park anywhere for one night such as car parks or lay-bys? What are the laws concerning this, and do you have a list of stopovers?
Sue Davidson, Maidenhead, Berkshire
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Answer
ELIZABETH SAYS
In the UK it is illegal to simply stop on land that does not belong to you. You will often get away with stopping in quiet lay-bys but the police have the right to move you on.
If you fancy a quiet corner on private land you need to ask the owner's permission, the same rules apply on car parks, which are, after all, private. Motorway services often allow overnight stops but they tend to be expensive. This does sound rather negative but without these restrictions every corner of the UK would be filled with travellers.
Obviously if you are in a remote corner bothering no one you will be all right. As to legal stopovers, there aren't many places that exist and you tend to find them by chance, I know of one on the shore of Loch Eribol on the North Scottish Coast and there is a stopover facility at Broughshane in Northern Ireland. In addition, Canterbury City Council has designated one of its park and ride facilities to overnight stopovers in return for a small fee, so perhaps other councils will soon follow suit. Until then you will have to limit yourself to campsites.
If you prefer the 'wilder' experience you may wish to stay at smaller sites such as the Caravan Club's Certificated Locations (CLs) and the Camping and Caravanning Club's Certificated Sites (CSs), which offer minimal facilities in more rural locations.
Exploring the canals
We have really enjoyed doing a bit of canal exploring following the article in September's Motor Caravan and we would like to learn more about the canals and get out and explore them on foot. Can you help?
Ann and Paul Jackson,
Crediton, Devon
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Answer
ELIZABETH SAYS
A good series of guides to all the canals is published by Central Waterways Supplies of Rugby (tel; 01788 546692, sales@central waterways.co.uk). These are the 'Canal Companions' and each covers part of the system, such as the 'Severn & Avon' guide, which describes the stretch from Bristol to Birmingham. These are not heavyweight tomes but give historical background, current status, walking status plus helpful notes on food and drink and canal-side shops.
Once you are out on the waterways, if you call at one of the larger chandleries on the system you will find lots of great books and other guides to individual canals. The 'boater's bible' is another series of guides, the Nicholson/Ordnance Survey Guide to the Waterways, which are excellent guides but geared towards travelling on the water. There are also lots of canal walking guides, perhaps try your library as a starter.
Update on gas attacks
My wife and I are planning a grand tour taking a couple of months to visit many of the places in Europe we've always wanted to go to. One issue worries us, however, the reports of motor caravanners being attacked with some sort of sleeping gas and then being robbed. Having heard nothing about this for some time, can we assume that the thieves have moved on to more profitable ways of making money?
Mr and Mrs Herbert, Cheltenham
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Answer
MIKE SAYS
The number of attacks is just as it has been for the last few years – very few and invariably when motor caravanners stop overnight in lay-bys and in motorway Aires.
What has changed is the number of 'experts' that have come crawling out of the woodwork to say that in their view there have never been any sleeping gas attacks. Those that deny these attacks happen claim that the gas the thieves use would either kill people or smells so bad people would realise that something is wrong and get out of their motor caravan.
The published evidence clearly shows that the thieves only target those who they can reasonably assume are exhausted after a long day behind the wheel. Rather than putting the victims to sleep, the gas merely deepens what is already a deep sleep, often made deeper by dehydration.
The best advice I can give is to ensure you always stay on an established campsite, as there are no records of people staying on campsites being attacked.
