What cheeses me off? People walking through my campsite.
If there’s one thing I cannot stand, its people walking through our campsite. Not only is it rude and disrespectful, but it can also be dangerous. A couple of years ago, we were staying at a caravan park on the…
If there’s one thing I cannot stand, its people walking through our campsite. Not only is it rude and disrespectful, but it can also be dangerous.
A couple of years ago, we were staying at a caravan park on the coast of Western Australia. It was the March long weekend and we were advised by the caravan park manager that the park was going to be at full capacity. We told her there were no issues with that at all and that we were just grateful for them to be able to fit us in on short notice.
We were directed to our site which was in the centre section of the park. On one side we had a row of holiday cabins. On the other were other caravan park sites. We were right on the outer corner. All in all, a good spot.
We had arrived on Thursday and were all settled in. By Friday afternoon, the hordes started arriving and by Saturday morning, the park was chock-a-block. That’s when the problems started.
Unbeknown to us, this park was a regular holiday spot for a group of families and they usually arrange to have sites close to each other. For some reason, we had been put into one of their regular sites, in between them and their other friends who were in one of the cabins on the other side.
You don’t get too much space at many caravan parks so try to be respectful of others and don’t walk through.
Now, remember, we were on a corner block so for anyone to get from the sites behind us to the cabins, all they had to do was walk along the driveway, around our site and across to their friend’s cabin. Apparently, this was too much of an inconvenience. Instead, they would walk straight through our site. Not in the space between our site and the one next to us, but right through the middle of our site, under the awning, between our van and our car!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not so much of a scrooge that I cannot cope with the odd person walking through our site as a once-off but this was a constant stream of adults and children that increased during meal times and after-hours drinking sessions.
We both tried to be tolerant and not make a fuss. After all, it was just a couple of days. They would all be going home on Monday. Unfortunately, the problems just got worse.
These people were tripping over the service connections, one of which was for a television connection provided by the park as regular TV reception was not possible at the park’s location. I reckon I fixed that cable twice after it had been pulled apart by someone tripping on it, sparing me the loss of the $20 bond I had to put down for it.
Trip over these service connection and you can cause your neighbour some inconvenience or damage something.
The final straw came as we were sitting inside our van enjoying a quiet drink. Suddenly there was a loud bang, the power went out and we heard a cry of “sorry” come from outside the van. I went out to investigate and found the extension power cable connecting the car fridge to the external power outlet on the van had been ripped out of the socket by someone tripping over the cable, snapping off the socket cover. The apologiser was nowhere to be seen.
The moral of the story is, while it may not violate any park rules, it is unacceptable to just walk through someone’s campsite uninvited. It’s very rude and it can lead to unintended consequences. If you have to do it, either ask permission or walk along the boundary, away from service connections and other obstacles.
Remember the third caravanning commandment: Thou shall respect thy neighbour’s personal space.Yea, though thou may walk through the shadow of Uluru in the height of summer and survive, you’ll wish you’d taken the footpath provided if you walk through my campsite uninvited. And if thou trip over my power cord whilst my wife is watching the last episode of Married at First Sight, heaven knows no fury like her vengeance.