{"id":17471,"date":"2021-07-22T10:43:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T08:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=17471"},"modified":"2021-07-22T10:55:39","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T08:55:39","slug":"more-caravan-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/more-caravan-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"More caravan reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

I still believe that going for a caravan rather than a mobile home on the site where my new house will be built was the right thing to do. Aside from the transport aspect (it is much more costly to transport and site a mobile home compared to a caravan) there is also the logistical aspect. A mobile home must<\/em> be connected to a septic tank sewage handling system before you are allowed to move in which sounds OK in theory.<\/p>\n

However, all the house builders that I’ve spoken to include such a system in the house-build package and would be reluctant to allow someone else to install it because of potential insurance and liability issues in the future, which means at the very least that you’d be unable to move into your mobile home until the build was well underway and the septic tank system was installed and in working order. This wouldn’t suit someone like me who needs\/wants to move onto the site before the build has started or, as in my case, even before the builder has actually been confirmed.<\/p>\n

So that was the logic behind my decision and it’s now time to share some more of the realities of what daily life is like as a result. From the very beginning I took a decision never to shy away from any topic here on My Trike so it’s time to talk about emptying the caravan’s chemical toilet, something I’ve not been looking forward to and which I’ve been putting off as a consequence.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, to me anyway, I’ve managed to go for three weeks before needing to do so. I have to make a confession, however. I have taken measures – I’ll leave what those have been to the imagination of the reader – to limit the volume of liquid waste entering the Porta-Potti, which may explain why it’s gone so long before needing to be emptied. My initial expectation was that it would need to be emptied every week or ten days so for me, three weeks is a good result!<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, despite the red sector still only just showing on the indicator, it became more and more evident in recent days that the time to do the necessary was approaching (or indeed, overdue…), so this morning I was off bright and early at 7.00 am with the Porta-Potti’s lower section, down to the public toilets in Rouffignac to do what had to be done.<\/p>\n

Because even the villages here in the Dordogne use giant septic-tank like systems for their waste disposal, I’d specifically chosen Thetford’s (the makers of Porta-Pottis) septic tank-friendly chemicals in order to allow me to use the public toilet facilities in Rouffjgnac or Plazac so I approached the task full of confidence. I must say, though, I was surprised at just how heavy the Porta-Potti section was and I would advise anyone undertaking a similar task who finds the same as I did to handle it with great care in order to avoid any kind of unfortunate accident, especially when placing it in your car for transport!<\/p>\n

Before getting underway with the job, I decided to do a quick recce of the gents toilets to ensure that there was no-one else in there and having confirmed the fact, went back to the car and returned with the object of the exercise. Now, before continuing, I have to issue a cautionary warning to any sensitive soul, especially if they’ve just had their breakfast. I was full of confidence as I swivelled the emptying spout on the Porta-Potti and gingerly tilted it to start pouring its contents into the toilet bowl but prepared as I was for what was to come next, I have to say that I was still somewhat taken aback.<\/p>\n

Porta-Potti’s Youtube demonstration video is tame in comparison to the real thing. It uses a fresh-faced young lady with jewellery and full make-up who merely pours out clean, fresh water with a smile on her face. The reality is wholly different because what comes out could not be further from clean, fresh water and if you are unable to narrowly avoid the splash-back (I did thankfully), you can end up with a whole lot more than a smile on your face, I can tell you!<\/p>\n

My advice has to be ‘DON’T LOOK!’, but you have to, of course, in order to ensure the reliability of your aim because the last thing you’d want would be to spill any of this stuff on the floor and have to clean it up afterwards. The glugging sound it makes and the small surrounding splashes are stomach-turning enough and I can guarantee that you wouldn’t want to be ankle deep in this stuff and standing in front of the toilet pan when someone else comes walking through the door…<\/p>\n

But eventually the job is done and it’s time for the post-disposal clean-up. After what had gone before and I’d flushed the toilet about three times, I was pleasantly surprised, however, by how little was required. There was a wash basin on the wall and with a few swishes of several hanks of toilet roll soaked in water, the job was done.<\/p>\n

Sure, there was a weird ‘chemical’ smell hanging in the air in the aftermath but I’ve experienced much worse in other public toilets I’ve been in in France (much, much worse…). And if anything, the toilet itself looked cleaner than before I’d started. So that was it, after a hand wash it was time to pop the Porta-Potti back in the car and head off back to the caravan – for a hearty breakfast \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

On a lighter note, the window stays on both of the large windows on the south-facing side of the caravan are now broken. The ones in the bedroom end already were and I was using a length of wood to prop the window open but now the ones in the ‘salon’ end have gone too. I’ve ordered a pair of what I hope will be suitable replacements but I won’t know until they arrive in the next day or so. I hope that they work because with the temperatures that we’re currently experiencing, wide open windows are a must and broken window stays don’t help much in that regard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I still believe that going for a caravan rather than a mobile home on the site where my new house will be built was the right thing to do. Aside from the transport aspect (it is much more costly to transport and site a mobile home compared to a caravan) there is also the logistical … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17471"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17478,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17471\/revisions\/17478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}