Anyway, my 'Safari' Room came with my awning that Jen bought me for my 40th Birthday last year, and has been sat on top of the cupboard in the office ever since.
Last Wednesday, I had to bring Nina down to our field to pick up a ride on lawnmower, and as the weather was brill, I brought the 'Safari' room along to try out.
Its fairly easy to put up, although I didnt do a good job of it, I need to oractice a little more as the sides were stretched slightly and wrinkled and I didnt have the awning at the right angle, which was hard to see at the time, but is clear from the photos I took.
Just to remind you, my awning is a Fiamma Caravanstore Bag Awning, I like these awnings because they are so easy to fit, and remove if needed, you just fix an awning rail aling the roof line and feed the bag through it like you would an awning on a caravan. I had the same type of awning on my last camper, Scooby, they are easy to roll out and use, and once the legs are in place actually very rigid and strong.
It will double the living space, while keeping drifting rain from coming in the side door if left open which could be very handy. Obviously you would only use it if you were intending to park up for a period of time, without needing to drive off. I should say, these systems are intended for caravan use, where you would put it all up, then use your car to drive away. This would be ideal for me if camping the night before a show or something.
You can see it doesnt look quite right in the above photos, wrinkles on the roof bars, and a bit skew whiff, but for the purposes of making sure all the bits were there it was fine. Also you will notice I didnt peg it out, which willmake it look straighter too.
The front can either have the single doorway rolled up, or as in the second photo, the whole window section rolled up, or in fact the whole front rolled up, which would be really nice if you had a nice view eating your evening meal :).
It's easier to see in these photos how much extra living space is created, ideal if you are taking pets on holiday with you, or kids etc. You could set up an extra bed in it too if expecting friends.
The large side windows are clear plastic, but can be rolled up to let air through, with a handy insect netting left in its place.
I think it really suits Nina, what do you think ?
It's hard to show the inside without a really wide angle lens camera, I may take one with my iPhone fisheye lens next time, I didnt have it with me when these were taken. But I did take a couple....
This is from the rolled up front window looking in to the side door from the front of the room.
This is from just outside the side door looking out to the left and showing the front window rolled back down !
And finally this one is from just inside Nina looking out the side door. You can see here how much weatherproofing the Safari Room provides which can only be a good thing with our British weather !
Taking it all back down and packing away is very quick, Im pretty sure that once you got a routine (and you know what you are doing !), you'd have it all packed away in less than 20 minutes.
You do need a small pair of steps, especially with a high van like Nina, to fix it up to the roof, and if working on grass, make sure you have a board or something to place the steps on, or you sink the legs into the grass when you step on it, well I do anyway !
When I have learnt how to put it up nice and straight, and have it all pegged out, I will put some more pics up hopefully with some better photos to show you what the inside looks like.
Nothing else has really happened, I am currently selling my Canon Camcorder to fund the two windows at the back that are leaking the worst, so if it sells I may have some news soon that I can start work on building the interior and lining it ! :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Gloucester
No comments:
Post a Comment