Did we survive two nights in a park home?

We recently required a two night stay in the Poole area in order to attend a family bereavement in early December. Not wanting to trust the dogs to take to kennel life we opted to take them with us.

Room for the Disco - just!
©Harveywetdog

We decided on a park home, or static caravan on the edge of the New Forest. The caravan met all our basic needs and the ready access to Hurn Forest for dog walking was a great bonus. Being winter the site was thankfully quiet. Park life sees the accommodation packed into the space available and Oakdene Forest Park is no different so I imagine there would have been a lot to bark at if the park had been busier.

When we arrived the caravan was freezing cold and took several hours to warm up to a comfortable temperature. The electric fire helped with this once we’d worked out how to use it. It is fair to say that some areas of the caravan are in need of attention but the kitchen/lounge area is clean and tidy and works well for an hour watching the TV. The bedrooms are compact and warm. A certain amount of contortionism is required to use the bathroom facilities but you are packing a lot of kit into a small space.

The basic boiler, hot water and central heating equipment worked well but was let down by the smart thermostat which I worked out was a Google Nest Learning Thermostat. Somebody had obviously been teaching it some bad lessons as it was constantly trying to override our setting and either ramp the temperature up to 32 deg C or down to 9 deg C until I gave it a stiff talking to. Of course all of this could have been avoided if some basic sets of instructions had been provided.

A mind of its own?
©Harveywetdog

Locking the main door, from either inside or outside, required a certain amount of skill which I’m pleased to say I’d mastered after a day of struggling. I did wonder if I was going to have to give it a squirt of WD40 but managed to avoid that. By the way I was told recently to squirt door fixings with a silicone based product and not WD40, but WD40 was all I had. Finally I noticed there was a lot of chemicals being used, toilet cleaners, air fresheners and dehumidifiers, and these all added to the fragrance of the accommodation. It was ok but some might find it over powering.

The park was kept to a high standard; the park staff were friendly and helpful; we did not use any of the park facilities (apart from the dog poo bins) but children appeared well catered for.

Excellent for dog walking
©Harveywetdog