GORV - Digital Magazine Issue #23 | Page 56

THE WALLABY TRACK WITH LIONEL MUSSELL CAUGHT NAPPING! ANYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG, WILL. YES, MURPHY IS VERY REAL. I was getting ready to do the washing when a ping told me I had an email. Oh dear – it was the editor asking for my column and I hadn't written a word! So I put on my thinking cap to recall some of the more interesting, frustrating and amusing things my friends and I have experienced over the years. LOCKED IN! At a caravan club rally about 10 years ago, one couple had gone to bed and all was quiet until around 3am when nature called and he needed to go to the loo. The door wouldn’t open! They were securely locked in. What he called his wife’s ‘noisy breathing exercises’ had stopped by now and she was also awake. I’ll let him tell the rest of it: “After using every knife, screwdriver, flexible lead and anything else that I could lay my hands on from within the caravan, the fact was we were still locked in. “I then began to examine the door in greater detail and concluded that if the worst came to the worst I could open the door window, cut a hole in the fly wire and unlock the door. Fortunately, I discovered that by putting a bit of pressure on 56 \ the fly wire it started to come away from the door frame and after some time and a considerable degree of patience I was able to slide my hand through the hole and release the catch – one hour and 10 minutes later.” How did it happen? Our couple had gone to bed early but their son-in-law had gone to their van and, thinking they were still out, had fastened the latch. I didn’t ask how the bladder had stood the ordeal or if they still needed the loo when the door was finally opened. STRUNG OUT It was, I think, 2009 and I'd bought another bike. It was bright yellow and if it fell off the back of the van, it should’ve been easy to find. I thought of having a string from it coming along the van and into the driver’s window so I would know at once should the bike go walkabout. But someone who knows me and our travelling companion said, “Don’t do that, with your luck you would get tangled up in the string and fly out the driver’s window!” READ FULL STORY