Autosleeper Amethyst

We've just taken possession of our new motorhome, our first foray into this type of camping. Although we've become quite experienced campers with a lovely 4 person tent and plenty of accessories which have softened the edges when away for a few days, there is no doubt the prospect of arriving at a site with little setting up to do and the guarantee of being dry, warm, fed and enjoying more space is a welcome one.

The vehicle itself sleeps four and includes everything from cooker to fridge to shower and toilet. It's a 1999 model but has under 22000 miles on the clock, fewer than a 1000 in the past 5 years. The sellers, KPC Leisure, have serviced the home, replaced the windscreen, put on new tyres, replaced the leisure battery and sorted out all of the advisory actions from the MoT. It is good to have the ability to power the home from three sources, electric, gas and battery. For our needs, when we will be largely on sites offering electric hook up, it really is going to be fantastic and we are looking forward to our trips to Cornwall and Stornoway already. I would love to be able to get across to France for a brief tour as well.

Joseph and Spencer were immediately in the overhead cabin playing zombies whilst we have the task of giving the interior a deep clean. There is a bit of dust and a sense of dullness due to the grey weather in part but also the fact the home hasn't been used much in recent years. A few homely touches to personalise the thing will make a huge difference.

We were also able to get a bike rack fitted prior to picking the home up and it is so much more straightforward than with the car. We will need to take one of the bikes apart i.e. pop the wheels off and to pack it in the home as I don't want more than two on the rack with the risk of overloading. Once on site, the bikes will be massively important as you can't really drive the motorhome into towns to park up.

I was very proud of being to get the motorhome parked in the drive with a few mm to spare either side after trimming back the hedge somewhat.It's 2.2m wide, 2.9m high and 6.2m in length and it isn't till you get it in the drive you realise just how huge it is. However, if you're going to get four people staying in there with some comfort, the bigger the better I guess.