#first tow

By Teresa Vanmalsawmi

#1

It was already dark on my way home, and I noticed the yellow light from the streetlamps reflecting off the tiny drops of sweat on the bald head of the rickshawalla, shaped like the alphabet U.

There's this thing I do with a friend of mine whenever we take a ride on a rickshaw. We make up backstories for the rickshawalla; she would start with something like, "Bhaiyaji is having a rough day today. He fought with his wife before leaving for work." And I'd join in with something along the lines of, "Do you notice how he keeps sniffling? His cold seems to be quite severe." "Yeah. That's why his wife told him not to work today."

And we would go on like this, back and forth, for about 5 minutes till we reach our destination.

Ready set...

Ha ha. Not just yet, first tow however. We had to tow it over to our local Caravan mechanic to sort out everything we need for Brake connection fitting. It was fun though and already had a lesson on how to reverse with camper attached! Successfully executed (with guidance of course) :) The Mazda is booked in next Wednesday for electric brakes and battery is on charge at the mechanics - Not sure if it’s going to charge yet. Fingers crossed it does so I don't get another cost added! Probably should explain here - When we bought the van, the battery was completely flat. My brother tried to charge with his charger, but nothing happened. The caravan mechanic said he has two different types of chargers so it might get going on one or the other so I gave it to him to test when we went there. It was nice of him to not just try and sell us a new one straight away which i thought was going to be the case.

It was interesting to feel the weight tugging and releasing at the back of the car as i drove along. I drove like a granny (sorry if you are a speed racing - rally car driving granny and you are offended by that) but to my surprise, the van hugged my tail quite tight around corners and haven’t hit any gutters yet. 

I can’t see out the back of the car at all and relying on my side mirrors for guidance. That was a weird feeling - particularly the feeling of not knowing what is behind the camper van. I can’t see if there is a car there or not! 

It was also another first for folding down / packing away the camper! It took a while and took quite a bit of strength at times. I flipped it at one point as me and my husband couldn’t get the lid (roof component) to fit down properly. After we wound it back up however, we realised the canvas needed adjusting and it was pretty straight forward. The door was a bit of a muck around too! We got there in the end. I think the more you do it, the easier it will become...I hope :)