Skipping For Joy

[ Camping ] Skipper Get-together at Fairhills Caravan Park, KZN

- Richard Van Ryneveld

I recently went on a trip to the South Coast (see Caravan & Outdoor Life issue 666), but before my solo travels got underway, I joined a gathering of Skipper Tent Trailer owners.

I collected a Skipper Oyster from the Kerkhof family at their factory in Park Rynie, before heading down to Fairhills Caravan Park near Margate.

There were 29 Skippers which were meeting at the resort, situated only a kilometre-and-a-bit from the Ramsgate beach and lagoon. It was a superb venue for the get-together.

The park is situated in the rolling hills of the semi-tropical coastal forest that is typically found in this part of the southern KZN coast. There is a large central camping area in a small valley at the bottom of the property, and the other sites are on two well-grassed contours above the central area.

Most of the Skippers were in the larger central area, and I decided to move around the collection in a clockwise direction and meet a couple of the campers.

The first couple, Terry and Charmaine, told me why they had bought a Skipper some four years before. Terry explained: “We were camping at Ifafa for the weekend in our Sprite Sprint.

That night, a helluva storm came up. The next morning, we saw that the some of the caravans’ tents which had storm straps had been wiped out.”

Shaking his head, he added: “While looking at the damage the next day, we saw two Skippers standing there, happy as you please!

Those Skippers, without storm straps, were standing just as they had been pitched before the storm.”

So the Demmers put their caravan on Gumtree, sold it within three days, and went straight down to Park Rynie to put in an order for a Skipper.