We waved our last guests goodbye with cheery smiles and promises to return next year, the site was suddenly quiet. Birdsong blasted all around just as the Warden announced to those of us not able to wave our final goodbyes that the final guest had left the building. Time to crack on, lots to do. Grass to cut, bogs to clean, bins to scrub, service points to close down, boarding up buildings, the list seemed never ending. All hands on deck, many hands make light work and all that.

The light starts to fade, we call it a day. Backs broken, nails broken and blisters on our hands we feebly head back to the Caravan for an early night ready to do it all again tomorrow and the day after…

The list gets smaller and the days go by, another shift ticked off the calendar. Light appears at the end of the tunnel, just a few bits to dust off and we call it a day. Site closed down, we’re done.

Bowl of soup, crusty bread and a cup of builders tea and we decide to do one final walk of the site, our Garden, whilst the sun is out.

It’s at this point that we realise we have developed an attachment for the site beyond our expectations. The hard work during the season and especially the last few weeks has the site looking beautiful. I call it my garden and sorry to say this next bit, my garden looks fabulous without Caravans, Motorhomes, pitch pegs, signage and clutter.

The Boss proudly boasts having cut every blade of grass, plus topped, faced and angled every hedgerow on multiple occasions. On a thirty acre site that’s no picnic. We realise we know every nook and cranny of the site and our mark, as is that of every preceeding Warden, is etched all over the place.

Before driving out we spend a further day scrubbing and cleaning our kitchen and bathroom in our compound, ready for next seasons team. The caravan roof finally gets a good, very much needed, scrubbing and we ‘wave off’ some of our colleagues before ‘waving in’ the winter staff.

I keep saying “this is the last time I do this” every time I do anything, the main Wardens are finding it funny, nearly as funny as when I returned a whole Stationers of biro pens I had accidentally taken back to our van one pen at a time in my pocket each day. They now think I’m a kleptomaniac, I recommend pens on chains for the next site.

Happy to be leaving site and going on our holidays, I have so missed ‘caravan time’ despite spending over two hundred nights in the Caravan, hope that makes sense. Sad to be leaving site too, we never expected that.

Sunday brought departure day and a heap of rain, we sat tight as the clouds blew over past the 12 noon departure deadline (Wardens privilege) before slowly maneuvering the caravan out of the compound at 1pm.

Final handshakes and hugs with Winter Warden Mike, who we worked with two months over summer and we are done, first season complete.