‘We couldn’t believe our eyes …We’ll camp very differently after this’

“We’d only pulled the awning back for 10 minutes and the damage had already been done,” the shocked Queensland mum reveals.

Having travelled around Australia with her family for the past six months, Bek assumed she and husband, Doug, knew all the ins and outs of what could possibly happen out on the road.

Recently, however, the mum-of-two from Jimboomba, QLD, was shocked to discover just how frighteningly easy her caravan could end up in flames in just a few seconds.

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A scary near-miss on the road

In early October, Bek, Doug and their two children, Ava, 8 and Connor, 6 had set up camp in WA’s Southern Kimberley region.

Just as they did every day, they checked the weather forecast - in scorching 40+ degree temperatures - before leaving their site to go out adventuring.

“We had just drawn back our awning as we were about to go explore Tunnel Creek National Park and there was a storm forecast for the afternoon with wind starting to pick up,” Bek, 35, tells Kidspot. 

Just as they were about to leave a few minutes later, however, Bek and Doug got the shock of their lives.

“We only had the awning drawn back for about 10 minutes before Doug noticed there was a melted hole in our caravan mat,” Bek recalls.

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Bek's husband couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered the burn. Image: Supplied

Unlike many camping accidents, this burn was not attributed to cooking, a fire or gas - but the most unexpected reason.

“We looked up and saw that the sun was reflecting off the glass on our caravan door onto the mat,” Bek explains.

“We started moving the door and worked out the exact point of reflection, and ran our hands over the reflection and it was very warm.”

Even for well-travelled campers such as Bek and Doug, this frightening discovery was a huge wake up call about how close they came to seeing their home on wheels burnt to dust.

“We have all seen the movie Toy Story, and learnt about magnification in science as kids but we personally had never seen this happen before in nature, and it did take us by surprise,” Bek says.

“It was also quite scary and we were very thankful that it just melted instead of igniting which from a safety perspective was a huge relief.”

Bek also thanks her lucky stars that the family had hung around the campsite long enough to notice the burn, rather than leave immediately after packing up. 

“If we hadn’t noticed it before we left for the afternoon we could have come back to a melted mat or even worse,” she says.

“It’s a scary reality that we could have come back to a burnt down caravan which at the end of the day isn’t just a caravan, it’s our home.”

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More than anything, Bek is grateful for their decision to use a camping mat throughout her family’s trip, as using nothing in that same area just outside the caravan would most likely have delivered a far worse outcome.

“If there was dried grass or leaves instead of the mat, we could have come back to a burnt down caravan, or the whole countryside,” the mum, who is documenting her family’s adventures via The Scenic Route Australia Instagram account, says.

“The mat is the best purchase we have made for this trip so far and we are so lucky the mat was actually down.”

A Queensland family were shocked to discover just how quickly the sun could turn their caravan into ashes. Image: Supplied

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An important camping lesson

Despite what has happened, Bek is confident that keeping the same mat for their onward journey through South Australia is the best decision they could make for her family’s safety.

“We absolutely love our mat and the fact that it just melted from this incident and didn’t go up in flames, if anything, has shown us that it’s safer to have the mat down then no mat and have the chance of dry grass or leaves catch fire. But we are also looking at putting up a small blind on the window to stop the reflection off the caravan door even with tinted windows.”

The hole was made from the light reflecting off their caravan. Image: Supplied

Her warning to other campers is not to take any chances.

“Since this incident, we have had many families contact us with similar stories and some more serious, where water bottles have burnt down cars and others have told us about their caravan mats also melting from the reflection in Tasmania in 20 degrees,” she says.

“Magnification can happen anytime, anywhere and it doesn’t even matter what the temperature is, all it needs is the sun to hit a window which can cause the sun's reflection to burn.”

Originally published as ‘We couldn’t believe our eyes …We’ll camp very differently after this’