We had a safety moment in a work meeting recently based on National Highway’s TRIP campaign – encouraging you to have a safe journey by Topping-up (fuel, screen-wash & oil), planning Rest breaks, Inspecting tyres & Preparing for adverse weather.
It’s not always easy for me to check Nessie’s tyre pressure as often she’s parked on a road that’s a bit busy, but this weekend I took advantage of the fact she was parked on a quieter road and that it wasn’t raining, to check her tyre pressure. Having just thought about the TRIP campaign I also took a look at the tyres. To be honest, even knowing all about the 20p test, I still wasn’t that sure – there were good deep main treads, but as I looked at each in turn, some tyres had fewer little treads than others, and I suspected that meant some of them had been worn away. One tyre also looked like the rubber wasn’t in great condition on the side either.
I did what I always do when I’m unsure about car things – rang a lovely man called Ian at a local garage. He doesn’t do tyres, but he said he’d take a look at them for me to see what he thought of them. He agreed that the front driver and rear passenger tyres could do with replacing. The front one wasn’t too bad, but he thought the back one was a bit deformed.
I didn’t like the sound of a deformed tyre, so I rang a local tyre company and yesterday Nessie got fitted with two new tyres! I learnt that you find out what your tyre size is by reading the big numbers on the side of it and that it’s worth ringing ahead as they had to order them in for me. They put both the new tyres on the front as apparently that will help their performance.
This was fairly expensive…but then I thought of how much I spent on some new boots for myself recently – the price was comparable and I won’t walk nearly as far in them as Nessie will drive on her wheels!!! Tyre issues are one of the most common causes of emergency breakdowns, so better safe than sorry… and I’ve decided not to begrudge Nessie her new shoes!
It turns out that, despite her name, my Nessie doesn’t like water!!
She & I have encountered two types of water recently – the first was the most spectacular, in the form of a ford! It didn’t look very deep and I could see plenty of other normal-looking vehicles in the car park just the other side of the ford at Frensham Little Pond, so Nessie and I ventured through. We made it out the other side, but there was a lot more water than I’d expected. The upside was that Nessie got a nice wash as the river water was relatively clean… the downside is that water went up the exhaust pipe for her heater.
I drove home a different way to avoid the ford, but I noticed a flashing red light I’d not seen before appear on the controls at the back of the van & my instruction manual said this meant you mustn’t use the heater. The little pipe that is the exhaust for the living area heater is quite low down (see bottom right of picture), so I was pretty sure there was water in there and that’s why she was unhappy. I contacted Sussex Campervans a few days later when it was still flashing and they suggested that I might just need to reset the heater & explained how to do that. But sadly, that didn’t work and the light has been flashing for a couple of weeks now.
I’ve been consoling myself that at least it hasn’t stopping the hob from working and that I rarely use the heater anyway. The last couple of days have been sunny and really quite warm, so I was hopeful that might have dried any remaining water out… and good news!… another reset today and now the heater is functioning again!
Given that it’s taken a couple of weeks for the water to dry out, the other form of water Nessie and I have encountered quite a lot of recently is rain! Her windscreen wipers are good, so she’s not too bad to drive in normal rain, but in the rain in the dark is another matter entirely!
On the way home from the Frensham Ponds trip it was dark and rainy and I found the driving hard and tiring. It wasn’t until I was nearly home I realised why – Nessie’s rock-and-roll bed means I can’t use the rearview mirror and I drive just using her fairly big wing mirrors. Only the wing mirrors and side windows get rain on them and, unlike the rear windscreen, they don’t have wipers. Combine that with the fact it’s just generally trickier to judge vehicle speeds in the dark (particularly when merging and changing lanes on big dual-carriageways) and driving becomes hard work.
The following weekend, Nessie & I were off to the New Forest and I knew we’d have a good couple of hours of driving in the dark rain on both big motorways and tiny twisty forest roads. This time I was prepared from the previous dark rain trip – and I put the bed down so I could use the rearview mirror and rear wiper. It felt much easier and safer to drive her that way. And now I know what to do, I’m feeling braver about tackling some more road trips!
I’ve got a plan for later this month – watch this space!
You will be pleased to know that not only did Nessie get festooned with tinsel on her dashboard for Christmas, but Santa brought her a new friend… meet Gilbert the Goat!!!
Fortunately Gilbert fits perfectly in the cup holder, so he’ll be able to travel safely when Nessie & I go adventuring!
Camping isn’t the only sort of adventure you can have in a van! Last week Nessie hosted an afternoon tea as a birthday treat for a friend. She provided sandwiches, scones, birthday cake & hot tea for the grown ups…and an exciting play space for a little boy! A happy afternoon for everyone!
Is camping in November a possibility? Well it turns out if you have a van it is!
I’m not sure this week was typical for November, but I’m still claiming it!! I wasn’t too sure what I thought of camping when the evenings are dark and chilly, so I thought I’d play it safe and try out a campsite that had been recommended to me by the River Thames in Chertsey. It wasn’t that far from home, but it seemed to take longer than I expected to get there, so I didn’t manage to arrive in daylight as I’d hoped. I had to wait until the morning to see where I was and discover the views of the river.
I had a cosy evening with Nessie. I had the stove burning a lot of the time as I made risotto for dinner and then a stove top sponge for pudding and then water for a cuppa and for washing up and for my hot water bottles. The stove kept the van reasonably warm – but what I hadn’t thought of was that with all the doors & windows shut, it also got quite humid with all the steam from the cooking. I took my laptop, but it wouldn’t work in the chilly damp environment (it’s fine again now I’m home, I’m typing on it now!). Even the matches I left out got damp and wouldn’t work!
The facilities at Chertsey are superior – but then you pay a lot for the site, so I’d have been disappointed if they hadn’t been! And I wasn’t the only one camping – there were lots of motorhomes, quite a few campervans and a couple of tents. Busy for a Thursday in November!! I think some people use it as a stop over if they are travelling via the M3 or the M25, but others seemed quite settled and were obviously planning to be there for some time.
After I’d had my breakfast I did my camp chores – the main one being dealing with the condensation in the van. We’ve had several days of still, misty weather. Even at home I’ve noticed my washing has been taking a long time to dry so just opening the doors wasn’t going to acheive anything much. Previously I’d used a microfibre cloth, but I hadn’t been that impressed, so I’d upgraded to one of those cellulose kitchen sponges. That worked pretty well – it was absorbant and I could easily wring it out.
Chores completed, I walked along the river a short way and then into Chertsey. There weren’t that many shops to browse, but I did find a delightful coffee shop called Revive where I treated myself to elevenses.
The camping and caravanning club sites are well run, but they like their rules – one of which is vacate your pitch by 12noon. But then, a brisk walk back to the campsite was probably no bad thing after the large slice of cake I’d had! The deadline also made me efficient with packing away the last bits – and I was home again in time for lunch!
Last time we went camping together we were fortunate to manage to pick a dry, sunny weekend – although the nights were a little chilly reminding us it was autumn.
We revisited a favourite campsite – Hale Farm. We hadn’t been for a few years, partly as we have to drive past some of our other favourites to get there, and party because it is often fully booked! The facilities had been improved since we last stayed, so we updated our review.
There are good footpaths for walking straight from the campsite. We had hoped to call in at the nearby cafe & village shop on the way home, but for some reason it shuts early on a Saturday!
It’s a great site for taking children as the farm is open each morning to visit the animals. There is something therapautic about stroking a friendly donkey! The farmer also sells lamb burgers, sausages and eggs – we purchased some burgers, but they are still in the freezer so we can’t give you a proper review of those yet!
What we can review are Martin’s cheesy balls!! You might remember this was a recipe picked up from a fellow camper Martin whilst on a road trip. Well, we’re pleased to report that they turned out to be very tasty! They worked well as a starter while we waited for our main of pulled lamb to slowly cook on the fire.
Here’s the recipe:
Martin’s cheesy balls
Ingredients:
Torn bread, egg, grated cheese, finely chopped garlic
Method:
Mix everything together and leave to soak. Shape into golf balls and fry in oil.
They will be crispy on the outside but soft and squishy inside.
Stealth camping is where you sleep in your van but not on a campsite. I wanted to try it out and thought I’d better get on with it before the weather got too autumnal, so the other week I made a plan!
I did quite a lot of planning. I wanted to stay somewhere I was fairly nearby, so I could drive home in the night if I decided to abort. But I wanted to go far enough away that it felt like an adventure – I didn’t want to sleep round the corner from my house!! I wanted to stay somewhere that was quiet, but not remote from other people. I was thinking a residential street felt safer than a car park, but I wanted to feel I was in the countryside.
In the end I had my dinner on Epsom Downs, with an amazing view of the London skyline. I then drove down to the edge of Epsom Common where there was a quiet residential street, with houses on oneside, but open to the common on the other. I arrived after dark, parked up by a property with a hedge, shut all my curtains and locked myself in. I didn’t pop my top in order to be more stealthy! I had a cosy time with a cuppa and a cake, doing my crochet while listening to a podcast and then I made up my bed and went to sleep!
Sunrise over the common
I slept pretty well, considering, just waking the once. I got up reasonably early, made my morning cuppa and took it with me for a walk. I was curious as I had seen another van the night before and I wondered if I perhaps wasn’t the only person sleeping stealthily! I’m pretty sure I wasn’t – indeed there could have been two others, but I couldn’t quite decide.
Breakfast in Horton Park
I then set off for Horton Country Park where I squeezed under the height barrier and then popped my top and made my breakfast. A quick wash up and I was home in time for the morning church service!!
Having survived my first road trip, I set about planning a bigger one – to Keswick in the Lake District.
The first night was a halfway stop over near Lichfield. I stayed in Cosy Nook campsite. It was indeed tucked away in a little nook – effectively in someones back garden! When I arrived, I wasn’t sure I was in the right place and pulled in across the road and rang because I didn’t want to run the risk of actually pulling into someones driveway!!
As I arrived fairly late and I was only there one night, I kept it simple. No awning and I slept up top in the roof bed, so I could have my little Boxio toilet in the downstairs. I had a nice pitch by the gate into the adjoining woods, but given I didn’t know the area I was pleased to be sleeping in Van-nessa and to be able to lock her doors.
The campers next to me were actually very friendly. A couple who lived nearby, but liked to escape in their motorhome. The husband seemed to be a bit of a gourmet and I enjoyed chatting to him about food. He shared with me his recipe for cheesy balls, so I’ll look forward to trying them out some time!
After a morning walk in the woods, I hit the road again. I was unimpressed to have to pay the M6 toll again – not good planning to break my journey halfway down it! Especially as Nessie wasn’t classified as a ‘car’ and had to pay more!!! (I spent most of my first experience on the toll road wondering how it worked and whether I would have to self-select my vehicle type and if so what the classifications were. In someways I was quite relieved that the toll booth decided for me what I had to pay, but shame it decided she was expensive!)
Terrible traffic on the M6, but it was made more fun when I spotted another NV200 with a pop top roof. He’d pass me, then I’d overtake him & he’d overtake me. Entertained me for quite a while! The driving north of Manchester got much more pleasant – quiet roads and nice views.
I arrived at the campsite to discover my ‘super service’ pitch was near the lakeside and have lovely views to the hills. However I hadn’t realised it was a fully hardstanding pitch – and I only had 4 metal pegs with me! Fortunately I’d arrived in time to rush to the nearest camping shop before it closed for a whole box of Gorilla pegs.
The other issue with the gravel hardstanding was that although I had mats down throughout the awning I could still feel the stones through which made kneeling down uncomfortable. I’d planned to sleep in Barry the bedroom so that I didn’t need to put my bed away each morning, but I only had a thin blanket to put over the groundsheet and below my sleeping mat. Then I had a brainwave – the bed boards from the pop up roof are cushioned. I made a little sleeping platform inside the awning and had a lovely soft surface to kneel and sit on.
The weather in Keswick was perfect – warm and sunny every day. The shallows of the lake were the temperature of bath water for paddling in! I’d time my adventure to coincide with the Keswick Convention so I enjoyed attending the evening meetings each day and going to some of the seminars. I had a few friends who were also at the convention that week, and they were all super kind in making sure they included me. What I had expected to be a solo trip was actually pretty sociable! Particularly I enjoyed going on some walks with my friend Helen and her family exploring a bit more of the local area, including a boat ride to walk round the other side of the lake.
After sociable 5 night stay in Keswick, I found it really hard to hit the road again on my own. On the last morning the thought of packing everything away on my own felt overwhelming, and the idea of driving off on my own into the hills felt very lonely. It wasn’t helped by the fact that having pack up, I left my bags of rubbish by my van while I popped into town quickly. By the time I was back the seagulls had pulled it all apart and spread it all over my pitch – yuck!!
I took the scenic route south through the Lake District, which was beautiful. I stopped in Ambleside for a coffee, but it was heaving. My learning point for next time is to plan something specific for the way home. That worked well on my first road trip where I visited the cave houses. This time, by the time I was on the road and started thinking of it, I didn’t know where to go nor whether I had enough time to fit it into my journey.
I felt super sleepy on the second part of the drive and I knew I had to stop as soon to keep safe. I pulled off at the next services, but at the junction saw a sign for a nursery, so I went there instead. I parked up in their car park and had an actual snooze followed by an enjoyable mootch round the shop. The cafe looked lovely but I was still feeling full of cake from my last stop. Much nicer than the services would have been, I’m sure.
I learnt from my M6 toll experience last time and had planned a different campsite to break the journey on the way home. I stayed at Springslade Lodge in Cannock Chase. It was a lovely sunny evening and I arrived in good time, so I put just Harry and Harriet up – using Harriet as a mini-bathroom. I was very flattered when the man from the camping group next to me said he’d been impressed how quickly I’d got everything set up!
For the amount I’d had to pay, I wasn’t impressed by the facilities. Sadly the cafe at the site wasn’t open the following morning, so I set off promptly planning to get brunch at my first stop. After the previous day’s success I decided to stop at another garden centre and found Bicester Avenue Garden Centre about the right distance away. This one turned out to be very different to the nursery – it was more of a shopping complex with various other stores as well as a huge garden centre. It made for a proper break though as I wandered round the shops (and made some purchases!) as well as eating in the restaurant.
Then there was just one more leg of driving before arriving home safely after my longest adventure to date!
I’ve got a bit behind with my blogging as I haven’t told you all about Nessie’s first road trip!! It involved 3 nights camping and 1 night at a friend’s house.
The first leg was to a drive to near Tewkesbury where I’d booked into the Winchcombe Camping and Caravanning site. Given that it was my first long drive with Nessie, I wanted to book a campsite with good facilities, where I knew what to expect.
The campsite was nice. It has good facilities (even music playing in the toilet block, which confused me at first!!) and is attractively arranged around a fishing lake. My pitch wasn’t by the lake, but it did have views to the hills.
The first challenge was to get the awning up on my own – not helped by the fact that it was pretty windy. Harry was a bit jumpy, but fortunately a kind man in a neighbouring caravan came to my aid. Another friendly camper was chatting to me later and warned me that her new (& expensive) awning had got ruined the previous night. I decided not to take any chances and put the storm-straps on – these are additional guy ropes for Harry and then Harriet had ones that go right over the van and get pegged down on the other side. I was relieved when we all survived the night with no damage.
The following morning I set off on a drive which I thought was going to be a couple of hours long… but 2 hours in, I stopped for lunch, with 2 hours still to go!! Highlight of an otherwise tedious drive was going over the spectacular & relatively new Mersey Gateway Bridge, which I’d not crossed before.
Eventually I got to my friends house where I was able to refuel with a cuppa before setting off with her to our next campsite…which was accessed via crossing a ford! Primrose cottage campsite was a simple site. Nice enough, but with one draw back – you could hear the motorway. It was the sort of sound that became background noise, so it didn’t disturb us, but I was disappointed that I could hear it.
After a good night’s sleep and bacon sandwiches for breakfast, we managed to beat the rain in getting Barry, Larry and Harry down. On our way back we pottered leisurely around via Rufford Old Hall (a National Trust property) and the coast, and that evening I had the luxury of sleeping in the house!
The following morning was Sunday so we went to Christ Church Liverpool for the morning service and then, after lunch, I hit the road again. Once more, problems on the roads led to me being re-routed. Around 4.30 I needed to be somewhere with wifi to make a video call – and I saw a sign to an Ice Cream Farm . I was expecting a farm shop, maybe some cows – but I appeared to have entered what looked like a teletubby world of adventure play and ice cream parlours! A very strange place to stumble across, but I enjoyed a pistachio ice-cream while I called my familly.
The rest of the drive to Wolverley Campsite was nice, but quite tiring. I was at my end when I arrived and couldn’t cope with the simple decisions the nice campsite man wanted me to make about which pitch and which way round I wanted to park etc! Fortunately he was kind and patient. It was another nice site and a sunny evening, so once I’d got set up I enjoyed a relaxing time eating my dinner and enjoying a glass of wine.
The site is right by a canal, so the following morning I took my mug of tea for a stroll along the bank. I then packed up and went on a mission to find the cave houses at Kniver, which a colleague had recommended to me. I enjoyed taking a look round, learning about the lives of the people who used to live there, tucking into a scone & cream and listening to the bird song in the woodland.
And then it was back on the road again! I stopped for a break at some services on the M40 – and I couldn’t resist parking next to another little campervan. Turned out to be another female solo camper, so we had a fun chat exchanging stories and tips.
This road trip is the most driving I’ve ever done in my life! But having survived, I’ll look forward to telling you about more of Nessie’s adventures soon!
Embrace your inner goat 