Well, not really her maiden voyage – we’ve already been enjoying brewing up lots of cups of tea in her and eating choc ices out of her freezer in various locations. But this weekend she had her maiden overnight trip!!
We didn’t venture far, as we needed to call in a Sussex Campervans to collect her bed boards (to enable someone to sleep in the pop up roof). And then we had a very enjoyable, if expensive, look round CampingWorld which is also near Horsham. We treated Nessie to a hook-up wire (so she can use campsite electricity), a fire extinguisher and a collapsible kettle.
We then, finally, made our way to Bonnington Farm campsite near Billingshurst. The forecast had been rain, but we were very grateful for beautiful sunshine to try out the awning for the first time.
We’ll do a seperate post reviewing the awning in detail, but we were pleased with it. With one goat in the awning and one in the van, everyone slept well.
As it was sunny, we opted to cook in the dutch ovens for our evening meal. But we cooked breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches in the van… as well as many hot drinks from the new kettle!
There is much optimisation of the packing systems to be done yet – but that’s all part of the fun!!
We’ve a new addition to our camping family – Van-nessa, or Nessie for short!
She joined us at the weekend and we’re enjoying getting to know her. She is a CamperCar – a converted Nissan NV200. She’s very easy to drive – well once you’ve got used to not being able to see in the rear-view mirror that is! You’re high up so you get a lovely view of the world. She’s also easy to park as she is no longer or wider than many cars (and smaller than some of the large cars on my street!).
So far our adventures have been limited to stopping in nice places on our way home, boiling up cups of tea for friends and last night driving to have fish’n’chips with a view… but we are looking forward to many more. And we’ll be sure to tell you about them!
Following Gary’s sad demise, a new gazebo was in order. This isn’t just any gazebo… but more of that to follow!!
We were grateful that it arrived in time for our latest camping trip as Monday was pretty rainy. We abandoned our plan to walk the fourth part of the pilgrims way (again more on that to follow) and instead hunkered down in the gazebo with mugs of coffee.
Fortunately it wasn’t rainy enough to prevent us cooking breakfast – this is our latest breakfast find, Irwin’s potato breads. Available in Sainsburys in packs of four, they are easy to warm up on the days when you haven’t the time to make potato cakes from scratch. It was pleasing to discover that 4 fitted perfectly on the griddle pan that cam with the primus stove. We had them with bacon and fried eggs – tasty way to start the day.
You already know that goats like to camp in style, but last week I was super brave and not only tried out campervanning for the first time, but also did my first night of lone camping.
The advantage of a van is that you can lock the doors, so it gives an added feeling of security to camping on your own. Driving this van was actually quite easy and it’s not actually any bigger than a big-ish car. I tried it out in a couple of car parks as well as on country lanes and dual carriageways. It’s an NV200 and hired from Sussex Campervans… I’m very tempted to get my own one!
I tried sleeping in the top bunk the first night and the main bed the second night. Sleeping up top would take some getting used to, but down below I slept very comfortably. I stayed at Riverside Farm Campsite. It was a lovely location by the river, but I felt it was overpriced for what it was.
The first night I tried out a new recipe and cooked it in the van – mushroom risotto. Very tasty. For pudding I had one of those little individual pots of fruit salad. The photo is of the second night when I cooked Rowbury Lamb stew over the fire for dinner – also very tasty!
Firstly, for anyone new here – don’t be overly alarmed, Gary is the name of our gazebo. But within the context of injuries suffered by camping equipment, poor Gary is in a bad way. His first substantial injury was sustained last summer, but I patched him up using piece of string. Sadly a further worse injury was sustained this weekend!
Given it’s nearly Easter my neighbour and I were hosting an egg hunt in our gardens for our neighbours. Gary had the important role of keeping the rain off the hot cross buns! About 10 minutes before the guests were to arrive, I noticed Gary wasn’t looking too good!! Firm peggy of the guys sustained him through the morning, but with tears on two sides, I don’t think he can go up again without substantial repairs.
He served us faithfully throughout lockdown and for many camping trips and garden parties. He’s been up in the wind and the rain and the snow and the baking sun – and his insides have been smoked by our cooking fire! We’ve had good use out of him and I guess it’s to be expected that it’s taken its toll on him.
It looks like the roof canopy should easily detach from the airbeams, so replacing the canopy should be possible in theory. A practical problem might be that the Air Vale shelter has been discontinued, but we will see if we can source one somewhere. We’ll let you know how we get on.
The new camping season has arrived! So we thought it was time to try a new campsite – Sussex Topiary Campsite near Horsham.
The first question when we arrived is where is the topiary? There are trees, but we couldn’t see any pretty shaped ones! The second question was where’s Reception?! The first place we tried turned out to be a derelict shed! Turns out there’s a house amongst the static caravans that’s the Reception.
We arrived on a sunny day, but it had rained all week so the camping field was very boggy. Instead we were given a hard standing pitch.
The hard standing pitch was gravel and it was good as it meant we didn’t get muddy. However, we don’t have any hard standing pegs! We made do with what we had, but it was hard work to hammer them in with the mallet… and once they were in they didn’t necessarily stay there! When hammering the plastic pegs from our Kampa tent (AKA Alice) I managed to split one of them in two right down the middle!!
Needless to say we were the only tent on the site! There were half a dozen caravans who looked like they might be fairlly long-term residents. The caravan next to us had a good set up with a nice awning. Our neighbours on the other side weren’t doing so well & had keeled over!!
We didn’t use all of Alice’s humps, just the maim tent & the vestibule door. But we were still able to have a bedroom each, a palatial en suite in the middle hump and a kitchen area in the vestibule. The vestibule was just big enough for a kitchen table with our stove, two chairs & a coffee table. It was just as well, because it rained overnight & all the following morning!!
The site is well located to access footpaths so on the Saturday afternoon (when it wasn’t raining) we went for a walk to build our appetite for dinner. The Downs Link path is nearby and is a good path using what looks like an old railway track. Sadly the track back to the campsite wasn’t so good. A bit muddy, turned to very muddy…and then to completely flooded quagmire! There was no way I could get through in my walking shoes, but the other goat had her wellies on, so she sloshed through to look for alteratives. I thought she’d disappeared completely, but she eventually reappeared having found an alternative route – through a field & over an electric fence!!!
Sunday morning we hunkered down in tent waiting for the rain to stop and enjoying the slower pace of life that camping enforces. When the rain stopped we moved to sitting outside by a fire waiting for the tent to dry.
I was really pleased that even though Alice is made of fabric, she dried out pretty quickly. I’d packed towels so we we were able to wipe down the remaining wetness on her windows to pack her away. I bought her with a seperate footprint groundsheet so that means the bottom of the tent stays clean & dry for packing away.
Overall we feel much refreshed for our trip and excited that the camping season has returned. The campsite is in need of some TLC in terms of cleaning & upkeep, but has potential…we’ll share our scores soon.
Last weekend’s adventure was planned to start in civilisation, so I thought I ought to clean my walking boots to look vaguely respectable! Although I’m always careful to dry my boots, I rarely do anything else & they usually bear the muddy souvenir of the last adventure. Consequently it had been a long time since the tread on the sole had been visible, so I got a nasty surprise to see that the outer sole had worn away on one heel. There was a hole where I could see through to the spongy inner layer of the sole.
I love my scarpa boots they are leather & goretex (taking no chances!) and extremely comfortable. My first thought was to get them re-heeled, but I’m not sure that’s possible due to the spongy layer. I also had to acknowledge that the leather on the top was showing signs of cracking.
They’ve done me well, I’ve walked hundreds of miles in them & only once had a blister. I guess I have to accept its time to start looking for a new pair. In the meantime I intend to wear them entirely into the ground.
Towards the end of last weekend’s walk I was faced with a long stretch of path that resembled a steam!
It was so deep I had to walk on tip toes to avoid the water over topping my boots…but do you know, even with the cracks & worn soles, my toes were toasty & dry. Grateful to my good old faithful walking boots!
Yesterday I received a mystery gift from a friend. She’d brought it back for me as a souvenir from her holiday, and she wanted me to guess what it was… could you guess?!
It’s the size that fits into the palm of my hand. I worked out that the black bits on the corners were little stoppers which opened. I read that it said ‘light my fire’ on it… but I could think what it could have to do with fires. I was stumped.
I asked for a clue and she made it do this:
… are you any the wiser? The lid opens and its got three little compartments inside.
The last clue is that two of the black corner stoppers have on them the letters P and S.
Shall I tell you?!
It’s a camping salt and pepper shaker! Isn’t it a fantastic gift for a girl who love camping?!!
Suggestions welcome for what spice/condiment I should put in the third compartment!
We’re conscious we haven’t blogged for a while. Sorry!
We have done a few more sections of the Greensands Way, we’ve just not been very good about telling you!
But for the new year we’ve another challenge we’re tackling simultaneously – walking the River Meon. You can read about more about this, and our first section where we went to find the river’s source, on our new River Meon walk page.
Embrace your inner goat 