Last post we introduced you to Harry, Barry & Larry, but mustn’t forget Harriet – the tunnel that connects Harry to the van!
Like the pods she zips in, but she also attaches to the van’s C rail. We bought an additional driveway kit, a joining strip between Harriet & the van, so she can be unattached enabling Nessie the van to go off out for the day, without having to pack everything away.
The driveaway is a little bit fiddly, but hopefully with practise we’ll get the hang of it!
L & R
The sad demise of Gary (the gazebo) coincided with the imminent arrival of Vanessa so it seemed sensible to replace him with something that could also be used as a van awning. With a bit of research we settled on just the thing – a dometic hub.
When we tried it out back in May some of you helped suggest names for the new addition to our camping family. And after some consideration we settled on suggestion of Harry the Hub. Why? Well, Harry has two pods (or techically annexes) which have been named Barry & Larry!
The pods just zip onto the central hub/gazebo meaning you can have whatever arrangement you prefer, including the option of a wall/door/window. On this occasion, which was the first van trip with both goats, both Barry the Bedroom & Larry the Lavatory were in use!!
The hub is 2.5 m square, so Barry is plenty big enough for even the tall goat to sleep comfortably in. The pod roof slopes quite steeply so we weren’t sure Larry was going to be tall enough to work as a bathroom, but it worked out fine.
With Harry, Barry & Larry, the Nessie set-up goes from petite to spacious! We are looking forward to more trips to try them out!
L & R
Recently I braved my first solo trip with Nessie. I took the opportunity to work out of the office in Basingstoke & afterwards stayed a night camping near Micheldever.
I’d forgotten how long things like checking tyre pressure can take on a new vehicle, but important to be safe. Fortunately the traffic was good & I wasn’t late for work. And I enjoyed showing her off to my colleague at lunchtime!!
The campsite wasn’t as hard to find as the instructions implied and it was a quiet site with just one other camping party. The site overlooked a stream & water meadow, so when I arrived I enjoyed relaxing with an after-work cider while watching the bird life.
I set up the inflatable awning just as the drizzle started and then tried a new recipe for dinner of beef barley. For pudding I attempted a stove top cake. (I’ll share the recipes once they are perfected).
The evening soon disappeared & it was time for bed. My plan had been to sleep in the roof and have the new toilet downstairs …but the new toilet didn’t arrive in time! Fortunately there was a flush toilets on site not too far from my van, so it wasn’t a disaster.
I decided to sleep up top anyway to try out the bed boards and I slept fairly well up there.
In the morning I went for a pretty walk to Stoke Charity past a lake & some former watercress beds.
I had a coffee back at the van before it was time to pack up. I was relieved to discover I could pack down the awning by myself without too much difficulty. Bonus treat, the campsite owner kindly packed me off with some rhubarb from his garden.
Here’s where I stayed Winchester Watermeadow and here’s my review.
L
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!!
L & R
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!
L & R
It was a cube!!… with exciting attachments!!
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.
L & R
Good job I was at home when this lot was delivered…
You’ll have to wait and see what’s inside!!
L
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!
L
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.
Further posts about gazebos available here.
L
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.
R
Embrace your inner goat 