campervan adventures

A working holiday

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The problem with having a van is having enough leave days to enjoy her! Only, I think I’ve come up with the solution…

My employer has offices all over the country – what if I worked out of the different offices and camped nearby? Then I could have a road trip without taking any leave at all!!

Such a simple idea, but more complicated to plan than I thought. Once you’ve taken out the days when personal commitments require you to be at home, and days when work commitments require you to be somewhere in particular, and discovered some of the campsites you were hoping to try out are only open at weekends, the logistics take some thinking through.

Finally I came up with a plan to camp near Ropley for the weekend and then head into the Basingstoke office. Then after work to drive to Horsley and stop for the night before working in Guildford the following day. Then finally driving to Yalding and working out of the Maidstone office.

The site at Ropley was nice and I was joined by a friend which added to the fun! We went to Jane Austen’s hours on Saturday afternoon and explored Alresford on Sunday. Right by our campsite was a little church on it’s own in the woods built in 1883 to give charcoal makers and seasonal workers access to church. Services are still held twice a month and we were lucky that our trip coincided with being able to join them.

The Horsley site is luxurious with good facilities and situated round a lake. It was busy even though it was mid-week. I enjoyed being able to have my breakfast sitting at the lakeside before venturing into the office – where I was relieved that Nessie fitted in the basement car park safely!!

The trip to Maidstone was the one I thought would be most stressful as the campsite said check in was only between 5pm and 6pm and I wasn’t sure the M25 would be compatible with that level of precision at rush hour! Fortunately my meeting finished early so I could set off early, and arrived at the campsite 5.45pm. It was quiet, being as it was a Tuesday evening, so I was able to park by the river, and being there early meant I had the whole evening to enjoy it. I even got to watch a kingfisher through my binoculars from the van.

In the end, this leg felt the most like a proper holiday, waking up to a view of the river and, after my day in the office, popping in to Maidstone for an ice cream. Delaying my journey home also had the benefit of meaning I wasn’t on the M25 at rush hour.

This is definitely something I’d do again! Maybe venture further afield and try out some other offices.

L

PS Reviews of the campsites I stayed in will follow in a seperate post

Now we’re cooking with gas!

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I am hoping to go on a mini road-trip sometime soon, but it’s been much more complicated to organise than I expected. The main problem is trying to coordinate being away with various work and home commitments, but there are a few practicalities too – one of which being that the one of the gas hob rings wasn’t working. Cooking on one ring is okay for a night, but would get frustrating on a longer trip.

After a bit of googling I decided that it was the thermocouple that was the problem, found this video about it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZcfYDh9we9w … and with a bit of moral support from my dad, I’ve fixed it! All ready for the road!

L

Not all van adventures involve sleepovers!

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Recently I went to see the bluebells on Ranmore, near Dorking in Surrey, with some friends. We parked at the car park called Ranmore West and walked west towards Dunley Woods and Old Simms Copse and found some lovely swathes of bluebells.

Once we had got back to our cars, Nessie offered everyone tea and cake in the sunshine!

Better still, I had evening plans in the area, so once the others had gone I cooked up my supper. I used those packets that are meant for microwaving, but if you read the backs of some of them they say you can also add a little water and cook on the stove. I had rice and green thai curry – which is vegetarian and sold by tilda as a ‘tasty side’. Very quick and easy to warm up… even when one of your stove burners has stopped working!

L

PS there is no height restriction on this car park, but if you’re not at National Trust member, you have to pay. There are other car parks nearby which are still free.

Fairy-lit trip

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Second trip of the year for Nessie, but first for the two goats together, was to our old favourite Stoneywish campsite. We love it there – it’s easy to get to for us after work, the campsite is relaxed without to many rules and you can easily go for a walk on the downs or just mooch around the local village. Facilities are few, but fires are allowed!

We always enjoy people watching at Stoneywish, it’s a firm favourite with those living the van-life, so there are a wide variety of semi-permenant set ups, with people going to & from work, as well as families and groups of friends. Our favourite was when we happened to be there over Beltane and were pitched next to a group of witches – watching their ceremony was our evening entertainment, while we cooked our dinner in a cauldron over our own fire!

The neighbours we were people watching this trip had fairylights up… so not to be out done, we got ours up too!!

Fairylights are an excellant car camping accessory – not only do they make your pitch look magical, they are great for finding your way back to your tent in the dark. If you string them down the guy ropes, you can also help prevent people tripping over them – a hazard that can be genuinely dangerous as one of our friends discovered a few years back.

We had two sets of fairy lights with us, both of which are solar powered and both of which wind into their own little round plastic case making them suitable for outdoor use. Both sets were gifts, so I can’t actually post you links to either as I don’t know where they came from! The ones in the photo are very pretty and will also do different colours, if that’s your thing. The others have just a few lights, but you can turn them up so brightly that I can happily cook by the light of them under our gazebo.

An extra bonus of our stays at Stoneywish is that we are often joined by a local friend for a meal over our campfire. It’s quite fun to ‘host’. This time we cooked up Martin’s cheesy balls, spaghetti bolognaise and chocolate brownie pudding with chocolate custard.

Stoneywish has a nature reserve, but we’ve still never been to it!! This time we walked up the south downs and turned left, coming across the pleasant surprise of the pink pit stop – a drinks van with a customer portaloo! We then came back down through the agricultural college where we had our packed lunch in the churchyard and then back through the woods where we were treated to a wonderful display of bluebells. We had to get some good steps in as we were training for Isaacs Tea Trail in Northumberland… but more of that in due course!

L & R

PS thanks to our friend who has already replied and sent me a link to the fairylight birthday gift!

First trip of 2026

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After a very long break – it felt good to get back outdoors last weekend! Two days walking in the surrey hills, the first from Ockley northwards. We were aiming for Friday Street, but only got as far as Leith Hill, where we rewarded ourselves with a mug of tea with a view (purchased from the tower) and headed back south.

The second day we did a bit more of the Greensands Way. We started at Hurtwood Car Park no 1 and headed east towards Leith Hill. We didn’t go up this time, but then headed north over Abinger Common and then back round via Holmbury St Mary and through the Hurtwood. Here’s our route. The views from Holmbury Hill at the start are spectacular. However, car park no 1 is slightly terrifiying – the steep sandy entrance is severely rutted and I’ve no idea how poor Nessie made it up to the top!

In between the two walks, I did my first night in the van. A BritStop at Village Greens Farm Shop, Ockley. A bit of a trial run getting ready for the season ahead. Before I set out I refilled Nessie’s water tank and got the pump working, and one of the gas rings was working – but I could not get the other gas ring to stay alight nor can I get the heating to work!! That said, if I can do without heating this weekend when the temperatures was 1C overnight, then probably doesn’t matter (and I’ve got good at ignoring the light that’s been flashing for months!!). I just wore a lot of layers – 3 thermals and a jumper for sleeping, and had my hot water bottles and I wasn’t cold in the night (well only my nose when it poked out of my sleeping bag cacoon!). When I woke up in the morning and tried to look out the window, there was ice on the inside and outside of the van!

farm shop

Dinner was beef stroganoff (which it turns out is fairly straightforward to cook on one gas ring!) followed by shop-bought apple pie and some custard. Given that the days are still relatively short, I thought I’d have lots of time to kill and might do some sorting out of the various cupboards in the van, but I didn’t! What with cooking and an audiobook and a knitting project, the evening passed quickly and happily.

Looking forward to the next trip already!

L

Nessie’s all hot and bothered

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What could be nicer in a heat wave to go camping? That’s what we thought last weekend – especially as Nessie had been fitted with a new leisure battery, so we were hopeful of ice cubes in our drinks and maybe even some choc ices!!

We decided to go back to Hook Farm campsite as it is a an attractive site if you end up spending most of your time lying in the shade with a book. We hadn’t been there since August 2021 and it was nice to reminisce about our many previous happy trips there as we drove down the familiar roads.

Various shaped tents including a gazebo and a toilet tent pitched in long grass with trees surrounding.
A previous trip to Hook Farm

One of the things that makes the campsite attractive is the undulating nature of the site. Unfortunately that has a couple of downsides – one is that it’s hard to find a flat pitch, you just have to accept that everything will roll off the table and that you’ll slide down your tent in the night! Fortunately we have some little wooden wedges we keep in the bag with our Primus stove, so at least our cooking was safe! We have previously purchased some non-slip table mat stuff, but being as we hadn’t used it in years it was no longer in our camping box, so we didn’t have it with us!

I arrived first in Nessie, so it was my job to choose a pitch. I took it very seriously considering where the sun would rise and set, and which trees would give shade earliest. I was careful not to drive down any steep tracks given the experience of the other goat a previous time when the ground was damp and we nearly had to call the farmer to be pulled out as her wheels spun and spun in the mud!! However, even with my caution, I still got into trouble, as poor Nessie could not do any sort of gradient at all over the bumpy grass! There was one bit where I’d tried everything I could think of – reversing, a less steep bit of slope, low gear, and her wheels just kept spinning. I was going to give up and cry when a grannie came over and suggested to me a way I could reverse out onto the track. Fortunately her advice worked and once we were on the track again we were ok. I had located what I thought was the best spot, but sadly there was just no way Nessie could get there, so I drove back to the gate and waited for the other goat to arrive.

Fortunately there was a nice area by the gate where no one else was camping yet, so we decided to leave Nessie where she was and camp in that part of the field. Being as the weather was boiling, I slept in the awning (Barry) without it being attached to the van. You wouldn’t want to do it in rainy weather, but actually it was nice to see a view of the moon out the door and to wake up to a view of the clouds and trees.

We tried a new set up to try to make some shade. Our tarp skills aren’t very good, but we were pleased that it lasted all weekend. We used the shepherds hooks which worked better than tent poles as we could mallet them into the ground.

A fawn coloured square tarp casting shade over two camping chairs and atttached to a black gazebo tent.
Our tarp set up to make shade

We did very little on Saturday other than go for wander in woods and take a walk round the site to look at everyone else’s set up. There was lots of wildlife to see & hear on the site – a red kite, lots of butterflies, grasshoppers & crickets, song birds, but best of all was our sighting of a family of weasels as they scurried along the hedgerow! Neither of us had ever seen weasels before, so it was a real treat.

Sadly the new battery didn’t do the trick and the fridge died before the weekend was out. Fortunately we had other ways of keeping things cool … but another post to follow on that.

Sunday we packed with trepidation hanging over us – would Nessie make it up the steep drive?! First attempt she wasn’t happy as two wheels were on grass, but with a bit more reversing we managed to get all four wheels, on to the dirt track, put her in low gear and she made it!!

Poor nessie, this wasn’t her favourite camping trip!

L & R

Hiding from the builders

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Currently I have builders in. That’s a bit like camping in your own house!! I’m quite practised at camping, so that’s ok, but they’re envitably a bit noisy and they don’t need me getting in their way. Last week the sun was shining and I had a day off work, so I took myself off for a last minute camping trip in Nessie to hide from them!

In background silver campercar with the roof popped up. In front of it a chair and table with a glass of wine. In the foreground a small campfire in a msh firepit.

We didn’t go far – we just went to Etherley Farm, near Leith Hill. I booked last minute on the pitch-up website at lunchtime and that evening I was sitting in a field in the sunshine with a little campfire.

We’d been before there years ago. Since then the site has expanded to two fields and I am pleased to report that the toilets are now in a barn not a converted shipping container! I’ve updated our review here: Etherley Farm

Being as my house was full of builders, Harry, Larry, Barry & Harriet had all travelled with me in the boot. It wasn’t worth pitching them all for one night, so they slept there – and I slept in the roof bed! The weather is milder now, so it was plenty warm enough up there and I had a solid night’s sleep until the birds woke me in the morning.

I don’t usually take much interest in campsite showers – I much prefer to have a nice hot bath when I get home, than faff around with campsite showers. However, my bath at home is currently very dusty & dirty from the building work, so when I saw that there was a whole row of showers in the abultions barn, I decided to risk trying them out – and was pleasantly surprised that they showers were hot and quite powerful.

I was only away for one night… but sometimes 24 hours in the greenery and sunshine is all you need!

L

All girls like flowers!

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All girls like flowers… and that includes Nessie! Fresh flowers aren’t so practical in a van, but these ones make every dinner table look great. They are handmade and were given to me as a gift.

Table set for dinner with a steel wine glass, a bowl of risotto and a vase of flowers made from fabric.

And these are a craft I did on a holiday some time ago at Manor House Hotel – and only finished off recently! They are made from quilled paper.

A notice board with thermometer and notepad held in place with loch ness monster drawing pins. In front a tiny vase of paper flowers.

You’ll also see the updated pin board. The latest addition is the thermometer which I think will be really handy. The Nessie pins were a gift a long time ago from a friend, but they have now come into their own. The board itself is made from cork place mats stuck onto the van wall with velcro.

Looking forward to lots of adventures in my home from home this summer.

L

The advantages of having a blog!

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A few weeks back I mentioned that I found my van Nessie difficult to drive in the rain because I am relient on my wing mirrors – and the side windows don’t have wipers! You can read about my various water-based problems here: This Nessie doesn’t like water!

But there are advantages to having a blog!! One lovely follower got in touch to suggest a product I might find helpful – rain-x. It’s widely available and I got a bottle in B&Q when I was on my Yorkshire roadtrip.

It was easy to apply, but I’ve been holding off blogging about it, because there’s been so little rain recently to test it out! Last weekend, on a drive back from the New Forest, I did finally get caught in a heavy shower, and the rain-x did make a difference. The water formed smaller droplets and seemed to run-off more quickly.

I put it on my wing mirrors as well as the windows, using a microfibre cloth. Poor Nessie rarely gets a wash because she lives on the street and I live upstairs, so I don’t have a hosepipe and it’s not very convenient to carry buckets up and down the stairs. Given this, there is also an additional benefit of her windows just being clean!!

Although we’re now all equipped for wet weather, I’m hoping there will still be plenty of sunshine for camping in this summer!

L

Gilbert’s first road trip

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Last weekend I set out on my first road trip of the season – and Gilbert’s first road trip ever!  He was excited!

First off, we drove up to Donnington near Telford to call in on a friend and see her new house.  It was a long drive – and, despite having a special travel seat, Gilbert maybe found it a little traumatic!

We stayed over at Willows Caravan Park nearby.  A nice site, seemed quite new and facilities were nice. I was texted instructions with a code to let myself in, fortunately there was a friendly warden on the other end of the phone to help me as I couldn’t work out how to use the unusual padlock!

There was just time for dinner and washing up and then it was bedtime.  I had taken a spot with electric hook-up and forgot that this meant the charging light would glow all night – must make a little cover for that!  I also forgot to switch the fridge off overnight.  By the time I remembered I was all cosy and tucked up in bed, so I thought it would be ok, but with all the excitement of the adventure, I think I slept quite lightly and it did wake me a few times.

In the morning I was joined by faithful Henrietta for breakfast, which was just as well as Gilbert was nowhere to be found!!

I searched everywhere for him while I did my camp chores and was beginning to think he must have decided to abandon me for a new life at my friend’s house! Finally, I spotted him – the trauma of the journey followed by the rough and inconsiderate way I’d swivelled the pilot’s seat, meant he’d spent the night hiding under the van!!!

Despite the fact it had rained, he was none the worse for it and felt much better after a special ride in my pocket to sit in the sunshine for a cup of real coffee – made in my lovely thermal cafetiere!

After coffee we were back on the road, driving across the Pennines.  We stopped off in Tadcaster for lunch – I had a nice sandwich in the Lemon Tree Café and Nessie had a nice big drink of petrol!!

I made it to Humanby just in time to meet my sister off the train.  We had a lovely few days in a friend’s cottage enjoying the sea views and exploring the local area.  We were particularly delighted by our afternoon tea in the Bondville Model Village nearby.  Although we weren’t camping we did enjoy making hot chocolate over a campfire on the beach! Benefits of always having everything in the back of your van – you can have an adventure at a moments notice!!

We also really enjoyed the pretty coloured pebbles on the beach and making some beach art.

A few days in the cottage and then it was back on the road again.  This time I came down the east side of the country and had my lunch stop at Clumber House – a national trust property.  This worked quite well as not only was the café nicer than a motorway services (it had bay windows overlooking an ornamental lake!), but it meant I had a proper break while I walked around the grounds and gardens.  I’m a National Trust member so it didn’t cost me anything to go in.  This meant it didn’t matter that I didn’t explore the whole place, but I did enjoy what I did see, including the impressive kitchen gardens.

Back on the road again, I spotted a sign to Elton Village Store, so I thought I’d go find it to have another little break and buy supplies for dinner.  It was a pretty village with a very friendly shopkeeper. It would be nice to go back and explore that area more sometime.

I made it to Ekeney House campsite near Olney in good time.  I had wanted to camp nearer Bedford but the campsite I’d tried to book was closed due to problems with their water supply. I was very glad it wasn’t dark when I arrived – the entrance was a single track farm track off a busy road which I had to drive down for over half a mile.  As I drove I was thinking ‘I hope it’s nice as this feels pretty isolated’. 

It didn’t start well. I knew I was to let myself in and pick my spot, which I did.  I then went to explore the facilities – there was a shower and a toilet, but I would have been too scared to use either!  I was frightened that if I managed to get the door to close on the metal container that housed the toilet, I might not be able to open it again and no-one would know I was there!!

Back at my van I made myself a cuppa, feeling relieved that I had my boxio toilet with me. Things started to look up when the campsite lady came over to visit me.  She was lovely and had lived there for over 50 years, telling me all about having planted the trees that have now grown up, the hyacinths she’d been planting recently and the peacocks and rhea birds that she keeps – and forewarning me of the funny noises they make!  Knowing that she and her extended family were in the house just over the hedge made it feel less isolated.

Feeling reassured, I went for a little walk to explore the area that had been planted as a woodland to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee in 2012 and came across a deer – who was even more surprised to see me! I then made dahl for my dinner as the sun set.

I was thinking to sleep up in the roof being as I wanted to be able to use the boxio toilet, but as I was getting ready for bed, I could feel the temperature in the roof area was colder than down below, so I made up the rock-and-roll bed instead. I still put the bed boards in the roof anyway and I think that did make a difference in keeping the downstairs bit cosy and warm.

In the morning, there was no opportunity for a lie-in as I was going to work in the Bedford office.  I’m very pleased to report that it was entirely possible to sleep in a van and turn up in the office to do a days work the following day… which opens up all sorts of possibilities for road trips without having to take leave!

As I set off to drive home, I thought the adventure was at an end – but I was wrong! Google maps didn’t even give me the option of going via the M25 instead taking me on the North Circular and through Hammersmith and Putney.  I’ve never driven in London before – it’s been one of my fears that I knew I should try and conquer one day, but hadn’t yet got round to.  Not sure dusk at the end of a long, tiring drive was the best time to tackle it, but I felt chuffed with myself for managing it … and I even quite enjoyed seeing the River Thames and the sunset over Wembley.

L