outdoor fun

The big road trip!

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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!

L

The first road trip

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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!

L

Not forgetting Harri-et

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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

Harry, Larry & Barry

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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

Just Nessie and a goat

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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

Nessie’s maiden voyage

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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

Introducing Van-nessa

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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!).

Silver campercar with roof poppe up parked in residential 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

Mystery revealed

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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

This goat has wheels

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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

Gary’s potentially fatal injury!

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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