Last weekend we were celebrating a friend’s 75th birthday down in the New Forest. As there were so many of us, three campervans and a tiny caravan Pod met up at Lytton Lawn Campsite near Milton On Sea.
We left home around 13.00 on the Friday afternoon and had a dreadful drive down through torrential rain and Friday afternoon traffic. At least the rain stopped by the time we arrived and it turned into a blustery but dry evening. As we were getting ourselves set up on our pitch, we found we had a stowaway!
We went round to our friends for a lovely meal and catch up ahead of the proper celebration the next day.
It was a last minute decision to join friends camping in the Cotswolds last week. They had found an adults only, over 30s site just outside of Bourton on the Water so we were hoping that it would be a tranquil and peaceful campsite. Field Barn Park was that and more. Generous 100sqm pitches with hedges for privacy, electric hook up and water points near every other pitch. Although a mile and a half from the hubbub of Bourton, it could have been 500 miles away as it was so relaxing and calm. It even had a farm shop with an honesty box and food waste disposal (a rarity on UK campsites).
We arrived on the Monday afternoon (August 18) just before our friends, Caroline and Val with their gorgeous dog, Luca. We had a chilled evening with a BBQ in the setting evening sun. A perfect start.
We were very fortunate to be offered tickets to see The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart at the Glyndebourne Opera House near Lewes, East Sussex. We decided to make it a mini break and left home on the Thursday lunchtime (August 7th) to make our way towards Lewes as we had secured a community site for a couple of nights behind The Laughing Fish pub in Isfield. On the way we inadvertently drove through Lewes with its quaint streets and medieval architecture.
It seems that this summer is all about music festivals for us. No sooner had we recovered from Glastonbury than we were making our way to Ludlow Castle for one of their summer concerts. We decided to make this trip a mini break and travelled just north of Ludlow to Halfpenny Green Wine Estate. Set in 30 acres of wonderful vines, this winery has established itself as a popular venue in Staffordshire. It had added a shop, cafe and a lovely craft village on site to complement the winery.
We had wanted to go to Glastonbury for a few years since we began campervan life and didn’t spend all of our summers in the Med. This year we finally managed to get there and book a space for Dora as well. We really couldn’t be doing with sleeping in a tent cheek by jowl with 200,000 others.
In order to get to Worthy Farm as the gates opened for campervans on the Tuesday morning (yes, three days before the main event!), we left home on the Monday (June 23) afternoon to drive to Cheddar Bridge Park campsite near Cheddar so we could meet up with our fellow festival goers, Caron and Yvonne, in their hired VW California van. We arrived around 17.30 and had a great spot opposite them but near the loos and the fresh water point. We had a lovely BBQ and catch up that night, sitting out until well after dark.
Having spent over 5 weeks recovering from knee surgery, we agreed that Jo needed a short break away. We decided to visit Mersea Island and have lunch in one of the seafood shacks on the seafront. Although it was the Friday of school half term, we managed to book a table at The Company Shed for 14.00 to give us plenty of time to get there. We also needed to factor in when high tide was as the causeway over to the island can flood. We were fine as we crossed a good two hours before but then it took us another half an hour to find somewhere to park. We managed to find a spot in the car park by the high street (just as well we don’t have a longer van!) but it meant a 20 min walk back to the sea front which was quite a way for Jo with her new knee!
We finally set off on our Scotland adventure on Monday, April 7th just after lunch some 5 days later than originally planned due to Jo’s pre-op hospital appointments in preparation for her knee replacement surgery at the end of April. We got as far as Lancaster and stopped at a pub, the Greyhound at Halton, for a delicious dinner and overnight stop in their car park (S4S-S476745).
When we got back from our recent travels, we found that our engine battery was very low but to be fair our tracker company had been letting us know it was low. Anyway, we plugged it in (not easy given where it’s parked) for 24 hours to charge up but thought a run would be beneficial.
Friends of ours, Maria and Jane, wanted to visit the WW2 code breaking centre at Bletchley Park, which is less than an hour from us so we decided to join them. We got the campsite, Old Dairy Farm Camping at Stoke Hammond, around 13.30 on Wednesday afternoon. It was a pretty cold and miserable February day but we were cosy in their Adria van catching up over a cup of tea whilst Liz was on an environmental training course. We cooked in both vans that evening but ate together. As it was so cold, we made sure the heating was on low overnight, especially as Liz was coming down with a cold.
We realised that we hadn’t been out in Dora for a while. This was mainly due to family commitments and Jo having knee surgery in late September. A while ago we had signed up for a rally with the Adria Owners Club down in Dorset. We hadn’t been on a rally with this lot before but thought we should give it a go. It also included a brewery tour so what’s not to like?
We left late on Thursday afternoon thinking that we would get caught up in all sorts of traffic but the run down was uneventful and in good time. We thought we wouldn’t arrive until around 21.30 but we were on our pitch at South Lytchett Manor Campsite (S4S#224625) well before 21.00. Dinner in the oven and bottle of wine opened. All very civilised.
We love going away for short (or long) breaks in Dora. We aren’t proud! So, when an ex-neighbour was celebrating his 60th birthday in Tintagel at the weekend, we thought why not? Jo had volunteering on the Thursday afternoon and we also had tickets for the recording of the BBC Podcast, The Kitchen Cabinet, in the evening so that meant a Friday morning start. However, everything took a bit longer than anticipated which meant that we didn’t leave home until after 11.00. We were also driving via our friends in Hampshire to pick up some artwork they had kindly brought back from Denmark for us. We turned down lunch as we had already had biblical rain on our way down and suspected more was to come, slowing our journey down.
A long weekend was in store for us to celebrate Brighton Pride in early August so we left home around 19.00 on the Thursday evening. We arrived at the Caravan Club site just north of the marina two hours later having driven through horrendous thunderstorms and parked up in the Late Night Arrivals Area with another van and caravan. The site were very kind and checked we were ok despite being outside of their working hours. A quiet night and as soon as the office opened at 09.00 we were booked in and settled on the pitch but not before we ensured that the appropriate bunting was hung out!
In early July we had a few days away in Henley on Thames whilst the Royal Regatta Rowing week was on. We had booked a couple of nights at the Four Oaks Campsite just a mile outside of Henley town centre. We had taken our bikes to make it easier to explore the best vantage points to watch the races. We didn’t have tickets to any of the enclosures so we were mixing with the common people.
We had been invited down to Weston Super Mare to visit friends but as they had a full house, we took Dora to make life easier as we could sleep in her. We left on Sunday, June 2 around 13.15 after Liz had done her bit volunteering at a nearby wetland park and had an uneventful but slow journey down. We found a large enough spot to park right outside their flat which was extraordinary given we were close to the front and it was a lovely sunny day! We had time to catch up with old friends before eating out a local Greek restaurant, The Thatched Cottage, that evening.
Long story short is that we have sold our lovely boat, Nimrod, (who has her own blog btw) so we need to clear our personal stuff off her. This would be easy apart from the fact that she is in a boatyard near Athens, some 2,000 miles away! So, on Sunday we left in Dora to drive down to Folkestone as we had a booking on Le Shuttle to Calais for Monday morning. We had found a park up for the night at The Master Brewer only 15 minutes from the tunnel terminal. Perfect. They were celebrating St Patrick’s Day so when we arrived at 18.30 hours quite a few of their customers had clearly been celebrating since lunchtime. No food as they only serve Sunday lunch but that was fine as we had a chicken tagine left over to heat up. A quick drink in the pub as a thank you and then back to the van to actually do some planning! We reckoned it would take us about 5 days to get to Greece via Italy with long driving days on toll motorways but then,once we had sorted the boat out, we would meander our way back through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Belgium and France. At least, that’s the plan.
Not the most salubrious but worked for us
The pub car park was remarkably quiet after about 22.00 hours so we managed to get some sleep. We were both awake by 07.00 and at the terminal before 07.30 which meant we could then have breakfast before boarding the train.
Over the winter we had a problem with the batteries or so we thought so we booked Dora into Hitchin Leisure Services, which is only a 25 mins drive away. After much head scratching they managed to identify the problem as a faulty battery isolator switch. This was a significantly cheaper repair than we originally thought as it was looking like the 12v fuse block might be faulty. Phew!
So, we thought it would be a good idea to ensure all was well before any long road trips. Hence a trip to a Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Henley on Thames (P4N#170466). It’s quite a small site but very friendly and not very busy in mid March on a Tuesday!
Henley Four Oaks Campsite
Dora behaved impeccably of course and everything seems to be working which is good news. Didn’t help that Jo forgot to turn off the cold weather dump valve so most of the water we filled up with came straight out again!
Dora The Explorer 