Photography • Caravanning • NestCam • In Search Of
|
2nd Trip Killing two birds with one stone, we decided to take the van away to somewhere close by to my wife's parents and this was it. Very easy to get to and taking us only 1 hour 20 minutes, it's a great location for a weekender or midweek couple of nights away. There's one post hosting 4 EHU points which we parked right in front of. The field is at the back of the pub and is more like a massive Beer Garden. There was a few garden tables and a purpose built smokers outhouse outside the back of the pub. For pub lovers, this is well within staggering distance of your caravan! Costing just £7 per night and an extra £2.50 per night for EHU, it's great value. Toilets were available for use in the back of the pub too. There was only one other camper there, a couple with a Fifth Wheel caravan. His wife was doing a course at Nottingham hence they were staying there. Pitching up went well, even the satellite only took 30 seconds to set up, without the need for a compass. This was because their caravan had a roof-mounted automatic dish and I was able to use that for direction. Lovely site and lovely stay but it wasn't without a hiccup or three. On arrival, I saw what looked like someone had been sick down the front corner of the van. It looked like dried veg and whatnot. I got the bin and filled it with hot water to wash it off, and proceeded to wash the other mucky marks and black streaks off the caravan while I was at it. Thinking about it later, I realised I would have noticed the muck when hitching up so had no idea where it came from or how it got there. Coming home, I saw in the car mirrors a load of mud splash up the front corners, effectively the same spray that I had cleaned off on the day of arrival! So I'd either driven through a pile of sick or someone dropped their Chinese meal! So on returning home, I had a caravan to wash!! When getting ready for bed on the first night, I started to convert the seats when I couldn't decide whether they just felt cold or were damp at the back. My wife pressed one against the mirror which proved they were damp! With both the electric fire and the gas fire on, we spent the next hour drying out the seating. Feeling the walls and the sill at the front of the van, they felt decidedly damp. We weren't sure if this is as a result of the recent water ingress problem we had and that the walls weren't dried out properly or whether it was due to condensation forming due to using the van from cold. Or maybe it's a combination of the two. The damp was only at the front of the van, nowhere else. It rained that day too but there was no evidence of any leaking so we're sure the problem had been resolved. Over an hour later, the seats and walls were dry, we could make the bed up. (Update - This is where we discovered we needed the Vent Board which I later fitted myself) Next day, my wife's folks joined us for lunch in the caravan. It was the first time they'd seen the van and loved it. After cooking and washing up was done, my wife went to the loo and stepped into a shower tray FULL of water!! Where the hell had that come from?!?! First thoughts was the Thetford toilet had leaked. No, it wasn't that. Somehow, all the water used in the kitchen sink during cooking and washing up had gone through the Y connector of the waste outlet and up through the shower tray plug hole, filling the shower tray. The waste hog was only half full and there was no evidence of any blockage in the waste piping. Still didn't know what happened there, unless a blockage did form but later cleared itself. So I removed the Y connector and from now on, I'm only using the one pipe on one of the outlets only. That one connects both the kitchen and washroom sinks, the other being for the shower tray only which we never use. Much mopping and cleaning up later, we could relax with a cuppa tea. (Update - later discovered from other caravanners on forums that if the pipe is under water, feed back occurs so one pipe it is!) As I said earlier, I had to wash the caravan as soon as I got home. One of the joys of winter caravanning I suppose. We also found that our caravan cover had been delivered while we were away. But since the weather is so damp and with a freshly washed caravan, we can't really put it on yet. And now we're wondering if it's worth bothering with. We're planning on going out in the caravan again within the next two weeks. (Update - now sold the Caravan Cover)
4th Trip Royal Oak Public House, Bingham C&CC CS 7th – 10th May 2008 Just back from a few nights away, our 3rd time at the Royal Oak Pub at Car Colston which I've already reported here so no need to show any photos again. Mainly because I never took any anyway!! It was our 8th time away in the van. It was just a wee break with another visit to us by my wife's folks who live nearby. We all had a lovely lunch in the caravan. The weather was HOT!! And boy!! Was it hot!! LOL First time we've been away with the weather so hot that I felt like a turkey in a roasting tin! My wife loved it though, mind you, even she said it was hot sometimes. So hot, she had to strip off. So yes, there ARE some advantages to the hot weather!! Another reason for the trip away was to try the new (second hand) porch awning out. Having spent a hot half hour fiddling about, the first ever awning I've put up, I wasn't that impressed. Flies, wasps, bees and a variety of other insects started to take up residence in the awning! It seemed to be an insect attractor! And it was too hot inside!!! Did I tell you it was a hot day? Seriously, the awning made it even hotter in the caravan and we're used to (and we like) having the caravan door open to the open countryside, not into an awning. So why did we buy it, I hear you ask? Well, firstly, we thought it would be a nice idea for shelter from wind when sitting outside, since the porch awning has three doors and therefore we have control over the wind direction for the shelter. Secondly, we thought it might be useful for extra storage room, especially in the winter months for muddy shoes. But now, having experienced putting it up, using it, and taking it down, I'm really not that bothered with an awning. My wife agrees. Oh well, at least we tried it. We wouldn't have known for sure if we hadn't. (Update - now sold the awning!) Took a trip to Brownhills and bought a 20mtr EHU cable and some spare plugs/sockets. With these I made a 6mtr and a 11mtr cable, and a 1 foot L/N reverse lead. I also bought a mains tester. Had a look at some levelling ramps too but really couldn't decide what to get. Have decided to make my own. Also bought a fly swatter while we were there! (Update - now bought and fitted a Kojack leveling system) On the last day (Friday) I switched off the EHU and ran the fridge off the gas to see how efficient it was. I originally set it to medium setting but it was getting too cold so I set it to low. Another reason for switching off the EHU was to see how long we would last watching the TV, DVD's and the Satellite. It was 1pm when I did this and by 9pm, the built-in voltmeter on the wall was still reading 12V. 8 hours of continuous TV/Satellite watching. I then decided to get my multimeter out of the toolbox and disconnected a battery terminal to measure the current the TV and Satellite was drawing. Only 2.4 amps! Way less than I expected or what was printed on the backs of the units. This means that I would be able to run the TV and Satellite for over 40 hours on the one leisure battery, not taking into account the pump, lights etc. Plus we have a spare battery too so that's over 80 hours. So next trip we're going to stay at a localish non-EHU site for a few days, confident we can last that long on battery power. A pleasant and relaxing few days away anyway. Lost yet another hubcap on the way there! Really must sort them wheels out. Oh, did I tell you it was hot!?!?!
22nd Trip No need for a report this time except to say that we had
originally "booked" to go to Heronbrook CL at Cotgrave, Nottingham. I say
"booked" because we rang to check it was open and that they had a
hardstanding, which we wanted because of all the rain we've had recently, so
they were expecting us. However, when we got there and after driving down
what was probably a half a mile or so of VERY rutted and pot-holed track
leading into the site (so bad it was, it left my wife with a bad neck for the
rest of the day!) we arrived at the small field, a portion of it set out as
the "hardstanding" consisting of road rubble. Two caravans were already on
this hardstanding, both plugged into the only available EHU point by the
hardstanding. There was room for a third caravan but nowhere to hook up. The
other three EHU points were the other side of the field which meant pitching
on grass! We were annoyed because they said we'd have no problem pitching on
hardstanding. |
|
© COPYRIGHT 2008 LEGSMANIAC |