This was a last minute decision really. After having the last two trips cancelled by the weather and then a few dental emergencies we wanted to get away. I chose the Premier Parks site at Fishery Creek on Hayling Island primarily as it's not that far away, not north of the Dartford Crossing and had hardstanding!
We picked Molly up from the storage site on Thursday afternoon and then started to put the stuff we'd need for a weekend.
Friday
The plan was to leave on Friday morning, late enough to avoid the traffic. Claire had a massage booked for 10am. I was putting stuff in the van when the carbon monoxide detector started to beep. A single beep every thirty seconds is, according to the Kidde website, showing that the battery has expired or about to expire.
So whilst she was being pampered I drove to Wickes in Folkestone and bought a new one. It's not that long ago that the one in the house had the same problem. The van version was supposed to have been installed in the van when new in 2019. Kidde claims a ten year battery life and a five year warranty. So the former should have plenty of life and the latter probably expired now. When I took the old one to pieces all three of the AA batteries in the unit had an expiry date of 3/26. I assume the unit was three years old when installed. Whoever did it didn't bother writing anything on the information label!
As the new one didn't have the same mounting plate as the house one, I decided to swap them over. The house one easily screwed to the ceiling near to where the old one had been. It was a five minute job. As I was sitting admiring my skills (!) there was another peep! Followed by another peep! What are the chances that the battery in the smoke detector had gone too? At least this isn't a sealed unit.
Of course we didn't have the 9v rectangular battery it needed. So off to Sainsbury's to get one. It's easily installed. So now we can go! We set off at about 12.40pm.
The TomTom Go Camper Max had decided that the shortest but equally time consuming route was along the south coast on the A259/A27 route. The options would take the same sort of time and go via the motorways M20/M26/M23 and be longer but the same sort of time!
Well. With only a short stop for a coffee and a Reggie comfort break we arrived about 5.40pm.The A259/A27 route passes through too many places like Hastings and Bexhill with very few service areas unlike the motorway route would have given us more options. Added to that was that there were too many roadworks!
On the way to the pitch we filled with water. I say filled. I have no idea how much water we took on as the gauge didn't light up at all. Once on pitch 118 and on the ramps and electric hooked up we had a walk to look at the creek and round past the end of the site.
Then we went around to the bar to see what was there. In the reception building there is a small restaurant and a few days they have "guest" providers. Friday was a fish and chip van. It was earlier than we usually would eat, but as we were there we ordered fish and chips each and as it was being cooked we had a drink on the terrace.
The fish was absolutely huge. Nice batter, and just the right amount of chips. That evening we watched a few vloggers on the TV with my phone connected to the Amazon Firestick.
As the evening progressed Reggie was restless and I ended up doing a few laps of the park for him to sniff and mark his visit.....
Saturday
The plan, such as it was, was to get out and walk into the nearby beach area. On the site map it showed an exit where the boat slipway into the creek was, then right past where we had gone the evening before. Next to our park is another one with large bungalow style cabins. They looked really nice, the front row bungalows have a view across the creek. The path was a little uneven here. Reggie had already decided that walking to the beach wasn't on his agenda and he took the opportunity to slip into the water. When he climbed out he turned back the way we came! In the end our wills persevered over his! We ended up on a few streets and then came to the beach. Here we found the Hayling Railway. A light railway that seemed to have a small diesel engine pulling the train.
We took some photos and I had the Nikon D50 with me.
It was quite warm and we didn't want Reggie out too long in the heat. Claire bought water and we headed back to the site. We checked the cafes but by now they had all filled up. We decided to go back the way we came and have a coffee or lunch at the van.
Then we came across the problem. The path alongside the creek had gone under water. The tide was coming in when we set off, but was now right up over the path almost to the fence by the bungalows. Impassable.
So Google Maps guided us back on the roads around the bungalow park to the main entrance to our park. Rather lazily we stopped off in the restaurant and bought a baguette and a coffee each.
Later on we had a walk via the slipway to the other direction. The tide had turned and it was almost empty again. A narrow rivulet in the middle was occupied by the seabirds picking through the mud. The swans congregated in what was left of the water and a white heron looked for food.
Dinner was a couple of ready meals that we had bought in Waitrose on Friday.
Sunday
Overnight the forecast was for rain and even thunderstorms. Luckily it was wrong and we had rain but not until about 2am. Reggie's restlessness again meant several laps for a series of "last pees" before settling down until about 7am.
A bit more rain as we were having breakfast and the beginning of the chores we needed to do before setting off. We have to drain the grey water and this means a round trip out of the park and back in as both service points are just after the entrance. I did the toilet cassette and there are plenty of Elsan points to do that. Not the nicest job!
As it rained the new Taylormade screen cover needed shaking and it was put in the shower so that when it drained off the water would run into the shower drains. Everything was done and amazingly for us it was before 10am when we set off.
The route back was going to be the motorway route we didn't take on Friday! The A27 for a short distance towards Portsmouth, then A3 all the way to the M25. There were roadworks eastbound on the A27 but the hold up was minutes for us. We had pretty much an easy drive stopping only at the M25 services at Cobham. Coffee from McDonalds. A McCafe is cheaper than the other coffee places and is, in my opinion, as good. The holdup getting through the roadworks at the A3/M25 junction wasn't too bad. Once on the M25 eastbound, the queues on the other side were horrendous. Stretching back four or five miles!
We had been lucky with the weather. It was only after we had emptied the van that it started to rain.
All in all a really nice weekend away. Not a lot planned and the weather was okay most of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment