On the Road Again!

Monday We had to be off site no later than midday and so we had started packing away the night before.  Reggie was up and out several times from before 7am and I was feeling tired by the time I got up and joined Claire for breakfast.   I took him out as she was washing and getting ready. As we were in a large field with fences all round, I let him wander off lead.  The van next to us had a young small cockapoo that was a little timid. Behind them was a nice couple with a very friendly, and again young, poodle.  Reggie and it got on, sniffing etc.  As we were talking one of the marshals came over to say there was an accident on the M4 and no one could get off the site.  In the end that was later amended to a person jumping from a bridge onto the road. Under cover of all this Reggie went and ate the poodles breakfast out of its bowl! Whilst I was apologising he went next doo...

Saturday evening we had another walk over to the marquee.  Tonight's entertainment in the main venue, the Barn, was Union Gap and The Foundations. The theme all weekend was 60's ... In the marquee there was a duo to do sixties songs.  We bought a couple of samosas and some churros. Very international. 🙂 Whilst we were there the duo were setting up. We didn't stay though. Reggie was wanting to go. So we set off back.  An evening of YouTube despite the poor signal. We have to put the phone in the roof light to get some signal, or enough to watch the TV. Sunday  Up a little late. It's Sunday. Claire wanted to see the Vanlife Eats guy demonstrating making a breakfast pie in the Ridge Monkey at 11am. Reggie and I weren't really that interested and so we had a walk around the show and stopped for coffee and a chat at the Motor Caravanners' Club stand. The chat wasn't a...

Thursday This would be first test of the new Victron and lithium battery setup. Four nights off grid at the Newbury Showground. The plan was to set off at around 1030am on Thursday and drive across to the South of London and then west to Newbury. In the end we left at nearer 1050am. Not too bad.  The first stop at the garage on the way at West Malling.  It was a bit of a faff finding the LPG pump. There is only one and it's access was a bit difficult. Involving a bit of reversing out of the wrong place and queueing.  Despite the gauge on the top of the bottle being close to empty we could only get £2.93 (at .99 a litre) in before the pump.m stopped and displayed "stop". Very odd. A quick check of the gauge showed it was full!!! Anyway, we set off again. The M26 and M25 were very civilised and moving. We stopped at Cobham Services for Reggie's breather and got a coffee from Starbucks at the McDonald's ordering m...

"Whaaaat!!" After three days of "off grid" living the new setup has worked quite well.  We have used the kettle quite a lot and the air fryer. The air fryer peaks at around 1800 watts. The kettle around 1000w. Getting up on the morning of the fourth day, the battery is showing at 81%! To be fair the weather has been very overcast and raining at times since we arrived. So we aren't getting a lot of solar energy through the panels on the roof. 

I have revisited this trip and at the moment the target is still Aulendorf and that might be the furthest we go.  I had been thinking of making that beginning of a wider trip taking in Bavaria and Austria, I think we'll cut the distance we travel. With no end to the war in Iran and fuel returning to normal it looks as though we'll cut down the distances and go from there. Cathargo City Aulendorf

Before our next weekend away, I decided to take the Canon rather than the old Nikon D50.  I have 4 batteries.  All of them when in the camera show a low battery. So it's charger time. Before that I took a couple of pictures from the garden. It was early evening and probably not the best light.