On the Road Again!

The things that were outstanding on the trip after the decision to put it on back 4 weeks. The two nights at Oyambre after we dock. Irish Ferries return ferry journey. The AHC date change. The first two are sorted. I needed to call them, yes, I had to speak to another person! That was done today. Admin fees and changes to the pitch rates and ferry fares mean another £40 has evaporated. The AHC remains the problem. Everything is done online to order one and their website says that as a small vet's they handle these things, including replying to emails, are part of their jobs and they action them in the order they arrive. So that's the one we are waiting to sort out.

Today was the first leg of the journey to Chatsworth House for the Christmas Market. Rather than do it in one day to Derbyshire, we decided to break the journey roughly in halves. So tonight we will stay at Ashridge Farm Caravan Club site. It's in Hertfordshire near Royston.  Everything was going well until the M25 ground to a halt at Waltham Abbey junction. We crawled to the A10 junction and headed north. The first few miles weren't that good as many others had the same idea.  Then TomTom took us from the A10 across country from Buntingford. We eventually popped out onto the A505 add off again. In hindsight we would have probably been better off going to Stevenage and onto the A1M!! At least we arrived here around 2pm. The rain that had dogged us most of the way had finally stopped. There's no 4G signal on O2 here and so we are able to use the free club WiFi. Every hour you have to re-login. However,  we couldn't get the Firestick to connect. Tomorrow we he...

After a quick in and out at fat club we were home for breakfast. Never eat before standing on the scales!!! We eventually got away around 12.20pm. The trip should have taken about two and a half hours. It took more like three and a half. That included a stop for lunch at Cobham Extra Services and the TomTom wanting us to go off on the A3 or the A320. In the end we wound our way to Bracknell a different way to the usual M3 route. Scenic though Virginia Water and Ascot are, they aren't all that direct. There were holdups on the M25 and that may be the cause of the rerouting. Although to be honest, TomTom seemed to always want us to go the opposite direction to Google Maps. At least the latest upgrade has solved (it would seem) the screen blanking problem. Once on the M4 it was a steady drive to J13 and the turn off to the CL (certificated location). We are on a hardstanding pitch, #3, with water and electricity. The cost is £25 a night. We chatted with the owner when he came around. ...

This trip was a chance to get away after the disappointment of cancelling our holiday to France.  Another reason was that I was determined to attend the National League Promotion Final at Wembley Stadium.  With the London Underground system in chaos for the weekend and the Mayor being his usual belligerent self and refusing to intervene, capacity at the Stadium was reduced to around 50000 of the possible 90000 capacity. In the end I got a ticket.  I was still not fully fit. Looking for an alternative way to get to the Stadium I saw that Chiltern Railways had a service stopping at Wembley Stadium Station! Tracing back along the line I saw Denham. Opening another window opened and the Caravan Club had a site at.... Denham. I booked two nights. The site is alleged 25 to 30 minutes walk to the station. Much it seemingly on a road with no footpath.  Given my health. I decided on a taxi. We had a reasonable drive up on Saturday with our lunch and coffee stop, plus comfort ...

Once I had rested after my 14 hours sojourn between triage and major investigations, I started to work through the list of bookings I had already made for this trip. Le Shuttle was the easiest and could be done online. That they stiffed us for £36 to change from one low season date to another low season date says more about their business than anything. No humans involved and I did all the work for them. The two Camping-Car Park bookings were easily enough cancelled, although it needed a WhatsApp chat to get it done as it can't be done through the newly updated app on the phone. It needed a Messenger message to their Facebook social media team to get the WhatsApp link.  The cost of the two aires was credited back to my account in minutes. The other campsite bookings took a little longer.  The site in Belgium that I booked through the Caravan Club had been paid in full. Firstly a deposit in January and then the full payment in April.  I am to receive two payments that amou...

We had originally booked to stay at the CL at Hill Farm in Darsham, Suffolk.  I had an email exchange with the owner, Jaik, and I gathered that as well as the five pitch CL, there was also an attached campsite. I also gathered that we couldn't have both nights on the CL as there were bookings. Instead I opted for a pitch on the attached campsite. Although they use the same entrance off the road, the CL has its own entrance inside as do the various parts of the campsite.  We were on Pitch 13.  The pitches are scattered around a wooded area and separated from each other with bushes and trees.  The hardstanding is gravel.  The pitch has electric hook-up and water. To avoid the usual hassles of the Dartford Crossing we planned to be away much earlier than usual.  So it was just after 10.30am when we set off from home. Reggie in his new canvas enclosed area under the table. The expensive seat bed had proved no use on the last trip. This one seems much ...

We try not to go anywhere over the bank holiday weekend. If the weather is good, the roads where we live are gridlocked. So as an exception we are off to Suffolk to stay for two nights at a Caravan Club CL near Darsham.  This is a new one for us. It's Friday to Sunday. So we will be at home for the bank holiday Monday.  The CL isn't all that fat off the A12 and so I hope it won't be too noisy.  At least this s the single carriageway section.  There are places to visit in the area from Pitch 13 at the CL. We are on the new site alongside the CL itself. It looks very rustic from the website -  https://barnabeesholidaycottages.co.uk/index.php/new-caravan-site We need to be away early Friday to make the most of the day. On the way up we need to look out for the petrol station where we bought the very cheap diesel on one of our previous journeys up that way. Of course, we have to expect the the Dartford Crossing will be usual nightmare.

We try not to go anywhere over the bank holiday weekend. If the weather is good, the roads where we live are gridlocked. So as an exception we are off to Suffolk to stay for two nights at a Caravan Club CL near Darsham.  This is a new one for us. It's Friday to Sunday. So we will be at home for the bank holiday Monday.  The CL isn't all that far off the A12 and so I hope it won't be too noisy.  At least this is the single carriageway section.  There are places to visit in the area from Pitch 13 at the CL. We are on the new site alongside the CL itself. It looks very rustic from the website -  https://barnabeesholidaycottages.co.uk/index.php/new-caravan-site We need to be away early Friday to make the most of the day. On the way up we need to look out for the petrol station where we bought the very cheap diesel on one of our previous journeys up that way. Of course, we have to expect the the Dartford Crossing will be usual nightmare. Write-Up here.

Up early and off to Choose Leisure again.  Overnight I had left the front and rear Heki rooflights open, not ideal for insurance purposes. The alarm is set so that might have been useful. Of course. With all that fresh air there was no gas smell.  When we arrived we opened to rear doors where the locker is, we could all smell it.  So off it went to the workshop.   Some two and a half hours later it came back. They couldn't find any problems and they did a gas check all around including the hob.  I couldn't smell it after that. After we have become paranoid I have ordered a gas sniffer from Amazon to arrive tomorrow!   At the moment Brooklands with the Caravan Club is on!

It's that time of year again. Yes. Insurance time! Once again I did the comparison sites dance and found that my current insurers wouldn't or couldn't come up with a quote for the year commencing April 1st.   I tried several different insurance comparison sites and they all came out that Lexham Insurance were unable to quote.  I have been with them for 2 years on the 31st March! Some of the quotes were around 300% of what I paid last April for this current year. The Caravan Club was in the region of £1550!!!! It was suggested I try Ripe Insurance and on Motorhome Fun there was a link as well as quite a few forum members saying how good they were. I did and it turned out to be the cheapest quote for the same amount of cover. The policy excesses are the same as my current insurance. I am sure they do this to save having to pay out for little dings!   To say I had roughly calculated my Lexham renewal to be about £600 I didn't hurry to sign up to Ripe's £641 quote...

This weekend we went to Brighton. Staying at the Caravan Club's site at East Brighton.  The weather wasn't that good as we drove over from home on Sunday morning. This time we did the more roundabout route on the motorways. The coast route along the A259 from the back of our house takes way too long as we discovered the last time! In the end with a stop at Clacket Lane services on the M25 we arrived on site about 2.30pm. We chose pitch 117 as it seemed to have the least slope. Although we have the Milenco Triple ramps I was hoping not to use them. In the end we did!  Lunch was the Sheldon's Oven Bottom Muffins followed a little later by a Cornish Cream Tea. The rest of the day was spent reading as it rained as well as a few walks for Reggie. We had intended to get a meal from Cafe Phillipe who has a bar by the entrance.  it was open when  we went down but no sign of life. There were some  lovely cakes in the chiller....

Back in November 2024 I booked us a space on the runway at Elvington so that we could go to the Van Love Festival . It's a fair way off and when I checked the dates we almost had a clash! The night before I had already booked us into the Leas Cliff Hall to see the Illegal Eagles in concert. This means that we have an early start to drive up to Yorkshire. It's a fait way and I think it will be quite arduous on a Friday.  The earlier we get across the Dartford Nightmare then we can just dial in the cruise control and plod up there.  Where we will be on the runway is anyone's guess.  We have a standard ticket and so that could be anywhere!  The runway is long and is used on other dates for land speed record attempts! We will be away sometime on the Sunday afternoon. The Festival always finishes with all the vans leaving in a convoy along the runway!  I have seen it on YouTube but it will be a sight to see and take part in. So what about afterwards? It's a long dri...

It was a spur of the moment decision to come away again this weekend. We had been away last weekend and still had Malibu Molly on the drive. But where to go? One of our favourite directions was last week when we went to Suffolk. So this weekend I looked at maybe not so far and that was to Sussex and Hampshire.  Nothing really leapt out and called "stay here".  Of the places we have been before none were open at this time of the year. Mostly they open in mid to late March. I extended to researching westwards. Dorset is next.  I came across the Caravan Club site at Hunters Moon near Wareham. The cost for two nights is £68. Hardstanding. Decent loos and wash facilities. Terrible 4G signal and intermittently rubbish WiFi.  The free internet gives one hour sessions with an incredibly low bandwidth. After an hour you can login in again. But it's flakey at best. There is a premium option at £5 a day. I didn't risk that given the poor quality of the free one! As club members...

As there is still no football for me until February 22nd, when Arsenal host West Ham United, and it's still too cold for a fair weather biker like me to be out and about, I thought that we should look to go away again. There is a lot of debate about the costs of the Caravan Club sites and so I went through the usual booking services and then on Google Maps to look for a site to go to for a couple of days.  Amazingly, those that are open aren't that different in price to the Club sites.  In the end I booked us two nights at Hunters Moon near Wareham in Dorset. In fact many of the "independent" i.e. not Caravan Club sites were more expensive.  Maybe if you want a bar and entertainment then the higher costs are okay! It's about a three hour trip to get there and so we need to be away a lot earlier than usual. So far I have paid the £5 deposit and the rest to pay on arrival. With the Club sites you know roughly what to expect regarding quality and cleanliness.  The t...

With the trip in mind I dipped into Microsoft's AI generator to get a picture of Molly in Brighton. No matter how much info I typed in, getting a true representation of Molly didn't happen. We are there two nights. Last year we went for a weekend trip staying in the Caravan Club site just up from the Marina area. This year we return to the same site but not at the entire weekend as we have advanced a day in the calendar.  The chances of us getting to park outside the pier is very remote. So AI to the rescue. The van isn't quite a Malibu but is a Ducato! The second image is more fanciful but might almost turn into a partial reality in the Autumn. 😉  Once I have worked out where we are going to go on the Summer trip I'll start to look at the Autumn trip to Spain again.  Maybe we'll give Alcossebre and the timeshare another try. Earlier in the year, October 2024,  there were so many places still open that weren't when we stayed in November ...

Déja-vu! Back to Brighton. Last year for Claire's birthday in February we went to the Caravan Club site in Brighton.  The site is a bit out of the city itself but not far from the Marina. It's an easy enough walk from the site. Once by the Marina you can walk along the promenade alongside the little railway to the pier. Last year it was chilly and we only made it about a third of the way to the pier!! The marina area has restaurants and bars, plus shops and a McDonald's. We did go to Mac and gad a coffee only. We saw a recent vlog where they ordered burgers and bits from the city and it was delivered by scooter to the site entrance barrier. So a year to the date we are going there again. Report to follow.

In UK we have yet another storm brewing and due to hit the west side of the country tonight and into tomorrow for us. Winds are supposed to be around the 40mph mark here and upto 80mph out west. We are due to be going up to Suffolk tomorrow and the weather could play a part in the whole weekend. We'll have to see what happens. We have a table booked at the Badingham White Horse near to the site.  We'll have to leave Reggie in the van whilst we go as the restaurant isn't dog friendly, and we can't guarantee a table in the bar area. We had a small problem when we picked the van up from the storage yard. The radiator fan kept running with the engine switched off. I tried it a few times and it ran on for five minutes. We had only driven six miles. We took it to the dealership today and they checked it over. If course, it didn't do it again. They didn't find a problem. 

Our first night away in the new to us Malibu Charming GT 600 DB. We had only picked it up on Tuesday and we were looking forward to a night away. Since dropping Molly, our old van, off at Choose Leisure on Friday, the house and garage have been full of boxes!  The soft goods like bedding in the house. Who knew that there was so much crammed into a 7m motorhome? The destination was  Black Horse Farm, the Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Densole near Folkestone.  It's about 10 miles from home. We didn't want to go too far.  Black Horse Farm With a new van there is so much to learn and to get used to. The tracker we have fitted is pretty much contact free. It works in the background and I have an app to check up on it. The alarm. Nightmare! Despite a handover it's a job to get used to how it operates. Accidentally triggering it on a campsite could get you lynched! On the way from home we dropped into Sainsbury's for snacks and dinner. Then go the site.  The site ...

What a start on Friday. After a week of pretty much Noah style rain across the south it was looking like a totally shite weekend weatherwise. Friday was raining all day. All morning. We managed to load the van between showers.  We set off around 11am. The satnav said a little over two hours. In reality it was more like 3.5 hours! Flooded roads. Crap roads through Hastings and Bexhill. Roadworks that were around 20 yards in length but two mile queues each side.... We eventually arrived at the Caravan Club site and checked in. We were blue pegs this time - hardstand no awning - we headed up to the quieter section and pitch 108. It seems many of the pitches need ramps. Backing in meant to get level that even the third level wasn't enough. Most Elddis vans are nose down anyway. Going in forwards and we are level, no ramps needed. We had a short walk between rain storms and booked our pitch with the site managers. The onsite caterer was closed and the site manager said that the guy was ...

One change to this trip.   I was looking at a pub stop in Yorkshire after we finished at Hawes but decided with the time we are going to be away that maybe we should simply head home after a "long weekend". As we won't be getting to Clumber Park CAMC site until later in the afternoon on the way up.  I decided that as we are likely to be retracing our steps that we should stop there again on the way back!  It's not very adventurous, but it will give us time to have a look around the National Trust Park in the afternoon. I can cancel upto 21 days before the arrival date if I want if I can find a better or more accommodating site instead. I had a look at a few other options and it looks as though this isn't a bad choice. It's within striking distance of the A1 and we can be on our way home after breakfast and see what there is to visit as we progress southwards.