On the Road Again!

Yesterday, we had a short run to Dungeness.  The plan was to park up and walk Reggie over to the Polish War Memorial and around the shingle before returning to the van. At this time of year parking by the station and "End of the Line"  cafe had plenty of room. In the summer and when the trains are running it's not as easy in a large vehicle. After the walking bit the plan was to turn on the gas and boil the kettle for tea. In the end we decided to change the plan and go straight home. I took another quick snap before we set off. This should be easy enough for any "vanlifer" to understand! 😆 The drive back wasn't too bad. Molly drives well and has a reasonable amount of power.  There is sometimes a queue of cars behind us though!  😁 Back home. The range on the instruments always makes us laugh.  On Friday when we set off for Sissinghurst the range showed 206 miles.  Today after we get back and it's showing..... .... 193 miles. So two trips out and we...

Today we decided to make the short trip along the coast from Hythe to Dungeness. We thought about going earlier than our normal "afternoon" departure so that we could get lunch at the Dungeness Fish Hut. In the end we set off just before noon. The van needed a little work to get us ready to roll. All the locks came off, the silver shield off the windscreen, and Reggie's stuff loaded. He needs his bed to lie on. We were lucky to get a parking space outside the light railway station. I parked as near the end as possible to make sure there was room for others to park. From here we walked back to the Hut.  For a chilly Saturday it was quite busy. I liked the idea of scallops but in the end opted for locally caught fish on a roll. It came with salad and homemade tartare sauce. Very nice.  We shared a table with a couple with a spaniel. They said they are going to the NEC to the Caravan and Motorhome Show. Once finished we walked back on the road to the ...

We only had Molly back since Wednesday and we have had a few things to sort out like the TV and the Amazon Fire Stick! A quick run out was needed. We had only had one run and that was to the BP at Dover to fill the lpg tanks. It's cheaper in France but I wanted to use the setup I can actually work! So today we decided to have a run out to Dungeness to give the van a run. As it is the Sunday of August Bank Holiday and it was rammed. With nowhere to park a 7m van we made our exit and headed to Camber Sands and then Rye. Camber was packed and although there is a sign for coach parking there's a height barrier. No coach could sneak under that! So we made our way to Winchelsea Beach. There were loads of cars along the way and we eventually found a space. Whilst we had a cup of tea I tuned the TV into preview. The sound quality isn't that wonderful. It did find 166 channels. Many are the HD or +1 versions of other channels. Then we had a walk on the beach. The tide was way out an...

Another staycation day between showers to take advantage of the dry weather that appears between them! Molly the Moho is still at the dealers and so we are in the car again.  It's about a 25 mile round trip to Dungeness.  This is officially a desert.  I kid you not. We had a walk on the shingle to the Polish Airmen's Memorial and then walked back to the station to have tea and wait for the last train of the day to arrive. Luckily, when the train arrived it didn't hoot the horn.. If it had, Reggie would have gone mental. Instead he ignored the sound of it wheezing into the station. Claire took a couple of photos on her phone.  Today the Sony A300 was left at home..... The "New" Lighthouse

With Molly the Moho being in the dealers for some warranty work and a (possible) repair to the damage to the rear bumper, we are having to staycate in the car. It also means that we can go away for a few days and so are based at home. The weather has been really poor. The "Mediterranean Climate" we were told to expect in the South of England as a result of climate change hasn't arrived. Instead we have had some really hot periods but not that long and wetter summers. July 2023 has been the 6th wettest on record.... So this week we have been out between showers and some torrential rain where we can. Today we took a short drive to the White Cliffs of Dover to walk the dog and to have a look at Dover Harbour. The harbour under the white cliffs themselves. I dug out Claire's Sony A300 DSLR and charged the battery. It seems a shame to let it sit unused in the case.  I had to format a 4gb compact flash card to get it to work, and a few test shots were fired off in the garde...

Sunday started a bit late as we had been out to see the Illegal Eagles at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. We'd had a rushing day, picking up Molly, out again to fill the diesel tanks and then to the concert, whilst squeezing in a dog walk. We decided to have a first "family" outting in the new van, and we plumped for Sissinghurst Castle Garden. We actually went there a few weeks ago when we first got Suki back from winter storage. Then we were the only vehicle in the coach parking area where the parking attendants told us to park last year. This time, as in March, there was no one on duty at the gate and it seemed that people parked wherever. The coach park full of cars, and worse, the disabled area was full, but only around half displayed the blue badge.  We managed to park in the right area. It was around 3pm. We decided to have a walk around the estate and then stop for a coffee. This we did. It was quite muddy in some places.  Once b...

Today we picked up Suki from the storage and site so we can get her ready for the trip to Mersea Island in the week.  We drained off the water and I ran the pump to get some clean water through the waste water to flush that out too. It means we currently have no water onboard. We'll need to fill up or at least have some onboard when we set off on Wednesday.  So today, we took coffee made in the Bosch Tassimo machine in the Waitrose Travel Mugs and a hot cross bun each!  The drive was about 20 minutes to the parking at Dungeness.  We had a walk over as far as the  Polish Airman's Memorial .   We didn't go far as I started to get a migraine. This manifests itself with flashing/flickering in my eyes and a rather strange problem where I can't read and I can't remember words!  Back at the van I took a couple of  paracetamol as I didn't have any  migraleve  with me. We had our coffee and I went to have a look at the steam engine that had ...