Bank Holiday Sharing

So, the August Bank Holiday came upon us, and what better way to enjoy it than to go away in the caravan with friends. - Who were camping! Our very good friends the Flashman's

So, I booked both families into Theobalds Park in NW London, within very easy reach of the M25.

What a lovely little spot.  The weather had turned slightly so we had more cloud than sun, but it didn't spoil the weekend.

The Flashman's tent in the background

 We were very close to the Lee Valley Country Park, so we visited there for a walk around the lakes and along the canal.  We also hired two small electric boats for a trip along the river.  Ahh that was fun.

Along the canal

You take your life into your own hands here

The steering on these babies was very weird, to go in a vaguely straight line, you had to keep turning the wheel to the right then the left then the right then the left.. And hopefully you went sort of in a straight direction, but not always the direction you wanted.  

The hardest part was trying to stop the children from jumping overboard.  No I don't know why either.

Anyway we all survived and have agreed that next year we will hire one of the bigger canal type boats for the day and go of on a cruise and picnic type of thing.  Roll on next year.

A week or two in the sun?

And so it came to pass that summer came along.  And this year dear reader, it did appear to hang on for more than a second.  Not quite blink and you missed it, it was nice to have around, like an old friend there in the background reminding you of 'them good old days', whatever they may have been.

Still that time for summer holidays came around, and a cheer was heard in the household, two whole weeks in the caravan were planned.

Week One being at the New Wine Summer Conference in Shepton Mallet.  Those of you who know me, or remember will recall that this is the organisation i used to work with.  And it was so enjoyable being able to go to this event as a punter and to just sit around the 'village' and do well basically nothing for a whole week.  It was bliss.

 The New Wine summer conference is all about camping with your church, making new friends and spending time with God in any way that takes your fancy really.

We had a great time being with Christ Church Roxeth on our small 'village'.  And it really, really, yes really dear reader, helped that the sun shone!

And those of you who know of the Malvern Hills and the delights of Somerset will know that its not such a case of 'here be monsters'  .. well OK, but more a case of summer, winter, who cares it will still rain.. But this year, oh dear sun worshipper, we had a really good dry week.  Apart from the final morning when were taking everything down and moving onto our next spot for Week Two of the summer holiday!

We went to the Isle of Wight.

Straight from sunny Shepton Mallet to the Isle of Wight.  We stayed at a holiday site called Nodes Point.  Which is on the East Side of the Island near St Helen's.

It was a journey of many firsts I suppose.  The furthest distance we had towed the caravan, first time taking the caravan onto a ferry, and the first time for the caravan and the children on the IoW.

Leaving the small harbour on the mainland

A small selection of the boats moored here

Which is a lovely place, small bumpy narrow roads to name but a few of its attractions.  Pulling the shed along these roads was an experience.  It was on one of these roads that we had our first (and hopefully) only map v satnav experience, where in the blink of an eye I decided to ignore the road sign and the plan to follow the map round to where were going to and follow the satnav instead.

After the road got hillier and narrower and narrower still and the 'turn right' options were literally farm tracks, we eventually made it back to a road just about big enough to take the car and the caravan together and successfully made it to Nodes Point.

The reception wasn't brilliant, but we found our pitch and had our first experience of 'what the heck do we do now' when we couldn't get the car and the caravan to separate.  The tow hook, would not, I mean, NOT come away from the tow bar, no amount of reverse, straighten up, reverse, curse, straighten.. anyway dear reader, you get the point.  So admitting defeat I popped over to some other squared away looking caravaners and asked for help.

And give the caravan community its fair share of stick where due, but also credit as well, and within a moment this nice chap, and the chap next door to us who we hadn't asked (he was in a tent) came over to assist.  And the trick is to put the car in neutral, take the handbreak off, let the car and shed rest, kick the towbar and try again, and as if by magic it worked.  Car and 'van were now separated.

All neat and set up

Room for the car too.

What can I say about Nodes Point?  and these types of places?

Lets start with the positive shall we.  The kids loved it.  The wife loved it 'cos the kids loved it.  Does anything else really matter?  No, of course not.  Still.  Yes dear reader. But.  Not a big but, but a but all the same.

It is like a camp of two halfs.  Up the hill and towards the centre of the site where the static caravans, fast food, shop, pub and 'recreation hall' is, well its not a case of 'there be monsters'.. OK, what the heck, yes it was!

But down where were on the touring pitches and then down where the tents had to camp (man that is some hill to pitch your tent on!) it was really quite fine.

Down the hill from the shower block

 

Panoramic view from the shower block down to the beach

And apart from one day where it rained, we were again blessed by sunshine.  best two weeks of sun for the whole summer I think.

The beach at St Helen's is actually quite nice, he says shocked at himself.  Not really being a beach person, I actually enjoyed sitting on the beach, reading, having music, even a little sketching.  Did I go into the water?  The English Channel?  No chance!

And another of those views, this time of the beach

About as close to the water as I got

Unlike others!

And so all good things come to an end and summer holidays were over.  There followed an uneventful journey home, no satnav mishaps and we all got home fine.  This time the caravan went to a new base location, one not so hard or wet to get it/her? out of.

Birthday Weekend

And so, dear reader, it came to pass that my birthday fell at a weekend, there will of course be some scientific formula that will work out the likely hood and frequency of such an event, but add in the curveball that said birthday this year fell on the same day as Father's Day and you can quickly lose the will to live.  Either that or as I keep telling my friend, I'd rather stick pins in my (well you get the point).

So, as I said, birthday, weekend, oh yes forgot to say, for those of you who don't do Father's day, its in June.

Now, as I said.. well OK I hear you.  We went to the Camping & Caravanning Club site in Chertsey.  But before I tell you that it rained as if it was the flood, not a flood.. but The Flood, let me tell you about how we found this little gem.

Our youngest chicken was at the time in a local (to home, not Chertsey.. keep up!) Brownie Pack and they were having a long weekend camp in Sheperton, down near Chertsey, near the Thames.  Not that near.. but near enough! So on our way to drop said Brownie off at said weekend retreat I noticed that we passed the C&CC site of Chertsey, just before the bridge, before the roundabout before the turning to Brownieville.

So I said to She Who Must Be Obeyed, "Why don't we call in here to have a look, it might be a nice place for a weekend trip.  Given that its a couple of junctions round the M25 from us and quite close for a Friday getaway and a hopeful arrival before midnight Friday."

"OK" She replied.

So, to keep it brief, we had a good walk round the site.  The sun was shining, the river nearby was flowing, the birds were singing and I thought to myself, lets come here for my birthday weekend.  So we did.

And we had a great time, despite the darn rain.  Which we arrived in of course and it seemed that every venture out of the shed that weekend brought the rain on.

Anyway, we were met by a cheerful chap in his rain gear and hat, who very promptly and very kindly showed us to our pitch.  Where in record time, I had us hooked up, watered and wasted up.  Amazing what getting soaked to the skin can do for you.

We debated about putting up the awning or not, and due to the weather, decided on the not side of town.  Looking at all the other people with their awnings up, perhaps we should have stepped into the camp of should.. Still I guess it was newness of awning and not wanting to look like complete Noobs on one of our first outings.

That weekend we went off Geocaching, couldn't find the first one we were after, but found the second, got into a lovely conversation with some people living on a canal boat.  Then got very wet as the heavens opened up again.  We decided at that moment to abandon the walk and geocache hunt and head back to the shed.  On the way home the youngest got soaked by a car driving through a large puddle and splashing her from head to toe.  Quite funny really, except when it happens to your child.  So taking wet child back to the site, we all got changed and retired to the pub for lunch.  Perfect!

Chertsey is a large site, catering for tents, tourers and motorhomes, lovely layout, very clean, very nice, very Chertsey.  Well recommended.

Chertsey C&CC Site

 According to the sites website, this little lot are local:

• Weybridge station is near the Site. Trains to the centre of London take around 30 minutes.
• Three theme parks are nearby: Thorpe Park is in Chertsey, while both Chessington World of Adventures and Legoland are only a short drive away.
• Windsor Castle, an official residence of the Queen, is the world’s oldest and largest occupied castle.
• Kew, Wisley and Saville Gardens are internationally famous.
• Garden lovers can also visit the Hampton Court and Chelsea Flower Shows.
• Horse race lovers are well served with three courses nearby – Epsom Downs, Kempton Park and Sandown Park.Odds Farm Park has been created to allow children to get close to the animals.
• Brooklands Museum covers the motoring and aviation heritage of its site. It now includes Mercedes-Benz World.
• Chertsey Museum has displays on the history of Runnymede, historic fashion exhibitions and a hands-on discovery zone for youngsters.
• Go Ape! in Wendover woods, just outside Aylesbury, is a high-wire forest adventure where visitors can swing from tree to tree.
• Walk along the towpath to Staines using part of the Thames Path National Trail.
• Chertsey has supermarkets, shops and a cosmopolitan selection of restaurants and take-aways.

A view through the trees.

Oh forgot to mention, being West London, you do get the odd flight over head from that small provincial airport of Heathrow, but after a while you don't hear them anymore, and nor could you hear the M3 either from the other side of the river.

And what does Chef desire?

So, what do you all cook with when out in your 'van at that idyllic site, and its not chucking it down with rain?  Oh, and of course dear reader, you dont want to cook inside your nice shed.

I have seen and even been party to a few different BBQ's both gas and coal fired.  But we have one of these:

The Cadac Carry Chef

And, I have to say its lovely.  I admit it's not to everyone's liking, some prefer smaller, some prefer a natural flame BBQ, but for us it works and the benefit of it being gas fired is that you can:

Use it where they dont like/allow charcoal BBQ's
Run it off its own gas supply, or:
Run it off the caravan's own gas supply. - Assuming you have one of those external gas fittings of course.

Because if you dont have an external gas fitting it's going to be very hard to feed off the caravan's own supply.

This cadac is the top of the range one, not because we are like that, but more to the versatility it gives you with the different cooking surfaces.  And it packs down nicely so that it can be stored in the caravan.

What don't I like about it?  Well the non stick surface does seem a little on the gentle side, and the zip broke on the carry bag on the very first use, but apart from that we will get our money's worth out of it for some time.  (and at that price..)  But we used some of our Tesco vouchers and got it at a reasonable cost.

Our Shiny Shed

So, as I've already mentioned we have an Elddis Avante 526.  This is a single axle six berth caravan, with a large [6'4"] fixed bed, a double bed at the front in the usual place and a bunk set up opposite the kitchen.

Inside the showroom 526, note the matching decor.  You can just see on the left, where the bunks are.

And looking forward

Our awning might look like this one day

We think its lovely, others of course have their own opinion.  Thats the joy of caravans, you can find a layout, manufacturer that suits your needs, not to say that one is better than another, you find one that suits.  At the NEC this year, we must have traipsed in to so many caravans, but the layout of this one caught the attention of she who must be obeyed, and before we knew it, we had signed on the dotted line.

It came with the awning included in the price, which as the saying goes Was Nice.  I might, one day actually put the thing up correctly.  Still practice makes perfect.

Whitsun 2011

So Whitsun this year found the Clan in a small village in rural Hampshire called Sherfield English.  It is on the edge of the New Forest and very handy for visiting said and for popping into Portsmouth and Southampton etc.

We stayed in the Camping and Caravanning Club site of Hill Farm Caravan Park, which despite its name does allow tents.  Its a lovely friendly site, quite busy at this time of year and with a number of Season Pitches already set up and lived in.

Along the A27, first right when you enter Sherfield English [if travelling West, last turning if going East]

 

We spent five nights here really getting to know our Elddis Avante 526 caravan and we had a really nice time here.

We went through the New Forest, visited Monkey World, Portsmouth and had some time lazying around the campsite soaking up the May sunshine.

A nice view of our camping field.  It was change over day, when we arrived the space in front was full of tents.

 

 

 

And looking away from our shed towards the shop/cafe and toilet block

A sneaky look at our shiny new shed

The site was, thinking back on it, very nice indeed.  They have two main fields plus an overflow field for all those who like roughing it in tents.

The kids enjoyed themselves, especailly the youngest; Hannah, who made friends with any child near by, if they wanted to our not!

Would we come back here?  Yes, I think we would.

Radcot Bridge - aka Orc Island

I suppose, dear reader, that we must start at the beginning.  I shall however take poetic licence and say we should start at the beginning of our caravanning  adventures and leave out the one or two experiences in the trailer tent.  That's not to say we didn't enjoy ourselves, more testimony to the hours it takes to put said trailer tent up of a Friday evening.

So, we come to it, what its all about.  Our first place on the map is a lovely small CL belonging to the Caravan Club.  Yes dear reader, you need to belong to the Caravan Club to be able to stay here.  And being a CL, they can only take five (5) 'vans.  Good job too, as from the pictures you can can see there isn't space for any more.

Facilities wise, its pretty mulch zilch, nada, nothing.  There is a water supply and somewhere to empty the elsan, but that's it and certainly no EHU.

On the other side of the list, there is the river, the fresh air, the greener, the pub, the river, plenty of walks, the pub, BBQing space, the river, the pub.  You get the drift.

Welcome to Radcot Bridge.  A lovely place as you can see here.

The five 'van only site

The Thames at Radcot

The CL site is actually a small island on the Thames, it being created by the Thames deciding to go a few different routes through here.  The bridge of the non navigable part of the water waterway is in fact the oldest remaining bridge over the Thames, which from the map below is the bottom of the three river ways.

 There is also a rally field for this site, which is away down a small drive and not visible from the CL site.

There is also a nice pub very near by at the entrance to the CL, which serves Ale and Food.  What else do you need? 

I have been here twice now, once in 2006 and once in 2011, the later being the weekend of the Royal Wedding and the first being during the World Cup.

These pictures are from the 2011 visit and as you can see when compared to the above pictures from 2006, not a lot has changed.

There are, believe it or not five vans on this site.

My friend Colin's shed.

From across the river.

Kid friendly?  Sure, as long as they can swim

We stayed here with the other member of the 500 Guild; Colin and his family.  Long term caravanners and good friends of ours.  No doubt I shall speak more of them in other posts.

Now, to finish off this review of Radcot Bridge, I must point out that across the other side of the river is a public campsite, and that at the time of our visit in 2006, it was a little rowdy with youthful noise, so it was this time that we penned this site 'Orc Island'.

Dear reader, we had no issues at all with those or even from those inhabiting Orc Island, so I would recommend this Caravan Club site to you.

At the time of writing we are planning another trip to Orc Island in September, but this time to do some fishing.

So Where Did We Start?

Back in the olden days, which dear reader you will know is further back than before the lives of children and their inability to adjust to anything actually being around before they were born, or if they do grasp this time warp concept, everything was 'In the Victorian Times'..  Which to be honest, is not helped by me telling them to speak to their Grandmother about anything Victorian, as she was around in those days.. << cough, cough>>.  Sorry Mother!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, when I were a lad, I belonged to The Camping Club of Great Britain and Ireland.  And  my friend Kevin and I would take ourselves off nearly every weekend in the summer and go camping. 

Eventually time catches up with you and on leaving school I joined Her Majesty's Army as a vehicle mechanic in the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers and had my fill of camping and outdoor life for the next 11 years.

After that, I vowed that the indoor life was for me and that was that.  HA HA! laughed life.  So what happened?  Some time after the wife asked me one evening if I would be interested in taking her and the offspring camping.  After spluttering for ages on my cup of tea, I firmly declined the offer stating the above reason.  One of my friends, Colin mentioned to me and t'other friend Jason that he had just purchased a caravan.

After both Jason and myself had spluttered through our beer, we mercilessly took the mickey for approximately five minutes, stating Jeremy Clarkson like statements, then actually realising that here was the perfect base for travelling boys weekends, we then shamelessly freeloaded a weekend away in Colin's shed.

It was during the summer of 2006 (was it really dear reader? I think it was)  It was during a World Cup year and for a brief moment, I got excited about the prospects of England progressing further than normal in the qualifications.  But life was soon back to normal, and they didnt. But we shamelessly free loaded a great weekend of caravanning, beer, cycling, beer and BBQing at a lovely spot in rural Oxfordshire.  More on this place later.

So after that, the bug was rekindled, the flame was replanted and other such metaphors.  I went to work for a wonderful organisation called New Wine and one of the major events they put on are summer conferences, and as such I was required to stay in 'sunny' Shepton Mallet, at the Royal bath & West Showground for two and a half weeks in a caravan.  Funny how things come around.

So from that I was fortunate enough, through work to get my hands on a lovely old Conway Trailer Tent.  Which like any trailer tent enthusiast will know, is a great piece of kit, if only it didnt take 2-3 hours to put up each time and consequently suck out any of the joy of dissapearing on a Friday night for a weekend away.

So, in time we did part exchange the trailer tent in and we got our hands on a brand new 2011 Elddis Avante 526.  Which to say is very nice and shiny is an understatement.

In The Beginning

So whats this about? I hear you say dear reader.  Well you might be right in saying such a thing, what is it about indeed?

It's about, I suppose, our adventures in a caravan, which is very new and very shiny.  It started out from a conversation with a friend of mine, and a need to find somewhere to record for posterity or for general review information about the various caravan/campsites that we go to.  Where we can write a review, leave some pictures, whinge about yappy dogs, yappy kids, and windbreaks in true caravan style.

Now I appreciate that 99% of the population of the UK are in the Jeremy Clarkson school of thought and that all caravans should be removed from the road and used as target practice.  But i fall into the 1% that think otherwise and actually enjoy our time away in said caravan.

Now, dear reader, I do have a habit of referring to said caravan and probably to others as well, as a shed.  Yes, shed.  The reasons for this are lost in the murky backwash of time and if I can dig far enough into my memory I'll tell you one day.  So, dont be confused if I intermingle the words caravan and shed, I mean the same thing, unless I tell you otherwise, and then they will mean whatever it is I just said..

So enough preamble, lets dive straight in to caravan's err shed's.. you get the idea.