Plans

I was thinking about plans for the warmer weather and I had been wondering about a theme. When the kids were younger we did a Castles week which was nice and we talked about doing a Waterfalls week which we haven’t yet done. But then I read an article in Camping Magazine here http://campingmagazine.wordpress.com/ about the gentleman camping at least one night in every county in England. This sounds very ambitious in a tent. So then I wondered about Wales and I think I will try in the better weather to camp in every county in Wales. Maybe it’s not as ambitious as every county in England but it sounds like an interesting idea. The North of Wales is our usual stomping ground, though we do actually live in England, so it will make us explore a little further South. We have actually only lived in this area for six years so we’re still exploring.  I hope to do lots of exploring in these counties too.

Horseshoe Pass

Horseshoe Pass

After a few more days of watching the weather on Sunday we ventured out in Edna again.  Unfortunately everyone else seemed to have the same idea.  We headed for Ty Mawr country park but the car park was full and overflowing and people were parking in the street outside.  The lower car park was closed.

So then I went for Plan B and headed for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct which is near a place called Trevor.  The car park my side of the aqueduct  was full, so I went round and into Trevor but the main car park there was also full.

So, Plan C.  Well, I didn’t have a Plan C but the children were watching me expectantly so I drove towards Llangollen and headed for the Horseshoe Pass.  We pulled in before the cafe at the top and climbed the big hill.

From the bottom it didn’t look like much.  We walked up to the rock at the top, but it was pretty steep after a couple of months of wet, miserable weather and not many good walks.  The rock at the top didn’t seem to get much closer for a bit, but then we made it.  I was lagging behind the children who seemed to be taking it in turns to run up the hill.

I’m determined to come back in a couple of months and bounce up the hill with them.  It’s obvious we need to get out more.

So then we made drinks in Edna.  Tomato soup for my son, hot chocolate for my daughter and coffee for me along with one of those chocolate gingers from last time.  Yeah!  I remembered the water.

I was going to pop Edna’s roof up but I couldn’t do it.  I’ve since been back to Rolling Homes and he’s taken me through it step by step as I wasn’t doing it right.  A bit of a relief that it was me rather than the van.  Now let’s keep our fingers crossed for more nice weather.

So we picked Edna up on Friday and stared through the window on Saturday at the absolutely torrential rain.  The plan had been to drive the hours trip to my husband’s Mum’s to show her Edna with the children and possibly take her out in it.  That had rapidly diminished to just getting there and back but by the time my husband finished work at lunch time we had decided it was too horrible to even venture out. 

Then Sunday loomed and showed a bit of promise so we hurriedly decided that was it, we would venture out, even if it was for only a couple of hours.  So we searched for our wellies, my stripey pair from last year, my son’s new pair as his feet had grown yet again and my daughter was sent to find her last pair in the garage.  She tried one on, I checked the size, a 2 and checked that it still fitted her.  She said it was fine, whilst balancing on one foot and holding her shoe in the air and we wiped off a bit of the mud still left on them from last time and popped them all in carrier bags under the front bench seat.

I haven’t turned the fridge on yet as I was told it might take a bit of power to get to temperature and there doesn’t seem much point in turning it on to sit on the drive so I will drink Jasmine tea or black coffee and my daughter drinks hot chocolate or herbal tea without milk.  My son likes his tea with milk so I stopped at the petrol station, picked up some diesel and some tomato cup-a-soups which he loves.  I was also a bit naughty and as it was a sort of celebration, our first outing, I bought some Borders chocolate covered stem ginger cookies.  Mmm!!!

So we went to Colemere which is very close to us, but along a single track part of the way, so I did worry a little about pulling over to let someone pass and getting stuck in the mud or the hedge, or maybe both.  Anyway, we got there fine and parked up in between a van and a different make camper and pulled out the wellies.  I looked down at my daughter and said, “You’ve got that on the wrong foot love.”  Then I took a closer look and found that she had two left welly boots.  One was the size 2 she had tried on at home and the other one was a size 12 which she couldn’t even fit on her foot properly.  After a few trying on Cinderella’s slipper moments where we tucked and pulled, we decided she would have to go in her walking shoes which are fairly old, though not waterproof. 

Colemere has a path most of the way round so it isn’t too bad but there’s  one part which is.  After a bit of walking tentatively through the sludge trying to find the bit least likely to sink we realised we had two choices the even worse bit which led onto a wooden walkway or going around the other way all the way to the trees at about 1 mile an hour.  So I picked my daughter up and carried her as fast as I could to the walkway in a baby carry with her feet sticking out. 

After that excitement, we carried on slowly but surely on our circular route.  We talked about popping up the roof and making a hot drink and eating our biscuits after the walk.  Then I suddenly realised that I hadn’t put any water in the container, though the converter people might have done if I was lucky. 

My daughter said, “oh no.”

My son said, “don’t be so pessimistic, it’ll be fine.”

So we continued on our walk.  It was lovely to be outside and some geese posed nicely for us just over halfway round.

We also saw some snowdrops, the first ones I’ve spotted this year.  A little bit of hope amongst the bad weather,

The rain pattered down for a short while but we sheltered under the canopy of the trees alongside the shore and watched the rain pattering onto the water.  The children had a good search for the ideal stick and then we went past the boathouse back to the car park. 

I checked for water in the on board water container and it was empty.  My son asked if we had any other water and of course we didn’t, no soft drinks or bottles of water at all.  So we decided to open some biscuits, but we left the chocolate gingers for when we remember the water and opened the Toffypops instead which the children enjoyed.  Then we sat there wishing we weren’t so thirsty from the bacon we’d had for breakfast.  We turned the front bench seat round though, but didn’t pop the top.  Then the wellies went away and we drove home.  Our first outing.  Not a full trip but a start and hopefully as the weather improves the view will improve too.

Edna

So, Edna is the name of the new camper van.  She is currently being serviced, diesel heating fitted and the water container moved to the back of the vehicle with a couple of extra shelves being put under the sink.

She has a pull out rock and roll bed and a double bench seat which turns around so she can seat five for travelling and four around a table to eat.  The roof can fit two adults when it pops up unlike a lot of other beds we saw which were only really for children.  The diesel heating sounds great too as it is attached outside the vehicle and piped in so it’s not too noisy and there’s no need for an electric hook up in order to get some heat.

The gentleman who did the conversion ( it’s a new conversion on an old vehicle) used to be a kitchen cabinet maker so all of the cupboards inside the vehicle are made of real wood which is lovely.

We also have the option later on to return and add things on or change things of course.  My husband would like different seat fabric and we have suckered on blinds at the moment rather than curtains, but there is so much money you could spend on these things and only so much money in the pot so we’ll live with it for a bit and see what we need and what we can live with.

We should be picking her up on Wednesday, fingers crossed.  It’s half term the week beginning the 17th so we’re hoping for some halfway decent weather.  Yesterday there were winds of up to 60 miles an hour with lashing rain/sleet here.  We went to the library and the new sweet shop and it was pretty bitter weather.

The children have seen Edna and have given their seal of approval.  They agree with the name too.  She will probably be Ed or Eddie for short, but I hope she then doesn’t get confused between whether she’s a boy or a girl.

We’re hoping for a big tour of Scotland in the summer, depending on my husband’s holiday and how much time he can get off.  Hopefully if she’s ready by next weekend we can try going for a walk and coming back to a cup of tea or some hot chocolate and testing how warm the heater is.

First Experience of a Camper Van

Wahoo!   I’ve just bought a camper van.  Well, I’ve put down the deposit and negotiated the deal.  I will pick it up around about the first of February.  I will tell you more about her another day, but first I feel I should tell you about my one and only trip out in a camper van so far in my life.

This was a photo I took from the van and it’s also currently the background image on my blog.  It seemed only fitting to use it.

I’ve always been a camper as I’ve mentioned before and I started looking at camper vans and liked the idea of being able to make a cup of tea or coffee in the rain.  I also like the idea of being able to go somewhere for just one night.  You really can’t do that in a tent.  By the time you’ve set up camp you feel you don’t want to move for at least three days, well I don’t, though it is getting easier as the kids get older.  Anyway,  a lot of friends seemed to be turning 40 and people were celebrating it in different ways.  There were meals out, spa trips and giant nights out.  I was asked what I was going to do and I started to think about what I really wanted to do.  You know, you don’t always stop and think about what you really want usually you just drift along.  As I get older and time seems to fly quicker I do have to stop sometimes and think, no hang on, what’s really important.

Well, I wanted to hire a camper van and go somewhere with my family.  It was a bit pricey for me, but you only turn 40 once.  My birthday is in April, so it’s usually too cold to camp and too unpredictable weather wise.  I had a bit of a disaster with a tent one Easter which put me off Easter camping – too windy.  But a camper van, that would be ideal.  My husband couldn’t get the time off work so it was me and the children.  I chose a site in Wales on the coast (Cae Du campsite).  You could see the sea from the van and it also allowed camp fires.  There were sheep grazing there and they left rather a lot of muck over the grass to put a tent on, but it was easy to avoid in a van with wellies.  We enjoyed watching the sheep, a small train would occasionally trundle past full of waving occupants and the sea could be watched endlessly.  The site went right down to a pebbly beach.  The facilities were fine but basic but that wasn’t what we paid for.  We were so close to the sea that on the Friday night I even dreamt about the sea.  On Saturday we explored the local area, with bracing walks on Tywyn beach and further down we explored the sand dunes of Aberdyfi and played in the sand enjoying fish and chips too.  Whilst we were there a whole convoy of cars appeared and filled the car park.  They had come along on a big expedition, I think it was from Chepstow, though I could be wrong.

We just stood there grinning from ear to ear.  Our camper van is at the far end.  I think we counted about 47 of these cars in every colour of the rainbow.  After a fabulous day we looked forward to a camp fire.

Do you recognise this photo?  Well, actually we couldn’t get the fire lit.  Most of the wood in that great big bundle waiting was too wet.  The great chaps next to us came to help and told us they’d brought wood from home and offered to lend us some.  Campers are always brilliantly friendly and helpful.  I would have said yes, except that in the mean time my little girl was curled up in bed and my son was cold and couldn’t wait to climb in the van so it seemed pointless to spend the next hour building up a great fire for myself.  I admitted defeat and climbed into the van having had only a small fire which had gone out pretty quick.  But I still like the potential of the photo, that sense of expectation.  (To be honest I always struggled with camp fires at Guides)

On Sunday we went home, but just before we left my son raced me over the slopy bit to the entrance and fell over landing badly on his arm. We didn’t think it was broken at first as he could still move it, but we knew it was bad when his sister offered him Haribos and it didn’t cheer him up.  The cast was on for six weeks.  So now the weekend is associated with the time he broke his arm.  Both children still thought the camper van was great.  My son said he will never forget how excited I was the day I picked him up in the camper van after school.

Now it’s time to get excited all over again.

Which Camper Van? Part 2

So, a second try at the pictures

This is the rotating passenger seat for two which I think is very useful as it means you can have two passengers in the front and then turn it around to seat four around the table.  Brilliant idea.  It also means your van seats five people for travelling.

A pop up roof.

• Good for getting under car park barriers.
• Good ventilation in the Summer.
• Large adult double bed
• Does it hold in the heat well enough????

A high top van

• Keeps the heat in efficiently.
• Can’t be used in car parks with height restrictions
• The bed in the roof is only supposed to be a child’s bed with a weight restriction on it.
• Supposed to be cheaper on ferries etc? (Not actually sure if this is true or if it matters much as I’m not close to the coast.)
• It’s also a long wheel base so it’s a bit bigger (car park spaces again might be a bit more of a problem).

Another high top.  I loved the opening window in the top on this one.  The other one has a fixed window which doesn’t open.

Another look with my husband awaits.

Which camper van?

So, I have been looking at camper vans and I’m very excited. I ran part of the way to school to pick up the little one, well I was a bit late too. I have sort of narrowed it down to 4 options. There are three camper vans for sale at different places which could fit our budget and needs and there is still the option to have a second hand van fitted out new, but I’m leaning away from that because of the wait and the fact that there are two very nice options recently converted. The third one is only hanging on by a thread.

I need to think things over and absorb everything and then I’m going to look at them again with my husband and once I’ve narrowed it down again I will take the children to look too (they have seen two of the short list the other week).

The main difference is that I had sort of decided that I wanted a high top because of the heat leaking out and the head height but I have been seduced by a very good pop up top which is reinforced and has a bed that can be used for two adults. Most roof beds seem to be just for children but as my teenage son is growing very fast whatever gives him the most space seems to be a good option. That van also has the option of a good heating system which can be used without hook up and is outside the van and piped in so it’s not really noisy. It also has a double bench seat  next to the driver’s seat that turns around. How cool?

Now at this point I was going to post a picture of the seat and some pictures of the various roofs but for some reason the pictures won’t load.  I have tried loading them one by one instead of all four at once but it still didn’t work.  I have managed to post pictures  before so I’m not sure what’s wrong.  Maybe it’s my internet.  I shall try again tomorrow.  I have taken pictures of the three vans I’ve narrowed it down to so I could show the rest of the family and remember what they were like as well as showing you of course.  Oh well, my intentions were good.

Does anyone else have any experience of pop up tops versus fixed roofs?  I suppose the main bonuses of pop up tops is that they drive as a car, don’t have to worry about height barriers and are a bit like a transformer changing from vehicle to house.  The fixed high roofs are obviously trickier for height barriers and they charge you more for ferries apparently?  But surely they must keep the heat in better?  The gentleman selling the pop top van showed me some pictures someone had just sent him of one of his vans in the snow.  Apparently they took it to the Alps.  I do like his heating system which seems effective but not noisy and the workmanship is top notch.  Can you see which way I’m leaning?  Right I better sleep on things and let the whizzing around in my head settle down a bit.