Camping – Page 15 – Back on the road again

Camping under Penistone Hill near Haworth

2017-jan-haworth-4 — Free camping above Lower Laithe Reservoir near Haworth in Yorkshire

I couldn’t really believe it is ten years since we had visited Haworth in West Yorkshire but Mr BOTRA’s diary doesn’t lie! And yet despite this evidence I still think this is a place I am very familiar with and that we visit regularly. Of course, over the years we have spent lots of time walking on the moors around Haworth but somehow it had recently fallen off the list of go-to places. We put that right recently and spent a night with a lovely view over the valley in a lay-by on Cemetery Road underneath Penistone Hill. In the evening light we had a stroll through the lovely village and walking up and down that steep cobbled hill window shopping. As has always been our habit in Haworth we also walked through the church yard and gazed across the gritstone graves and the trees to the Parsonage. There is no doubt that Haworth will always be associated with the three Brontë women, Charlotte, Emily and Anne and the novels they wrote were a significant part of my teenage years and stories I return to. The Parsonage is currently celebrating 200 years since these three and their brother Branwell were born between 1816 and 1820 with all sorts of events.

As it has [apparently] been so long since we had visited Haworth we chose to walk an old favourite and followed the paths to the Brontë Bridge and Falls, most certainly walking in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters as it is known this was a favourite spot. We climbed above the falls and followed the Pennine Way on to the higher moors to Top Withins. Since our last visit this isolated and ruined farmhouse that gives a sense of Wuthering Heights has been somewhat restored to prevent it from falling into further disrepair. We returned on a different route over the moors that was quieter and as light snow flakes drifted around us it was a perfect place to be despite the cold. By the path we found a recently dead hare; we normally spot these animals leaping across a field and to see one so close up revealed the beauty of the animal and the strength in those long back legs.

A brew and a slice of home-made cake back in the campervan soon restored warmth to our limbs before we drove home, vowing not to leave it another ten years before we visit Haworth again.

A lesson for minimalists: it doesn’t mean keeping nothing at all

2012 Nov Norfolk and Lincs trip (9) — The first thing we do when we park up the ‘van is make a brew

‘It will wear in’, is a phrase Mr BOTRA and I often use in our house and in the campervan for anything from a pair of shoes that pinch to a new bed that just feels strange after the old one. So when the oven door on our small Smev oven on our new Devon Tempest campervan was stiff to close, although we knew this wasn’t right, we thought it would improve over time. But it didn’t wear in, instead it got stiffer and more difficult to close until [you guessed it] the door refused to close at all [while we were mid-way through cooking some garlic bread since you ask].

Of course, by this time we were outside the Devon Conversion’s twelve month warranty on their conversion so I sought help. An internet search revealed that Smev is part of the Dometic group and I emailed them asking if they had any advice on how to loosen up the oven door. They replied promptly telling us that the warranty on their products is two-years [luckily for us the ‘van has not yet reached its second birthday] and sent a list of local service partners. One of these was a mobile service engineer we had used before and I arranged an appointment for a few days later.

I thought the problem was as good as solved but our difficulties were not over. Dometic, in their wisdom, put the model number required to order a replacement door on the side of the oven, meaning the appliance has to be removed to find this. Working in a small campervan is challenging and even the experienced engineer couldn’t work out how to remove the oven. A call to Devon Conversions provided some tips on where the necessary screws were tucked away but still neither the engineer nor I had thin and long enough arms to safely reach the required screws and he left us with the unyielding oven door.

That evening, feeling disheartened I decided to check through the pile of stuff we received with the new ‘van and had ‘filed’ at the bottom of an ottoman we call the ‘Treasure Chest’. I wasn’t really expecting to find anything useful but incredibly, there I found a small plastic bag with a screw in it and a label with the required model number for the oven. I was amazed we had even kept this and I am grateful that Devon Conversions had passed it on to us. I am also relieved that despite being minimalists with little spare storage in the flat we occasionally keep things ‘just in case’.

Once the engineer had the model number Dometic quickly provided a new oven door and the engineer fitted it, at no charge. We now enjoy its smooth action every time we are camping.

Caravan & Motorhome & Destinations Holiday & Travel Show Manchester 2017

The Caravan and Motorhome Show and Destinations Holiday and Travel Show is in town and I’m not going to turn down a chance to mess about in campervans and learn about new places to visit at an event that is right on my doorstep. This event has marked the start of the motorhome show season in Manchester for a number of years and this was my third visit and I have seen it grow into a busy and lively show. This year I found old favourites like Leather Genie, who buffed up my shoes for me beautifully and new ideas like the Moskito Guard Insect Repellent; a deet-free repellant that smells pleasant and is non-greasy. Time will tell if the latter works but with a trip to Scotland’s West Coast planned this summer it seemed a good idea to be prepared.

At the Caravan Club stand Matt Allwright was running question and answer sessions with members of staff responsible for different areas of the Caravan Club’s work. It was great to hear these experts in specific areas of the Club’s business speak; I had certainly never considered the complexities of running a club campsite before. I was interested to learn that around 50% of their sites are leased, rather than the land being owned by the Club, and how this can affect the club’s ability to invest in improvements. I also learnt about the complexities of acquiring planning permission for a new campsite. More information on the Caravan Club membership discounts was also useful as we’re always keen to save money. We’ve saved with the discount on the M6 Toll Road when we are travelling south and booked our ferries through the club but there are other benefits that had passed me by and there are future offers planned that sounded very exciting.

Watching Julia Bradbury, the Camping and Caravanning Club President, on the Food and Travel Stage was entertaining, Julia’s enthusiasm for walking in the British countryside and camping is infectious and she is a great ambassador for the outdoor life. I heard about her latest venture, The Outdoor Guide, a website where routes Julia has followed on her TV shows can be downloaded as well as other information about places to eat, stay and gear to wear.

There weren’t many campervan converters at the show, which was disappointing as what we hear is that it is van conversions that are leading the way in the increase in motorhoming in the UK. Our local converter, Leisure Drive, had a stand and I looked at their ‘vans nostalgically remembering the Leisure Drive campervan we owned. Leisure Drive make great campervans, the quality of their current conversions looked first-rate and in addition everyone at Leisure Drive is always friendly and helpful; I think they really do build their ‘vans with love.

It was a grey day in Manchester so spending so much time indoors wasn’t a hardship but after over four hours at the show I was footsore and desperate to see the outside world again. I came home with leaflets about campsites I wanted to try, places I wanted to visit and clean shoes; I think that all adds up to a successful day!

20170119_135936 — Julia Bradbury mostly talked while the chef did the cooking

Chilling in the Chilterns

p1020512 — Lacey Green Windmill in Buckinghamshire

We took the campervan south to the Chilterns for a few nights camping recently. The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty [AONB] is a narrow strip of countryside in the south-east of England that is 46 miles long and up to 11 miles wide, stretching from Goring-on-Thames in Oxfordshire north almost to Hitchin in Hertfordshire. Close to London, this wasn’t an area we had ever explored before but it was perfect for a short break. The AONB website has plenty of suggested walking routes and in the dry weather we enjoyed we were able to spend every day out walking in the countryside.

In the winter it is easy to enjoy the dawn and the sunset without losing any sleep and we had dazzling pink mornings when the sun glinted off the frost on the fields and glowing sunsets when the landscape was bathed in warm light. We also had a foggy day when we walked along the rolling downs cloaked in fog, cocooned in a world with nothing beyond the few feet we could see. This is red kite country and these elegant birds surprised us when they soared out of the fog over the ridges. I enjoy walking in just about any weather; we have plenty of gear for anything the British climate can throw at us and the miscellany of the elements in our island country is part of the experience.

The Chilterns is a landscape of rolling chalk hills of grassland and woodland. In the villages we stumbled up on on our walks we admired pretty churches and cottages built using flint stones. These blue-grey or black compacted crystalline silica rocks are found in the chalk in nodules or bands; flint is a hard rock that formed from the siliceous sponges that once lived in the waters of Cretaceous seas. As well as a good and attractive building tool, flint was valued as a useful cutting tool.

Fog is often patchy and throughout the day the sun threatened to break through the cloud. After walking through the murk for a few hours we emerged into glorious sunshine at Lacey Green Windmill for just a short time. This beautiful restored 19th century windmill with four sails and a fantail was stunning in the sunshine and we stayed until the fog once again veiled the landscape in its mysterious qualities.

p1020446 — The view from the Dashwood Mausoleum in the evening sun

The best of the Lancashire coast

A sunny autumn day on the wide expanse of the beach at Formby

We took a chance on a November trip in the campervan and were rewarded for our optimism with a sunny day. We have such a lot of stunning coastline on this island that the Lancashire coast perhaps isn’t what springs to mind when you think of beautiful parts of our coast. This part of the seaside certainly has more than its fair share of resorts and built up areas. But Formby Point [not strictly speaking in Lancashire but we still recognise the pre-1974 county boundaries at BOTRA towers] is a jewel in the crown that makes up for everything the planners have done on some stretches of the Lancashire shore and we are lucky that it is less than an hour from our home.

After spending Saturday afternoon walking in the gloom through wild hail and sleet in Southport, the sun on Sunday was very welcome. In Southport we walked along the wooden planks of the pier until it closed and joined the crowds watching the carnival that is the Christmas lights switch-on in the town.

The sand dunes, pine forests and wide sweep of a beach at Formby are owned and managed by the National Trust. This area is managed for the wildlife, not just the lovely red squirrels that entertain the visitors here, there are also newts, lizards and the rare Natterjack Toad. It wasn’t the time of year for reptiles but the red squirrels were plentiful in the pine woods. We walked around the asparagus fields and wound our way through the dunes. We returned along the expansive beach, with views north to Blackpool and south to the Welsh mountains. The beach is so immense that even on a sunny day there is space enough for everyone.

Looking towards the north Wales coast from Formby

A budget-friendly autumn trip to Scotland

Looking across the beautiful Loch Linnhe

Scotland is the most motorhome friendly part of the UK and this, and the beautiful scenery, is why you meet so many other motorhomers when you visit this wonderful country. In Scotland it is rare to find a height barrier [although Kinlochleven should be ashamed of the one of the B863] and there are plenty of small car parks and large lay-bys to pull up for a brew-with-a-view or an overnight stop. We are considerate motorhomers who just enjoy the freedom of the road and although everywhere was pretty tidy, we always leave no mark on these freely provided facilities and pick up and take away any litter.

On this trip we found a great overnight stop on the Glen Lochy road, we stayed on the car park of an eclectic and warren-like shop in Ellenabeich on the Isle of Seil, just a short stroll from the cosy Oyster Bar, enjoyed a night of luxury at the Caravan Club Bunree site[£19.90], with spectacular views over Loch Linnhe and then joined half a dozen other ‘vans in Glencoe on the Signal Rock car park for a final free night.

Scotland was in its full autumnal glory, the trees magnificent in stunning ranges of colours. We took a walk from the car park in Glen Orchy to see some of the fine native Scots Pine trees in the hidden hillside remant of the Caledonian forest at Allt Broighleachan. We also walked from Port Appin to find the cliffs and sea arch, now stranded high and dry since sea levels have fallen. We found a real gem at Glencoe Lochan with great footpaths and lovely views to the distinctive Pap of Glencoe and reflections in the lochan. We followed the West Highland Way and the massive pipeline through which water roared down to the hydroelectric plant in Kinlochleven and relaxed watching the climbers on the climbing wall in the village. We picked up the West Highland Way again on one of our favourite parts of this long distance walk on the cobbled old road from Victoria Bridge.

We spotted a golden eagle soaring over Loch Feochan and a red deer peering out of the golden grass from the path to Loch Dochard and lots of distinctive pochard diving and bobbing on the sea lochs.

We filled up with lpg / autogas while we were away. We have a refillable cylinder and this fuels our cooking and heating when we are off-grid. Even in cold winter weather this only costs us a few pounds a night to keep the ‘van warm, run the fridge and provide us with the numerous mugs of tea and coffee we survive on and a freshly cooked evening meal.

Thinking about the love of our campervan

A campervan is just a vehicle isn’t it? It is a metal box on four wheels with an engine, that is full of stuff and serves its purpose if it gets us where we want to go without breaking down. Or is there more to a campervan or motorhome? Is a campervan a vehicle or is it a home? I understand my love for Mr BOTRA and my son and daughter-in-law but I am someone who claims to value relationships rather than stuff, so can I say that I love my campervan?

The thing with a campervan is that it is packed full of all the things we need for survival and we live in it; that is we eat, sleep, relax and wash, we laugh, cry and love and argue [not too often] in our ‘van. The ‘van is packed with memories; memories of lovely places we have visited, fantastic people we have met and good times we have spent together. The ‘van takes us closer to natural environments and wildlife [it makes a great bird hide] and we have sat and watched spectacular thunderstorms in the shelter of the ‘van, seen otters playing in the sea and been alarmed when squirrels leap on the roof.

I get upset when the campervan needs servicing or fixing in some way, this isn’t as acute as when someone I care about is ill but I admit it isn’t too far removed. I am anxious while it is in the garage and happy when it is once again back with us. Last night Mr BOTRA dreamt that the ‘van was stolen; for me this is the nightmare I can’t even bear to think about.

The ‘van is more than it’s outer shell; our ‘van is also full of things that remind us of places we have been to and people we love. We don’t collect souvenirs as such and there is no room in the ‘van for things that don’t have a function, but we treasure a number of things we have bought on our travels or have been gifts from friends. Every day we use the lovely blue glass plates we bought in France, the mugs that remind us of the amazing dinosaur footprints in Portugal and a wooden handled bread knife from Slovenia and many other things we have bought. We have a lovely tea-towel that reminds me of the friend who gave it to us every time I use it and our biscuit tin is special because it was a gift.

We also keep a ‘van log book where we list all the campsites and overnight stops we have made in the ‘van. This has proved to be a great idea and we constantly refer to this book, amazed at how long it is since we last visited a favourite site or just to remind ourselves what we thought of a particular place or to reminisce about a trip.

Plenty of people name their campervans and motorhomes and gift them with a personality. We have never done this, as truthfully I have enough trouble remembering the names of people I know without adding in the names of inanimate objects. The VW was generally referred to affectionately as the Blue Bus but these days we prefer to keep things simple; we own and live in either ‘the ‘van’ or ‘the flat’ but from this you shouldn’t assume I have a lack of emotional attachment.

If someone ever made me make the choice, I know I would sell the flat before selling the ‘van, it is the campervan that is most important to me, it is the ‘van I feel most comfortable and is my real home.

All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about

2011 Easter Glen Truim 025 Chanonary Point — The beautiful Chanonry Point on the Moray Firth in Scotland

One of my travel articles from this year included a visit to the pretty village of the Devon village of Clovelly, Charles Kingley’s [the author of the Water-Babies] childhood home. While researching his life and work I found this quote from him:

‘All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about’.

This got me thinking about my own enthusiasms and how these contribute to my happiness. I have a fairly wide range of things I am enthusiastic about including walking, being in our campervan, cycling, travelling, reading, spending time with Mr BOTRA and with friends, cooking good [veggie] food, eating excellent ice-cream and drinking red wine, listening to loud rock music, writing, laughing and comedy, foreign TV thrillers, tai chi and learning. Taking part in all these [and other stuff] enhance my energy levels and feed my spirit.

I am drawn to people who have their own enthusiasms; they might not be enthusiastic about the same things as I am but I admire people who enjoy doing something and clearly get a lot of pleasure from it. I have friends with enthusiasm for gardening, visiting Iceland [the country], ballet and Shakespeare; none of these are things that fire me up but I love to hear them talk about their own enjoyment of these activities.

I enjoy taking part in some of the above activities with others and I find that enthusiasms shared can more than double the pleasure. We are part of a book group and the discussion always enhances my understanding of the book; camping trips with friends and walking with other people are sociable occasions that create shared experiences we can all look back on. Our son and daughter-in-law have an enthusiasm for whale and dolphin watching and the photograph of Chanonry Point reminds me of lovely times when we have joined them on this beautiful beach watching the dolphins.

Considering the force of enthusiasm took me to Patti Smith who considers enthusiasm as a state of radiance:

‘If we walk the victim, we’re perceived as the victim. And if we enter … glowing and receptive … if we maintain our radiance and enter a situation with radiance, often radiance will come our way.’

She goes on to relate this to William Blake’s life. He was a creative genius who was not appreciated in his lifetime but who held on to his vision and radiance or enthusiasm. We all have knock backs and stumble and I certainly constantly let myself down; my cooking is often not as perfect as my vision when I start out with the raw ingredients; my writing is never good enough and I often fail to learn to the extent I aim to but I try and stay enthusiastic and carry out activities with love and joy while seeking self-improvement.

PS Iceland looks beautiful and I would love to visit this country but I am waiting for them to discontinue commercial whaling.

Alice asked the Cheshire Cat … ‘What road do I take?’

1412-near-balerma-almeria-005 — The Blue Bus by the Spanish coast

Sometimes it comes up in conversation and I tell people we had a gap year, living in our campervan for twelve months and travelling around the southern parts of Europe. Most people’s reaction is, ‘I would love to do that’ with a dreamy look in their eyes and I don’t deny that it was a fantastic experience. I have noticed that lots of people buy in to the romantic idea of the freedom of the road in a campervan and want to be part of that. I don’t wish to trample on anyone’s dreams but if our conversation continues I often add that although I understand that everyone has specific circumstances that might explain why they can’t drive off in to the sunset, if we can do it then lots of other people can.

If the gap-year enthusiast is still with me I might mention that the trip was at least three years in the planning, that we saved a lot of money, sold everything we didn’t need, downsized the house and gave up secure jobs to do it and that fortunately Mr BOTRA and I love each other very much and so don’t find sharing the [lack of] space in a small campervan a problem. At this point many people start to lose enthusiasm and reconsider, realising they don’t really want to go to that much trouble just to travel around in a tin box. If they stay with me I might refer to how much we missed our son and daughter-in-law and friends while we were away and a few more fall by the wayside. The final nail in this conversation can be when I explain the amount of effort we had to put in to find new jobs when we returned. Of course, lots of other people do get organised and plan and execute a similar / longer / more adventurous trip and I am happy to share any useful experience I have with these folk; they are not just dreamers but are people who make things happen.

No matter what personality test I take I have always come out as a doer. I used to co-run workshops for community groups and organisations where we took them through a visioning exercise, thinking about their community or organisation in five or ten years time, mapping that vision and then supporting them in planning the multitude of steps required to make that dream a reality. To me this sort of planning is second nature but it became clear that some people were good at the vision but hopeless with the planning and even more struggled to get beyond the first couple of steps on the path to their dream. Staying true to an idea through the tiny steps of the planning stage can be a struggle and needs perseverance and strength, an ability to pick yourself up when you get knocked down and a willingness to be adaptable when circumstances change along the way.

There are as many different dreams out there as there are individuals and I would love to be able to congratulate everyone who has ever had a plan and made it real. The Financial Independence and Early Retirement community is not dissimilar to the [later life] gap year in a campervan community; they are people who have a dream or a vision of a different life and make it happen, even though the planning and saving to achieve this dream might take many years.

Although when travelling I like to see where the road takes me, in terms of life I like to have a plan and so my favourite life quote is from the great story teller Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland, when Alice met the Cheshire Cat:

“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

Teesdale camping weekend with friends

We are happy with any excuse to visit Teesdale and explore this lovely valley a little bit more and so set off for Cotherstone (pronounced to rhyme with fun not phone) in a cheerful mood, looking forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones. Yes, this was the autumn get together of the Devon Owners group.

We were staying at the lovely and welcoming Doe Park Caravan Site just a ten minute walk from Cotherstone. For someone so hopeless remembering names there were so many Devon ‘vans [and their owners] at this meet it was hard to keep up with who was who, we kept the attendance list close by all weekend and apologise to everyone whose name we got wrong.

Our welcome was warm and very genial. Normally when we arrive on a campsite the first thing we do [being addicted to a cuppa] is put the kettle on and have a cup of tea. Parking on our pitch on Friday afternoon we managed to get the kettle on, but it was over an hour before we had a long enough break in neighbours popping over to say hello and could actually make that brew.

Of course, we did some walking and while many people walked or cycled into the delightful Barnard Castle, we decided to go the other way to Eggleston, which has a lovely hall and gardens, with a tea shop and a pretty garden trail that passes colourful borders, a ruined chapel and fruit trees laden with apples and plums. Autumn is settling in now and we walked high above the river, finding huge puffball mushrooms and picked blackberries from the hedgerows. We returned along the Tees Railway Path from Romaldkirk which is perfect for walking or cycling.

On the way home we stopped in Kirkby Stephen on the edge of the lovely Howgill Fells and walked up Smardale Fell. We were walking in blustery sunshine and could see showers flitting across the Pennines and watched rainbows briefly arching over the hills.