May Half Term Fun - Part 2

We do like to explore a bit on our adventures so having settled nicely into life at East Fleet Farm we decided to venture out of the campsite and enjoy some of the breathtaking views from the top of the hill overlooking the campsite.

Followed by a spot of lunch down by the water...

We also spent one of our days venturing into Weymouth.  It's not a short walk as it is approx 3 miles away but it was good exercise and we had a great day out by the seaside even though the weather wasn't quite as good as it was previously.

True to form, we found a nice pub to have lunch in at the marina called The Ship Inn - it is child and dog friendly and the food and atmosphere was very nice and it was fairly reasonably priced.

There is also an on-site pub at the campsite serving a very nice selection of beers, wines and ciders.  They don't serve food but the added bonus of that is that they don't mind you ordering a take-away and eating it in the pub.  They provide all the plates and cutlery and also do the washing up for you!  

The weather didn't quite hold up as the week went on so we ordered an Indian take-away one evening which we ate in the pub.  There are also on-site fish and chips, pizza and crepe vans  which are open on specific days during the week (with the crepe van serving breakfast also) and although we only ate from the fish and chip van, all the food looked delicious!

On our last day we walked in the other direction into Chickerell (approximately a 20 minute walk) and stumbled across a lovely pub which was serving a mid-week carvery. Everyone's eyes lit up when they saw this and so we whiled away a few hours eating far too much food.

The pub was called The Turks Head Inn and it was a lovely small pub and very inviting.

So we wound up our last day of holiday flying kites in the designated field on the campsite:

We were very sad to leave as we had the most amazing week but we are due to come back in September for another VW Cali Club meet-up and can't wait to visit this amazing place again.

Thorney Island

We are now firmly in the we-want-to-go-away-every-weekend-in-the-camper-van zone so after our lovely time in Corfe Castle we headed down to Chichester for the weekend.  The weather forecast was good and we wanted to be by the sea.

We really like this campsite as it is so peaceful and quiet and there is a lovely local pub and farm shop within just a few minutes walk.  

Half way through our first evening we started chatting to one of the other campers (or rather motorhome-ers) and he mentioned a long walk that they had been on a few days before and it sounded quite appealing so we decided to brave it with the dogs the next day.  The walk was approximately 10 miles around Thorney Island and was very enjoyable.  There was a lovely sandy beach about half way around which we could have stayed at for the day and beautiful scenery to admire.

After several bottles of water, a few snacks and some fairly nasty insect bites we had every intention of walking around Emsworth and exploring the town a bit.  



However, the weather was nice and we fancied getting back to the camper van, getting changed and strolling over  to the nearby pub for a nice lunch outside in the sunshine (also I think the dogs had had enough!).  

Over lunch we decided that next time we should try to walk to Hayling Island - that could be another adventure for another sunny day maybe.

Even though we have enjoyed the Cali in the colder months, we are really starting to appreciate how amazing it is when the weather is nice.  We can set up the table and chairs, get the Cadac out and relax, eat, drink and be merry.

Relaxing Weekend

For our next adventure we decided to try out the Camping and Caravanning Club Site in Chichester.  We have found visiting the club sites to be a fairly safe bet when we have the kids as the facilities are usually excellent and there is usually plenty to do either on site or in the surrounding area.  This site is located in Southbourne with a nice pub and a farm shop within a few minutes walk and the lovely village of Emsworth within a couple of miles.

The site was smaller than we were expecting but really well looked after and so peaceful.  The facilities were spotless and it was nice to have the showers and toilets in separate areas. The hardstanding pitches, although advertised as such, are more grassy than the hardstanding pictures we were used to so if it is particularly wet (as it was when we arrived) then it will get muddy.  

For the first time this year we didn't put the awning sides on and instead just rolled the awning out and laid a groundsheet beneath it.  Our main reason for doing this was so the awning sides wouldn't get muddy but it also saved us about half an hour of setting up time so we were able to enjoy more of the evening together.

On Saturday morning we all woke up refreshed and happy after a very quiet and relaxing night's sleep. Well, apart from the puppy getting into bed with us and then taking up almost the whole bed (while snoring) until one of us put her back on the floor.  Just look at the lovely weather we woke up to though (can you spot the puppy?):

We walked into Emsworth for a look around the the village and it was much larger than we were expecting.  We bought a few snacks for the kids to keep them going and enjoyed the walk.  On the way back we stopped off at farm shop near the campsite to have a look around.  There was lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg as well as a good selection of meats and cheeses.  They did have an advertisement for fresh fish arriving twice a week but unfortunately not on a Saturday.

It wouldn't be a weekend in the camper without a pub lunch so we ventured over to the pub round the corner which is called The Travellers Joy.  It's a Fullers pub so my husband was happy with the beer and we all very much enjoyed the food.  The kids menu was great with lots of choices and their portion sizes were good too.  It's not a gourmet meal but good old fashioned "pub grub".

With the sun shining we played some games outdoors and let the kids burn their excess energy with some (not too noisy) running races around the campsite.  We could see various people sitting outside and enjoying the nice weather and we were no exception.  We should have packed an extra couple of chairs for the kids but we didn't expect the weather to be so good.

As usual the time flew by far too quickly and Sunday morning was upon us.  We didn't have too much packing up to do this time though so we could actually have a bit of a lie in, a few cups of tea and relax.  Why is it that the weather is always so good on 'going home' day? 

I would definitely like to come back to this site now that we know the 'lay of the land' as there seems to be a lot of nice (and fun) places to visit nearby.  When the weather is good and a bit warmer I can see this site coming into its own.  I just hope we have our thermal windscreen back in time for the next adventure - waking up before 5am with the light pouring through the windows (tinted or not) is not the best at the weekend!

April VW Cali Club Meet-up

When we bought our Cali and joined the VW California Club in January, one of the first things we did was buy our ticket for their first Cali Club meet up of the year in April.  We had been looking forward to this for months and as it had been three weeks since our last adventure in the van we were really excited about this weekend.

We arrived at Lower Lode Inn near Tewkesbury at around 4pm on the Friday and there were already some other Calis there getting settled in.  The campsite was in the grounds of a pub on the banks of the River Severn

. 

It was peaceful and quite pretty but the facilities were very basic.  The toilets ran out of toilet paper regularly and there were reports of the showers being cold but possibly the most inconvenient was the lack of washing-up facilities.  Not a major problem, just an inconvenience.  Nothing to stop us from enjoying the weekend though :-) 

The weather wasn't the finest (it had been raining all day) and as we were all on grass fields there was a little bit of slipping and sliding going on as we manoeuvred our vans into place.  It was also a little bit cramped as there seemed to have been some sort of mis-communication from the venue regarding how many vehicles they could accommodate on site but we all got on with it and everyone seemed happy enough.  We started getting to know our neighbours as we were setting up and it was fun to see all the other Calis arriving.   



Once we were set up we grabbed the dogs and headed into the pub for a pint (or two). We soon started chatting to another couple who were pitched quite close by to us and it was fun to exchange stories about our adventures so far.  We could have stayed there for the evening but we had food ready to eat in the van so we wandered back and settled in for the night. 

After a fairly wet and windy night (thank goodness for the Cali topper) we woke up to a beautiful morning.  We weren't disturbed too much by the weather in the night as we had decided to sleep downstairs with the roof up.  We got up and enjoyed an early walk around the campsite and surrounding country lanes.  It was fun to check out all the other Calis and to see how everyone had personalised them.



It was lunchtime before we knew it and we wanted to see the Comfortz Leisure people (who were selling products at the meet-up) so we set off to find them.  We wanted to get the waterproof mattress cover for the upstairs bed to match the covers that we have on the seats and we also wanted to find out about mattress topper options for the downstairs bed as it was not the most comfortable bed to sleep in and both of our backs will vouch for that.  We had heard good things about the ZoneSleep but unfortunately there were none in stock and the cheaper option available seemed to be quite big and bulky when folded up so we agreed to go away and think about it.

We had pre-booked a table for lunch at the pub and found the food (and beer) to be excellent. 



It set us up nicely for a walk into Tewkesbury.  We loved the walk into town by the river and found the town itself to be lovely.  



On the way back we found a nice pub garden to enjoy a cold pint and some more sunshine.

When we arrived back at the campsite everyone had their tables and chairs out and some were firing up their BBQs so we decided that now would be a good time to try out our table and chairs too.  We tethered the dogs so they could be outside with us and we all enjoyed our first taste of summer camping.  This really was the life!



We started chatting to one of our neighbours who was showing us the shelves and covers he makes for the Cali tables and interior surfaces.  We decided to buy a shelf which now sits above our cooker and is so handy for storing little things that would normally get lost in the cupboard.  It's also a very handy kitchen roll holder!

The smell of burgers and sausages on the surrounding BBQs made us decide that we would much rather have that than any of the food we had brought with us so we decided to pop over to the pub for a quick burger and a dog walk before the evening entertainment started.  We spent about 10 minutes trying to get the chairs back into their storage area in the boot.  We felt like a couple of amateurs - we actually had to ask somebody in the end as were scared that we might break them!  

The event organisers had booked a live band for the evening and there was a bar, a dancefloor and plenty of tables and chairs if you fancied a break from the dancing ;-) We started chatting to the people who were in the Cali next to us and had a lovely, fun evening.  
Going home on Sunday was the usual feeling of morose that the fun was over but we met some great people, swapped lots of stories and learnt lots of little tips and tricks from everybody.  

Bye bye Lower Lode - we'll see you at the next one...

Riverside Walks and Cooking Fails

Who says that you have to travel a long way to find a good campsite?  We decided to try the Camping and Caravanning Club Site in Chertsey as it was not too far from home, the reviews were good and the site was situated right on the River Thames.  The thought of some nice long walks by the river with a selection of nice pubs to try out along the way was too tempting to resist.  

We faced our fears and wound out the awning for the first time since purchasing the camper van.  It was very straight forward but we found that it flapped around in the wind quite a lot.  After a bit of research on the VW California Club forum we discovered that if you wind the awning back in a bit then it tightens it and stops the flapping around.  We laid a groundsheet down underneath to catch the mud from our shoes and the dogs' paws (can't believe we hadn't thought to do that sooner) and quite liked the look of our set up with the roof up and the awning out.

Feeling very satisfied with ourselves for finally winding out the awning we also thought it would be a perfect time for us to try out our new Cadac Safari Chef Deluxe and do some cooking under the awning. We are still not brave enough to cook inside the van and also don't fancy the idea of sleeping in our kitchen.  I guess that when the time is right we will use it but until then we are happy to cook in the great outdoors.

We pre-made a chilli con carne at home and brought it with us to heat up on our first night at the campsite.  Nice and easy!  However, showing our usual signs of cowardice, we totally wimped out of using the Cadac and instead took out the old reliable Outwell Appetizer Single Burner cooker.  Well, this turned out to be an epic fail as it was quite chilly outside and there was a particularly chilly breeze coming from the river so after about 25 minutes on the cooker our chilli was lukewarm at best.  We tried to ignore our rumbling stomachs and keep it cooking for another 10 mins but in the end hunger got the better of us and we ate our slightly chilly chilli.  Lesson learned.  

Since our last camping adventure my husband had the rear windows limo-tinted so this was another new thing to get used to.  I am personally not entirely keen on this as I find it makes the interior too dark.  At night time it is lovely but during the day I miss being able to appreciate the blue sky and sunshine from inside the van.  It is great for privacy and I'm assured that during the summer months it will prevent the inside of the van from heating up too much when the sun is shining on it but for now I remain not overly enthusiastic about this.

Despite the chilly riverside air, the weather was nice and dry so we managed to get and about with the dogs and enjoyed some lovely long walks along the Thames.  

You can walk along the towpath to Shepperton in one direction or towards Laleham in the other direction.  We decided to walk towards Shepperton and found a lovely pub to go for a bite to eat and a couple of pints called The Thames Court. 

The pub was around a 25-30 minute walk from the campsite and you can either walk along the road before picking up the towpath later on or walk alongside the river the whole way.  Needless to say if you walk along the river you are probably adding another 15 minutes onto the journey but we found it to be very enjoyable and it certainly wore the dogs out!

This campsite had a very homely feel to it. The facilities were excellent with a heated toilet and shower block, which was kept very clean and the washing up facilities were good too with plenty of hot water.  There is a BP petrol station over the road from the site with a Spar shop - perfect for the essentials, topping up with a few treats or buying a morning newspaper. 

We are looking forward to coming back to Chertsey.  Maybe next time we will be a bit braver with our cooking?

New Year...New Adventures

We have entered into a new era of our camping adventures.  In January this year we purchased a VW California camper van.  When we went to see it in the garage we fell in love with it straight away.

We conducted a fair amount of research before purchasing and we found the VW California Club to be a fantastic and extremely useful source of good quality information and its members all seem to have a wealth of knowledge and experience of all things 'California.'  

What an amazing investment this has been so far and I can honestly say that I am amazed by how versatile and functional this vehicle is as well as being a lot of fun.

The day we picked it up we honestly considered sleeping in it on our driveway but managed to restrain ourselves until we took it away for our first adventure that weekend.  Instead we busied ourselves filling the abundance of storage space and adding a few personal touches to the interior.

We spent a lot of time pushing buttons and opening and closing things to find out how everything works and we had a few nervous moments putting the roof up and down as we had heard so many horror stories of the fabric getting caught in the roof mechanism but we plucked up the courage and were relieved at how easy it was to do.

Our first weekend away couldn't arrive fast enough and we definitely made the right choice booking a lovely small campsite just outside of Chichester called The Osiers where we had a hardstanding pitch and the place to ourselves!  There were some lovely country lanes for walking and a nice selection of near(ish) pubs (at least 15 mins walk.) We particularly enjoyed our lunch at the The White Swan in Bosham - very tasty food and well worth a visit.  It was a shame that we didn't have beautiful clear skies for the whole weekend but at least we were able to enjoy it for a few hours.

Things we learned on our first weekend away in the California:

1. Trying to fill up the water tank without a hose is pretty much an impossible task.

2. Spilling a large glass of red wine all over the interior is not the best way to start a weekend - the van is now called 'Rioja' (thank goodness we decided to have the van GuardX treated!)

3. The pop up roof can withstand some serious gusts of wind and heavy rain.

4. Two wet dogs (one of which is a not-quite-house-trained puppy) adds a lot of mud and fair amount of anxiety to the mix.

5. The diesel aux heater is amazing!

6. Getting lost on our morning walk and walking an extra 3 miles (in the pouring rain) to get back to base and then having to spend an hour washing and drying the dogs because you don't want them to get the new van dirty is exhausting/not fun.

7. Being able to plug in a hairdryer makes the task of drying the dogs much easier.

8. We don't need to pack the kitchen sink - we already have one ;-)

9. The fridge is surprisingly spacious and efficient.

10. The roof bed is very comfortable and sleeping up there is not as cold as we thought it was going to be.

This is only the beginning, there is so much more to learn and we are going to have a lot of fun (and maybe a few disagreements) along the way.