Category Archives: Trips

Wet and Windy in Lytham…

18 Monday Jun 2012

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Normally I have the post setup party photo – featuring Sue, wine, beer and sammich. Unfortunately due to weather it was postponed, so this is the pre packing up photo on the Sunday.

Sue and I grabbed the chance of three days away… what we had hoped for was some fair weather and to be able to do a bit of cycling up and down the prom at Blackpool. What we actually got was a wet and windy weekend in Lytham.

We were able to get away on the Thursday, so a couple of weeks earlier I’d had a look round for a site near Lytham. I’d checked out the Caravan Club and Camping & Caravan Club’s offerings and instead plumped for a commercial site “Eastham Hall” near Lytham. I knew the area reasonably well as for a number of years I worked at BAE Systems, Warton which was only a couple of miles away as the crow flies…. or in this case as Eurofighter flies (I can’t get used to calling it the Typhoon… it will always be “EFA” or Eurofighter to me) Continue reading →

Stanmore Hall and The Severn Valley Railway

21 Monday May 2012

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The mandatory post pitch party photo – featuring wine, beer and a sammich….. Oh and Sue of course.

Sue had arranged to get a couple of days off so we thought a short trip was in order. We had been watching an old Caravan Channel a few days earlier and they had featured Stanmore Hall… or mentioned it… or someone had, I can’t actually remember now! Anyhoo, they had pitches available, and we both wanted to do either Iron Bridge or the Seven Valley Railway, plus it was handy for some friends to drop in and see us. We actually had nothing planned when we arrived on Thursday due to the vagaries of the British weather and were just going to “wing it” between showers. Continue reading →

Swift factory visit….

31 Saturday Mar 2012

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We had been invited on a visit to the Swift factory by Ash Dhir via the Swift Talk forum. We were staying at Bridlington, so it was about a 50 minute drive south from Bridlington to Cottingham where the factory is located. Thursday was going to be another warm sunny day but the forecast was for the weather to break for the weekend. We had a lazy morning, deciding not to do much except potter about the camp site. I replied to some emails and a couple of odd jobs on the van… the emptying or refilling of the various containers that were  connected by umbilicals to the caravan and the general wander round with a micro-fibre cloth in one had and a sprayer containing One Dry in the other attacking anything that looked like a dirt mark, deceased bug or a spot where a fly decided to commit suicide on the trip over. Sandwiches prepared…. with beef from the farm shop up the road we set off for Cottingham about 12:30. Continue reading →

Back home again…

13 Monday Feb 2012

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Oswestry is a nice quiet little site and is one that we will add to the list of “will go again”.  The eco credentials of the site seem to be good too, all the lights on the bollards have been converted over to LED and the facilities block has a large solar panel array that must offset the carbon footprint of the site. We left around 11:40 and the temperature hadn’t dropped below zero overnight, so no problems with frozen waste-hog or aquaroll. As this was our first trip in cold weather, we were on a bit of a fact-finding mission. Just how practical was it to use the caravan in winter? I had fitted a digital thermometer with an outside probe (Maplin £9.99) to be able to check with a bit of accuracy. Continue reading →

Saturday.. it must be Shrewsbury

11 Saturday Feb 2012

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From the camp site, it’s about ten miles into Shrewsbury down the A5. If you follow the town centre signs, just before you cross the river, there is a long stay car park next to the Shropshire Council / Shrewsbury Town Council offices and you can cross the river Severn via the footbridge. Car parking charges were a quite reasonable £4 for ten hours.

Crossing the foot bridge, you have to work your way through the Riverside Shopping Mall… then through Gallery Mall. I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins. Walking through the malls it was sightly depressing, every other shop seemed to be empty and in darkness. Sue and I were hoping that Shrewsbury was not going to be another town centre that seemed to be in terminal decline. Continue reading →

Oswestry….. arrival

11 Saturday Feb 2012

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Arrived at Oswestry C & CC site at 12:20 yesterday after an 80 mile drive, which considering it was a Friday only took 1:40.  Leaving home, there was just the odd snowflake, but most of the way here was dry and clear. Only when we got to the outskirts of Wrexham did we get light drizzle.

The warden here is very friendly and virtually gave us our choice of pitches, I think there are only eight or ten caravans and motorhomes on site at the moment. We decided on the far end of the site and the warden walked down with us to guide us on to the pitch.

All set up

Setting up only takes us about 20 minutes, and the kettle normally goes on… or the beer and wine are opened, depending on the weather. This time was a little different. Sue filled the Aquaroll while I powered up the van’s electrics and handled the pink stuff and wastehog at the other end of the van. Returning the watering can to the front locker, I also turned on the Safefill gas bottle and went to turn the electrics on, shut the taps, fire up the heater and turn the water pump on. I always use a gas ring on the hob to purge any air out of the gas line… the ring lit… and the heater soon followed. Now for the water. I shut the drain tap and pressed the pump ‘on’ button…. nothing. Hmm. Frozen up. Bugger. I could hear the relay clicking to activate the pump, but I couldn’t hear it run. I know we were below freezing in Manchester a few nights ago, and I thought I’d got all the water out of the system anyway. Apparently not. Continue reading →

Help Guide updates..

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

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Ever wondered about “reverse polarity” and inverters? They are often misunderstood and sometimes seem like a technical nightmare from a science fiction film! Well, I’ve just finished a couple of guides on inverters and reversed polarity that hopefully makes things a little clearer. You can find them on the “HELP GUIDES” page.

Just starting to think about getting the caravan ready for our up and coming trip to Oswestry this weekend, and looking forward a bit we have received our Red Pennant paperwork today for the French trip in October. I’ve booked one site to stop at on the drive down to La Tournerie Ferme in the Dordogne and for the return trip, but I still need to find a nice site near Limoges. The 300 plus page Michelin French road Atlas arrived from Amazon a couple of days ago, so I guess I’ll take that with us this weekend so I can do a little light reading in the evening. Anyone know what the weather is down there in October?

S

Swift Group factory tour…

06 Monday Feb 2012

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Just received an email from Swift letting us know that we are invited onto the next factory tour on Thursday 29th March. Really looking forward to seeing where and how our caravan was built. I now have to try to remember some of those “I wonder why they did that?” type questions to ask them.

I know one I do want to ask…. “Why do UK built vans have such short ‘A’ frame draw bars when compared to our continental cousins?” As van’s get heavier, the nose weight increases and the list of suitable tow cars decreases… a longer ‘A’ Frame would help mitigate this and provide a more stable tow. I might have an answer at the end of March!

Apparently cameras are not permitted on the tour, so unfortunately I don’t think I will be able to give you any sneak previews of the 2013 models. I might however have seen someone who is working on the 2013 models!.. That will be about as exclusive as it gets for me I think.

S

Our 2012 season starts

02 Thursday Feb 2012

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Well, at last our 2012 season is underway. Since we got back from Wrexham on the 11th December, Sue has been on call to the hospital with the exception of 6 days since then. The first chance we have to get away is next weekend, which is half term and usually busy. Not a problem I thought, logging on to the Camping & Caravanning Club web site… I can search on available pitches. Unfortunately, the booking system was taken back into the stone age late last year and the ability to do almost anything with the booking system is a nightmare. All is not lost I thought. I logged in to the Caravan Clubs booking system. Well, that insisted on listing sites that were still closed, even though I’d put in our travelling dates. Two hours later, and after several phone calls to different sites, I managed to get us booked in at the C & CC Oswestry. So next weekend, we are starting our 2012 season at last!

Looking ahead, we are also starting our continental adventures. After spending so many years flying the plane all over Europe, it is strange to now have to plan taking the caravan. It was so easy… fill in a flight plan a couple of hours before we wanted to go, load the plane, fill up and go. A couple of hours later we could be in France, Holland wherever. Taking the caravan is a little different, and rather than have an exploratory few days… we are driving down to the Dordogne for five days! Continue reading →