Glastonbury and an Anniversary…

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Last year while in France we had problems with the Freelander. This was put down to the amount of bio-ethanol the French mix into their fuel and there are now lots of postings on various forums about this. Not only Landrover but BMW and other manufacturers have been affected as well. After returning to the UK and after the first tank full of fuel bought here, the injector rattle all but disappeared. However it was still there and over the next 4000 miles in the UK it got increasingly worse. I’d gone through the process of using injector cleaner without any improvement. I’d also checked the injector wiring harness (there is an issue with contamination on some vehicles) and a few other things so it was time to bite the bullet and book the Freelander in to our local Land Rover dealer for a full checkup. So two weeks ago it was booked into Guy Salmon Land Rover in Stockport. Continue reading

All Quiet On The Blogging Front…

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It’s been a while since my last post, however it’s not been quiet in the Caravan Chronicles office. We have booked our next jaunt out and seeing as it’s our 30th Wedding Anniversary we decided to go back to The Old Oaks for a few days as we thoroughly enjoyed our last visit there… and it is one of the best sites in the UK! Continue reading

Update: Heading east to see friends…

15th July 2013

Exactly one week ago we set off with the caravan for a few days to visit our friends Pete and Julie. Julie was not well and had been admitted to The Castle Hill Hospital having been diagnosed with Myeloma. Unfortunately in the early hours of this morning Julie passed away.

We have known Pete & Julie for over 18 years and first met when we were all flying. Julie will be sadly missed and fondly remembered.

S

Pete, Julie & Sue. Oxford C & CC Site 2011

Happier times…..Pete, Julie & Sue. Oxford C & CC Site 2011

Heading east to see friends… 

Heading east to see friends…

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Although we were going away with the caravan, this trip was more about seeing friends than a holiday break. If you have read any of my previous posts, you may recall we have some friends, Pete and Julie, who were the catalyst for us starting this caravan malarky. We had gone to stay with them for a couple of days where they live in the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors and they had not long since returned from a three-month winter trip to Spain & Portugal…. the tales of their caravanning escapades got us interested and the rest as they say is history.

We had met up a couple of times on various sites – Barnard Castle, Oxford etc. and had been due to meet at Brathwaite Fold but this got cancelled (long story) and were planning to try and meet up again soon. However events overtook us. Julie was diagnosed with Myeloma and was currently in The Castle Hill Hospital.  As the trip from their home to the hospital would have been a couple of hours each way, Pete was staying at a site near the Hospital. We promised to go over to see them ASAP.  We were booking at very short notice but after a brief search came across Burton Constable Holiday Park and Arboretum which is set in the grounds of Burton Constable Hall, and had space for us. Continue reading

We don’t normally do site reviews…..

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… but sometimes there has to be an exception. Site reviews are subjective, and what we find fine, others may not, plus there are other website that specialise in reviews. The reason for this review is because we found The Old Oaks near Glastonbury rather exceptional. Now before I get going, I’d just like to state for the record that neither Sue or I have received any form of payment or gratuity for this review. Continue reading

Glastonbury and Warwick – Part Three

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Click Here for Part 2

Friday 28th June

The rain of the previous evening had abated and the clouds were slowly starting to clear. It didn’t take us long to pack everything away and break camp. We pulled out of The Old Oaks at 9:50 and headed back through the outskirts of Glastonbury heading for the A39 to take us back to the M5. The Sat Nav told us we had 143 miles to travel to the Caravan Club’s Warwick Racecourse site, and no holdups. By the time we were passing through Bristol, the clouds had completely cleared and the sun was shining. We pulled into Michael Wood Services, northbound this time, around 11:15 for a 20 minute break and to grab a coffee (or tea in Sue’s case) and a bite to eat. Continue reading

Glastonbury and Warwick – Part Two

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Click Here for Part 1

We wandered down the main drive to the camp site, past the dog exercise field and turned right on to Wick Lane. Following the lane to the south we heard a couple of jets in the distance. Since arriving on site we had heard quite a few helicopters making their way in and out of the festival site, I guess taking artists in for their sound-checks and providing some of the aerial shots seen on the news. They weren’t obtrusive and it wasn’t constant and even after hanging up my flying gloves I still turn to look up at them. We wandered further down the lane stopping at the entrance gates to each field to look at the view, each field giving a slightly different vista. We could hear a jet doing a high energy turn somewhere in the distance.

A different view through every gate... the Festival site is in the distance

A different view through every gate… the Festival site is in the distance

Continue reading

Glastonbury and Warwick – Part One

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Our next little ‘adventure’ happened quite by accident. A Twitter follower of Caravan Chronicles ‘tweeted’ about an article that I’d written a while ago that appeared on Caravan Talk about towing, which I subsequently expanded into two articles and posted on Caravan Chronicles (Understanding the Dynamics of Towing), and I ‘tweeted’ back a quick thanks for promoting it. Out of curiosity I had a look at their website – The Old Oaks

They were the 2012 runner-up to Caravan Talk’s Campsite of the Year award and from the website, it looked like a place to include on the list of “must visit”. Within an hour I’d booked us in for four nights and so we wouldn’t have two long tows I also booked us in at the Caravan Club’s Warwick Racecourse site for a couple of nights on the way home. Continue reading

An end to our Camping and Caravan Club membership…

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This month would have been the start of our third year of membership to the Camping and Caravan Club. Today we received our renewal notice, along with out membership cards for the forthcoming 12 months.

However, back in March we had booked in to Braithwaite Fold C & CC site at Bowness for three nights starting on Saturday 23rd through to 26th. The weather at the start of the week was not good and by Thursday there were travel advisories out for Friday and the Weekend with winds forecast 50+ MPH and on checking again on Friday, the advisories were still in place for the weekend and our friends that we were due to meet at Braithwaite Fold also had similar weather problems with gusting winds over 50 MPH in the Yorkshire Moors where they live and there was no way they could get across to the Lakes. Continue reading