Camping with Wolves…

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in General, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

We had the chance of getting away in September for a longer break than usual so we planned to do a trip with a couple of stops. The first would be down to Combe Martin in North Devon and then on the way back to Winchcombe near Tewksbury.

Combe Martin is not as famous as some destinations in North Devon and often misses out, but as a base for exploring that part of North Devon it’s ideal. The reason we chose it was two fold. From our base in Manchester, it would give us an idea of what a “300 mile in one go” tow was like in preparation for travelling to and through France in October and secondly, it was a place I spent a lot of my teenage years on holiday with my parents and it was one of the first places Sue & I went on holiday when we were first married. Continue reading →

11 Years ago today….

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Blog updates, Events, General, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

….Sue and I were on our way home from Jersey. We had been staying at the Hotel Christina, our favourite hotel in Jersey where we could sit on the terrace and watch the airshow over the bay.

We had flown down in our Piper PA28 on the Friday morning so we could watch the aircraft taking part in the air show arrive and go through their practice displays. Following the air show on the Monday it was our wedding anniversary.The following day we had to fly back for work commitments.

We took off from Jersey Airport in sunshine and climbed to 5000 feet VFR and received  routing direct to Bournemouth, at 50 North we were handed over to Bournemouth Radar, which seemed quiet with only a few other aircraft on frequency. We passed Sandbanks VRP and were given a direct routing to Gloucester and on to Shawbury VOR as per out flight plan. Bournemouth handed us over to Bristol…. and that is where for us it began. Bristol had no other aircraft on frequency, which was unusual. After contacting Bristol, they told us to route direct to SWB VOR and to contact Manchester as soon as able…. we weren’t even north of Bath at this point. By the time we were passing Gloucester, I had managed to contact Manchester Radar and were told proceed direct to Barton (Manchester Barton, our home airfield) without delay.

There was only one other aircraft on Manchester Radar frequency and he was inbound to Manchester. I had never heard Manchester so quiet. We flew down the Manchester low level corridor at 1200 feet and turned to north east towards Barton. Mike was in the Tower at Barton and as we landed and were rolling down the runway he said over the radio we were the last aircraft to land back at Barton. As we got our luggage out of the plane, we could see a lot of people in the Lancs Aero Club clubhouse and Ken Hardy was walking across the field towards us. The first we knew of the events that would change the world forever was when he shouted across to us…… “They have crashed two planes into the twin towers“

S

Copyright © 2011 – 2012 Simon P Barlow

Start warming the Mulled Wine…

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Christmas Markets, Events, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

…I’m starting to feel festive! We have just booked our “let’s get in the mood for Christmas” trip, to one of the Christmas markets. If you have read some of my past posts, you may remember that last year we tried to arrange a trip to visit one of the biggest markets in the UK, namely the one at Lincoln. Continue reading →

Caravan Engineer’s Reports…

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in Blog updates, General, Humor, Maintenance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

You have seen the aircraft engineers reports on the internet….. well I thought I’d do a little rewriting and give you the caravan engineers reports instead. I hope you enjoy….. 

Customer : Gas makes a loud hissing noise when the cooker is on. 
Engineer : Gas told to stop doing snake impressions when cooking.
 
Customer : Water-pump makes an unbelievably loud noise.
Engineer : Water-pump noise reduced to a believable level. 
 
Customer : Locker door will not shut, even giving it a good slam doesn’t work
Engineer : Gave locker hatch a really good slam and it now shuts. Note: hinge is now broken.
Continue reading →

I think you’ve missed a bit….

28 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in General

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

OK, Sue and I sat down to watch the latest Caravan Channel (episode 41) last night and Phil Widdows informed us at the top of the programme that there would be some caravanning “pre-flight” safety checks. Now hearing “pre-flight” always gets my attention, so I settled in for some helpful safety tips.

We were introduced to Paul Stapleton of the Motor Caravan Engineers Association (MCEA) “who would take us through some simple, but very effective ‘pre-flight’ checks that every caravanner should undertake before a journey” Continue reading →

Wobble Free Zone…

11 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Caravan Servicing, General, Maintenance

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Sue and I went to pick up the van from Glossop Caravans this morning after its service. They actually rang me yesterday lunchtime to let me know it was ready for collection, but Sue was up to her elbows in theatre doing something fantastically tricky with someones blood while someone else fiddled and generally prodded and poked around with the heart… don’t ask it might put you off your sammich. A full service complete with Gas Check and Damp Check (and I’m happy to announce we are officially dry as the Mojave) came to the grand total of £201.20. Not too shabby really. The front sticking blind had been replaced under warranty and the magnetic strip on the shower door likewise. Continue reading →

Cracking Packing!…

09 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in General, Travelling in the UK, Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

Boxes stacked in the Freelander ready to be moved to the van

One of the things that came easily to us when we started caravanning was packing. We’d read on ‘the forums’ about people packing experiences and how long it took to “pack and load”, but honestly we never gave it a second thought. I then started to wonder why. I figured it goes back to our early days of flying in small… really small aircraft where it was the norm to shorten the bristles on your tooth-brush to save on weight.

We had developed over the years a packing technique that seemed to lend its self to the caravan quite easily. Now we can “pack and load” quite quickly as the key is prior organisation. We opted to use boxes from The Really Useful Box Co which makes things easy. Their boxes come in a multitude of sizes and the lids lock on securely allowing the boxes to stack neatly. We chose boxes that slide under the front bench seats and will also pass through the locker doors. Continue reading →

Checks and Balances… or not as the case may be!

06 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in Caravan Servicing, General, Maintenance

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Sue and I have just returned from dropping off our caravan at Glossop Caravans for its first service. I’m in shock…. for two reasons.

I originally booked the van in for its service just over a week ago and having never booked a van in for service before, I didn’t know what to expect, but guessed it would be like booking the Freelander in with the Land Rover main dealer…. which it was. Up to the point we dropped the van off this morning when I was asked when would I like to collect the van… I said I was local so any time……  and was expecting to be told “around three o’clock”….. I was not expecting “……next Wednesday” If I’d have known that we could have gone away for the weekend instead. 6 days does seem a bit excessive for servicing a caravan. The next shock was something I hadn’t expected at all.  Continue reading →

We’ve got a map!

02 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Blog updates, General, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Web sites

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

,

I’ve been pondering on adding a map for a couple of weeks. Somehow looking at where you have been on a map is a bit more memorable and interesting than just looking down a list, well for me it is. I guess though that’s due to the fact that flying and maps are so intertwined I’ve spent so much time in the past pouring over maps for flying in various parts of the world than I have ever done caravanning.

Actually creating the map was fairly easy using Google Maps and then embedding the map in an iframe in the WordPress page. The only thing that you need to do is create a Google account if you don’t already have one and create your own map and start adding the map pins. There is a lot of useful info to be found on the Google Maps support page. For embedding it into your WordPress theme, it’s quite simple and its all explained on the WordPress support page for Google Maps.

Anyway, if you want to look at this marvellous cartographical creation… the link is on the top menu bar…. or you can just click on Trip Map.

Thanks for reading

S