Tourfest North west was our first time attending anything like a gathering of bloggers, vloggers and the generally like minded. It was organised by The Caravan Addys with a little help from others I’m sure as it must be a time consuming task and hard work to bring everything together.

We opted to arrive at the wonderful Donkey Creek Farm a day early. We had planned to set off from our compound at around 12pm…. and part way round the M60 on the other side of Manchester Sue realised we had forgotten my Chemotherapy Tablets…. so we turned round and diverted back home.

Some where along the M61 we realised we had forgotten all the contents of the bread bin…. bagels, wraps, hoagies and sliced bread for the morning toast. Not that we would have had any jam… or honey as we had forgotten that too!

The next little disaster, notice I didn’t title this post as “Disaster at Tourfest”…. as some people do like a bit of click bate goings on. Turning onto Naze Lane less the half a mile from Donkey Creek Farm we picked up a chunk… well more of a small piece of steel in one of the rear tyres of the 5th wheel. Sue noticed it as soon as we stopped at Donkey Creek reception and it was defiantly flatter when we came out of reception than when we went in!

It doesn’t stop there…

On setting up we discovered we had also left my trousers at home too….

The first order of business was to sort out the puncture. I carry a 12 volt compressor and tried re inflating the tyre. I got it up to 50psi but I could hear a hiss, so I’d not just popped it off the rim. I didn’t really think I had but you have to try. I managed to find the offending bit of steel and wheedle it out of the tyre with my leatherman.

Looking at where it had entered the tyre I didn’t really fancy a repair as it was right between two tread blocks. So a replacement was needed. In the past I’d have jacked the caravan up, removed the wheel and set off to find a tyre shop. However I’m a bit hampered nowadays so we needed someone to come out to us. I asked at Reception and they recommended a local garage… J Townsend & Sons (01772632238). I recognised the name as sometime back in 1998/99 they had done a full service and brake replacement on my old Land Rover Discovery 1 when I worked at Warton. Small world.

I gave them a ring and they said they would be out to me in about 20 minutes, and they were spot on time. They jacked the 5th wheel up in the correct place and removed the wheel. We were asked if we were staying in the 5th wheel overnight and as we were, he left the jack and stand in place to ensure there was support for that axle. Not a lot of people would have left a 5T workshop trolly jack overnight!

I had a wander down a few pitches for a quick chat with Martin – The Caravan Nut and Mrs TCN… which was really useful as Martin is the fountain of knowledge when it comes to cleaning products. He confirmed the “The Pink Stuff” would be a great product to use to clean up and re-whiten all the locker handles on the 5th Wheel. That was really helpful as I’d been reading about all sorts of self made concoctions on the internet for cleaning yellowed plastic and non of them sat comfortably with me because of what they contained. I left Martin and Mrs TCN putting the final touches to the show room shine on their caravan.

The following morning Townsends gave me a ring, new tyre all done at a total cost of £108, which for two visits didn’t seem out of order for me. Graham – Caravan Vlogger will be pleased to note I did manage to torque my own nuts before setting off for home.

So the current situation is…

I have my chemo tablets, no bread, no trousers and a new tyre on the rig. What else could go wrong?

It was now Friday and the day of the great arrival . Even though it was slightly inclement weather wise we set up shop ready to mark the arrivals out of ten based on reversing skill, use or not of a motor mover, amount of gesticulating of the reversing assistant and repositioning as the significant other was not quite happy with the exact location on the pitch and finally speed of erection…. of the awning!

No we didn’t….. HONESTLY ! We didn’t.

While we were sat out Hey Ho Let’s Tow stopped by for a chat and I can honestly say they are a great genuine family, it was a pleasure chatting to them and generally talking about all sorts. Sorry no pics but I feel at some of these events the stop and chat should be just that and not seen as a photo opportunity… if someone asks then that’s OK.

Friday night we were all due to go to a local social club organised by Tony & Deb…. I suspect more by Deb from the The Caravan Addys. However overnight I had started bleeding from my stoma. By late afternoon it was rather bad….. in fact blue light to the nearest hospital bad…. we hung on a bit and it subsided somewhat but it nixed on me going out to the Big Meet Up, buffet, disco and dancing that evening. Overnight it stopped and I started to feel a bit better. We narrowed it down to my trousers of all things…. yep bloody trousers featuring in the blog again!. The belt line on my trousers had been rubbing on my stoma and actually started a small bleed that actually seemed a LOT worse than it was. Phew….. I have never seen Sue actually worried before about a medical issue despite her 35+ years in medicine.

Saturday the weather was finally playing along.

Sun and blue skies. Himself decided that maybe a bit of fresh sea air up the nostrils was required… before his next scheduled nap.

You can never have enough Siamese on the internet….. well that is what Henry says.

Graham – Caravan Vlogger and Mrs CV stopped by for a chat and a quick nosy round the 5th wheel. It was really nice chatting to Graham after a couple of years of ‘chatting’ on line. Again Graham is genuinely as he appears on his channel…. a really nice chap.

Saturday evening was a bit of an informal do with various caravaners gathering, I was still cautious as I didn’t want to restart the previous days medical event so we ducked out of that but plenty of people stopped by for a natter including a chap that had hot rods and currently had a hot rod truck…. I never got his name but was great to talk to about everything from tyres to engine oil.

Sunday there were. couple of departures the main core however departing on the Bank Holiday Monday. We had booked through to Tuesday as we thought it might be quite on the roads… which it was.

So that was our Tourfest North West 2024.

Would we go again… heck yes hopefully with Tablets, Bread and Trousers!

In a few days we are off again this time to Glastonbury for a week staying in at The Old Oaks…. Gives us chance to call in to Clark’s Shopping Village and get a new pair of casual shoes! Then on the way home we are stopping in North Wales at the 5th Wheel Company while they do a couple of jobs and extending the stay for a few days…. and just maybe I’ll be back on the bike for short little trips for morning coffee.

Isn’t technology wonderful. I’m sat here at the Christie Hospital undergoing 5 hours of chemo via a drip and infusion pump and editing this post on my iPad which I originally started writing on my iMac back at home after drafting it on my Mac while at Donkey Creek.

See you on the road!