10 Saturday Aug 2013
Posted in Blog updates, General, Help Guides, Projects
Tags
blogging, Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, The Old Oaks, Touring, Towing, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers
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
13 Saturday Jul 2013
Posted in General, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break
Tags
Burton Constable, burton constable hall, Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, One Hairy Caravanner, Touring, Towing, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers
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
06 Saturday Jul 2013
Posted in General, Reviews, Travelling in the UK, Uncategorized, Weekend Break
… 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
05 Friday Jul 2013
Posted in Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break
Tags
Caravan Club, Caravanning, Caravans, grand union canal, One Hairy Caravanner, Touring, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers, Warwick, Warwick Racecourse
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
03 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted in Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break
Tags
Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, Glastonbury, One Hairy Caravanner, The Old Oaks, Touring, Towing, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers
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
12 Wednesday Jun 2013
Posted in Blog updates, Travelling in the UK
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
27 Monday May 2013
Tags
Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, Sat Nav, TomTom Go Live Camper & Caravan, Touring, Towing, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers
If you are thinking of buying a new sat nav, particularly the TomTom Go LIVE Camper & Caravan version, as promised in an earlier post, I have completed our review of the unit.
It’s not a detailed specification review but hopefully it will give you a bit more information that’s not been covered by others.
If you want full specification on the device it can be found here on the TomTom web site. The current list price is £329.99 from TomTom which is slightly more than some others, but for us (well me) it ticks all the boxes. The full review can be found here.
S
22 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in General, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break
Tags
Caravan, Caravan Club, Caravanning, Caravans, Lake District, TomTom Sat Nav, Touring, Towing, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers, Troutbeck Head
After a week of ‘iffy’ weather in the north-west, Friday 17th was forecast to be at least dry and a promise of the sun making an appearance from time to time. We loaded up the Freelander and set off to pick up the caravan. By 9.30 we were hitched up and pulling out of the storage compound. Sue, while winding up the corner steadies with the Makita, had managed to get a mouthful of Makita battery when the torque twisted the drill out of her hand, which apparently was my fault. She was definitely not a happy camper. With hindsight, she was extremely lucky that she did not end up with broken teeth and a fractured nose. I think there is a lesson to be learned here. If you use any sort of drill to wind your steadies, you need to be certain of the setting before you start. Continue reading
25 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in General, Travelling in the UK, Trips, Weekend Break
Tags
Cambridge, Caravan, Caravanning, Caravans, One Hairy Caravanner, Touring, Towing, travel, Travel Trailer, Travel Trailers
The second part of our weekend was to return to Cambridge. I think I mentioned in part one that the last time we were both there was back at the end of June 2009 the day before My fellow pilot Feroz and I set off on our round the world flight. I had flown the Bonanza into Cambridge airport and Sue had driven over so we had a couple of days together in Cambridge before I met up with Feroz and we flew to Austria for the start of the trip.
Sunday 21st April
Another sunny cloudless sky greeted us as the filter coffee machine was hissing into life. We didn’t have a planned departure time for Cambridge as it was only about 22 miles away and should only take 35 to 40 minutes to drive there. Continue reading
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