Winter Caravanning

Lizzie and I have decided that as we have a lot of money invested in our caravan we should make good use of it all year round!

We settled on Dulverton Caravan Club site for our first go at 'Winter Caravanning', but with me having so many commitments in Chipping Sodbury, council meetings, Crib Festival in church, where I was transporting Donkeys around in a horse box, and the Victorian night, oh and new carpets being laid at home, we were not able to get away until the 7th of December.

We made sure we had propane gas on board (Butane does not work in the winter) and  collected the caravan from storage and set off. We decided that we we would head south, straight through the middle of Bristol, and pick up the M5 somewhere near Bridgewater. It was raining hard, and as we approached the site there were many large puddles. That meant the bottom of the caravan and the Freelander both got an extremely good wash.  When we arrived on site, both the caravan and the Freelander were pretty filthy.

We soon set up and put the small Christmas tree up in the front window!

The site is right in the middle of town.  Literally a 200 yard walk to get the papers, do some shopping and have a beer!

The first night there was a slight frost, but with no effort at all we had the caravan at a very comfortable 28 degrees.  With the awning up the heat did not escape too easily. All our heating came from the electric on board heating, at no point did we need to put the gas fire on.

Whilst in Dulverton we were able to drive over Exmoor, and when it was not raining we were able to take a few decent shots:

Whilst we were traveling around we went to Minehead, Porlock Weir and  Lynmouth and Lynton where we were able to do some Christmas shopping.

Every where we went there were so many puddles to splash through that driving was great fun.

We were amused by the following sign,

There were plenty of these signs, and also loads of Pheasants, but unfortunately we were unable to catch any!

On the Saturday we decided to visit Dunster as it was sure to have a Christmasy feel about it!  What a disappointment. There were no Christmas lights that we could see. or any decorations.  There was just one small Christmas tree at the entrance to the castle!

We had another pleasant run over Exmoor back to the Campsite.  We  then had an excellent dinner in one of the local hostelries. 

We drove home on the Sunday, again in the pouring rain!

We had endured pouring rain, high winds, frosts, bright sunshine, cloud down to the ground!   Would we do it again?

Well we are booked into another site for the third week of January, so maybe next time we will caravan in the snow!  It would seem that the bug has really got us!

Fairlight Caravan Club Site. 23rd - 30th October

After our last lot of exploits up 'north' we go involved in decorating the hall, stairs and landing and also updating the kitchen.  Well if the house is going to be untidy, you might as well do it properly!

We set off for Fairlight, which is a couple of miles east of Hastings.  M4, and M25 were busy but no problems and we soon found our way onto the sight.
The site is in the middle of Fairlight woods, so as you can imagine, there were rather a lot of trees there. The caravan pitches were in small groups based in clearings in the woods.
Now as it was autumn, the trees were shedding their leaves and they were getting every where!  the wardens, were constantly out sweeping and collecting leaves!
As usual when we got to the site I asked the warden, what he reckoned was the 'best pitch available'?  we were directed to use pitch 5, as although there were trees overhanging it, they were not the sort that were dropping nuts, conkers or acorns.

Whilst we were at Fairlight we visited, the following places:
Bexhill, a town that has certainly seen better days!
Hastings and thoroughly enjoyed wandering round the old fishing area.
Rye, a quaint old town on the edge of the Marshes.
Dungeness where we were able to watch the train travelling across the marsh.
We travelled up to Folkestone on one day so Lizzie could relive old haunts, and then went on to Rainham where we met my cousin Lee for dinner.  It was very good to see her looking so well!

For some reason, probably the inclement weather we took only 4 photos on our week away!  Note to self , take more photos.  I did take this one of Lizzie in Hastings though.