Monthly Archives: July 2010

Travels With Harry. (5) First Real Holiday.

June 18th.

So it’s for real now! Carol has booked a holiday – her last, in fact, (that is, before retirement!) – and we have a commitment in London on the 19th – too far away to turn back if we’ve forgotten anything, and we’ve booked a pitch on the Crystal Palace Club Site. We travel well –love cruise control – look, no feet! – but it’s drizzling a bit when we arrive and the pitch is hard standing, so we decide against putting Harriette up. We’re on the last minute, as well. A couple of phone calls and Philip and Judi agree to come and fetch us to go to the restaurant for an excellent evening meal. We walk back with other friends who were there too, and have a caravan.

June 19th. We love that fixed bed! Weather’s OK so after a leisurely morning we walk down to the GroveCentre where the day’s event is getting under way.   

Chris holds forth while Cousins listen attentively. Rachel laughs.

Family and friends are gathering for an excellent lunch provided by Philip and Christine, and with background accompaniment from a talented young harpist – until she was persuaded to break for some lunch herself.

More and more folk kept arriving until the party was too big for one room and the overflow room next door was needed, also the garden, but showers kept interfering, though they were brief, but they did wet the furniture!

The music group grew to include a pianist and yours truly with guitar and voice. 

‘Voice’ wasn’t on top form, but Rachel gave eager support – sorry, no picture of RM – anyone got one?

An ongoing buffet was provided and we’re sure we speak for all who shared in it when we express a big THANK YOU to our Host and Hostess – and their daughters – for a lovely day.

June 20th: There are still issues to sort out with Harry. We think the water heater isn’t working, and we cant work out how to put fresh water IN to the van other than by parking close to the tap and using a hose – which wont always be practicable. We’ve been give the address of the dealer for the boiler so we pack up from Crystal Palace and head north to Derbyshire. Much better weather. Find the spot and park up on a really nice site by a fishing lake. Put water into Harry by getting really close to the tap and using the short hose provided…. We’ve bought a water carrier on wheels, but how do you use it??

June 21st: People can be very nice and try to put you at ease, even when you feel a right numpty! There’s NOTHING WRONG  with the boiler! We just didn’t know it was working cos we hadn’t waited long enough, couldn’t hear it ignite and there’s no green light to say it’s on, though there is on the other appliances! And there’s a red light if ignition fails, after which you have to wait at least 5 minutes before re-try. All of which had confused us, in spite of reading the instructions! But the men at Truma were charming and didn’t charge us anything.

Somewhere near Burton-On-Trent we lost a hub-cap, close to Morrison’s. Thought that would happen if we kept using the wheel-clamp.

Next item was to get to Exeter to have Carol’s little electric bike looked at. It wasn’t charging up properly. We motored as far as Weston-Super-Mare and began looking for a caravan park. Settled on one in Brean-On-Sea.

June 22nd: That was a lucky choice. Just along the road was a camping and caravan shop where a very nice man told (and sold) us what we needed for the water thingy. Caravans have a built-in pump to take water from the roll-along carrier. Motorhomes don’t. The young man who sold us the carrier should have known that. We needed a 12v submersible pump, a ‘cigarette lighter’ style plug and an extension lead to reach the nearest socket inside the van. “We’ve got one of those” we said. We also bought a parasol and a reclining chair ….

… and went on our way rejoicing.

…. and our way took us to Exeter where we found the (rather inconspicuous) premises of the bike company    and left it with them ‘for a couple of hours’, did a bit of shopping, and browsed around the riverside:

Towards 5pm we thought we’d better contact the man with the bike, having not heard from him, and he said the problem was ‘a bit trickier’ than anticipated.

So we decided to move on, but not too far, and settled on Dawlish Warren. Found  a site, booked in,  parked up and assembled Harriette. There was little wind, so for now the risk of hammering on the roof (see earlier entry) wasn’t an issue.

One of the risks of this sort of living – as with others – is the neighbours. You can be very lucky, very unlucky, or somewhere between. One reason why we tend not to book more than three nights at once. I don’t want to go on or be over-critical of folk with  different lifestyles. I think ‘insensitive’ best describes the the two families of travellers across the ‘road’ from us. Certainly the couple next to us thought so and left after only 3 days of their 10-day holiday. Actually, the people were not in any way unpleasant. Just prone to loud conversations, well into the evenings (though not after midnight, to be fair).

Anyway, we spent one day washing and sorting and the second going for a walk around the ‘Warren’, an SSSI. We decided to move on, then just in time we heard that the little bike was fixed and we could collect it from Newton Abbott. More rejoicing?! And the water issue? ‘We’ve got one of those’ we said (above) when told we needed an extension lead, didn’t we? We’ll, we had. But though I (sort of) successfully connected the pump to the plug and the extension seemed to work with other appliances, it wouldn’t work with this one! Finally the light dawned … we have a portable power pack with a 12v socket on the side. If the pump will run off that, all we have to do is re-charge it between uses and Robert is your Father’s Brother (as we know). And it did!   

Travels With Harry. (4) First Nights Out.

or How Harry Met Harriette and How Carol Became a Breaker-and-Enterer.

also, Harry’s first Bump.

So it was time to spend a night or two out and see how we got on. We had planned to go to Eskdale for some pleasant walking, but the the weather on Tuesday (8th June) was awful and so was the forecast, so we abandoned that plan. We decided on a campsite / caravan park just north of Carlisle and set off early afternoon. Not having had lunch we stopped at Reghed for sandwiches and there had the first of two experiences we could have done without! In view of the weather I ran back to the van and jumped in as quickly as I could. A freak accident developed. The handbrake is between the driver’s seat and the door. I had no idea it could be done, but while jumping in, I knocked it off. Harry was parked on a downhill and started moving. It took me a second or two to realise what I’d done. My first attempt at stopping it resulted in a stab at the clutch instead of the footbrake. That didn’t help! Harry came to rest against a lighting bollard on the left hand side. The bollard came off worse. Well bent, it was. I did the right thing (polish my halo!) and went in to report what had happened. Haven’t heard anything about it since…

When we got to the site we found everything dry and the warden told us that for days there had been rain all around but none there! We chose a corner pitch on grass and set about trying to assemble ‘Harriette’. We weren’t doing very well, having only a numbered diagram to work to. A nice Scottish couple with a large tent next door came and offered help – and mugs of tea – and that moved things on. Then the bit we anticipated would be tricky – marrying Harry to Harriette.

Trapping the figure-of-eight strip into the roll-out awning as had been suggested, might have worked if there’d been three people all with ladders and a fourth to wind the roll-out, but it was never going to work otherwise. So it was guy ropes over the van roof, pull tight and peg down. Job done!? Seemed to be, so we were able to spread things out a bit and enjoy the evening meal, ‘one I prepared earlier’.

As can be seen on the photo, it was quite windy! Result was that at various moments during the night the plastic strip in the webbing of the tunnel – now on the roof – woke us up with hammering in the wind. That’ll need further thought.

Next morning and next unfortunate event! Something else I didn’t realise could be done. Carol was away at the shower block (without her key to the van), the cab doors were still locked from overnight, and I came out through the hab door and happened to rest my right hand on the locking mechanism. Usually if you lock a vehicle’s door that way you have to take deliberate action for the door to stay locked when closed. Not this one! It was locked behind me, and my keys were inside! So were phones, money, everything. All I could think to do was ask at the warden’s to use a phone to call the RAC, but Carol came across and said the garage door was open (under the bed) and she’d reached up and opened a window. She thought with a ladder she could get in through that window! And she did!! I didn’t know she had these skills. Nor would I have thought entry through that window was possible other that by Dickensian use of a child. Glad she’s on my side!

 

Yes – that’s the window! Opened it from the ‘garage’ door and climbed in off a ladder.

Would you believe it?!

ESPERANTO-TAGO!

26.JULY 2010: SALUTON! Estas Esperanto-tago!
Hello! It’s Esperanto Day, which began for me with a few minutes on Radio Lancashire, which, if you can’t resist it, you can hear here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p008xxw0/Graham_Liver_26_07_2010/
scroll to 2hrs20mins into the programme, then when Dennis Taylor comes on to talk about Alex Higgins, either stay with it or scroll on to 2.28.45. Bonan aŭskultadon!

Travels With Harry. (3) Spend, Spend, Spend!

Next we set about buying in all the extras which we thought we needed, or had read or been told we should have to reduce the insurance premiums and prevent  theft, break-in, gas attack and whatever else! Andy at Kendal Camping Centre was a great help, doing several jobs himself and referring us to recommended folk for jobs he didn’t do. So before long we had a television aerial on the roof, a ‘D’ bar on the habitation door and a spare wheel secured in the garage. (Did you know, Motorhomes don’t come with spare wheels these days! They have a can of spray-stuff to seal punctures which everyone says is rubbish, so spare wheel needed.) Then there was the towbar and the three big ones all done in one day here at Garth View: Tracker, Alarm, and reversing camera.

We’d got used to extending our living space in the Box with the addition of the drive-away awning, but that one couldn’t be added to Harry. So we had to find a new one …. Enter ‘Harriette’….  Sorry!

Travels with Harry. (2) Finding a Home – for Harry.

Harry’s arrival on May 4th (see below: do blogs always appear like this? ie, most recent first? I suppose it makes sense but since this is a sort of narrative, I’d like to reverse it)
Harry’s arrival on May 4th was a little earlier than we’d realised, and the first task was to decide where to put him! As things were, we couldn’t get him into the garden!These tatty old gates – been here since before we moved in (1997) were wide enough for the old Box, but not for Flashy 04. We didn’t think on the road was a good idea, so we contacted Edith and Des Stockdale up the road, used to do bed & breakfast, they have a motorhome and plenty of space behind their property – they weren’t in when we rang, but responded to our message – Yes just take it up there, park it wherever, we’ll sort it out later if there’s any problem. Don’t worry! Very Cumbrian. Not bothered. Meanwhile we had been in touch with a nice man called Keith who was going going to fit some nice new gates for us – sorry! ‘doors’!, so we rang him up and said it was getting a bit urgent. The doors weren’t ready, but the next Saturday he came and remove the old gates, the posts that ‘supported’ them, cut away a metre of hedge on the right hand side – and the metal fence embedded in it, so that we could bring Harry home. 

Travels With Harry. (1) Finding a (Motor)Home.

                Click photos for full image and if they are part of an album there should be a link to it. Or use ‘shared photos’ above.       If you can, see them as slide show in full screen – much better. 

 
You might say we bought ‘Harry’ under a cloud – but we hope there’s no prophetic significance in that. Harry, by the way, is a Chausson Flash 04 Motorhome, and anyone familiar with the early St. Trinians films will have no difficulty in spotting the link between ‘Flash’ and ‘Harry’ …..

As for that cloud, well, having decided that we wanted left hand drive because we intend to spend most time in France, we contacted Bundesvan (www.bundesvan.co.uk) and arranged a van-viewing visit to Germany, which just happened to be timed to end on April 16th – the day all the airports closed for the first time because of THAT cloud. (Volcanic dust from Iceland.)

Nick from Bundesvan drove steadily all afternoon to get to Dunkirk (from the middle of Germany), his son (in the UK) got us a ferry crossing and Rachel got Carol and me onto the sleeper train to Edinburgh – where my car was. Teamwork! Nick continued to drive after the Channel Crossing to get us to Euston with half an hour to spare! 

Meanwhile we had agreed that Nick should negotiate a deal for us on this nearly-new Flash 04 which seemed to tick most of our boxes – it had to be a Ford because Carol has problems reaching the pedals with the little legs in Peugeots and Fiats. We also wanted a fixed bed and large ‘garage’ underneath.                 

                              

Tuesday May 4th 2010. Breakfast time. Shortly after GPT (Brother) arrived on the overnight coach from London – it was the first night of ‘The Gondoliers’ 

– Nick arrives in Harry after the overnight drive from Devon. We are now a 2-van couple! Who wants to buy a Toyota Camper?