Our Elddis AutoQuest

This was our longest trip in the Motor home.

Our plan was to just stop as and when, wild camping apart from a few nights pre booked.

We decided to head for Eden Camp, Modern History Theme Museum, for a day visit so, although it’s just a two hour drive if that we left the night before and stopped at a CC&C Temporary Holiday Site at the Yorkshire Cricket and Rugby club in York. This was a busy DA and the first time we have not been able to use our common sense and decide where to park, on the contrary the stewards thought they knew best and we followed them to basically what was the last bit of spare grass available to us.

The next day we moved on to Eden Camp, Modern History Theme Museum, which we think is a great value for money day out for young and old, less than £25 for the 5 of us and the dog. I must admit after being there 5 or 6 times in the last 15 years I think we need to say ‘been there, done that’:). We found another CC&C THS near Pickering for the 2nd night.

It was then off toward Whitby with a stop of in Goathland, where the British TV series HeartBeat is recorded.  We drove through Goathland but was unable to park the Motorhome so had to drive through without stopping and headed to Whitby.

Whitby was fun, it’s a sea side town but not full of Amusement arcades and big expensive rides. The kids had fun playing crazy golf and riding the ‘bumper boats’ etc and we could relax and enjoy the laid back feel of the town.

That night we stopped on a CC&C Certified site called Long Leas Farm, this is a small site with the basic facilities for emptying waste etc. It was pleasant but we had their 1 hard standing pitch which actually felt like we was parked on their driveway. They had the best (power) water tap I have seen on a site in a long time.

After spending the next morning at Bridlington, which is a more ‘lively’ resort we headed for our first ‘booked’ site. This was a Park Resorts caravan park in Withernsea, I had been warned that it’s not the best but what the hell, it’s been booked. Well we arrived and it looked OK, there where grassed areas with tents and the on ‘van on spread out fairly spaciously so I checked in and was directed to our pitch. What the $$$$? we must be on the busiest bit of grass on the whole site. Each pitch is supposedly 6 meters square, but they allow no or little space between the pitches which meant once people had their caravan awnings up they had filled their pitch but still needed to find somewhere to park their car. We couldn’t even unwind our awning as we didn’t have space because it would have blocked of access for others.

The kids did use the indoor swimming pool and we made use of the Laundrette facilities (at £5/load to wash and dry) during the two nights we were there. We did try the evening entertainment but the on site atm had ran out of cash so it meant using  the card for each visit to the bar and the beer tasted rank so we didn’t stay for the entertainment. All in all this was the worst site I have stayed on in many years.

To be continued….

It’s a shame the good weather isn’t here though.

The motorhome goes in for a service on Friday, it passed it’s MOT a last month and I just hope the service doesn’t throw up any major problems as it wont be long before we go off for our summer holiday (vacation), this will be the longest we have spent away in the Motorhome so it will be interesting.

The initial plan was, not to plan it. Just get up and go.  We was thinking we would just stop and wild camp as and when for a few days but then we got some Holiday vouchers and thought it would be useful to use them to stop on a site for a few days so the kids can go and play and we could top up on necessaties and do some laundry etc.  We had enough vouchers for just 4 nights so we decided to book 2 sites for 2 nights each, about 4 days apart.

This gives us chance to get laundry done each week so we don’t need to over load the motor home with clothes etc.  The first site is in Yorkshire and the second is down in  Kent so we now have ‘targets’ we need to head for.

Tracey has then suggested we visit Eden Camp, Modern History Theme Museum, for the day so we will do that on our first day and then find a wild spot for the night, sorry but I am not paying £25/night at the local ‘working farm’ camp site with little facilities, that money could be better spent on  our travels.

We will then have a couple of days unplanned before heading to the first camp site. Yes costing £25/night but has swimming pool and other entertainment for the kids etc and paying in vouchers which brings our cost down to about £6/night.

When we leave that site we have arranged to visit friends in Norfolk for a day or two before heading down to the second site for a couple of nights. We have a few nights between sites so again nothing is set in stone nor planned.

After the 2 nights at the 2nd site we can head home as slow or quickly as we like, we have about 5 days before we MUST be home and again these are totally unplanned at the moment but I am sure will change.

We spent last weekend at Mogg Eye on the east coast  of England.

We don’t arrive until about 10:30pm and wow it was busy this weekend. More vans than we had seen on our previous visit.  There where motorhomes that where there both last time we visited and this, some apparently visit every weekend, others actually stay there for months on end. This abuses the site and is bad for wild camping as the authorities will clamp down on it if abused too much.

There was one RV their that runs their generator virtually 24/7 and has no consideration for others. Again this noise abuse could cause authorities to clamp down which would be a great shame.

On Saturday there was black fly everywhere near where we were parked but we went to the beach which was clear of them. It was a beautiful day and the kids and I even went into the sea (when the tide came in), the North Sea is not exactly the Med but we had fun.

We met up with Arther of of one of the forums I frequent and had a chat with him.

We headed home mid morning on Sunday as it wasn’t a great day, windy etc and I wanted to get home for the F1 and football world cup final.

It’s so good to get away in the van for a couple of days, kids without a playstation can be a problem with them suffering withdrawal symptoms but hey it’s a hard life aint it:)

I have been a member of a wild camping forum for a few months now, when I joined it was a free membership, community based forum. Then the admin decided to introduce a  ’subscription’ and subscribed members would get access to area’s and downloads that free members can’t access.

The reason for these fee’s was to help fund the site and future developments. This did cause some friction and the Admin made an even bigger mistake and banned those that spoke out against it and created their own forum.

While this was going on I created Wild Camping World, a free forum. I then found out about the ‘rebels’ forum so did no more. Things started to calm down and  I was a member of both sites. Today though it turns out the admin of the original site has announced he has created a company and employed someone to admin the site for him.

This has caused more friction on the site, the new Admin is acting like a school girl and stomping her feet because people disagree with the decision.

I have therefor decided to actually move forward and announce Wild Camping World is now live.  There are no members at time of writing but this is the first time it has been announced. The site will remain free as it will be hosted on the server that hosts all my other sites, although donations will be accepted.

Please take a look and let me know what you think

We have decided to go away wild camping this weekend, wild camping is a term used to describe camping ad hoc, not on official web sites etc.

We have done this a couple of times in Wales over the past month or so and this weekend have come to the East coast of England.  It is a well known spot for Motor homers and there are about 12 ‘vans of various sizes at the moment.  Tomorrow we plan to go out for the day to a local sea side resort and then wild camp again tomorrow night, maybe back here or find another spot near by.

Why do people wild camp, well many do it because of the costs, there are no camping fee’s, we do it for the freedom, the dogs and kids can basically do what they like (within reason) as long as we leave the spot in as good as or better condition as it was in when we arrived. It is generally not allowed in England and Wales but in many spots it is ‘accepted’ as people generally use local facilities and therefor benefit the local area.

If I get any pictures I will upload.

OK not at the abbey itself but in a field behind The Anchor pub which is opposite the Abbey.

The landlord is obviously a shrewd businessman, he allows motorhomes to ‘Wildcamp‘ (camp for free) in his field knowing that generally those same people will use his establishment, which is a fair trade. Imagine the extra trade he has got this weekend.

This was a meet organised by members of Wildcamping.co.uk so probably  more than usual I must admit.

The Ale being served is a nice pint but it did have an effect on me that made Tracey wish we had stayed behind. Vents had to be open in the van at all times.

We arrived late Friday night so parked in the Car park for the night before moving onto the field Saturday morning, we then went to the pub for a couple of drinks before moving on to the Tea rooms for a snack.

In the evening we joined the other wild campers in a BBQ on the field.

before popping into the pub for a couple more beers before bed.

On Sunday we left Tintern and headed for a place called The Knap, near Barry in South Wales, where TV hit show Gavin and Stacey is based.

It is basically a car park (terrace) by the beach, you couldn’t get any closer. We had to go right to the end as there was a number of cars parked up but that was fine by us as it was secluded.

It was great as the gates are locked, supposedly around 5:30pm but we saw them being locked a bit later than that. What was strange is that although the gates had been locked a couple of fishermen drove up and parked next to us and when fishing. This wasn’t a problem for us, they had some youngsters with them that where making a bit of a noise but nothing to make us want to move and they had all gone by about 11:30pm

We took a nice drive home on Monday, leaving one motorway early and cutting across country due to an accident on there but this just made the journey go at a more leisurely pace.

I did have to ask though if Wild Camping is actually cheaper? It is if you’re careful.

At the Anchor we spent £24 in the Tea Rooms and another £20 in the pub. I don’t regret or begrudge doing that but it is not something we would spend on a site.
We spent nothing on Sunday night on The Knap for free.

So three nights cost us £44, which did include a couple of drinks,  so all in all not too bad when you take it all into consideration but I wouldn’t be able to use the pub facilities for more than one day/night it would have started to get expensive when there is a family of you.

Another cost was fuel, this was the first meet we had been on with the wildcampers and the furthest one. It was great but the round  trip was about 400 miles round trip, we ideally for us the Spring Bank holiday at the end of the month would have been better as the kids have the week off school and we could have spread the trip over  a  longer period.

All in All though a good trip and  looking forward to meeting up again with the wild campers.

We decided to go to one of the DA meets this weekend, it was a last minute decision on our part.

It was at a nice little place called Osmaston in Derbyshire. This is a lovely little village with thatched cottages etc.

We arrived around 5pm on Friday, parked up and sorted everything out, ie tv arial etc and we was eating by 5:30pm. There was nothing going on so we just sat and relaxed outside the van for an hour or so as it was a lovely evening and the kids had disappeared to play football with other kids.

Saturday was bliss, it was a beautiful day and again the kids went off playing with mates etc. There was a volleyball game and I did attempt to join in but it was not a pretty site and it didnt last.

Saturday night was spent  in Osmaston village hall which was a lovely looking thatched roofed building but it was small. When we arrived there was probably enough seating left for about 10 people, we took up 5 of those and we wasn’t late arrivals.  It was a great night, an early celebration of St Georges day as next weekends meet doesn’t have anywhere suitable for such frolicks. It started with ‘Stab the dragon in the heart’ for the kids (variation of pin the tail on the donkey), followed by a game of bingo for those that like that sort of thing (Tracey LOL), and then a sing a long of english songs like Ralph Harris’s version of english country garden.

We headed back to the van at the end of the sing a long as the kids where getting tired but it was an enjoyable night.

Sunday morning we just lazed about for a couple of hours before heading home around lunch time as we had a birthday to attend in the afternoon.

In the 10 months we have had the AutoQuest motorhome we have gone somewhere and stayed put, ie visiting relatives we have gone to a site as a base and returned there each day after doing visits, or weekends away have been in  one place.

Well on Saturday we was asked to accompany someone on a trip to Aberystwyth in Wales, they was driving a truck and had arranged to meet someone there, the idea is we follow on behind and if there was a problem then we could help (not sure how) and on arrival we could stay on this third persons land for the night. Well it didn’t go to plan, we left about an hour later thinking we would catch up and by Shrewsbury we was about just 25 miles behind.

By the time we got to near the destination our phones where out of range, we trusted the sat nav (GPS). We ended up going up a narrow lane just wide enough for the motorhome, this was all well and good until a tree hit the awning on the side of the van and smashed the end of it.

End cover has come off the Awning

We then stopped at a house when the Sat nav told us we had reached our destination. I spoke the the lady who lived there and she knew nothing of our plans. Still no phone signal we decided to turn around and go back to where we can find a signal. As we reversed around we cought the back of the Motorhome on the steep driveway and caused a small bid of damage.

Taken upside down, picture of damage caused

Not happy at this time I was not the best person to talk to. We managed to get a phone signal and phoned the person we had arranged to follow. They had managed to find the address and said that there is no way we would get the van on the land. There just wasn’t the space.

This meant, we had to find somewhere at the last minute. The local Llanrhystud post mistress pointed us to two camp sites.  The first was a ‘Caravan Park’ and the second was closed.  We drove down the lane a bit further and found a parking area by the beach. We parked up and found it appeared to be popular with dog walkers.

I suggested to Tracey that we wild camped, Tracey was not sure, ‘You’re not meant to do that’.  While discussing it a van conversion turned up and obviously parked up for the night. This helped me as Tracey said OK lets give it a go. This was the first time we had Wild Camped. It was great, the kids loved it, the dog loved it and it was really quiet.

Sunday we drove up the coast, we stopped off for an hour at Barmouth, had a cuppa in a nice little cafe on the sea front before driving further north to Criccieth. We stayed on a small site in Rhoslan, just outside of Criccieth. Monday morning we lazed about as it was raining. When we did move on we got stuck on the field and a caravanner helped us by  towing us out.

Criccieth Castle

We spent an hour or so in Criccieth, parked up on the sea front and while turning round  I must have hit a bloody wall and I have damaged the ladder at the back.

Damaged ladder on back of Motorhome

We drove further north and stopped one last night on the Welsh/English border, Crab Mill Farm, Kinnerton. This was a great little site, on hard standing with electric and water tap on every pitch.

Today, Tuesday we drove home, basically an uneventful day.

The three days overall where great for us, even though we have done some damage, it was the first time we had Wild Camped, it was also the first time we had toured.

We had thought about going to a meet this weekend, but we have decided not to, we have fitted a couple of new units in the kitchen, new work top and sink, which included drilling through a hot water pipe so what the weekend would have cost us went to a plumber instead.

Oh well maybe the weekend after, which is a ‘Countryside Care’ meet which I am not sure what will be going on but can be rest assured it’s not something I do much off:)

We have just got back from a rally/meet held about an hours drive away.

On Thursday it was snowing so we was not sure if we would go but then on Friday we decided to give it a go. When we got to the rally site it has been decided that the field was to boggy so people were parking their caravans/motorhomes (just 2 motorhomes) on the village hall car park. This wasn’t a problem as the organisers had booked the hall anyway. 4×4’s and some late arrivals though did have to go onto the field as there was not a great amount of parking spaces.

Friday night we just popped up the pub for an hour before settling down in front of the TV.

Saturday there was a Treasure hunt for the kids (and a few big boys) in the morning and a good old game of bingo for the ladies (and a few big boys) in the afternoon.

Saturday evening was fun, this was the first organised meet of the year and as it was close to Valentines day (ok a week after) the theme was just that.

A game was played which I had not seen before but it was entertaining and a number of people won silly but funny prizes. Julian, our eldest son won a small PINK photo frame, Tracey won a set of furry hand cuffs. Not sure what they will be used for:) The games where followed by a disco.

We woke this morning to find it had been snowing, only about a few inches, this was going to be fun as there was a slight upward slope as you leave the car park. In the end, a couple of 4×4’s towed the caravans off the field and of the car park onto the road with the owner then hitching the caravan to their own cars on the roadside.

We was asked if we needed to a tow, I said that I should think we will be ok but would be leaving before them so there was help on hand if we did have trouble. As it happens we didn’t have any problems.

The drive home was tentative but trouble free until we arrived home. There was no way we could get the motohome onto the drive, we shovelled some snow and gritted elsewhere and after 2 hours of clearing and trying we managed to get it on the drive.

The who weekend was totally enjoyable but Tracey is not keen on going when snow is forcast:).