I apologise. Things became difficult for a while and I shall tell all soon. For now I’ll just say that we are back at Winter Base where we landed on Monday afternoon (5th December). The Head Warden asked us if we had shrunk in the wash when he saw the new van…
The van has been christened: Vincent (as in Van, go).
We are still trying to sort out our living and storage space and acquainting ourselves with onboard systems. For now we are finding the battery charging to be a challenge. when on hookup, the transformer buzzes loudly and does not aid sleep. The newly installed leisure batteries are not charging fully and we are unclear is the buzz is related. The current diagnosis is that the installed charger is the wrong’un for the job. Top all of this up with the fact that the engine battery does not conveniently charge from the hookup as Hank’s did… and you reach the position we are currently in of having no radio entertainment. yes, the battery is dead.
Fortunately, a charger has already been ordered and is on its way to us. Once we get Vincent started we’ll maybe go for a wee drive to find a new engine battery.
Time for a photo?
And on with our tale…
We had booked extra nights at Briarfields when it became clear that there would be a wait until we could exchange vans. Unfortunately we could only stay until Friday morning, when a rally was coming in. We rang Andy and learned that we could do the swap on Saturday, so we rang around and found a pitch at the CCC’s site (not very) near Winchcombe.
We booked three nights, intending to leave on Monday.
As it happened, the task of downsizing was a larger one than we had anticipated and so we booked a further night, finally leaving on Tuesday and cutting out a planned Britstop for the Monday.
At this stage may I take time out to thank Michele and Jeffery for all their assistance and generosity of time and effort. Without them much of our belongings might have ended up in landfill.
Also as it happens, the Winchcombe site turned out to be an absolute delight. With wonderful staff, a relaxed atmosphere, great scenery and its own fishing lake. Ducks and Moorhens range across the site in hopes of generous campers flinging food in their direction. The site also sports two dog walks, one close by, wooded, with ample bins and dogs required to be leashed. Across the site and past the lake is an 8.5 acre field for running dogs off the lead.
It was a haven of peace and quiet after the hustle and bustle at Briarfields and it was good to be breathing unpolluted air again. The site was not at all busy, with many empty pitches.
Interestingly, and for the first time ever, Hank was not the largest thing on site when we arrived. We were parked next to one of these things. When we took Hank away and came back with Vincent, he looked positively peedie aside that monster.
There are many footpaths locally and one cuts across fields from opposite the site gates and delivers campers and dogs to the very lovely Gardeners Arms – where site clients receive a warm welcome and 10% discount on everything. When we set off for the pub on Monday evening, the frost had already formed before sunset. It was bitterly cold overnight and we woke to a white and wintry world on Tuesday morning. Vincent had done a marvellous job of keeping us warm overnight. We began to appreciate that we had done the right thing in swapping vans… even if we still had boxes of stuff stashed outside!
A weeping willow in front of the wooded dog walk had been one of the last trees to retain its leaves when we arrived. After the hard frost it was shedding leaves like snow. I spent some time trying to grab an image that included drifting leaves. Not wholly successfully.
I do still have my camera gear, though managed not to use it during the time that we were away, making do with my little red Nikon instead. I took few photographs overall.