Going to get our caravan - prep for trip 35

So the journey begins. The excitement builds. We arrive at the storage place Fairwood leisure Storage in Bolton, Lancashire.

We get to use our key fob for the first time and all works well.

The gate rolls back and we enter the best caravan storage in Lancashire.

We drive around to our pitch and it reminds me of Bowness campsite and the crowded pitches there.

We spend 10 minutes trying to get the caravan out of it's place. 

The jockey wheel is facing the wrong way for moving the caravan forward and it is just digging a hole in the hard standing gravel.

I have to put the legs back down using the manual wheel brace, because our battery is flat in the electric drill that we normally use.

So legs down, jockey wheel up and paving slab placed under wheel and facing the correct way to get it moving.

Yay, it's moving.

We huff and puff and finally get it out of it's pitch and into the road and hitch it up.

Away we go and it's back to near our house so we can prepare it for travel.

 Click the video to watch the timelapse journey.

I've just had a cup of tea and lay on the sofa in the caravan and I'm excited to be going away again.

I've plugged it in to the mains to charge the battery and put some water in the ice cube tray to make ice cubes.

The heater is on low to warm it up and take away any damp that may have crept in whilst it was stored.

This next trip will be no.35 and we will celebrate 100 nights in it since we bought it.

Comments please about your preparations.....

Car door locks - explain this

You go to open a car door just at he same time as someone is using the key and door doesn't open!
Why is this a feature of all the cars I've ever owned.
Does it frustrate you as much as me?

Don't do this when someone else is unlocking the car!

Comments please........

A quick jaunt down the motorway at super speed

We had to get there quick, but others are driving faster than us.

Our Ford Galaxy 2.3 petrol tow car wasn't towing today.
We had somewhere to be and the journey had to be done in record time.

Caravan Storage - discussion

Caravan Storage - Cassoa site or driveway.
When you are not away in your van, which unfortunately does happen, you need somewhere for your caravan to live.
You could put it on your driveway, assuming you have one, but then there are potential problems as well as benefits.
 Lets get the problems dealt with first.
Caravans caravans are big and bulky and can fill your drive up and maybe prevent you putting your car on the drive.
They can block access to your garage or your daylight into your windows or garden or neighbours' property.
You could have a covenant on the use of your property and land which forbids caravans on drives (we have such a covenant).
If your caravan is normally kept at your house then the biggest problems that I can see are the security risks. For example your drive is probably not very secure and your caravan could be easily stolen, even if you have clamps or hitchlocks, they won't stop a determined thief with an angle grinder. Another massive potential problem is when you go away in your caravan, you leave a big space that shouts to the world and all the passing burglars that you have gone away for a period of days and that your house could well be empty and is a nice target for them.
There are benefits of course, such as it's ready to leave when you are and you can pack your food and clothes on the day and just go, maybe on the spur of the moment when the weather is good on a Friday and the weekend is forecast good weather as well.
You can also leave the caravan plugged into the mains to keep your caravan leisure battery topped up ready for your next rally where there is no electric hook up.

Keep your caravan safe

Cassoa approved storage
An option that is very popular for caravan owners is to take your van to a storage facility that is cassoa approved, preferaby to a Gold standard. Cassoa stands for the Caravan storage site owners association, in case you wondered.
These storage sites charge a fortune but provide a service, so you have to pay to keep your van safe.
You are given a key or electronic fob, which you pay a deposit for and then you can come and collect your van anytime during daylight usually and let yourself in with your key.
The storage sites have cctv to record all the comings and goings and you can be confident that your van will still be there when you are ready to take your holiday/vaction/weekend away.

Here is our link to our gold standard cassoa approved site that we use.
http://fairwoodleisurestorage.co.uk/

This is the blurb from their site.....

Established in 1992 in a semi rural location, our 'purpose built' facility provides all year round, safe, secure storage for Caravans, Motorhomes, Camping Trailers, Trailer Tents, Domestic Trailers, Boats, Horse boxes, catering Units etc.

Our facility is 'CaSSOA' (Gold) registered and has the benefit of CCTV, electronic gated entry and is surrounded by a 2.4m high security fence topped with razor wire.
Additional security has been provided by the construction of substantial earth mounds around the perimeter of the site thereby restricting the entry and exit from the site to a single controlled access point. There are also Water and Electricity points provided on the site for the purpose of vehicle maintenance and repair.


The choice is yours - keep it at home and handy but unsecure or lock it up and have peace of mind.

Comments below please.
Thanks

Riversway Leisure - Caravan Accessories & Covers | Camping Accessories | Caravan Awnings | Motorhome Accessories & Covers | Electric Hook for Tents

Riversway Leisure - Caravan Accessories & Covers | Camping Accessories | Caravan Awnings | Motorhome Accessories & Covers | Electric Hook up for tents


A shop in Preston that has always had what we needed.

The Alternative Baker - Cuppasoup Bread

A first post showing how to make and bake a simple bread for dunking in soup, Here he has included a video showing making the bread from start to finish.

 Who is this in this video on YouTube?
Answer in comments below.

Portable, Fold up Solar Panels for caravans and Motorhomes: PV Logic Range

Portable, Fold up Solar Panels for caravans and Motorhomes: PV Logic Range

Going off the grid - Caravan Batteries and Solar Panels

Anybody can go on a caravan touring holiday and plug into an electric hook up on any uk caravan site or camp site. Holidays in France, I don't know about, because we haven't ventured there yet and I suspect they have a different plug or wattage.
Your caravan is your little home from home with all the mod cons, such as tv (sky or freeview) and laptop with wifi and hair dryer and electric kettle and electric blankets and toasters, you get the idea.
Which Caravan you have, will decide on how many sockets you have and how many appliances you could have on the go at any one time, ours only has 2 sockets, but we manage.

 By going off the electric and relying on your caravan leisure battery is a different type of holiday and can be more fun because it makes it a different experience. You need to consider when you can put on the lights or run the water pump to fill your sink. I think of it as like camping in a tent but a very luxurious tent with a fridge and a gas fire. By relying on your battery you need to switch your fridge over to run on gas and to use your gas fire instead of the electric one, although it's likely the same unit.
The caravan parts and accessories that will definitely make your holiday experience a better one are simple ones. A decent Leisure Battery is of course the best one to invest in. The more money you pay then the better the quality is a good adage to go by, but I often buy cheap if I can.
The most we have lasted is 3 nights and 4 days before the battery is showing as depleted.
For the future we intend on buying a solar panel which will keep the battery charging even on overcast days, but especially if we have sunny days.
I've read that you need at least a 100watts version and these can cost over £200, but I like the idea of charging the battery for free.

Wiring a solar panel into the battery compartment

Solar panel ready to go on the roof

 Here is a photo and link to a website that supplies what we are looking for.
The PV Logic range of portable, fold up solar panels is designed to be
highly transportable and quick and easy to set up and use.

 

Each portable solar panel has an integrated stand, a built-in charge controller and battery connectors. All you need to do is open up the panel, stand it up and connect it to your battery for instant power. Because the PV Logic foldup solar panels are self contained the usage is no limited to just caravan and motohomes, you can also use them with trailer tents and even general camping. The PV logic range of portable solar panels are supplied with a premium padded carry bag, easily stored in your caravan or motorhome and erected in minutes.

A couple that we know who go on lots of rallies use 2 batteries and their rooftop solar panel to charge 1 or the other depending which is in need of a top-up, with a simple switch. They use 1 battery for tv use only and the other for everything else and manage a week without any loss of power.
That's where I want to be.
Battery chargers have been a discussion point on many websites with many people waiting for Aldi or Lidl to have their special offer on and selling a very capable device for under £15. We would welcome any comments from people who know where to source the same cheap battery charger from the manufacturer, directly.
Please let me know in the comments below.

Geocaching whilst on tour in your caravan

I've been geocaching for a few years now and usually combine a caravan trip with a few walks that involve a geocache or two.
Whether you visit caravan sites in Wales or England or camp sites in Scotland you have the chance to try something different, while you walk up and down those hills or through those forests.

Firstly - lets get this out of the way, what is a geocache?
This video will help you understand. Watch it then come back here to continue reading

A geocache is a game playable by anybody, that involves locating a hidden cache. A cache can be a small plastic box or large tin that is waterproof or even a tiny little magnetic micro-cache. Inside each cache is a log book or piece of paper that lists all the people who have already found it and the date they found it. Also, there are usually small toys or trinkets that you can take, but you need to leave an equivalent toy behind. i.e make a swap. There are also occasional trackables which you can take but need to log the details on the geocaching.com website.

Geocaching.com website and detailed explanation

A typical geocache container

On the website will be a history of the trackable item and goal that the item is trying to achieve. Such goals are, 'to be moved anywhere within the lake district' or 'to travel the most amount of miles' etc.
With all the geocaches that are out there and there are over 2 million worldwide you have to login on the geocaching website and make a comment about your experience. Say something that could be useful to the next person reading the comment that might encourage them to visit.
Ideally you need a gps enabled device to do the hunting and I use my iPhone with great success.
There are dedicated devices, but my 1 experience of one of these was that it was hard work, I prefer my iphone app.
 I go to an area and the use the app to find caches nearby. It's really easy.
The reason I like to geocache is that it can take you to places you would have never discovered without looking for the geocache.
For example, one of our first finds was in Garstang and we had just parked up on a car park in the town centre and I got out my iPhone and searched for local caches. There was one just half a mile away and we discovered a large park and river and some lovely views that we had no idea were there.We had a fab day out because of the search.
Some geocaches are quite easy to find and some are impossible. Either we can't understand the clue or it's been moved, who knows? Half the fun is trying to locate it and half the fun is adding another to your total geocache found tally. I'm up to 50 so far. I've just read this out loud to my and mother-in-law and apparently my wife doesn't enjoy them as much as I do. She just rolled her eyes at her mother, so it looks like I'm doing the next one on my own.
So that's it, have a look at the geocaching website and go for a new adventure.

Comment below if you decide to give it a go.
Thanks

Camp Fires

fire pit

A lot of sites don't allow a camp fire to be lit on their pitches for several reasons.
I was wondering what people's experiences were regarding a successful camp fire.
When I was camping in a tent I found more sites that allowed them and we had a great big fire once at Grizedale Forest site where we used a full bag of coal which kept us nice and warm.

Now that I have a caravan I've only managed to use my free standing portable barbecue, similar to a suitcase one to try and recreate the camp fire camaraderie (is that spelt right)?
We just added a few twigsand small branches and managed to keep a roaring fire going throughout the evening keeping our fronts warm but still cold behind us. The kids had a good time collecting the twigs for us and kept them occupied while we got the food ready.
We once bought a firelog from home bargains and that was ok but when we had finished and were ready for bed, we poured water on it and it was still smouldering in the morning which made me worry about the fumes creeping under the awning and gassing us!
Again, when we were camping in a tent we went to fishergrounds site and they had used old wheel rims tied into the ground with metal stakes to determine where the fire was to be located. Brilliant.

We've never bought a firepit so we don't have experience of using one and I know some sites object to them, but I'm not sure what the reason is.

Do you go to a site that allows caravans and campfires? Where is it?

The below 2 photos I took when I was camping in my tent before I got my caravan and they are of my friend cooking meat, but these photos say so much.
When I get back in my caravan and spark up my first bbq of the season I will take some decent photos of veggie food for this blog.

Typical English, Rain doesn't stop us

combining camp fire and bbq

Comments below, thanks.

Vegetarians like BBQ's too

We are a family of vegetarians which we all know, means we don't want to eat meat.
So, does that mean we can't have a BBQ? (barbecue).
No it doesn't mean that at all.
We have had many BBQ's over the last few years and we don't feel like we are missing out because we don't eat meat.

The first thing we put on the BBQ is chopped onions sprayed with vegetable oil and wrapped in foil.
Then we put some large mushrooms on, the kids love the large mushrooms, which always shrink to about half their size and are very tasty when cooked this way.
We get Quorn sausages/ burgers or Linda McCartney sausages/burgers and put them on. To be honest as an ex meat eater I can't remember the difference and still enjoy what some people call carpet burgers.
Another favourite of ours is to chop feta cheese into squares and add cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil and wrap it all up in foil in individual portions and cook for about 10 minutes. When they are cooked we add a small amount of balsamic dressing. Delicious. We add our burgers or sausages with our cooked onions to a barm cake (bap or bread roll), add some mayo, mustard or ketchup as you prefer vans tuck in.
On the table we always have boiled new potatoes and a large bowl of salad.
We sometimes bbq some vegetable nuggets then chop them up and add them to pitta bread with salad and dressing to make a vegetarian kebab.

Photos will be added later.
A quick note about BBQ safety and carbon monoxide.
Never put a BBQ in a tent or awning or caravan, because they give off poisonous fumes that are deadly. 

This photo says so much about the English

BBQ's can catch fire! This is my friend cooking meat!

Comments below please.

A Walk through Lead Mines Clough

 A nice walk starting at a Car park in Anglezarke and heading up the hill and into Lead Mines' Clough and a lovely walk around the reservoirs, back into Rivington and back to the carpark.
It's surprising how much countryside is on your own doorstep and you don't need to spend £40 in fuel to get to it.
Anglezarke is on the edge of Chorley and Bolton and it has lots of lovely scenery.
In the photos are 2 stone slabs that we couldn't work out what their function was when they were installed.
If you want to have a guess or if you know what they are for then please let us know in the comments below. Thanks. Our guesses are that it could be a kissing gate or an ordinary gate. Currently it is probably used as a urinal.

Lead Mines Clough Walk

What are these for?

Comments below please

A caravan blog that I read

 There are other caravan blogs out there and I like to read those as well




This is a website I recently came across and had a good read

Click the link above

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatterforestpark

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatterforestpark

This was the best fun, you have got to go here and have a go.

Swift Charisma 540 - Your first look

A video showing the inside of our newly acquired caravan (February 2011) Swift Charisma 540.
If you are thinking of buying one then this video will give you a good look around to see if this is what you wanted.
You can see the layout of the kitchen including fridge, duel fuel cooker and shower room and toilet.
This caravan sleeps 5 with the bunk bed in place and has 2 separate seating areas which is a good idea to keep your adults away from the kids for meals or playing games.
It is really easy to tow with a Alko Stabiliser and has a nice weight distribution.
We have had this caravan for 2 years and it is still giving us pleasure and the chance to see new places.

Comments are welcome below

Summer Holidays - Where to go? What to do?

So we are starting to finalise our summer holiday and I think Wales is going to come out on top.
We are going to go on a week long rally but with electric hook-up.
The rates for rallies are very reasonable and if you get a hook-up as well then it makes for a holiday that doesn't cost the earth.
Most rallies need you to pre-book a ehu and pay a small deposit.
If you don't need ehu then you can just turn up.
 .....Update.......
We've sent our deposit off and we are heading to Anglesey for a week on a proper campsite but not paying the sites full prices, because we are going as part of a district association. This means that the DA has negotiated a cheaper price to rent a field and we then sub rent off the DA and it makes for a much cheaper holiday.
Hopefully our friends are coming along as well and this is always a good idea. We can spend nights and days in each others' company and share the ideas for what to do and where to go.

Let me know in the comments below if you are planning on going to Wales for your main holiday this year.

A broken tap in Swift Charisma 540- fixed

Update July 10th 2016 on a newer page

Our tap has recently stopped working.

It is obvious that it is a fault with the microswitch or wiring to the switch.

I popped out the little silver lug and used a tiny 2 or 3mm allen key to turn the screw which is now revealed under the silver lug. Note this isn't the red and blue lug and the allen screw only needs a quarte or half turn. The silver one is on the back of the handle.

the top of the tap then lifts off

April 2013 After our recent puncture in our caravan, we discovered that our kitchen tap had rattled loose. After driving for too long with the tyre smoking and destroying itself the vibrations must have worked the tap securing nut loose.

 

We arrived at our pitch and filled up the aquaroll and went to use the tap and the tap felt like it had come away under the kitchen worktop. The water worked ok so at first I just thought, oh well, I'll fix it later.
After several uses of the tap during normal use I started to think I should get in there and fix it.
Using my iphone I went online to research the issue and discovered how the tap is supposed to be fixed to the worktop but all the fastenings are under the tap and under the worktop.
As you look at the kitchen and tap the fridge is directly below and seems to take all the space up were the tap fixings would go.
Some advice on the internet was to remove the vents on the outside of the caravan and gain access that way.
The vents are held on with a simple sliding clip which is really easy to unclip. There was a bit of mastic around the edge but that came away without any fuss and doesn't really seem to be necessary.
Behind the vent is a mesh screen which probably keeps insects out. This just lifts out easily.
Now you can see that there is a large metal angled sheet which probably is there to allow any fumes to be directed to the outside through the vent. This was held in place by metal staples which I removed with a pointed sharp knife and prised them out.
Behind this sheet is a wooden panel which was screwed and glued in place. I left this alone and gave up.
I used 'no more nails' to put the metal sheet back in place because our stapler wouldn't pierce the metal.
Back to the drawing board!
This time I decided to remove the sink which was a lot easier than I imagined. Several screws in the sink itself for the hinge and the stoppers held it in place. one last screw in the centre of the plughole and it was free.
Yay!
With the sink out I had a clean up around the seal because over the years there had been some seepage and it  needed cleaning.
Now I could see the tap from underneath I could see that the nut had worked loose all the way to bottom of the threaded nut. I tightened up the nut and used a small spanner to nip it up and it was fixed. Above the nut is a c shaped metal ring which holds all the mechanism together and all in all it was an easy fix.
I put the sink back in and tightened all the screws back up and it's now as good as new.

If you have made it this far after my in-depth waffling, well done, and please leave a comment below.

This was my Tea tonight

17th April 2013 and I just needed to share.
Click the link

This was my Tea time tonight

Comments please.