Yorkshire is really not that far away, just a couple hours and its absolutely beautiful.
Packing up the van it feels noticeably heavy when we go camping. Dog stuff, food stuff, bed stuff, hiking stuff and clothes. And this time I’m bringing the awning too. I’ve only used it a few times but as this is the last hoorah for the van, I can put it up and get photos.
Arriving at the campsite it was already unsurprisingly busy, being the longest weekend of the summer holidays. I set about unloading the van and pitching camp. The awning is built into the side of the van so we can only really use it when we know we don’t need to move the van during our stay. It somewhat limits us so I think next time I’m going to try and find a ‘drive-away’ awning that can stay pitched.
Pitching it in the Lake District last time it didn’t seem to fit together properly. For some reason there was a gap in the front of the walls. I thought it was a missing panel for a door but after playing around for an hour this time, I realised I had just erected it incorrectly. The awning fits perfectly – when you know how! Pretty soon we had the van set up for the weekend and almost like it was planned, the camping table I got recently fit perfectly along one wall. It’s a shame to finally have a neat system when I’m about to sell her, but it’s time. She’s done well.
Laura and Kai also got their tardis folding caravan set out, but after a bit of a rough start. One of them had left the keys to the locks on top of the trailer when they set off. There was no knowing where on the journey they had finally slid off the roof, but it meant they had to break into their trailer. They are making a new one (from scratch which is just incredible) so this is the last outing of their old one so a bit of damage was not the end of the world, but it’s always frustrating to have to bodge it.
After a simple dinner and wander around the site with the dogs we sat around the fire pit and played 20 questions. I’m terrible at this not knowing who any famous people are. I just don’t care about ‘popular’culture. I’d much rather learn about someone who invented something cool in the 1800’s than who is secretly screwing who on celebrity lust island.
I do think I’m going to need a proper camping chair in future. I brought with me my motorbike camping chair which packs down remarkably small, but it’s not super comfy or stable. Aimi got one of a similar design that was slightly bigger and that is much more comfy.