14 Mar 2011

First trip of 2011

Last caravan trip…mid October 2010…so much for winter caravanning!

lamb cottage

We winterized the caravan and regular checks suggested that it had survived the winter unscathed.  Now, with spring in the air, a favourable weather forecast, new curtains, and a new (to us) porch awning to try out, it’s time to get back into the swing of things.

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Very yellow curtains!

Somewhere local, just in case there were any problems.  Lamb Cottage in Cheshire,  a quiet adults only site, so hopefully nobody to watch us struggling with the instructionless awning!

We’ve been here before.  It’s quiet and well laid out, excellent toilets and showers, but a bit in the middle of nowhere.

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Lamb Cottage

Day 1

The journey there was uneventful, the caravan towed okay.  Still lots of creaking from the stabilizer, but the general consensus seems to be that this is normal so nothing to worry about.

Did all of the usual set up, water, electrics, unpacking etc.  No problems, except for D foolishly thinking it was a one night trip and bringing only one nights worth of clothes!

Time to do battle with the awning.  Two hours (but surprisingly no arguments) later it was up!  Not bad considering no instructions. We bought it off eBay and were assured it was easy enough to put up.  Much better quality than our last awning, although it does cover one of the windows slightly.

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Pyramid Tuscany porch awning

Too cold to sit in it, of course, so we drove about a mile to the second nearest pub for a quick drink at the Blue Cap Chef & Brewer in Sandiway.

Decided to have dinner there, but wanted drinks as well so we drove back to the site and then walked back.  Not a very nice walk along a busy road with no street lights,  and no pavement or grass verge in places, but we made it and had a nice dinner and a bottle of merlot (with fish and chicken…duh!!)

J tried to call for a taxi, whose card proclaimed ‘You Drink We Drive”,  but when she said we were only going 1 mile up the road, they hung up! so back along the road we went.   The walk back seemed better, but the drinks might have had something to do with that!

Day 2

A walk along the Sandstone Trail today.  A circular walk around Bickerton Hill to be precise, about 8 miles with lots of ups and down, but no real climbing.  A cold, grey, misty day…not the sunshine promised by the weather forecasts all week!

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Rawhead - 227 metres

Great pub lunch at the Bickerton Poacher.  A welcome sight about six miles into the walk with the biggest sandwiches you could imagine!

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The Bickerton Poacher

Dinner in the caravan, but pretty cold, so drove to another local pub for a quick drink.  J kindly volunteered to do the driving so I could sample the local beers!

On the way back we drove past a lost looking spaniel at the side of the road, but didn’t think anything of it.  About 11 o’clock J was stopped on her way to the shower block by a couple who had found the dog just outside the site and were looking for it’s owner.  Tried ringing the number on it’s collar, but no reply.  A call to the sleepy owner of the site, but all she said was that it wasn’t from the site and she couldn’t look after it because she had dogs of her own.  We were very tempted to let it stay in the caravan with us, but in the end the couple who had found it took it home with them.

Day 3

A message from the dogs owner in the morning confirming that they had been contacted by the people who had found it, so a happy ending.

Got the awning down and packed away in about fifteen minutes, which was good.  We want something that we can put up and down quickly, and we think we can improve on the two hours it took us to put it up!

Drove off with the caravan door open (debatable whose fault!)  but luckily we were flagged down by some other caravanners before we got off site so no harm done.

Overall, a good start to the year with no problems.

Not a good day for pictures, so no gallery this time!

Lamb Cottage

Pros

  • Quiet, adults only
  • Good toilets and showers
  • Big, well laid out pitches

Cons

  • A bit in the middle of nowhere, with a longish walk to the nearest pub!

Coming soon

Nothing booked until Castlerigg Hall at the end of March, but might squeeze another trip in before then.

2 comments:

Our Life In A Caravan said...

We lost the instructions to our full size awning! Just about got the hang of it now but still takes a couple of hours to completely set up! We have a small porch awning that only takes 15mins, only 3 poles! But its like doing battle with a large daddy long legs! Glad your first trip of the year went well! Jools and "M" at http://ourlifeinacaravan.blogspot.com

Five Go Caravanning said...

Lovely post - so nice to have that feeling that summer is on its way and finally the caravanning season is kicking off! look forward to reading about more of your adventures.