Last weekend was allocated as the only possible weekend between Christmas and GTDD (Grand Tour Departure Day) when we could get away for a couple of nights and remind ourselves what we need with us in the motorhome.
The Enthusiasts have told us that they always do a short, local trip early in the year for this purpose as even after 15 years of touring they still find they forget things. That’s quite worrying. Ideally you stay close enough to home that you can pop back for whatever it is you have forgotten.
We heeded the first part of the advice but not the second and booked 2 nights in the New Forest. The journey was over an hour and the traffic jam in the opposite direction was spectacular – so no option of “popping back” at all.
We arrived at our campsite – one of the mini-campsites or Certified Locations. No, you don’t have to be certified or even certifiable to use these – but you do need to switch your brain on to find them. Ours was a very nicely manicured field, if a little soggy. The owner spent 10 minutes explaining his theory of pitch rotation before indicating exactly where our pitch was, and when we realised we needed to take on water first, exactly where we could park to fill up.
We took on half a tank and drove over to our pitch. Choc in place, step down, hook up power, gas on and switch on boiler. Horatio immediately starts widdling all over the grass, but not from the usual place – from under the boiler. By the time we have reminded ourselves that when the temperature dips below about 6 degrees C the boiler automatically empties (all over the floor) to avoid frost damage, he had piddled away all our water.
Luckily the site owner had gone, so we unplugged, removed the choc and lumbered back over to the tap, carefully avoiding the prohibited pitch area next to it. Get hose back out again and fill to the brim (just in case). Put hose away again, follow tracks back across field, choc, step, power, gas, reset boiler switch, turn boiler on and…. success! Pub.
See we are not insane – we picked a site adjacent to a pub – I call that inspired, and then hopefully inebriated. Just as well as another word of the day was inclement. It rained intermittently the whole time we were there and we didn’t even bother to get Kymi out of the garage.
We had brought enough food for 2 breakfasts – and when we found a tin of sardines in the cupboard that was going to be lunch. After a glass or 2 of wine that first evening we both admitted to having been extremely close to calling off the trip – not the Grand Tour, but the weekend, as it feels like life is running out of control at the moment.
We settled down and spent 36 hours eating, drinking, sleeping, listening to music and writing lists of things to do, lists of things to buy and lists of things to pack. We unloaded every locker and cupboard to remind ourselves what we had left in it, wrote lists of what was in each one and put it all away again. I nearly had to write a list of lists……
Pub.