Sunny bank holidays are definitely made for BBQs and camping so we managed to combine both this weekend. Saturday night was a delicious boozy BBQ at a friends house where we talked endlessly about the intricacies of campervan ownership and whether a porta pottie was to be, or not to be, to some of our other friends who own vans (both couples have vans that are currently off road so I felt very pleased that Bertha was ready for her first trip!) – we probably bored the others to tears but there was plenty of ale, strong cider and nibbles to keep people occupied.
On Sunday morning we woke up early and excited as we were heading off for our first sleep in Bertha! We set off around lunchtime, got stuck in traffic, had a mishap with the newly fitted stereo (i.e. it stopped working after about half an hour – long story, something about batteries which I still don’t fully understand!) and finally made it to Clapham for mid afternoon – not London of course but North Yorkshire. A nice campsite but it was a little bit busy and seemed a bit more like a caravan car park than tranquil country retreat. Still, we had a plot and an electric hook-up and there were plenty of fields and country smells nearby. I was a bit nervous about plugging her in for the first time but Richard was confident the whole van wouldn’t blow up which, of course, it didn’t! The fridge stayed lovely and cool, the lights worked (but were incredibly dim) but there was still no stereo. Anyway, we had a nice evening, strolled into the village and found the local for some food and drink and came back to bed. Three hours later we both had terrible back ache and hadn’t managed much sleep. It seems that Bertha seriously needs some new bed foam so we’ll be investigating this soon. On Monday morning we created a feast of ‘Camping Omlette’ a dish perfected by our friends Selina and Karl – basic recipe = lots of stuff you’d normally find in a full english breakfast (bacon, sausage, black pudding, tomato, mushrooms) cooked up and all thrown into an omlette. I have it on good authority that cheese makes a yummy addition.
Our journey home took in the Ingleton Waterfalls Walk - been doing this since I was a kid. Lovely but busy and you have to pay to do it (humbug…never used to when I was a nipper..). A great weekend ended with us showing Bertha off to my extended family who were all very impressed!
Tags: Adventures
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