I'm afraid this first post of the year is quite a long one.
Holiday Plans
The 2015 holiday plans have been made, changed, cancelled and remade again due to outside factors. I'd planned a trip to Devon and Cornwall to coincide with an event down there when a "do" involving Mikron Theatre Company was announced for the same weekend. As one can't do everything I decided to leave the South West for another year and revert to an earlier plan to visit Norfolk.
I'm hoping to get away most months from Easter onwards this year, I've got the means now so need to make use of them. The plans so far are:
April
I've booked a site in Derbyshire for the Easter weekend. It's fairly close to Crich Tramway Village who've got a 40's theme for the Sunday and Monday so they'll definitely get a visit.May
A friend has organised a bash near Leeds towards the end of the month so I've decided to make a long weekend of it and booked a couple of days off work. On the Friday I'll travel up to Castleton for the night, finding something to do on the way. I'm hoping to find somewhere in Leeds to park up for the Saturday night and then on Sunday I'll end up at Hebden Bridge before wending my way home on Monday.June
Late in June I'm off to Norfolk and Suffolk for my main holiday. There may be an event in Lincolnshire on the way, I'm then starting off near the North Norfolk Coast before heading to the Broads via an overnight stop at Thetford Forest*. I finally end up on the Suffolk Coast before the drive home. This trip is largely planned around preserved railways (of course) but I also plan to take in the Royal Norfolk Show.*The two sites in that area are no facility. I can manage for a day or two with my internal facilities but wouldn't really want to make it any longer.
After That
I'm waiting to see if anything else is organised after that. I've got at least one non-camping weekend in August and a boat rally in September where I will be camping.Jobs to Do
Of course there's always something to do. I spent last weekend doing some minor electrical work, I've installed a bypass switch for the radio so I can turn it on without the ignition switched on and I've also added a cutout switch on the intruder alarm LED - the darn thing is very bright and starts flashing when the alarm isn't set so I was having to cover it up at night. I can now just flick a hidden switch instead.
The next relatively minor work is to provide a 12v & USB charging point adjacent to the back seats. I'll probably mount the bulk of it in one of the seat lockers and just have an external socket handy for where I'm sitting/sleeping. The intention is it will be switchable so normally charging will be when the engine is running but I can switch it over to the leisure battery when required. I'm also looking to improve the lighting a bit. I want to upgrade the two existing lights to LED bulbs but I also need some lighting over the table/seats/bed area. The tricky part with the latter is getting the wiring tidily in place - I guess some trim may be due for removal and refitting.
I want to locate a rechargeable torch somewhere accessible and also provide a bottle holder (the existing cup holders are OK for a can or coffee but don't really hold by Ribena bottle). The other think I've never properly resolved is what to do about rubbish. At the moment I tend to chuck a bag in the bottom of the coolbox cupboard but this isn't ideal and the space keeps getting filled up with odds-and-ends. One thought for longer trips was a bin in the awning but...
Awning - To Be or Not To Be
I've decided that I'm not going to buy an awning this year. I'll see how I get on with the long holiday and then decide if I really do want one. Reading around on the 'net has suggested a good proportion of the campervan owners who've bought awning have then rarely or never used them.
I'm happier with not having the hassle of having to put the thing up when arriving on site for the first time and I still hadn't really worked out how to attach it to Dai. The downside is I did have some stuff that would stow in the awning, freeing up space and storage inside - that just means I'm going to have to be more careful in what I take and how I store it.
One of the things on the awning store list was the spare Gaz bottle though. There's only space for a single Camping Gaz 907 bottle which leaves me wit the prospect of either it running out at inconvenient times (generally when the bacon is half cooked) and then having to try and find a replacement or I'll end up buying refills before it's empty. As the darn stuff is expensive enough to start with I really don't want to waste it. I've concluded I can just about get one of the very small 901 cylinders into the gas locker space, they're horrendously expensive relative to other gas bottles but at least it will give a reserve.
