Boats and Bombs

Another weekend away where Dai provided overnight accommodation. We had a group day on Saturday at a watersports centre in Essex. Having Dai meant I could easily stop over for the night instead of driving home. For some reason I couldn't really get comfortable when I went to bed, although that may be because of aching muscles more than anything (certainly felt the unaccustomed activity the next day).

When I bought Dai there was a full set of foil window screens. I've only ever used the ones for the windscreen and front doors, relying on the curtains for the back windows. For this trip, and the next one, I decided to take all the screens and experiment. The first conclusion is they take up a lot of space! That in itself means I won't bother normally. Next time away though it's at a town folk festival. As I'll be parked up for a couple of nights, probably with quite a bit of lighting, I will take them all again but then I'll revert to the previous system. The curtains don't really keep the light out that well but they're OK.

The advantage of stopping down in Essex, and of Dai's go anywhere size, was I could do something else today so I visited the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey, somewhere I've wanted to go for ages. It's well worth the visit.

I can also report that the new radio behaved impeccably all weekend. I was mostly listening via the USB stick but did have the DAB radio on as well for quite a while. Sound quality is a lot better but I think that's down to me sorting out a poor contact on a speaker whilst I was in Norfolk.

Radio Update

The car audio system continued to play up throughout the holiday, and I concluded that it was almost certainly the unit itself not a power problem. The symptoms just didn't fit the latter. The existing radio was a relatively cheap one I bought from Halfords, partly to test out the viability of DAB radio. It did have the advantage of an integral SD card reader but the lack of a CD drive was an occasional problem.

A bit of searching on Google suggested getting DAB and SD would severely limit my choice so I settled on a unit with a rear USB port instead. Further searching found a Kenwood that fitted all my criteria, front and rear USB, DAB and even a CD drive (which has a useful dust cover). I ordered it at a good price via Amazon on the Friday, and got a 32GB mini USB drive from another supplier. Both were delivered Saturday, good service indeed, so I took advantage of some moderately dry weather on Sunday to do the installation. I was able to retain the existing DAB aerial and everything just plugged together.

So far, it's all good. The only slight irritation with the new unit is the time it takes to step through the music sources, you have to wait for each one to come up before you step to the next one. I've even been able to set the illumination to green which matches the curtains! DAB reception seems good, on the limited testing it's had so far in what is a decent reception area, everything will get a more thorough test on Saturday when I head to Essex for the day.

Norfolk Trip - The End and Conclusions

Now back home after 2 weeks away. The trip ended as a bit if a damp squib as it was training heavily in Essex this morning. The only thing left really at that point was to drive home and start sorting everything, putting washing on, etc.

There are plenty of positives from the trip and very few negatives. I've proved that two weeks away is manageable (just) and almost everything performed as expected. Being able to move sites easily was a major gain and confirmed that a campervan works for me. Something slightly bigger would be nice, but that's something to be considered in a couple of years' time.

Only two things caused problems. The car radio is still playing up, I'm fairly certain it's the radio itself - the existing one was cheap from Halfords and is, inevitably, just out of warranty. I'll start searching for something better (at least I'm an expert at taking the dash assist these days). The USB charger socket I put in by where the bed makes up was just too vulnerable and was broken early in the holiday. I need to decide what to do about that as it was useful for charging the phone or tablet overnight. I'll also need to work out a way of hiding the hole if/when I remove the socket.

The electric coolbox coped must of the time but struggled a bit in the really hot weather. Two things would help I think. One is that I should have left it running more when parked rather than relying on only when driving or on site when I could plug it into the mains, to facilitate this it would be useful to have a level meter for the leisure battery. The other issue is that there's not a lot of ventilation into the cupboard that houses the coolbox, a vent will be installed in the door before long.

If I can find something suitable I'd like to add one or two roof vents to try and reduce the inside temperature when parked. That's some more searching required on the the 'net. I know there are some marine types that might work but I need to be sure they'll stand up to 70mph wind and not let water in when driving.

Something that only really came to mind towards the end of the trip was that I really should make more use of the site facilities such as the washing up area. With the previous folding camper having a decent sink and a hot water heater I didn't worry too much but there's no real point in boiling a kettle of water on expensive bottled gas when I can use site water for free. I'll either get a folding basket or one of the silicone folding washing up bowls to make it easier to carry the stuff.

Talking of silicone it is wonderful stuff, I've used the folding kettle, folding bowl and folding colander on this trip, and I've got a silicone drainer for when I do wash up in house. There would be ways round all of these but something else would have to go to make the space.

I've got an odd night away in a couple if weeks then two weekends away later in the year. One of these is at a town folk festival. So far I've only used the window covers for the front windows and relied on the curtains at the back. Unfortunately the curtains don't really keep the light out that well, which has been a bit of a problem with the long summer days. I've got the covers for the other windows so I'll take those on the next few trips and see how I get on. It's a bit more to carry but when I'm away they tend to live in the front passenger footwell so it should be OK.

I was quite happy with all 4 Caravan Club sites, by and large you know they will be to a reasonable standard. I've got no complaints about anything, the wardens were all friendly and helpful and the locations worked for where I wanted to visit. There was only one of the attractions that disappointed, that was Thursford which is now less about the steam museum and more about the performances on the fairground and Wurlitzer organs.

Planning is already afoot for next year, it does depend on a couple of other things but I'm thinking of a week in Northumberland and a week in Devon. There are advantages to two separate weeks in maximising time away while minimising annual leave days. I'll need to decide before the site bookings open for next year.

Nearly the End

Last night was my last time on a campsite food this trip as I'm at a friend's tonight for a BBQ. it's further than you think from the top of Suffolk down into Essex, but I did call in on the Colne Valley Railway. It's over I'd the shortest heritage lines in the country, just about a mile end-to-end but the work that's gone in over the last 40 years is quite staggering. When they took over the site all they had were the remains of the trackbed. Since then they've dismantled, moved and reassembled one station, recreated another using salvaged and made materials, moved and rebuilt a couple of signal boxes, etc. The running on a Saturday is normally a diesel railcar, but there was also one of the steam locos running up and down doing a driver experience day.

As well as the big stuff there's a garden scale layout and a miniature railway. The former only operates on a Sunday though and the latter was closed due to track problems in the heat. The large OO model layout, which they were donated several years ago, was running but the two small models needed attention.

That's about the end of the holiday, although I'll do a conclusions report tomorrow. Tonight we've got our annual Essex Waterway Recovery Group bbq, then it'll be off home at a sensible time in the morning to get sorted out for work on Monday. It'll be odd wearing trousers after two weeks in shorts.

Today's History Lesson...

From the Long Shop Museum. Pay attention, there may be a test later!

The museum is fundamentally about Richard Garrett and Sons at the Leiston Works, famous mostly for their steam engines (and not to be confused with Herbert William Garratt who designed the articulated steam locomotive that bears his name - more on this later). They actually started in 1778 when the first Richard Garrett took over the forge at Leiston. Initially their main products were edge tools and general agricultural items but they soon moved into making the Balls Patent Thresher when the second Richard married John Balls daughter. From there they expanded into various agricultural machines, initially horse powered then started making steam engines. These later included agricultural tractors, road rollers and steam wagons. The company didn't do much in the way of internal combustion engines, probably as the son who was keen on developing that side of the business was killed in the Great War but they did a lot of electric vehicles including Trolley Buses and a fleet of refuse lorries for Glasgow.

The firm lost a lot of money following the Russian Revolution when the new government repudiated sizeable debts and in 1919 combined with several other steam and other engineers to form Agricultural and General Engineers Ltd. This only lasted until 1932 when trading conditions and poor management sent it into receivership. Leiston Works however were subsequently taken over by Beyer Peacock Ltd and renamed Richard Garrett Engineering Works Ltd, so in the end they did make parts for the Beyer Garratt engines! They made a lot of other machinery over the years, including dry cleaning and laundry machines (probably as a result of making steam boilers for that industry), extruding machines and, in wartime, arms, ammunition and FE2/B aircraft. After various owners in the 1970s the works finally closed in 1979.

The museum is well worth a visit for anoraks just to see the huge variety of things produced by a general engineering company of that era. There are plenty of items of interest including the Suffolk Punch steam ploughing tractor which attempted to compete (unsuccessfully) with IC engined models and a slightly odd industrial tram loco that's a cross between a railway engine and a traction engine. The Long Shop by the way was one of the first production line manufacturies.

After the museum I headed in to Southwold where I had an indifferent toasted sandwich in a cafe and a rather better pint of Adnams Ghost Ship in a pub, as well as stocking up on Sole Star for tomorrow's BBQ.

Trains and Boats and Trams

Yes I know it doesn't quite scan, and there was only one boat and one train (apart from the one that held me up at a level crossing).

With no particular rush this morning I breakfasted and sorted everything out ready for departure (i.e. coiled up the mains cable and retrieved the pitch sign). The target for the day was the East Anglia Transport Museum, as I had plenty of time I set the SatNav to take a winding route. I usually like to find a ford on these routes, this time the voice said, "In 400 yards take ferry!" Reedham Ferry is quite famous on the Broads, as is the railway bridge from the other day. It cost £4 to cross, for all of about 50 yards but I guess wages and maintenance have to be paid. I filled in a bit of time on the journey wandering round a nature reserve as the museum doesn't open until about 12.

As such museums go it's quite a small one, readily visited in an afternoon. They had 2 trams and a trolley bus running, there's also a small narrow gauge railway with a Simplex diesel loco. On top of that there are static displays, including quite a variety of vehicles. The cafe is OK, I won't say much more than that. By the time I'd walked round a couple of times and ridden on everything the rain was starting to come down quite heavily so, pausing to complete their visitor survey, I did a runner for the caravan site.

By the time I got here, a few minutes later, the rain had eased again. This site is slightly odd as it's split in two. One part is adjacent to the beach, but that was full anyway (not that I was bothered). The rest is reasonably open, to be fair to the site I've gone on a non-awning pitch although I'd booked a full one (at the time I hadn't quite decided whether I'd want an awning this year). They're just the same except a bit smaller. The pitches either side were free but someone has subsequently filled one of them. It really doesn't bother me any which way, although they're making quite a performance of getting pitched.

I've got one visit planned for tomorrow but I'm going to reconsider that. It's quite a drive southwards so I could, depending on timings, leave it until Saturday on my way down to Essex. On the other hand Southwold is on the way so I could combine with a visit there - the Adnams stock is down to one bottle plus a bit in my glass, I suspect by this evening it will be non-existent.

It's Show Time!

The Royal Norfolk Show was always in my plans for this holiday, and indeed I'd booked and printed my tickets before I came (it saves quite a bit of money). Despite the fact I snuck off the site, quietly, at 7 this morning after a brief breakfast there was still a 2 mile queue for the showground. It would have helped if people bothered to read the signs and had taken the left filter to the car park. Entry was simple though, in fact overall I was very impressed with the organisation. I know they've been doing it for a lot of years but it still takes effort to get it right. The litter pickers and toilet cleaners were on duty right from the start of the day which always helps keep things clean and tidy.

First stop was a bacon butty stall to complete my breakfast then, as it was there, I wandered through the Adnams sponsored food hall. If I'd been able to bring half what I'd have liked home I would have needed a second mortgage - loads of lovely looking food from rare breeds meat, pies and pasties through to more exotic Indian and Chinese meals. The pudding stand was particularly attractive, various sweet and savoury suet puddings, but it just wasn't practical to buy any.

After that I had a good wander around the show and the various stalls. I did take time out to watch various animal classes but to be honest I couldn't tell a good Hereford cow from a bad one. As I'd found a shady seat by their ring I watched some of the horse drawn gigs and phaetons. I must say they looked very elegant. I also got some pictures of the heavy horse teams as they made their way to the main show ring. They had a few minutes to wait so all parked in the shade of the trees and one of the lady stewards brought cups of water for the drivers and grooms. The first team were the CoOp Funeral Care team, but at least they had a cart not a hearse. Their colours were shades of purple, with the ribbons not only woven into the horses' manes but also into their (male) head groom's pony tail!

By the time I'd had lunch of a pie and a pint whilst watching some pig judging I felt I'd seen about enough. I'd been right round the site and whilst there was stuff I'd have liked to buy there was nothing I could realistically manage to take home.

Rather than just come straight back to site I decided to drive via Reedham to get some pictures of the railway swing bridge, which I duly did. It did swing open shortly after I arrived as there was a yacht coming through. From there I went through the outskirts of Great Yarmouth. There were some interesting looking vessels in the port so I stopped for a quick look and more photos. They were 3 oil exploration vessels.

The final stop was a bit more brown sign following, this time to Horsey Wind Pump. It's National Trust owned now and was interesting enough. Being built in the early 20th Century it was probably about the peak of windmill technology, with self regulating and self directing sails. The sails, etc. are long gone but the internal mechanism is still there. I managed the climb up to the top this time as although they were open stairs each section wasn't too high, but I did wimp out on going onto the balcony which had a slat floor. The pump was owned by the Horsey Estate and they still control the moorings in the outlet stream. Slightly strangely their bailiff just sits in his car by the entrance to the NT car park - you would have thought they'd give him a hut.