10pm on a dark, chilly night in East Northamptonshire. Kneeling at the side of the road, a woman cradles her baby wrapped tightly in a blanket and hugs her small son into her chest. There are no streetlights here, the smell of fuel is abhorrent and she's in pain.
Sound like a nice start to a story?
Nope, it wasn't!!
This was us a few weeks ago on our first big trip of 2016 in Trevor the van...it didn't start well. We set off after dinner on a Friday night but only got 16miles down the road before running into trouble. We pulled into the entrance to a country park and the husband got to work trying to figure out why fuel wasn't getting to the engine. A new fuel pump, hastily fitted, didn't do the job and he quickly realised something more was afoot; our fuel tank pipe had split.
With a bit of a fuel leak on the go, I was ordered out of the van with the kids (only 2 as our daughter had gone ahead with her Grandma) and sent 100 yards up the road. It was cold and dark, the poor baby was in his PJs and my son was super super tired. I had a splitting headache from chronic sinus pain. I was not amused, shall we say, and even muttered the words "shall we just get a bloody caravan"...which my husband politely decided not to respond to!
Our wonderful neighbour came and got me and the kids and we traipsed into bed. That was 1030pm and it was another couple of hours before the camper van and husband were retrieved by the rescue truck.
With the morning came a warm day, a trip to the out of hours doctor sorted out the sinus pain, and with an hour's work replacing the fuel tank pipe, we were ready to give it another shot...
We rolled up in Norfolk a good time later into the afternoon and immediately sought out the beach, getting the sand between our toes and sploshing in the shallows; little knowing that this was the last time in our week's holiday we'd be in tshirts let alone on the beach!
What followed was a daily grind of gale force winds, horizontal rain, gloomy sea mist and chilly weather. Not the best May half term break you might say!! We were camped right by the sea but for three days basically didn't see it because of the fog. Our awning took an absolute battering and I was peeking through the curtains whenever I woke at night to see if it was still there!
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| Not the best looking tent structure I've seen |
We were lucky to get away with one shattered pole and two broken guy ropes I reckon. If it wasn't for the army-issue industrial tent pegs that husband hammered in, we'd have lost the whole awning! Some other camper vanners weren't so lucky and packed up early after their awning was wrecked.
As you do, we gritted our teeth and with the mantra "fun doesn't have to be fun" we got on with our week away. With the ground sodden we couldn't turn the kids out to run around so made our own fun with bingo and books in the camper van at night. We had a great day at Weybourne Station for the Dad's Army event and I even got a pic with Captain Mainwaring! What a highlight!
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| legend! |
We survived although we'll be checking the awning out once we can face putting it up in the garden. Next trip is August so a bit of time to get it sorted, thank goodness! Another eventful trip in our beloved Trevor!!
Love reading Trevor's blogs
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