Herself and I had promised ourselves that we would try and use the caravan a bit more this year. Covid and Creaky's declining health had curtailed previous years, but in all honesty, the comparatively low number of nights away last year was down to huge dollops of CBA.
On returning from our jaunt to Cider Barn we set ourselves the challenge, though I fail to see how a holiday or jolly can been seen as a challenge, unlike some recent publicity stunts that have been splashed all over social media.
For this one though we won't be dragging Grumbles along. Herself and I are due some us time, time on our own, free from the pressures of work, to do stuff we want and to spend some time arguing, bickering and just grunting at each other, without the pressure of someone else being there to entertain.
The downside of this though is we'll have to pay for our own beer and wine!
This time I've gone for a CL, no toilet block - we rarely use one anyway - but hard standing (important in this part of the world this early in the year), with 10kWh included in the £20pn pitch fee. I've no idea how much 10kWh is and if it will be enough, but if we need more I'm more than happy to stump up and not let the cold spoil this challenge jolly.
Monday 3 April
Herself was working over the weekend, so a delayed set off. A new site for us, though in an area we know quite well.
Having had a word with Captain I knew he was on an early shift today, so I'm lying in bed wide awake waiting for his headlights to peek through the blinds so I can move Toyah and prevent his daughter parking in the shared drive and blocking the caravan in.
With that deed done I cwtched back up to Herself in Bed and was outers until 9.30.
By 10.30 we're fully loaded, hitched up and ready to yell Wagons Roll to Facebookville.
The more observant reader will notice that the caravan was parked on the pavement. Rest assured that pedestrian (and young mothers with pushchairs) access was maintained at all times with 4ft left clear - it's a very wide pavement.
The roads were clear as we joined the M4 and J48 heading west, along the A48 to Carmarthen and A40 into Pembrokeshire.
We're pulling in through the gates of Little Valley CL at just after 11.40am, having missed the turn off the A40 necessitating a rather dramatic U turn. Herself was not impressed, and neither was the NED in a Fiesta who had to ease off the throttle slightly until I picked up speed! The last 1 1/2 miles to site off the A40 is down single track road, happy to report nothing coming in the opposite direction, though with overhanging branches it was still a challenge!
Setting up was laborious. the van needed leveling both side to side and front to back, and the flint chippings played havoc with my knees while the rock bed lurking just 3" below the surface ensured my knuckles had numerous unfortunate encounters with my lump hammer.
The place is idyllic though, and once the bleeding stopped we sat with the sun warming our chops soaking up the tranquility.
With Herself showered and looking beautiful we make tracks towards Broad Haven for a walk on the beach. It's busy, and despite of the fresh wind there are kids in just bathers, playing on the sand and actually going for a swim. Nutters!
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We're content to throw a ball into the shallows for the dogs to chase before walking back up and having a drink in the sun outside The Galleon Inn.
Back on site we get into JfO and Nigella mode and throw together a Surf 'n' Turf with jacket spud to be eaten in the awning just as the sun goes down and the temperature drops quickly!
Tuesday 4 April
Great night's kip due to the van being cold as a result of running no heating at all as the outside temp dropped to zero. We've challenged ourselves to stick below the allocated 10kwh per night.
I lose my spot on the bed to Gwawr at 7am when my bladder can hold out no more, and sit up front while the Truma sparks into life - only on ECO mode though. Herself isn't long after me in her gym gear to do her exercises in the awning while I become familiar with a packet of biscuits.
Herself lets on that we couldn't rest last night, every time she turned round she thought she could see something in the corner of her eye, and when I opened the bedroom window in the middle of the night she was particularly uneasy.
Directly opposite the site entrance is Wiston Woods, superb to have it so close to be able to walk the dogs first thing. It's popular though, and we met another few dogs around each corner!
We've decided we need a small gas heater to take the chill off the awning. First Stop is Tenby Tourers, surprisingly not located anywhere near Tenby, but in Llanteg. I quote from their web site ....
"We have a fully stocked accessory shop with a wide range of items to meet all of your camping needs!"
We rocked up and upon entering it's immediately evident that the name is not the only misleading thing about these cowboys. The accessory shop stocked a few replacement lenses, tow ball covers and some toilet chemicals!
We turn to walk out as the woman looks up from her desk.
"Can I help you?"
Not even turning round I spit "Well yes actually, you can stop telling lies on your web site for a start!"
Next stop is Hill Park Caravan Shop in Pentlepoir. According to the Opening Hours posted the door should not be locked, but it is with a sign advising to contact reception on the adjacent holiday park and they'll open up. Herself is cold so retreats to Toyah while I trundle off to have a word.
"Hi, I'm looking to buy a gas camping heater for the awning, do you have any in the shop?"
"Errrr, yes we do, I''ll get a key and open up for you"
As we're walking back over I give the spin about being on metered supply blah blah blah. She unlocks and I follow her in as she stands aside proudly pointing top their selection of awning heaters. They had fan heaters, they had halogen heaters, but crucially they didn't have any gas fueled heaters!
Rolling into Tenby we squeeze Toyah's bulk into a space at The Five Arches Car Park off S Parade just outside the walled town. With the dogs clipped on we head through the arches into the walled town and up St George's St. The place is heaving, and everyone has a dog on a leash - we have 3 but that's not the point. It's bedlam, and I'll admit that ours were not exactly well behaved either!
Herself takes a bench outside Mountain Warehouse while I pop in to check out their heaters. Turns out this branch is just a clothes outlet! We make our way down to the harbour along St Julians, stopping at Morris Bros in the hope that their camping shop had what we needed. They didn't, so still heaterless we stop and take in the view.
A series of back alleys and quaint cut through takes us back to St Julians where we take a table in the courtyard of Tenby House. Herself is stressed, the dogs are stressed, and I can't do right for doing wrong!
I forgo the Guinness and opt for a pint of Brewdog IPA. Big mistake. I don't usually drink it, but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to look like soup!
Couldn't be bothered to complain so necked it anyway, a decision I may regret in an hour or so! A series of text messages confirms that we will no longer be having a week away to ourselves, and will have company for the long bank holiday weekend coming up.
The ridiculous pricing structure in the car park (£4 for 2hrs or £10 for 10hrs) ensures our stop in Tenby is a short one, so we return to Toyah to head a little further west. I've been keeping an eye on prices and they're hovering at just the wrong side of 160p per litre fro diesel round here, so when I see the sign at Kiln Park Service Station advertising 143.9 I jam the anchors on, do a U turn and brim Toyah.
Dropping down into Freshwater East it looks idyllic in the sunshine, we clip the dogs on and head to the beach. They get a bloody good run and are done in by the time we clip them back on and return to Toyah.
We're both starving by the time we get back so rush to throw together Tandoori Salmon and prawns for an early evening meal before settling down for the evening early doors with a bottle of Gin for company, and it wasn't too long before Herself had closed the blinds as she had the uneasy feeling that we were not alone on our pitch.
Wednesday 5 April
Another great night's kip (for me), but we wake up to the promised wet stuff falling from the sky. I hate it when @DerekTheWeather gets these things right, and it's promised for the entire day too!
Herself does her Green Goddess routine while I vacuum up what seems like half of Freshwater East beach from the inside of the caravan that the dogs have so thoughtfully deposited, before we clip them on and go for a walk again through the woods.
After breakfast, and with no sign of of a break in the weather we decide on continuing our quest for a gas awning heater.
Heading back east along the A40 the first port of call is All Seasons Camping in St Clears, only they appear to have closed! Continuing we make tracks to 3AAAs, no luck there either, but we have a good look around the VW campers they have on display. The Range is the next place to turn us away disappointed, as do both Charlies and Halfrauds.
Defeated we head back west along the A40, taking a left onto the A4066 through Laugharne and Pendine as the rain continued to fall. This road is very scenic in places but as we climb out of Pendine we're enveloped by the low cloud and can see no further than the windscreen until we drop back down into Amroth.
Hardly anyone about, except a few pensioners parked up with a flask of tea looking out into the gloom. I can feel their stares as we layer up and let the dogs out to head down to the beach.
I can now confirm that I've passed that age where I no longer fall down, but I "have a fall". Youngsters don't appreciate it, but it's a thing! As we're making our way down the ramp a group of people are making their way up, so I move over to the side, not noticing that apart from the well worn centre the concrete ramp has a slimy coating of green algae.
For the onlooker it was a classic, my legs went from straight under me and I'm staring at my toes as they become level with my face just before I come crashing down onto my back with a thud. I'm pretty sure the tremor was felt in Saundersfoot, and as I sit up and although in quite a bit of pain, realise how lucky I was as to my right is a 9ft drop onto the rocks below!
On the beach the dogs get a good run as all 5 of us get a bloody good soaking, and as Peter Kay once said "It's that getting wet rain."
We had planned to stop off in Saundersfoot, and there's quite a few few milling around as we roll through, but it's still blowy and raining, and with Toyah's heating set to furnace level we really don't fancy it. The Co-op in Kilgetty benefits from our custom on the way back to site.
The dogs are way too wet to even consider letting them into the caravan, so we risk our 10kwh per night by getting the fan heater out in an attempt to dry all 5 of us out a little. The next few hours flew by in haze of San Miguel, and I'll admit that by the time it came to get our tea going I had a bit of a buzz on, and despite my fall earlier, I was feeling no pain whatsoever!
The dogs are now dry enough to go inside and we fire up the Android box to watch the new Avatar movie before turning in for the night hoping for a better day tomorrow.
The wonders of modern technology though! Who'd have thought just 10 years ago that you'd be able to sit in a caravan, in a field, in rural Pembrokeshire and be able to watch one of the latest movies!
Thursday 6 April
I had a disturbed night last night, some really unpleasant dreams kept waking me up, and with the San Miguel a distant memory I'm starting to ache like a 55 year old and overweight man who "had a fall" in the last 24 hours!
We spring open the blinds and are happy to note that the weather has improved since yesterday, though the ground outside says it's not stopped that long ago.
With a breakfast of Hot Crossed Buns and Herself's Green Goddess routine out of the way we clip on the dogs and head over to the woods. The way they're pulling you'd swear they'd not been walked for weeks.
We pile into Toyah and head off out for the day. I'd seen some brown tourist signs for Llys y Fran Country Park, so follow them from site, 8 miles of lanes later and we're pulling through the gates. It's not what we expected though, it's an activity centre and swarming with kids. We didn't stop.
Onward, and we take the road over the Preceli Hills towards Newport Pembs, soaking up the scenery as the road twisted and avoiding the temptation to call in on Tafarn Sinc.
Parking up on Traeth Mawr we wrap up against the wind and let the dogs loose, throwing a ball for them on the wet sands.
We retreat to the warmth of Toyah to eat a picnic lunch while watching others still outside turning sideways to avoid their faces being exfoliated by wind driven sand. Except for one lunatic that is, who's stripped off to just a pair of board shorts and is frolicking in the grey surf on a paddle board!
The sun is starting to peak through the clouds we make our way back to site, and after throwing the ingredients for a Moroccan Lamb Stew into the Multicooker we take our chairs outside and enjoy the late afternoon / early evening sun warming our chops while sinking a few beverages.
I'm starting to catch something in the corner of my eye too as we sit in the awning late on.
Friday 7 April
It's a special day today being Beastie's 5th birthday, and we'd promised her that we'd come back to seek her, so no time to hang around this morning.
We head home via Card Factory and with a helium balloon purchased we set about making her birthday surprise, a money balloon. Herself had seen the idea on Facebook and fancied giving it a go. Unfortunately with just 2 note pouches stapled into place it became obvious that the balloon purchased was nowhere near man enough for the job!
All the stuff loaded into Toyah and we head back to card Factory to purchase the biggest balloon they had, in the hope it would do the job.
It did, and she was thrilled.
Hurtling back to site we hope to avoid the Bank Holiday jams at Carmarthen. We're expecting guests and a message tells us they're stuck in the jams that we successfully avoided.
Sometime later, after getting lost in the lanes, Bear and Sabrina rock up in their motorhome to join us for a few days. We get them pitched before heading down to Broadhaven once more to enjoy some time on the beach in the sunshine.
We walk down to the shoreline and the dogs have whale of a time chasing a ball in and out of the surf.
Back up on Enfield Rd we're gutted to see that all of the outside tables at The Galleon are taken. One of the blokes working for me had recommended the newly opened Sunshine Italian Restaurant, so we take an outside table looking straight out over the beach onto St Brides Bay.
Only bottled beers, so I go for a local brew, Bluestone Bedrock Blonde, which was rather nice. Less satisfying however was the food. The pizzas came out, and while tasty the dough base, described as thin and crispy was no thicker than a fag paper, with toppings so sparse a sparrow would still be hungry. The side of saute potatoes was little better, a bowl costing £3.95 contained no more than 3 small new potatoes, but in half and drizzled with oil!
We'll not be going there again, and will leave some "constructive" criticism for them in a review.
Back on site the evening passed by as Sabrina continued on her talkathon with Herself, Bear and I nodding at the appropriate time. Sabrina also had a chat with the gentleman who was walking over our pitch and catching Herself's eye every now and then!
Saturday 8 April
Herself is shaking me at 8.30 as I'm nearly drowning in the pool of dribble on the mattress. She'd been up a while with the dogs, and quite matter of fact brings me round from my slumber with the words "Sabrina's popped over for a cuppa, Bear's gone up the woods for a shit!"
I'm still trying to shake the image while knocking up a Full English on the griddle!
We scrub up ready to head out, and just as we're jumping into Toyah I point out to Bear a torrent of water escaping through the bodywork of his motorhome. Turns out Sabrina had left the toilet flush running constant and whilst emptying the fresh water tank had filled the toilet tank to the point where the toilet was overflowing!
Bear said "Never mind darling, these things happen, don't worry about it You stupid bloody woman, what the eff have you done!"
Back along the A40, A48 and M4 we hurtle, and after dropping the dogs off at Home is Where You Drag It Towers we make for the Gateway Resort, where Beastie is having her birthday party.
All partied out and having endured watching Beastie and her friends eat their food, myself and Bear and Hungry. Knowing that it's a family trait of being particularly nasty when hungry, Sabrina and Herself suggest popping somewhere for food.
After last night's debacle we decided on somewhere local to us that we knew would fill our bellies, so The Halfway Inn benefits from our custom before we hurtle once more along the M4, A48 and A40 back to site.
The evening is spent trying to ignore our "guest" lurking outside as we while away the evening playing "Cards Against Humanity". Now you can't play this game with just anyone, you need to have a certain mindset and a sick sense of humor. Let's just say we cracked it tonight!
Sunday 9 April
Dry but windy this morning as we take breakfast in our awning.
Cleaned up we all pile into Toyah once more and head for Carew and it's Sunday Market and boot sale. There's thousands there, but on the whole it's disappointing. It used to be a tidy sized market, but now just 3 or 4 bonafide market traders attend.
The main hall is given over to one big junk stall and the outside is hundreds of car booters. I don't really do car boots, but take the opportunity to continue in my quest for a gas heater. This too was unsuccessful.
Back at the van we wait on the arrival of Nelson and Co. Funny enough he got lost too! Opening the car doors both Beastie and Bwmps are all smiles and immediately start running around like lunatics to burn off some energy.
We head out to Broad Haven. It's not sunny like Friday, but the dogs get to have a good run while Beastie and Bwmps play on the sand.
4pm and Bwmps is getting hungry, he doesn't do hungry very well 9much like any other male in our family really, so we head back to the van. I'm under strict instructions from Sabrina that I must go back exactly the way I came so that she can let out a spirit that jumped in the car with Herself and I on Monday. I glanced in my mirror as we approached the site of the RTA and sure enough she has her eyes closed concentrating.
We shall see.
Back on site the griddle goes on and all get fed. Nelson didn't head off until it was Beastie and Bwmps bed time, and by then the rain had been soaking the awning for a good 2 hours, so any thoughts of putting away a dry awning were soon dispensed with.
It seems to have worked, we have no creepy goings on outside tonight.
Monday 10 April
Herself is shaking me as 8am to get out of my pit, it's breaking camp day with lots to do. It's not raining but neither has there been a miraculous drying of the canvas overnight.
We've still not paid, and at 9am we're nearly ready for the off. A text informing the site owner that we're leaving soon has her spraying chippings everywhere in her buggy thing armed with a card reader!
The motor mover's not behaving right though, but I put it down to the gravel surface we're pitched on. 9.30am and we're waving goodbye to Bear and Sabrina before following them out of the gate and along the lanes as it starts to rain once more.
Let's just say the car and caravan got a good wash all the way home. As expected we hit a wall of tail lights at Carmarthen, but apart from that it was plain sailing, even if we battled a rather stiff side wind as we climbed up and over Natycaws.
Pulling up outside Home Is Where You Drag It Towers we get going on our established routine, the rain has even stopped for us. Herself goes in to start sorting house out and I unhitch and put caravan back before unloading.
Houston, we have a problem\! The mover's not playing ball and will not make any progress! I've got the van half turned and blocking the road, and I'm starting to sweat! Releasing the rear set of motors I'm able to hobble it back into place ...... just! Sheepish waves at irritated drivers are met with death stares and verbal abuse.
I'm digging out the Powrtouch info when a light switch flicked in my head, remembering the last time we had issues it was just the remote battery. Changing that for a fresh one was fruitless, so I just stand there doing what every man would do, and kept pressing the buttons in hope. It was then something caught my eye, a chipping dropped to the floor. Clambering down and squinting I could see a few more wedged between the roller and the mover body.
Phew! I was worried for a bit, but we now have a fully functional mover once more.
Until next time......
Oh, our challenge? Yes we succeeded and our electric consumption was within the allocated 10kwh per night, that's despite running the fan heater in the awning for 3 evenings. But we like a cold bedroom so don't run any heating overnight. With 2 adults and 3 dogs inside a closed van the heating needed only be on for a 30 min blast first thing and on low for about an hour in the evening. We were mainly cooking on an electric hot plate but our kettle boils on the hob and we only switched the hot water on when we needed it.
Next pitch to us were making their way through 20kwh per night!
