Cogs life

We’ve got a couple of night without Darcie our Goldie, so we thought we’d visit Hebden Bridge. We’ve just arrived and so far we’ve had a lovely meal and now listening to an Irish Jig group.

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Today it was nearly 30 degrees. Now you might not know this but Mid West Wales although blessed with stunning beaches and valleys is not normally blessed with Mediterranean weather. So today it was almost a party atmosphere with a lot of people on the beach having a great time.

In fact we did the long walk twice, it was from our campsite to Sea Palling along the beach route. It was on this walk that we saw the Seals and today, our second walk, gave us another breathtaking seal watch.

After the long walk, which is about a 4 and a half hour round trip, it was back to the van for a cup of tea and some biscuits. Today was shopping day so over to Lidl in Walsham to get some necessaties. On our way back and feeling a little hungry we kept an eye out for a suitable pub. After a unsuccessful while we found the Swan at Ingham in fact we’d visited that pub before but now it was completely different. The Swan has several Rosettes to prove its amazing quality and price of its food. BUT the food was stunning and worth every penny.

So now it’s back to the van and re-attach it too the lonely awning. Beer time and then sleep time…. its been another full day zzzzz

One thing Waxham sands is famous for is its regular display of Seals. And today was no exception, Carol lost count at over 200 all laid on the beach just a couple of hundred yards from our campsite. We’ve been blessed with similar sights before but never with this many seals, it was a fantastic sight and drew a few people to watch them. I’m not exactly sure who was watching who as the Seals seemed just as keen to watch all these humans.

Carol taking some of her amazing photos

We had a quick stopover in the Peak District to visit our family before moving onto East Anglia. We hadn’t organised anywhere to stop the night so it was a quick look at Park 4 Night. In fact though we found a place by accident which was brilliant and only £1 for the night ! The next day was the long haul to the East Coast and Waxham sands. We arrived late afternoon to a place we used to use a lot many years ago so this was going to be a trip down memory lane.

An update on the C rail we used it to attach our new awning and it fitted really well ! In fact we were treated to a thunderstorm one evening and everything stayed in place perfectly. So I consider that a job well done 👏

I’ve just finished fitting a C Rail to the roof of our van, this will allow the awning to be fixed to the van and let the van be able to drive away leaving the awning as a standalone.

We bought a Kampa Dometic Air trip at the same time our friends also bought a new air awning. So a booking at Shell Island was made for one night. On the day the weather was amazing sunny and warm with a slight wind. We quickly found a perfect spot and the race was on, who would be quickest ??? It was close but we won lol. Once all was secure a long walk on the stunning beach followed and afterwards a drink and Pizza at the cafe.

just a quick update, we have decided to go gas free in our van. To achieve all electric I’ve added a second 100 ah lithium battery making 200 ah in total, this powers a 3kw pure sine wave inverter. I’ve tested it using an Induction hob and it works really well I’m also going to buy a small toaster and kettle. I’ll keep you updated as too how practical it all is. We have also bought an Air awning by Kampa it’s not been tested yet but again we’ll keep you updated.

After over 5 years of ownership we have sold our Faithfull friend. The Renault Master has now been sold to new owners who plan to take it on a European adventure.

There were a few reasons to cut our planned 5 week European tour early, I think the primary one was the weather we never expected it being so cold. There were other reasons of course we didn’t really try out our newly converted van before embarking on the tour. Our van behaved perfectly and covered about 4000 miles in just under two weeks it would cruise happily at 70/80 mph on the amazing French motorways and at the same time returning over 50 mpg !