Our 1st Trip 2017 (1 Viewer)

[Anthea M]

Evening all. Just signed up for the year so I will keep you updated on our crazy adventure.
Ill start a new thread on saturday once we have collected our ride and post the link in here (if that's allowed of course)
Thanks again for all the advice and comments.
Craig

Worth £15 for the help advice and banter on here.
Good luck with your adventure and safe journey.
I've just looked out the window and we have a thin layer of snow! And we are only Sheffield!! This may alter your plans but that is why we love the lifestyle, plans can be changed daily!
Try to remember the instructions on handover especially for the hot water and heating!!!
Have a great time!! We hired for a week and bought our MH soon afterwards love it!!!

 

[J3FF0RD]

Hey everyone, we are back home after our adventure. I started posting on a blog section but it didnt seem to be working correctly?! Shall i post day by day in here or if someone kind point me in right direction to post in. Thanks

 

[CWH]

Welcome back @J3FF0RD ! Did you have a brilliant time??? I think you must have had some good weather wherever you went!
Sorry can't help with the blog section, never used it, I'm sure somebody will be along soon to help; but it's not unknown for people to post their daily adventures on a thread so if you want to put it on here, that's not going to be frowned on. Whichever, I look forward to reading it!

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[Kingham]

Can't believe I missed this thread first time round ?

@J3FF0RD loving the attitude and as I'm sure you know by now, those miles are ambitious, but achievable, especially if you are used to driving.

We did a round trip of of close to 1600 miles down to L. Garda in 2014, with a single night stop in Switzerland on the way there and Germany on the way back.

Looking forward to hearing of your exploits.

 

[Kingham]

@DavidG58 Superb photos I hope to emulate them at some point !

How did you find the van driving in the snow, especially the downhill slippery bits. A small slide off the road could prove to be very expensive.

 

[Malcolm Bolt]

What a mistake.

Even the seasoned FUNsters would not do this. Save your money and aspirations for the better weather. A MH with god pouring ball bearings on the roof is not a good place to be and not an indication of the delights of a MH in Italy in hot sunshine.

Stop being a naughty boy Brian or I will get very very cross.

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[hilldweller]

Stop being a naughty boy Brian or I will get very very cross.

It's all right for you, Sir, with your German Uber MH with reinforced concrete roof designed to bounce bombs off it ( you did know that the designer's dad was a U-Boat captain, didn't you ).

Normal folk end up with earplugs in the normal rain, in Scottish rain they hide under the bed as well.

 

[DavidG58]

@DavidG58 Superb photos I hope to emulate them at some point !

How did you find the van driving in the snow, especially the downhill slippery bits. A small slide off the road could prove to be very expensive.

there were only a couple of places where I thought I shouldn't be doing this, but the roads are kept pretty clear maybe helps that there are so few to maintain and single track, worst bits were getting out of passing places where other traffic didn't appreciate it would be easier for them to pull in going downhill

the photos maybe make it look more dramatic than it was

 

[Riverbankannie]

How did you get on @J3FF0RD ?

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[J3FF0RD]

Right ill post it all on this thread. Will try and keep it day by day with some pictures. I wont go into detail about the whole trip as you will see how it went day by day, but i will say we had the most amazing adventure, with great weather, scenery and discoveries...

 

[J3FF0RD]

Day 1 - Sat 11/02/17

So we wake up to a slight dusting of snow. We booked this a year ago after a friend and her family did the same sort of trip. They had nice clear sunny weather, cold but good weather.
It could only be our luck to wake up with snow and wintery showers planned for the week haha
After collecting the 2016 747 Autoroller, I was in a bit of a daze of the whole thing. I just stupidly thought, you load it up, drive to the destination and boom its done haha
I now know a whole lot more about motorhomes. Although we have been avid tent campers for years, the step up to motorhome is a BiG change...but we are loving it.
Keeping motorhome warm and water at certain level inacase of freezing, switching between battery, to gas and electric, turning gas off before driving, making sure all compartments locked and water drain shut...didn't even think about any of that. Common sense yes, but you don't always think of things like that if never had to do them haha
Anyways pulling away and first thing I notice is the weight of the 747. I drive a LWB HT Relay daily so thought ahhh what's a bit of extra length and height...a lot actually! again I didn't think, what i drive daily is like a tin can, not a fully laiden insulated furnished home!
Abdolutely love the 747. Only a few hours into the hoilday, but if I had the money, I definately buy one. Ill talk about that later.
So, we set our scat nav to Windermere, Lake District...its 2pm already so need to get started soon. 1yearold, 4yo and 10yo all fed and watered and off we go.
The route was A127, M25, A1 and A66. After a nice steady drive (cruise control is amazing) and a couple of breaks for the kids we got to Scotch Corner about 7:45pm. No traffic or delays at all and we were not in a rush so pleased with progress. Kids were getting hungry and I was getting a bit tired so searched for a pub stop over.
The guide said about a pub 5 minutes away, The Fox Inn...what a great place! The staff we very friendly and helpful and the pub itself was very warming. 350 years old, oak beams, solid fuel stove crackling away and some real ale, dad was happy
The car park is right along side the A66 so was abit noisey every now and then, but you can't moan as it was free and a great find.
The fox Inn well recommended.
Time to turn in for the night and kids were excited about going to bed, yes I know very strange right...no not really, its because they couldn't wait to get on the electronic drop down bed, all makes sense now haha.
All blinds down, heating on good nights said and everyone settled down and had a great sleep although it did keep checking the heating and making sure gas wasn't empty and pipes not frozen haha the difference in the darkness between a town in Essex and a pub car park in country is massive, glad I had packed head torch haha.
TBC

 

[Anthea M]

Sounds like a good start to your adventure!!

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[Zains Pops]

Keep em coming, it looks like you had a memorable trip so far!!

 

[CWH]

Told you it was different from a tent You sound very up-beat so I'm guessing it was a wonderfully successful holiday Looking forward to reading more

 

[Riverbankannie]

You seem to be very laid back and able to take things in your stride. Looking forward to next instalment!

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[Rob and Val]

What a lovely report. If you can enjoy motorhoming in the winter then you are going to love it in the summertime!

 

[J3FF0RD]

Sorry for the delay everyone. I have 1 week off work and it's like coming back to a years worth of surveys, estimates and paper work haha

Day 2 - Sunday 12/02/17

The kids slept brilliantly. We thought we may of had a bit of trouble with youngest but he was fine. Once the middle bed support had been pulled out and cushions arranged it was actually quite comfortable. Woke upto a nice ground frost and we could actually get a taste of country landscapes. Fields with mountain (big hills) back drops and roaming sheep. By 8:30am all the kids were up and ready and wanting to stretch and burn off energy...opened the door and kicked a ball out. Have fun kids, this is the start of teaching you there is another side to life where technology isn't the be all and end all.

8:30am K.O.

Today was a shorter drive as we headed to the Lake District. Straight across the A66 and we would be near enough there. The A66 is a very scenic drive. We even had a nice snowy landscape today which was good, but it did get me thinking "is this going to get deeper the further we go? Nah, it it'll be fine, lets go" haha cruise control set and enjoy the drive.
Mrs J found a nice looking site called 'Coniston Park Coppice' with the Caravan Club Site. Phoned ahead and booked our electric pitch, thought we'd treat the boys to a bit of luxury tonight haha
Re-entered the scat nav and headed that way. Again scenery was great, with old cobbled abandoned farm houses and moutains with snow caps. It does make the drive more enjoybale in daylight when you can actually take everything in. Even our middle son was "spotting" polar bears and and giant animals up the top of the moutains love it when the imaginations kick in.

Driving Route 66...opps i meant A66

Right, about 25 minutes and we come through a couple of small quaint villages/towns and got to this one called Grasmere. The reason of me calling the 'sat nav' - 'scat nav' now comes into play. The connection is poor and we have this one route showing...only problem is after navigating this 747 jumbo down through these quaint streets and lovely looking shops we find ourselves head on with signs 'DO NOT FOLLOW SAT NAV' no vans/lorries/buses/caravans, well thanks for the advanced warnings
It would be sooo simple for that when you turn your sat nav on, you could select a type of vehicle, and then it loads with red routed areas with width/height/length according to vehicle type and show alternative routes? See heres my relaying on technology haha anyways i had to let numerous vehicles to pass before attempting our escape from this village. We headed south and thankfully it reconnected and after telling me to "complete a u-turn" and me telling her to get real it gave a new route...it added on a whole 3 minutes! We couldnt you of done that in 1st place scat nav!!
Back on track and we found our new phrase we would use for the next weeks worth of driving to the boys "right boys well done, you have done brilliantly. we are really close now and it wont be much longer" we used that with 5 minutes, 50 minutes or 3 hours to go
After more hilly, tight, and breathe in to shrink jumbo we arrived at the site. The main office was very warming and the lady and gentleman inside were very kind and helpful. I think the fee was about £25 with electric hook up. On showing us the map of the site and areas where we could park i was surprised the size of it. Not all areas were open, not sure if that was because of the time of the year and demand but still plenty of spaces. We found a place a bit further in the woodland and it was next to a few amenities. A small childrens area with a large circular kids swing and spinning bucket in, toilet, shower, wash block and washing-up room. The toliet block was key entry only and you got that once you had been back to main office and let them know peg number.
It was good to have the afternoon to explore the area and the kids to have some fun..but first i must sort the jumbo out. Wheels chokked, electric and gas on. Toilet emptied (what an experiance haha), water refilled and heating on cuppa tea please!
One thing we should of done coming through Coniston was to actually stop at a shop and get some dinner and bits etc...no not us, we do it the hard way. Well dont want to drive back down there, i know ill bike down there i thought. I saw one the site people doing toilet block cleaning and asked where nearest shops are? Just follow the track through the site, through the gate at the bottom followed by a few left and rights and your see it. I said to oldest common lets go explore and find a shop, can't be that hard
Off we went and exploring the site as we went. It is massive, down the first slope from where is 'closed' they had a childrens playground, another toliet/shower block etc and lots of pitches. Continued down the curving slope faster becoming a hill and ghot to the 1st gate at the bottom. That led into a field with grazing sheep, lots of sheep and run alongside Coniston Water river bank. I love this outside setting and sounds silly but feel like i breathe properly, real clean air haha through a couple more gates, past an old farmhouse, (Coniston Hall) and had this amazing view of Southern Fells mountain range.

Southern Fells Mountain Range

Coniston Hall - 16th century

A little bit further down was the village of Coniston and we had made it. Only took 22 minutes...but it was downhill 80% of the way haha well after a coming together on our bikes and me rolling off bike to do a diving catch to save a surprise bottle of wine for Mrs J we had made it back 50 minutes later..those hills are a killer
After a family wonder back down to the waterside and play in park, dinner, hot showers and kids devices charged is was down for bed.
Still no rain and the weather has been sunny-cloudy around 10/12deg so very pleased.

View from Coniston Water looking back upto campsite - it's in the woodland somewhere

Our saved bottle of wine back at our pitch

TBC

 

[CWH]

Brilliant! What fun! - Specially love the wine carrier!

It would be sooo simple for that when you turn your sat nav on, you could select a type of vehicle, and then it loads with red routed areas with width/height/length according to vehicle type and show alternative routes?

You can on many satnags - or at least it takes you on the best route for your height, width, length etc. - avoids low bridges, narrow twisty lanes - basically takes you the 'lorry route' so you may sometimes want to adapt slightly for scenic-ness.

One thing we should of done coming through Coniston was to actually stop at a shop and get some dinner and bits etc...

Lovely new artisan bakery there called Fat Flour (offshoot of main branch at Cark in Cartmel) - fabulous bread, pastries, stuff for walkers: hot stew inside a hollowed-out roll & wrapped in foil to keep it warm. Yum.
http://www.fatflourbakery.co.uk/home/4586627859

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[Rob and Val]

Loving this. Can't wait for the next episode. Well done, @J3FF0RD.