A Man, a ‘Van and a Bike - The End

Camping so close to home does have advantages, I was home just after 9 o’clock! I’d had a poor nights sleep due to the heat so wasn’t inclined to hang about, and of course packing up only takes a few minutes. There are a few conclusions from the trip and a few jobs to be done. 

Circumstances meant my usual planning for a holiday hadn’t happened. I’ll normally have somewhere to go every day, be it a railway, historic building or whatever. As a result I found myself sitting around in the campsite a lot more than usual. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal, or close to it, next year. 

Having, and using, the bike was great but, as already mentioned, I must be fitter by next year. That’s relatively easy to deal with, it just means getting out and riding and using the exercise bike more often. I’ve decided I’m definitely having a small “travel” camera for carrying on the bike. It was a worthwhile test taking the big camera with me but I missed too many shots; I can get a suitable bag to sit in top of the crossbar so I won’t even have to get off the bike to take a photo. I’ll also sort out a better phone mount and replace the spring seat post shortly. If I can see the phone screen the OS Map app works well enough for navigation and has advantages, in particular routes can be uploaded on the website and then appear in the app. You can also download the map sections for the routes in advance so you’re not tied to having a data connection. 

With the ‘van I need to tackle the water system again, I’m not sure just what I’m going to do but I think a new tap may be required. I’ll also try and make getting the carriers in and out easier. I’m contemplating new curtains as the existing ones are getting a bit grotty. Being cream coloured and unlined they’re not lightproof at all and the back ones aren’t really long enough. The difficult question is what to do about the front. Currently it’s a single long curtain held up with press studs but I’ve got 3 options. Firstly I can get a new length made up but that will cost about as much as the other 6 curtains put together. I could just keep the existing curtain but the earlier comments on light would still apply. The third option is to get either interior or exterior window covers, the downside of these is that they’ll take up a lot more space then the existing curtain which just folds and rolls up to stow on the shelf above the windscreen. I’ll look to get some prices together for the various options then make a decision. 

I’d like to fit another holiday in a bit later in the year but I’m not sure, at the moment, whether I’ll go away in the ‘van or stay at home. Depending on what I decide this may be the last blog post of the year! Normal service will hopefully be resumed in 2021 when I’m hoping to carry out this years planned trips to Derbyshire, Kent & East Susses and Scotland.