yellowfieldscamping.co.uk

I’ve avoided writing this post, just as I avoided actually putting the Bongo up for sale. The freedom of the campervan allowed us to enjoy sea views, sea air and beaches of every kind so much more often than we could have managed any other way. We’ve sat and watched the stars emerge, taught ourselves about the constellations, seen shooting stars, satellites and the ISS and simply been mesmerised by the beauty of the night sky. We aren’t giving up camping, but I know, without the Bongo and with the children’s expanding social lives, we will be doing it a lot less.

Evening of second day of new job, I’m driving across town in heavy traffic, a little stressed out at getting to the childcare setting to pick up the girls before it closes. Although the heat gauge on the dashboard hasn’t moved I’m now feeling certain I must have done serious damage to the engine. But please imagine, if we had not had a coolant alarm fitted there would have been no indication of a problem, the temperature gauge barely budged, I could easily have not spotted the steam in the darkness and I wouldn’t have given it that extra top up. The Bongo’s temperature gauge is notoriously unreliable and the coolant system is prone to leaks.

But I was adamant, fog is to be experienced just as any other weather, a castle in the fog was surely going to be fabulously atmospheric…. We have passed the town of Chepstow several times on our way to the lovely Beeches Farm Campsite which offers fabulous views over the Wye Valley, but we had never stopped in the town. Following our exploration of Chepstow Castle we drove 5 minutes to a local woodland to do little bit of Geocaching. Check out the map in the area you are visiting, look for a ring or circuit of caches, usually marked with numbers to show the order, and you have a ready made easy to follow route that would be hard to find without buying an ordinance survey map of every area you visit!

* Able to charge 12V, 18V and 24V batteries One of the problems we encounter when camping in the camper van is that, because we like to choose the wilder kind of campsite, we very rarely have electric hook up (only once I can recall). The leisure battery can power the fridge and various other electrical elements of the van for a couple of days without being plugged in. However, after this glorious start to the camping season at White Meadow Campsite the summer turned out to be a fairly dreary affair and we didn’t find many times when it seemed worth getting the panel out. As with the backpack charger the briefcase charger is only going to be of real use in reliably sunny conditions but is a handy boon when the sun does shine!