Return visit to Bilbo for Campy

Monday 20 August

We sadly said goodbye to Josie for a while last night, but not without taking copious amounts of home-made biscuits with us (thank’s Jo xxx). We got back to the campsite quite late and it was completely dark, really black as night. Some selfish vibe merchant had stolen our parking place on the site last night so we found a suitable flat bit and parked ourselves up there. Kevin put his head torch on and ventured into dark and was immediately invaded by thousands of flying creatures. They were buzzing around in his head, eyes and going in his ears, and it was not good......diving back into the van we locked ourselves in and spent the next 20 minutes swatting flies, gnats and mosquitos. Ah the joy of camping...

The morning brought a new sunny day and no flies, well apart from bluebottles. I do not think we will be returning to this site it has not been that good for us what with the noise of the planes overhead and the late night attending to the fields and the long grass and the farm smells.. 

Campy bless her has developed a small fault with the roof lining that needs the attention of the clever people at Bilbo. We wanted to get it sorted before we go ‘foreign‘ and gave them a call on the off chance, amazingly they could fit us in today, so it’s to East Grinstead we go! The traffic going clockwise on the M25 was horrendous we were so glad to be going in the opposite direction but we took a mental note not to go back that way to Hatfield. (Hatfield is directly on the opposite side of the M25 to East Grinstead) We arrived at 10.30am and Carmie was there to see to us. It was great to see all the teams’ friendly faces again. Unfortunately after a valiant try, the fault could not be fixed there and then so we have to go back on Thursday. 

Whilst there we decided to have a retro-fit of a 80w solar panel to the roof of the Van we do have a portable solar panel but it is not as powerful as the new one will be, it takes up valuable room in the boot and we are worried about leaving it out all day when we leave the van alone. This means it is of limited use to us a full timers and is more suited to occasional campers needing a bit of a boost. The new system will enable us to have a constant trickle charge to the batteries during all daylight hours what ever the weather and if we are there or not. If anyone knows of someone who wants a hardly used portable Solar briefcase 45w charger in perfect working condition please let me know.

Once we had finished at Bilbo we set off in the same direction as before on the M25 for Hatfield, only to find that all the rest of our fellow travellers realising that the other direction was a non starter had all turned around and headed straight for the Dartford Tunnel. Steven in his wisdom wanted us to leave the motorway and head through London and Greenwich and past the Olympic Stadium incurring Congestion charges and a bucket full of stress.....Yah right! So we stayed exactly where we were and sat with the rest nose to tail for 10 miles. It took about an hour to get there but once through the tunnel all was well and we had no further holdups.

Our new site is as we said near to Hatfield, We have come here because we have always wanted to see Henry Moore’s house and gardens. We have booked in advance the tour of the house so we can’t wait to see it tomorrow. (watch this space)

Our new camp site is in the grounds of the Sue Ryder Hospice (Stagenhoe Park). We do have the feeling of being put on the verge of a car park and the ground is on a bit of a slope but Campy sits quite comfortably up on one ramp and with her derrière in the bosom of a giant weeping willow. However all that dims into insignificance when you looked up at the aircraft flying overhead that is coming it to land at Luton airport. I’m not saying they are close but we can feel the rumble of the ground as they pass.