Staycation - Painters Forstal

So our first trial trip in the Van is not all that far. To Painters Forstal in North Kent.

The problem locally is that since the very wonderful middle east owners of P&O Ferries sacked 800 seafarers we have been pretty much stuck locally! With an estimated 4500 trucks queued up on major routes, all hoping to get across the France we are pretty much barricaded in to our towns!!

So before we go to Brixham we need to get some overnights under our belts.

If course as well as the trucks and ferry problem, we have shortages of fuel!! Who knows why!

I chose Painters Forstal Farm as it is near enough to get to with what diesel we have in the tank! Although we went out yesterday and the third station had diesel and we filled up.

Routing might be a problem with roads either closed because of trucks or unsuitable for a Van.

So I have downloaded an app for my phone called Co-Pilot. The search isn't as good as Google Maps or TomTom but hopefully it will get us to the village and camp ground okay. I have set the vehicle dimensions to be about the overall size of the Van. In fact I have rounded up to cater for height and width to avoid too many narrow country lanes or low bridges! The Van has an added TV aerial on the roof to consider over the published height of the Eldiss 115.

In the evening we have booked a table for three at the pub, The Alma, in the village. That's Claire, me and Reggie.

Once Claire had finished her 10-12pm stint volunteering on the Guide Dogs stand I picked her up with Reggie along for the ride.

First stop was Bitzer pet shop in Hythe to buy a licky-mat. Although he was very good last weekend on the test run to Dungeness this would be a little longer - a night away! Gulp.

Once home we packed Van with stuff for us and our new low-power kettle and toaster! We left the Tassimo at home.

The drive up gave me the chance to test the Copilot app. As I might have said before the search isn't as good as Google Maps. In the end I managed to press on the screen to create a waypoint at the site.

Once on the M20 it stopped working. It lasted us about 6 miles. 

Luckily we knew most of the way and followed sign posts. A rather hair raising drive along a narrow road. Luckily nothing came the other way. 

On arrival we were met by the hosts Simon and Karen. Very nice and welcoming. 

We parked up under a tree alongside the electric hook-up. First job to connect to get the fridge operating on 230 volts and not the 12 volts of the leisure battery.

Reggie had been perfect all the way. He seems fully relaxed. That is something less to worry about.

I connected the power... Time for tea? The kettle was dead. The microwave was dead...

Panic!!

I checked I had connected both ends. Yes.

Flick switches on the master board. Nothing. Suki (aka Claire) suggested trying a different socket outside. There are two.

BOOM!

Power. On. The sockets work. The water heater works. The space heater works...

Once Reggie had been for his walk and had his dinner, we ate the two non Slimming World approved doughnuts from the Independent Baker in Hythe, washed down with a tea and a coffee for me.

We settled down for a read and all too quickly it was time to head out to the pub nearby. Of course it is a Shepherd Neame house. The brewery is only six miles away. We had a table booked for 6.15pm. A beer for me and a diet coke for Claire. Dinner was really nice and well cooked.

After dinner we went back to the Van. The heating was back on. The projected temp overnight is -1 °C to 1 °C!!!!

So far we have had a great first day on our Staycation!

Links:

https://www.paintersfarm.co.uk

https://theindependentbaker.co.uk/

https://www.pitchup.com/

After the good day the night was a little different.

Before setting off on Saturday we had our some fresh water into the water tank. We had to use our neighbours drive as ours it not adjacent to the house. This is when you find out that a 7.5 metre long food safe hose is about two metres short. Luckily she said we could use her outside tap. At least that worked okay. It's difficult to gauge how much had gone in.

Anyway. After dinner in the Alma we retired to the comfort of the Van. It was still light and we watched the sunset go down over the trees and fields to the west.

Gradually the temperature began to drop. I took Reggie out for his last pee. Unlike us he seems to be able to last all night! Luckily we have the Thetford toilet in the washroom. We both had our last visits to the onsite facilities. Both the make and female washrooms have showers and toilets and are impeccably clean.

Once we had the two benches converted into the bed we settled in. I had turned off the Whale space heater. We had been running it on electric as we don't have any LPG.

Although I prefer a nice down (or eco non duck filled down) filled sleeping bag, Claire prefers a duvet. We trialled single duvets in a double bed in Norfolk last year. The problem is that they don't cocoon me enough and some part of me is in the freezing cold! And last night was no difference!

Things went smoothly until Reggie, so far relaxed and the perfect dog, heard a pheasant. Bark. Bark. It was about 4.20am! It took a while to quieten him down and we could go to sleep. By 7am he was awake again. Pee time and then breakfast.

By 9am.wr were up and having breakfast. My smartphone showed that I had managed 6h 40m sleep.

The site is very relaxed and departure time is up to noon. By the time we had used the dish washing facilities and then walked Reggie it was time to leave. Hook-up cable removed and bagged, then everything checked and we were off. A final chat with Simon and Karen, the really good and friendly hosts, we were off.

I had programmed Co-Pilot to take us home via a fuel station on the A299 Thanet Way where an app says they have LPG. After a couple of miles it jammed up again. Some of the roads were narrow and I manager to clatter the nearside mirror on hedges. The last time Claire could get it back from inside the Van. Whilst she fixed that in a lay-by I fixed Co-Pilot. It seemed to have got stuck offering an alternative route to the one we were on. It worked okay after that.

Once it took us into the fuel stop. We could see the LPG price of 99p a litre but could see where the pump is! By then we were too far in and had to abort. Rather than take the suggested route we turned 180° at Whitstable back to the A2 and back home via the A260 and Hawkinge. Why such a long way around? The direct route would have been to Ashford and there the M20 coastbound was closed due to the P&O fiasco.

We arrived home about 1.30pm. Then we had to empty the Van. Have lunch. Staycation Painters Forstal over.