The journey down proceeded well until the camper decided to stutter when cruising at normal speed , slowing down seemed to help bring things back under control, and with lots of holiday traffic round Bristol speed was not an issue!
We duly arrived at Acacia Farm and pitched up.
Acacia Farm is located near Axbridge just 5 minutes from the M5 on the A38 in the village of Rooks Bridge. It is a C & Cc 5 van site and is quite frankly superb. It is kept tidy and we pitched on a hard standing around the edge of the main field. There were two fully self contained toilet / washrooms which each had a shower, and a separate washing up room. These were kept immaculate, and we will certainly return as Gary & Sharon were great hosts.
Sunday we end for a walk up the Strawberry Line Footpath from Axbridge up to Sandford. This is a old railway line so it was a good even surface and about 3.5 miles each way.
We realised that Mr Happy needed to be looked at and it transpires that Gary who ran a Jaguar repair business on the same site previously ran a hire fleet of Vw Campers so agreed to have a look for us on the Tuesday.
As the vw had pottered around OK on Sunday we decided to to Taunton to the West Somerset Railway. This was where our luck ran out!
We got 5 minutes onto the M5 and he camper decided enough was enough and spluttered to a halt. Bugger!
A call to the AA saw us first rescued to the nearest services. A patrolman then turned up and the bl**dy thing started and he couldn't find a fault
He then suggested following us down the M5 to see if it happened again, which we did and it did!
He then stripped the fuel system down on the hard shoulder with traffic roaring past
and discovered the pin on which the pivot which works the mechanical fuel pump had disappeared meaning the pump was barely working. He fixed it it using a nut and bolt and health was restored. Much respect to this guy as he could have just recovered us. He suggested ordering a new pump when we got home "just in case" but there shouldn't be a problem
Having lost our train trip and most of the day, we headed to Weston Super Mare for an Ice cream . we decided it was full of remarkedly old people most of whom seemed to be bussed in and out.
The next day I got my steam train ride to Minehaed, which was very enjoyable and we broke the journey back by getting off the train and walking into the little village of Dunster, which is very pretty and has an impressive National Trust property overlooking it.
Wednesday I had a major senior moment . I had decided it was moving day so we slowly packed up as theM5 was closed and headed off mid afternoon . It was only when I and Polmanter to tell them we would be late and they pointed out I was not due to arrive til the next day the penny dropped . So back to Acacia Farm where the owner wondered why we had left a day early. My humiliation was complete!
To cap the day Alison tripped and fell coming into the awning resulting in a very sore nose.
The following day we made the trip to St Ives without incident, and had one of the most spectacular thunderstorms I have ever experienced . this left the dog utterly traumatised and he did not settle til 2 am. I thought small kids were hard work!
Since then we have chilled except for discovering that the AA man's repair was a little more temporary then either of us expected . So a new fuel pump is on order. More of that later .
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