The Pudding Room

Our camping season has started late this year by virtue of the need to run in Mr Happy's new engine prior to letting him loose with the camper on the back. So with its (expensive) 1500 mile service out of the way we picked a site fairly local to where we live.
We chose the Pudding Room because it was close, it had loos & showers and decent reviews and was small & informal.
Its located just above Carsington water between Ashbourne & Wirksworth in Derbyshire. The first thing to say if you want a quiet rural site where  the only thing which disturbs you is birdsong then this is NOT the site for you. It is located on the junction of 2 busy roads so there is road noise, not that it bothered us.
The site nominally operates as a C & CC CS site but has 20 pitches in 3 adjacent fields. The main field has 10 spacious pitches around the edge and they work on the principle of your pitch is between here and here park as you wish, which is just how we like it!
Even when the site is full as it was this weekend then there is still plenty of space as the picture below shows.

This is how we chose to pitch as usual

The "facilities" are situated in the main building & just behind and consist of two toilet / shower wet rooms and two extra spacious toilets and wash basins in separate building

They were kept clean and serviced through the weekend and we never had to queue, although slightly bizarrely non of them were actually finished with missing tiles. grouting, extractors etc even though they had been built at different times and some time ago, just odd really!
The main building also housed aside from a washing up room the kitchen for the business of the same name in which Angie who is a welcoming host prepares the most amazing cakes & puddings too many of which were consumed over the weekend!
The only real drawback if you are that fussed is that there are no electric hook ups, but for a weekend that did not bother us. Also it was only £42 for the 3 nights.
Here's the link: http://www.thepuddingroomderbyshire.co.uk/
There are several good pubs in the area one right across the road, we ate in the Red Lion in Hognaston which was superb.
There is loads to do in the area, a cycle track leads down to the nearby Carsington Water where there are a range of walks cycle tracks and water activities.

There is lots of other stuff like the High Peak trail, assorted stately homes, preserved railways, things to suit most interests in fact.
So there you have it a quick trip away and we will certainly go back, if only for the cake!!

A Bit Of Upholstery

At some point in their history the cushions in Le Puck had had their springs replaced by foam and this had now seen better days, and we decided to redo them whilst retaining the original fabric.
The first job was to to unpick the seemingly hundreds of staples that had been used to attach not just the the outer fabric and the under calico cover.

This revealed just how long ago the springs were dumped - wonder why?

2nd August 1984 at 3pm in Reims to be precise!!
For replacement foam we went for a firm blue foam topped with 1" of memory foam. This was supplied cut to the correct size by Ace Foam in Telford whose service was good and delivery swift.

The next job was to clean off all the old foam debris. and of course discover in true Puck fashion that they were not square!

The foam was then stuck to the base with a small amount of evostick in each corner

Next job saw the calico undercover stapled back into place, making sure it was pulled tight.

Followed by the top cover as demonstrated by my glamorous assistant - Alison

So the final result complete with washed cover. They are so comfy! Will be tested in anger at Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

And so the season ends.................

We ended our Pucking year with a quick trip to the C & CC club site at Ashbourne less than an hours drive from where we live, for the last w/e in September, aside from being glorious weather it gave us a chance to try out the Khyam Motordome Classic we bought in the end of season sales, finding one online was a struggle but eventually got a good deal from Lightening Leisure.
It goes up as easy as it claims with only one person. There is a bit of pegging but nothing too arduous. The link canvas to the Puck does sit a bit low and would fill with water if it rains, but I have a cunning plan to literally prop it up which I will try in the spring.

The picture shows us cooking and eating breakfast in the late summer sunshine on the Sunday morning. The site is very pleasant and friendly about 3 miles above Ashbourne on the Heanor road with great walks and bike riding in the area and Ashbourne itself is a good place to visit.
Le Puck is now tucked up under its cover and will at some point get new foam under the seats as the springing is long gone, and Mr Happy is due major open heart surgery (engine rebuild!) in the next month or so

"Tracks to the Trenches"

Sunday 14th September saw us head off in Mr Happy to Apedale in Stoke on Trent to Apedale Heritage Centre in Apedale Country Park where the Narrow Gauge Railway there were hosting a WW1 event.
Now I am self confessed Narrow Gauge geek, but this was much more than just trains which were,granted, superb. There were other WW1 transports as well as re-enactments by the WW1 Society. The group had built a trench network complete with a simulated gas attack and evacuation.
There was also a cavalry demonstration.
It was a great day out even if Milo the dog pretty much had  a nervous breakdown with the gunshots and explosions, and was only happy when we headed for the exit.

A Belated Bank Holiday Report

August Bank Holiday saw us make a return visit to Cannock Chase for a quick break before the return of school for Alison and college for Zoe

Aside from the usual walks and a stagger too & from the excellent Park Gate Inn for lunch the highlight was a visit to the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust at Westport Lake Visitor Centre. It is a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hour walking by the lake on the banks of the Trent complete with Kingfishers a resident Terrapin, and a great boardwalk.

Monday night saw an absolutely torrential downpour with no wind at all which all but overwhelmed the Gazebo and which saw me shoving water off the roof at 2 am & 4 am!
This made me determined to find an alternative quick erect awning. We thought about an AirBeam type thing but these tend to be a tunnel type which previous experience has told us are restricted in available space.
So we opted for a Khyam Motordome Classic in the end of season sales. It certainly erects quickly and we now need an opportunity to try it out before the real autumn sets in.

Spot the Difference!

Well the AA repair lasted as long as it took to get here before the nut and bolt fell out fortunately without causing any damage. So I ordered a new pump from vw heritage and in the meantime we pottered around locally with a full tank of fuel so the old one didn't have to work too hard.  It arrived today and a local garage fitted it this afternoon as I didn't have the required tools to do it. So now restored to full health.
Hopefully the after and before pics show what was missing. (just to the right of the fan belt roughly in the middle)

Mr Happy Goes West

Well a week into holiday and it is time for a review of events so far.
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 .