2019, quite a year for us. We started off by booking a month’s trip to France, which took a lot of planning. Not least financially. I’m self-employed, so any time we take off, we don’t earn. I can hear faint violins coming from you, our good readers!
Far from wanting sympathy, I use it to emphasise what a big decision it was to go to France for a month.
We visited Chatsworth House in February, it was freezing, it was a bit wet and it was also a bit closed. For all the planning we did for France, we did hardly any for Chatsworth House. One visit to their website would have told us it was closed, still, we had a nice time. But I really wasn’t expecting the whole of Derbyshire to be shut. They must have known I was coming..
February also saw me go to the NEC for the caravan and motorhome show. Mandy stayed at home and I just did it in a single day. Could have spent more time there, especially as I spent most of my time talking to fellow caravanners rather than doing all the vlogging I had planned in my head. I really thought I’d get about 30 caravan reviews done and drip feed them throughout the year. I got none done. It took me by surprise how hard vlogging is with people around.
March we were at a site near Clacton in Essex. Homestead Lake Park. We were visiting friends, this is one of the best things about a caravan, we can visit friends without the need to stay at their house. Of course, it would be even better if said friend had a drive. In this case, we just stayed 5-minute drive away and could go back to our caravan rather than sleep on a sofa.
Before our French trip, we did manage to get away a few more times. Firstly we went to Shropshire where we stayed at “Love2Stay”. A very nice site albeit a tad expensive. Think of it as Center Parcs in a caravan, actually, it’s nowhere near as good as Center Parcs and not a great deal cheaper! So, you could think of it as a shit Center Parcs, but with better accommodation i.e. your caravan.
We also squeezed in a quick trip to the Wirral to meet our friends from “For The Love of Caravans” (Check out their YouTube channel). Liverpool is a great city especially if you love your Beatles and Liverpool Football Club! It’s somewhere I’ve been many times before, but hardly ever been sober. This time I was and remember it all.
Once we were back from Liverpool it was pretty much just saving and preparing for the month in France.
Just a few days before we went I wasn’t feeling too great, I’d have trapped wind, which was really painful, for a few days and couldn’t shift it. I was obviously concerned, I didn’t want to cancel the holiday only for me to feel better 2 days after so we decided to go.
I did start feeling a bit better on the trip going down although I was really tired. This might have come across as me being miserable! Anyway, all the planning and expense that had gone into the holiday I was determined to go. I’d feel better in a few days, I’m sure. Well, I didn’t feel much better, but we did enjoy our time in France. We enjoyed it so much, we’re not going back next year! Actually this is more to do with my state of mind and couldn’t face going to France next year even though we have already booked to return.
So, on our return I got my health sorted out and we were all good to go on more adventures. As it happened this took a bit longer than I’d hoped and from when we got back (4th August) we didn’t go away again until November. In November we spend slightly less than a week at Crystal Palace CAMC site, which was lovely! It also convinced me I still love caravanning. I’ll admit that after my experience in France and being unwell my confidence was dented as was my willingness to go back out in the caravan.
We just have one more trip planned this year where we’re heading off to Longleat CAMC site after Christmas.
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This might convince you??
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