Yes after 4 months of primping and preening, waiting for the frost to disappear...we took our motorhome out on Saturday 7th March. Oh where to begin... Lets just say it was interesting and ultimately pretty useful.
I should set the stage for those that don't know....we bought an old well loved motorhome...and to be honest we weren't the smartest when it came down to it...we hadn't done a lot of research before we bought it and we had a tight budget. We also wanted to get a feel for motorhoming and felt that if the whole thing went wrong we wouldn't lose a lot. You know the story.
Although Roger had been tidying up the wiring for the lights etc, we hadn't tested the hot water, the pump, the toilet,...etc..so you get the idea. So with some trepidation we set off to a CL site about 20 mins away. The site was nice enough but the listing was a bit deceptive as it said it was on a stream which sounded idealic...I'm not so sure that a trickle of water covered in wheat in the middle of a field consitutes a stream...but hey ho. Anyway we got on the pitch just fine. When we booked we were told it was £10 per night plus electricity...so not being the swiftest...didn't ask how much the electricity would be. However they gave us a top up card that you put in the machine next to the plug. We put £6 on it, not having a clue how much it would be.
We happily started playing with things and were delighted that the hot water worked, the pump worked, the lights worked (still not sure for how long because we think we have a dodgy leisure battery). Plugged in our tv...set about trying to set up the portable satellite dish but after having received frostbite on my nose (man was it cold!), gave it up and settled for the antennea which worked just fine. After having played for a couple hours we set about have a quick dinner.
As it was getting quite chilly and because we hadn't had a chance to check the gas fire, we plugged in our very small electric heater. This was probably about 6pm. As it started to get very dark we settled in for the night watching some tellie when all of a sudden....boom...out goes the power. Now I know electric heaters are expensive to run...but £6 for 2 hours??? Hard to believe.
Off I trot to the owners (who by the way never said a word to us the entire day, I paid a lady in a little shop.) to tell the lady that I think there must have been a problem with my card because the electricity cut out, no she says it's expensive to run an electric heater and those meters charge the same here as they would at home...bull I say! So I refuse to throw another £10-15 in the pot with no guarantee it would last till morning...so we're off I say. Back to the motorhome, packed it up (love mh's for this...done in 5 mins) and off to the gates to leave we go.
Hmmm...electric gates...no sensors...how do we get out of here...looked all over the place in the dark because obviously electricity is much more expensive in their neck of the woods as they can't afford to illuminate the area with sensored lights...no luck looking for a switch....trot back to the farmhouse...it's on the silver post she says...trot back I do...but can't see a silver post in the dark...now have a flashlight that is almost dead....so what to do....trot back to the farmhouse to be told it's on a silver post by the gate...no it's not I say...yes it is she says...so trot back to the motorhome. Give up and give Roger the flashlight...after about 5 mins I can see someone from the farmhouse jump in their vehicle and head our way just as Roger finds the silver post about 100 yards behind us no where near the gate. And away we went....trotted back home to find that we'd been locked out of the house.
So here we are...no heat...no electricity and no keys for the house. Call one of the girls and she comes to our rescue. Phew...the good news....we tried out our gas heater on Sunday and it works...bad news....ran out of butane 5 mins later so even if we did start it on Saturday we still would have froze! All in all an eventful weekend that hasn't put us off at all...I just really do hope that the next CL we stay at is a bit more reasonable and a whole lot friendlier!
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