Camping on Hadrian's Wall
We went camping in our teardrop for the first time!
My parents came along with us to make sure we could get set up properly, and my cousin who is a camping guru came along to help us get the instruction-less awning set up.
The camp site was only an hour from home as I wanted my first towing experience to be an easy one. We spent the morning packing and getting the caravan hooked up to my car, I have a removable towbar that only seems to click into place if I have the instructional video on my phone at the time! We popped Moxie in the boot and got everything in the car!
A quick lunch of veggie soup and bread and we were on our way!
Towing was a breeze as the teardrop is so light, and there were no issues until we got to the campsite. I moved to the side to allow my parents (in their big campervan) to pass so that I didn't have to talk to the manager - the booking was in dad's name. In doing so, I went on the grass and got stuck. When I was stopped and waiting for my dad to come tell me what to do a man came over, so I opened my window, thinking he was going to give me some advice and instead he gave me an earful for chewing up the grass (mind I'd only done one little wheelspin). Hannah was FUMING at this old man.
The owner / manager came over and helped me unhitch the caravan and get myself sorted, and as I was attempting to push the caravan up a tiny hill so he could hitch it back to my car, there's my cousin asking if I need a hand! Never been happier to see him! We get up to the pitch now without incident and I attempt to reverse into place... nearly got it, but got close enough, and into my parents' campervan for a cuppa with my cousin, his daughter, Hannah and my parents. Moxie had a nap on the campervan floor while we relaxed.
Cuppas later and myself, my dad and cousin headed out to tackle the awning. Having my cousin there was invaluable, we wouldn't have figured it out without him! Once that was all sorted and there were hugs all round, my cousin headed off and we jumped back in my car and off to Hadrian's Wall for a walk. It was a bit soggy but overall a good time was had by all!
After some good walking, we headed to Haltwhistle to grab some food. Pizza sounded like just what we needed, so picked some takeaway up and headed back to the campsite. We had planned to sit out and eat but it was pitch black and minus 1 so we went in the campervan to eat while Moxie had a good nap after the walk.
We headed out to our little van at about 8pm and Moxie was a little confused at first, but it didn't take long for her to snuggle down.
After not the greatest sleep on my part, I woke up about 430am with a puppy butt by my head as Moxie had chosen to curl up on my pillow. I snoozed a while longer before nature called and Hannah and I had to head out to the toilet block, nice little walk for Moxie. Once back at the van, about 630am and -1 temps, I decided Hannah and Moxie should get back in the warm cosy van and I'd make us a cupp. Went to turn the tap to fill the kettle and... frozen in the pipes. Grabbed some water from a bottle and filled the kettle up and whacked it on our little 2 burner stove while a robin came and kept me company.
About half an hour later and the water still hadn't boiled so I tipped a bunch of it out, half an hour after that and Hannah and Moxie came out to join me waiting for the kettle to boil... it never did. We just gave up and had hot-ish water in our tea/coffee - AND IT WAS LOVELY. We popped back into the warm to drink our cuppas and get all cosy again. Once it was a reasonable hour we went over to the campervan to grab some toast and another cuppa.
Moxie made herself comfortable while my mam and I headed to Sainsbury's to get some bits and once we got back it was time to head off home!
All in all a very successful first trip and some lessons learned!
(We'll be getting a new mattress and an electric caravan kettle at least!)
