Sherwood Forest - Plumbing

 We have many trips coming up over the summer, starting with a short weekend away at Sherwood Pines campsite right next door to Centre Parcs. As it is only a 40min drive away we had a leisurely morning walking the dogs and packing. We left home at 12.45 and arrived at the campsite about 1.30, passing a field full of hares on the way. A very pleasant lady booked us in and offered us our pick of the ‘Select’ pitch we had booked. It’s a very loosey goosey site where you can drive in forward or reverse in. We decided on forward facing the forest. We deployed the technical levelling tool and decided we were just about spot on. No need for the ramps. Gas and electric (no problem) were soon connected and the kettle on. Being a ‘select’ pitch there was a private water tap so Ian put a little bit in. No need for much as we were not staying long.

Tools of the trade

Into the woods

Ian had been quite excited about this trip as he had decided to do some plumbing. The only thing we don’t really like about Dame Shirley Bassey is her grey waste disposal pipe. This is right underneath and requires a bit of contortionism to reach and release the catch. It also means we can’t run our waste straight into a drain on a ‘select’ pitch. Ian had a plan. He had bought a job load of pipes, sprockets and sirclips. Straight away he had his Swiss Army knife out sawing a pipe in half. Then he was underneath attaching stuff. It wasn’t long that we had water running straight into our newly purchased wastemaster. We don’t have the tube length yet to reach the drains on these types of pitch.

Hard at work

Fixing and fitting

Voila!

As Ian was completing his handiwork, the guy from the Motorhome next door, also a Rollerteam, came rushing over. He too was upset with the waste water disposal system. I left them to their technical discussion and went back to drink my tea in peace. Well not actually in peace. The families across, in two caravans, had loads of adults and feral kids being noisy and shouting and screaming. Eventually, happily, they all upsticked and went off somewhere in a posse. 

Ian had decided to do the Sherwood Pines park run tomorrow so we had a walk up to the visitor centre where it would all begin. Turns out that it starts from the exact same spot our Mental Elf run had set off in December 22. Ian felt it was the same route in fact. We dragged Misty back through the woods (rabbit poo) 

Dog drag

Back at Dame Shirley it was so nice Ian decided to put up the canopy, we like it out. I threw a pasta bake that I had brought from home in the oven with some garlic bread and we cracked open the Cabali.

Holiday bliss

Then the posse returned. Wherever they had been it hadn’t tired the feral kids. The adults popped open a bottle of Prosecco (wayhey!) and soon the dulcet tones of Queen were echoing through the forest. It was going to be a long night. We stayed outside till it got a bit cold and dark, asking quiz questions while singing Bohemian Rhapsody, before retiring inside to watch gogglebox. Afterwards we popped outside to see if I could use my stellarscope to find. Silence! The posse, feral kids, and Freddie Mercury, had all gone to bed. Maybe caravanners are not so bad after all. 

Strava watch

I did try the OS map again but it’s so b****** useless that it failed on me. So here is Ian’s Strava map of our stroll.

Neighbour watch.

While we were sat, pleasantly, outside, a caravan arrived on the pitch next door. A young man reversed expertly in then got out to unhitch. His wife then reversed the car and got out. Just the two then. Suddenly, two children appeared! Then four bikes. Then the man produced a dog. It was hilarious watching, like a magician pulling rabbits from a hat. We got to talking and he explained that this is his first ever trip in his caravan.