Motorhome Madness with the Walters

 It was quite sunny when Ian rose to drag Misty around the bins. We lazed for a bit then I made sausage and bacon sarnies for breakfast. As we were eating a Hi Vis man came along on his tractor. The couple next door stopped him and asked about getting off. Ian was ear wigging and the upshot was if you get stuck put your hazards on and they will come and rescue you. Everyone will get out alive. Phew! Nevertheless a few people were departing, including the caravan next door. Not Toploader fans presumably. That opened up a bit of a space for us for tomorrow.  There was on again off again sun/showers all morning, and by the time we had got ready it was 1pm. We are not early departers. We headed down to the arena where Ian got a toastie, then went off to do some browsing. Luckily he came back empty handed except for coffee and a raspberry chocolate brownie. The rain kept coming in fits and starts but we stayed to watch a folk band called Superphone on the second stage. Glad we did ...

 We awoke to the sound of rain on the roof. Indeed, there was a severe weather warning for most of the world with biblical floods and a plague of frogs forecast. Never mind the gas and electric, what about getting bogged down in the mud!? Misty isn’t bothered about rain of course so I got up and dragged her round a bit before returning, bedraggled, to Dame Shirley. Much lazing around followed before I got up and made a full English. Dame Shirley Breakfast Half way through a Hi Vis man came to the door to tell us they were flying the yellow flag. And? This means no movement around the site today in vehicles to preserve the ground. Why would he tell me that?! In one way I was quite pleased as we are forever stepping off the path for car drivers (presumably with caravans) who can’t be bothered to walk. After breakfast it was acutely quite nice, so Ian and Misty did their back exercises while I washed up.  Stretching Looking at the sky we decided to have a lazy Motorhome day until...

 We had a good sleep in the quiet zone. No pesky alarms going off overnight. It was a bit chilly so, despite my pleading with him not to, Ian put the heating on. It was Sophie’s choice (to me) whether he went gas or electric. He chose electric and I lay there expecting a big bang at any moment. Luckily all was well. We lazed in bed a lot before having porridge and toast for breakfast then sitting outside in the sun for a bit. I noticed a lot of the other, presumably seasoned, festival goers have flags and light up poles. Indeed the electric trip man has a huge light up pole and a flag. Ian says no. ☹️. In case you were wondering about my remark re Butlins, here is the schedule for the next two days. Activities begin at seven but we haven’t even considered the earlier ones. Such as the quiz began at 10am today. Ridiculous.  Earlier activities are available I am not getting involved with anything to do with water, and sadly the crafty things you have to have done already. I imag...

Our next Dame Shirley trip was Clubfest. It’s a festival run by the Caravan and Camping Club in the grounds of Weston Park in Shropshire. We aren’t really sure but it appears to be a cross between Butlins and Glastonbury. Nevertheless, we were very much looking forward to it and I had made a couple of new ‘essential’ purchases for the occasion. More on these later. Sadly, the few days before departure had seen torrential rain in the area. I was worried about getting stuck in the mud and having to be towed out. We also had an e-Mail telling us that as the electric was only 6v it would run just the barest minimum of appliances without tripping. I was worried about tripping the whole site. We had also emptied one of our gas bottles in Brizzle and not had time to replace it. I was worried about the back up running out and having no cooker, mainly for morning coffee. Ian was not worried about any of these things. The Friday of departure dawned bright and sunny. Dame Shirley was loaded up wi...

 No more car alarms in the night but I did manage to knock over my water. Only my magazine got wet though. My turn for Misty so I fed her and put the kettle on before we walked over to the dog postage stamp. As it’s near the gate I was able to see that there were already stewards and cones I place. The run will go right past the site on the opposite side to the wharf. No exit or entry here till 3pm. Chris and Ian were in full race mode from moment one. All stretching and porridge. Tape, bandages, gel and sun cream were all applied with vigour. There was more stretching and lots of trips to the loo, until about 10am they were ready to depart.  Good luck boys They would be meeting Vicky at the start, if she is real and not mythical. Chris,  being quick, would be in the first wave. Vicky and Ian, being slow, in the last. This has been a real bone of contention as Ian feels he must have put down the wrong expected time and should be in wave one too! Not that Chris has been ma...