Cotswolds 5-10 March 25

The first trip away in the van in 2025 and it's been far too long. In January we were  too busy with family commitments and a trip away to watch Harlequins play in Toulon. In February we were due to go to Norfolk for a week but disaster struck! The van had been in storage at the farm for some weeks and the weather during this period had been incredibly bad with constant rain and grey, gloomy days. When we came to recover the van on a very cold morning it didn't want to play. There had been no solar to top up the batteries. We tried jump starting the van and managed to fry the Electroblok, the smart box of electrickery that does all sorts of things on the charging, 230v and 12v systems. We had to remove the box and sent it off for repair and, at the same time, replace the leisure batteries because we had a mix of AGM and normal batteries fitted which are not ideal. This meant some major stripping and assembly in the cab - nothing is ever easy. Eventually it was all back together with a day to spare before a booked trip to Cotswold Farm Park, albeit the 12v system was still a bit dodgy.

Mess of wiring

The new leisure batteries fitted under the seat

The rogue Electroblock, newly repaired

Anyway, after that long preamble - we had an easy drive down to Cotswold Farm Park and set up on pitch 1. It was very quiet on the farm with not many visitors so we had a quick bimble around, bought  bottles of Rhubarb cider which we enjoyed sitting in the van before deciding that we liked them so much we would sprint back to the shop just before it closed to buy two more.

On Thursday it was time to exercise. We went for a very long walk to Guiting Power and then on to Naunton for a delicious pub lunch in the Black Horse, before hauling our full bellies up the steep hill back to the farm. 7.5 miles up and down hills and cross-country in lovely sunshine. The first real exercise we'd done for ages.

On Friday we had a well deserved rest with just a little bimble around the farm and back in the evening for a pizza and a few beers.

On Saturday we didn't do a lot. We wandered around the farm, watched a bit of Rugby (very happy that France beat Ireland in the 6 Nations and Cambridge beat the other place in the Varsity match), went to the bar, had a meal and a few pints listening to the singer and then went to bed.

Sunday we did the delightful 2 mile wildlife walk, wandered around the farm again, watched England beat Italy, had dinner and relaxed outside in the warm sunshine having almost the entire site to ourselves.

Monday dawned misty, cold and with showers of rain. We packed up and left and with only a few miles into our journey we encountered a hideous tailback through Moreton-in-the-Marsh due to some ridiculous roadworks that hardly necessitated the 3 way traffic lights and the consequent mayhem. Why do these numpties insist on doing this? Health and Safety I assume. Anyway, we made reasonable progress once we cleared Moreton and stopped at the excellent Rugby services for a spot of lunch before encountering more roadworks on the A14 with 1 lane closed and absolutely nobody working on the road. It was a long journey home.

In all, it was great to get away. We left the control panel on so we had 12v all the way through. This week will be time to test it thoroughly before our next jaunt.