Here's hoping.

Its coming up to MOT time and I hope everything is going to go fine. We took it out for a little spin last week, staying at Grantown of Spey for the night and had a nice curry in town, the site was very good.
I brought the van over to give it a a good wash and to put some vinyl tiles down, it snowed over night. Chances are if all goes well we will go to France at Easter.

Well the MOT didn't go well so we never went to France, failed in lots and lots of minor ways, I wont go into detail here, just to say the van is up on ebay as spares or repairs, Id had enough.
We did get away to Althandu for a week so that was good, had my birthday and a couple of nice meals over there. Quite a laid back week, a bit of walking, nothing too strenuous, weather was better over there than here on the east coast, spring seems to be about a month late this year.

Cul mor from Stac Polly.

We took a trip down too Teesside to see the kids, called in to a number of motohome sales outlets and spied a few potential buys, so new acquisition is on the cards, in fact probable off this weekend to pick one out.
Still got France in our sights but for the summer and the Atlantic coast rather than the Cote d'Azur, to hot and crowded down there during the summer, but would love to try for that next Easter.
Still the opportunities for some weekend motorhoming between now and the summer break, nine and a half weeks to that.

Its diesel you idiot.

Van @ Braemar

Having finished work for the holiday's we went off for the weekend to Braemar.

I spent most of the time after that working on a new website for myself, publicising my landscape photography, Northlightimages.

Once Christmas itself was over we made off for Teesside again, stopping off at Mortonhall in Edinburgh. There was some high winds forecast so we set off on the afternoon and rushed for Edinburgh, in the rush I accidentally put in petrol instead of diesel, bringing the journey to an abrupt halt outside of Dundee. Anyway, managed to get a pick up, drain and back on the road in about 2 1/2  hours, but it cost £240 plus the £50 wasted on the petrol, hopefully a lesson well learnt. Waking up in Edinburgh on new years eve we heard the Forth road bridge has been closed to all but cars so we missed that at least.

In England and I had the chance of a couple of photography location visits, Paddys hole at the South Gare and High Force, both on the river Tees. We stopped with the kids for about 3 days before our return to Aberdeen via Mortonhall again, the journey home was incident free.

Planning this years France trip, I will be putting some work into the van as well as more walking and photography.

Up until christmas

11/11/12

Autumn colours

Took a drive out to Blairgowrie was, The Hermitage and House of Bruar. Had a loverly walk along the river to The Hermitage then moved on with the idea of visiting the Falls of Bruar but as we found they had a sale on, got no further than the House of Bruar.
Following week out to Lochnagar, I'v been up there a few times but finaly a visit with the top clear of cloud, fantastic clear day.



Me at Lochnagar.

Just waiting for the christmas break, talk is of the coldest winter in 100 years, lots of snow from the 15th of december right into the new year, lets see. Had the first snow last night, 04/12/12


Autumnal October.

Ben Venue.

Picked Diane up from work on the Sunday afternoon and sped off to The Trossachs, stopping at Cobeland camping in the forest site for two nights. The site was almost empty during the time we were there, a pity as the area was very pretty with the autumn colours and mists. I spent the day climbing Ben Venue, It started out as what looked like the prettiest of walks, but due to forestry work it turned into a mucky muddy dangerous mess, detours adding a couple of extra miles and hours on to a very tedious walk. I finally got to the top of Ben Venue, in cloud so no view. Had to resort to a back up plan, came off the mountain via Bealach nam Bo where Liam Neesam used to run his rustled cattle, sorry that should read Rod Roy, that was the best move to make, took about 4 1/2 hours up and 2 hours down.

Rested my legs on the journey down to the Lake District for two night there, turned up at the Caravan Club site only to find I hadnt booked, it was at the Caravan and Camping Club site just down at Troutbeck Head where we were to be. This turned out great, a little closer to the fells and other walks, I didnt need to move the van which is always a bonus. I think I prefer this site to the other, we have been to both, and I'm sure we will go back, when we cant get into the Keswick site.

The following day I climbed Blencathera,  a better day out even if the cloud was low again giving nothing much in the way of views. I had been hoping to go up via Sharp edge but I couldn't find my way on, not had much luck in the scrambling side of things, after a look around, visibility about 25 yards, I gave up and took the easy path to the top, but all in all not a bad day.

Van at Troutbeck head, background Blencathra.

Again after a couple of nights we left to see the kids on Teesside. We took the young ones to Whitewater campsite on the river Tees, just for the night, which they seemed to enjoy, especially watching Despicable Me. I took a walk over Carlton Bank, easy going and a nice wind down from the other walks.
The van performed well no trouble from it, feel a little more confident about it. The arial worked well and we thought a bit more about doing up the inside, what we might do here and there. I did give it new wheel trims before this trip.

St Cyrus.

Moonrise and Sunset at Miltonhaven.

Last weekend of September, just a short trip and one night out at St Cyrus, a walk along the beach and a few caches. Miltonhaven, a decent site, great Internet connection,  but been to better locally.
Took the opportunity to put some new set covers on which helped to spruce her up. Noticed someone has put the bike rack on in such a way the back window can not be closed properly, letting in the elements, that's the next job.



New seat covers

Sorted that bike rack issue out, can still use it but the back window is fixed shut but that's OK, fitted new lighting tubes over the cooking area and removed the stupid latches from the bonnet. Measured up for some floor tiles and some other bits and pieces including an aerial are on order. Blocked off the water too the shower area, we are thinking of using it as a wardrobe in some way as we usually use site showers so it wouldn't be missed.
We are going to have a weekend cleaning and sorting bits and pieces out, then the following weekend we are off on our first major trip, a couple of nights in the Trossachs, then the Lake district before we visit the kids.

Portsoy

Portsoy sunset.

We had a short weekend at Portsoy, first time outing in the new van, on a nice little site run by Aberdeenshire council, right on the sea front. We arrived on Saturday, noon and left the same time Sunday, took a walk around the bay in the evening. Living four floors up in the city the van is our garden, its just great to get out and have a different view, we prefere a view of the sea.
I replaced the camlocks on the bonnet, they came with multi-cam fitting which was lucky and one configuration worked, now I can get rid of the terrible bodge job of buckles, new travel catch on the fridge. We found that when the toilet or hand basin tap was turned on, water also came out of the shower, going to seal that off, wouldn't really use it as there are plenty on the sites we stop at, may even turn it into a wardrobe. Still looking for a substitute for the site at Cullen, this wasnt quite it.
Got plenty to do to her before before the October break, I have started to learn French.

Our new van.

We got our new van, well new to us. Its a Hymermobil B564 ‘A’ Class, a design classic, 1991. It has a Fiat Ducato  2500 cc engine and chassis, ever since we started Campervaning we would see the Hymers buzzing around and admired them.
We bought it from Leeds and in bringing it to Aberdeen covered 339 miles, I worked it out that we got 27 mpg, I filled it up twice with £40 worth of diesel each time, 57 litres in total. We suffered no mechanical problems.
When saw this one for sale, it was a bit different, decor wise but all that was superficial, once we started cleaning and measuring and really getting to know it.  Became quite obvious its under gone a lot of bodging from some of its owners, cant believe some of the handy work its had over the past 20 + years.
We have started working towards getting it a bit more shipshape, plans are afoot and it is already looking better, we got rid of the black carpets making it a whole lot brighter, managed to drop a cable down from the flat and gave it all a good vacuum and steam clean.. If it lasts us over the next 5 years that will do fine.
Next weekend we will spend our first night in it, going to Portsoy and I start my French classes.
I dont have any photos yet but this is a very similar model. David Bowie and the B534