First camping holiday of 2021

We've both had this week booked for a holiday since last year. We were planning a full week BritStop tour of North Yorkshire and Northumberland. Then lockdown v3.0 happened and it became unlikely that we would be able to stay at all the places we'd chosen... so we've postponed that until later in the year and this week, we're spending a few nights on a Camping and Caravanning Club Site. 

The Site

Sheriff Hutton is about 7 miles north-east of York and the club site was easy to get to - about an hour's drive for us. Because it is so close, we decided to take the car and the motorhome (named Zerubbabel... it's a Zefiro, so an alliterative name...) so that we could leave Zerubbabel on site and just take the car for days out. 

We booked a hard standing with electric hook-up. Originally, I was hoping to book a full week, but once 12th April (Covid stage 2) was announced, weekends everywhere booked up completely, and I could only get a mid-week break. As it happens, that is probably good, as we can get some jobs done at home over the weekends.

The site is well spaced out and very clean and tidy, so feels pretty Covid-safe. The facilities - toilets, showers, etc are all closed until 17th May, but we generally use our own anyway. That was one of the reasons we chose Zerubbabel - I liked the shower room. I expected it to be busy but when I arrived, we were offered a choice of many pitches. The warden even told me which way is sunrise and sunset, to inform our choice. 

Pitching up

I'm a checklist kind of person. I've always liked following a procedure that works but a while ago, I watched a TED talk about checklists. The people who use them are not people with memory problems, or the unintelligent... but surgeons, pilots... people who are intelligent but recognise that forgetting something in the stress of the moment would be pretty bad. Well, getting it wrong when pitching a motorhome would probably not risk life but it could be expensive, so it's a sensible thing to use a checklist.

Water and grey waste are usually first, but we'd already sorted that at home.

I like to start with Zerubbabel level, and we have a dandy little gadget - a mini spirit level that does both ways. Pop it on the table, put chocks in and level up. I love it!

Ventilation is always important but it was quite hot (in the sun) when we arrived, too hot to leave Liggy in the car, so I opened all the roof vents (3 of them) and put her inside. She's always extremely excited on arrival, so it's better to just keep her inside whilst we get organised. We have bought another gadget though, a big corkscrew type thing that screws into the grass and you attach a dog lead to it. It means Liggy can be outside with us but not actually attached to my chair, which is handy. 

So then we turned on the gas and connected to the electric hook-up... all sorted! 

For the first time, we used the awning. It is quite easy to put up - one of the canopy style ones. We may invest in some wind breaks eventually but for now, it is nice just to have some shelter outside. Neil put up the table and got chairs out. It's easiest for me to use my Mountain Trike on site, as the pitch is pebble, surrounded by grass. 

Dinner

It was my turn to cook, and I'd planned a one pot chicken and rice dish, loosely based on my mum's paella recipe. I'd prepped the spices at home and put them in a tiny plastic pot. Neil sat outside, chopping veg, looking every bit the seasoned camper, and I did the actual cooking. 

The Zefiro has the standard RollerTeam 3-burner hob, which I have to say, is really good. It runs off the gas, which for us is Gaslow LPG. We filled up the gas bottles last September, when we got her, and both cylinders are still showing as nearly full. Not sure those gauges are accurate... time will tell. Asda in York is our nearest filling point, which isn't that far, so if we run out, that's where we'll be headed.

Having cooked dinner, I did something quite unusual for me... we sat outside to eat. It was still nice and warm in the sun and Neil had set up a soft bed for Liggy... and it was actually very pleasant. 

Heating

Zerubbabel's heating is a Webasto system. It runs on diesel, from the fuel tank and is supposed to be one of the more economical ways to heat the motorhome. I've seen reviews online about it being too noisy but we haven't noticed that. It blows hot air through vents around the habitation area. My only criticism of it, is that it uses a lot of electricity each time it starts up... not a problem if you're on a hook-up but if you're on battery, it drains it very quickly! It really means that we can only choose sites with a hook-up for winter camping, especially as the solar panel is what charges the battery, so less daylight, combined with high night-time usage is a bit stressful!

Anyway, it was another cold night... close to zero... but I was plenty warm enough. I prefer it cool to sleep anyway, but I was fine on my many night time loo visits. 

I'll be posting all of these posts when we get home (don't want people to know we're away until we get back) but hopefully we'll be having some fab days out in the Howardian Hills.