Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

Last weekend we decided to get away for the weekend and chose Black Barns Farm Campsite near Burham-on-Crouch & Maldon.

It’s a lovely small site, very friendly & quiet. We went there just to get away from it all, and it’s great if you just want to sit around and relax or are passing through.

http://www.blackbarnsfarm.co.uk

Website says £7 but it’s now £10. Showers, toilets, wash basins, free use of freezer. There’s an electrical hook-up & a tap.

The pitches are near to the chickens, guinea fowl & ducks and you can buy eggs from the site.

Views across the the River Blackwater estuary are great, and it’s where we took this picture:

Bob was great again, and it gave us a useful trial run to perfect sleeping arrangements with a baby so we’re sorted for Europe in the summer.

Techenders is a technical weekend organised through the Just Kampers Forum. We would have gone to Techenders 13 but we were in Bali and L was born two days after Techenders 14 – we’ve been waiting to attend one for over a year. Techenders 15 was our first foray into weekend ‘meets’ and we were a little bit nervous of what to expect, after all what do we have in common with the other people beyond ownership of a VW Camper?  The meet was held in Leicestershire and despite putting our names down several months in advance we only decided for certain to go the weekend before.

Bob had only been back on the road a week and so I did a few test runs to make sure she was OK, and then on the Friday we took her out and washed her with a pressure hose and cleaned and hoovered her interior. After stocking her up with food and clothes she was ready.

The trip up to Techenders was fantastic. A little cold as it was an early-ish start but no rain, no wind, not much traffic and Bob running like a dream. We arrived without having to stop and with L contentedly staring at me, transfixed by my mirrored aviators! With only a rock & roll bed in the back I had the pleasure of L‘s company in the front which, for most of the time, was lovely. We parked up next to a smart looking T25 and nervously looked around at the Splitty, assorted T2s, T25s, T4s & an original Beetle and wondered how we should introduce ourselves and who to. That problem was solved as almost immediately ‘Superhands’ came over and after saying nice things about Bob showed us how our fuel tank vent pipe was badly split and needed replacing. If we found out nothing else during the weekend…

As a picture to capture the sense of Techenders 15 this is pretty rubbish (I didn’t get around to taking a picture from the other side with all the other vans in the background!) but it does show us camped up so it’s something! Saturday was spent watching other people service and repair their vans. There were people making a custom interior, others doing services and more trying to tune and improve the way their vans ran. By the time we arrived there was already one engine out due to a clutch being replaced, and by Saturday afternoon a routine carb replacement had turned into engine out number 2! (Both vans drove home by Sunday afternoon.) Lunch was a vegetable chilli made by another Techender and was enjoyed by all including L who seems to love spicy food.

Saturday evening H took L to bed in the roof and I stayed up to have a couple of beers around the camp fire with the others. L‘s first night camping went well for her as she was well wrapped up in her grobag and I was OK downstairs on the rock & roll bed in the double sleeping bag, but H was freezing in A‘s single sleeping bag and didn’t sleep well at all. Next time I’ll have the smaller sleeping bag as I don’t feel the cold so much, but it was also a reminder that there’s only canvas between you and the outside temperature when you’re up top.

Sunday was much colder and saw several people who had been there since the Friday gradually leave as they finished sorting their vans. We had a go at some tuning and Bob’s running speed was altered somewhat. Although she was running well, a go with the strobe showed the timing to be too far advanced. Dad came up to to have lunch with us and after saying our goodbyes to the other Techenders we left with a long list of small but important jobs to do and reassurances that Bob is actually the very nice van we hoped & thought she was.

The journey home wasn’t quite as relaxing as the one to Techenders. L was tired and irritable, I was just tired and the crosswinds… The A14 isn’t a good road to drive a vehicle with ridiculous aerodynamics on and after the previous day’s chilled driving I was constantly on my guard for Bob being blown around. L picked up on my apprehension and that made her worse. Eventually the wind died down, we got off the A14 and after a couple of feeds L was much happier. As for Bob, well an occasional misfire suggests that she has been tuned down a little too far so I’ll have to sort that soon along with the rest of the  jobs list, but otherwise she was great. Again.

Techenders 15 was a very enjoyable weekend. It was great to spend time with other people who ‘get’ what it is about a VW Camper that makes them special (and that was enough to have in common to get along) and it was an opportunity (taken) for H & I to learn a lot more about how to keep Bob running well. It also pushed me towards wanting to take Bob onto the continent this summer. It’s the vibe, it does things to the mind…

So…great company, great vans, great camping – roll on Techenders 16 in September!

We’ve been looking for baths for quite a while now. The plan is to build on the success of our first bath (from our bathroom refit) in growing vegetables – we want to use them as ready-made raised beds. Good second-hand baths get sold on eBay for lots of money & bad second-hand baths get thrown in skips. Eventually, after many requests on Freecycle, one turned up! At last a second bath for the garden!

A bath is too big to fit in the back of the Picasso so it would have to be Bob making the 60-mile round trip, just a day after being put back on the road. As has been so often the case during our time with Bob she didn’t miss a beat…bath picked up and delivered back home without any problems. Good old Bob, you can have a carrot when they’ve grown…

Bob will soon be back on the road! Bring on April 1st!

Many, many months ago I promised some pictures from our first holiday outings in Bob.

Here goes…

Playing cards in rainy Wiltshire having been to see Stonehenge on our way to North Devon. Our first night all together in Bob!

Next, at our campsite in Devon with J‘s van getting off to a smokin’ start!

It was the first time we’d tried the awning and because we were doing a fair bit of driving around we didn’t attach it.

We went into Exmoor to visit the village H‘s parents lived in and had a picnic :

but only after a lengthy spell sat behind the locals!

We did the Devon-Essex run in one run which took about 10 hours as I had to keep stopping to rest.

After a day of washing and clearing out Bob we were off again to a woodland campsite in Suffolk. As we weren’t planning to move Bob for the week we fixed up the awning to Bob for the first time. It was very useful, especially as H‘s sister and her family were camping on the plot next to us and we had lots of bikes and toys to store.

Overall then two weeks of enjoyable camping and 1200+ miles covered without a hitch, made all the sweeter after the problems we’ve had with Bob. She did us proud though and we’re thinking about Europe next year with Liesel!

Home! In the past week Bob’s done over 1000 miles (inc 350 today over 10 hours) and hasn’t missed a beat. What a girl!

I’ll post all the details of Stonehenge & Devon next weekend when we’re back from holiday part II in Suffolk.

Whilst other parents sat on wet chairs and braved the winds at Cressing Temple I sat smugly in Bob with the side door open and kept warm and dry. And when the rain stopped and the sun came out, Bob just looked cool…

Then we came home via McDonalds, eating our meal at the table in the back of Bob. Fast food has never been such a chilled experience!

All booked up for our first camping expeditions in Bob! Very exciting!

Last weekend we again camped on H‘s dad’s front drive. We’re building up to a camp site slowly!

Also there were H‘s sister’s family and their T4 Caravelle which they use to travel across Europe (England > Spain > Romania > Hungary > England) during June and July. They very cleverly filled the area behind the second row of seats with custom made boxes as part of a false floor so that, if needed, all four of them could sleep in it. Puts the small trips we’ve made in Bob so far into perspective!

But yesterday we went to Southwold in her and we’ll soon be off camping in Devon and in Norfolk. To celebrate our excitement at this I’ve added a new page called Our Travels upon which I shall record all the places we have visited in Bob. In its own way it’s all very exciting!

Before I write this I must say how odd it is that after being almost obsessive about taking pictures over the past six months I completely forgot to this past weekend. So this post is all about our momentous first sleep in Bob and I’ve no photos to mark the occasion. Oops. This doesn’t detract from the weekend of course which was glorious in terms of Bob, the weather and Morris Weekend, I just wish etc. etc.

On Saturday morning H filled Bob with all of he things we’ve not really had the opportunity to fill her with before – pots, pans, sleeping kit etc. and we set about trying to sterilise the water tank. A daisy chain of hose pipes lent to us by (and using the outside tap of) Brenda next door flushed out the tank before we filled it up, popped in the sterilising tablets for an hour, and then re-filled it. There are certain leakage issues in the piping between the filler cap behind the passenger seat and the tank itself but otherwise all was fine.

Packed up with our stuff, including ice blocks and milk in the fridge, we set off and we had our first (of two) accidents over the course of the weekend. As I reversed out of the back garden the back wheels dropped off the curb and it was at that moment I realised the passenger side door wasn’t fully clicked to. It was only a slow, gentle drop but it was enough to pull the door open enough for it to wedge on the annoyingly placed fence and, I believe, bend the hinges slightly. Whatever, the door now catches on the frame so we shut the door, locked it, and H used the sliding side door for the rest of the weekend. If the door had swung open at any other point but there… It’s an avoidable job that will need doing, and probably won’t be cheap either.

Annoyed but still upbeat we set off for Thaxted. A stop at the local garage showed that the tyres had lost no pressure at all in the past fortnight, which was good. I had noticed that the throttle response seemed poor though and guessed that, as before, it was the pin that holds the throttle pedal up that had fallen out. A second stop in a lay-by and that was sorted, although only by sliding the pin back in – it’ll need a permanent fix soon. We set-off again and as we went around the first bend the fridge door flew open and the entire contents were thrown across the van floor. A third stop saw the power pack & crook lock wedged against the door as the fridge clip seems to be broken. Happily, there were no more stops ’til Thaxted.

Arriving at H‘s Dad’s house we found that Anne had put a ‘Reserved for Bob’ sign on the drive for us which was a nice touch. We parked up and went in doors to watch the FA Cup Final. We then went out to see the Morris Dancing. H‘s Dad has danced with Thaxted Morris Men for years and so we always try to go to the annual Ring Meeting where Morris Men from all over the UK ( and sometimes the world) come together in Thaxted to dance. It being the 75th Thaxted Ring Meeting there were many more Morris Men than usual.

Although I forgot to take a picture of Bob parked up and curtains drawn I did take some pictures of the dancing. They were taken on my mobile in poor light into the sun but they’re something! The picture on the right is of  Thaxted Morris Men in flight.

One of the things that happened again and again during the weekend was people wanting to talk about Bob and share their experiences with VW Campers. Almost universally their flaws are discussed openly and critically, but it’s in a jovial and fond way. I wonder how many other vehicles would illicit such a response.

After the first lot of dancing we headed back home for some excellent food before going back out for the evening session. The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance as danced by Thaxted Morris Men is amazing. Sadly it was on very late due to the large number of Morris Men dancing and H‘s legs couldn’t cope with more standing. We retired to Bob having missed the Horn Dance – an excellent excuse should one be needed to see it at the Patronal Festival later in the  month.

Our first night in Bob was…cosy. After A had informed us it had been really cold we took our thick sleeping bag. Going to bed in a couple of t-shirts and pyjama bottoms I was soon down to my boxers (sorry for the image!) and poor H was in the closed side of the sleeping bag and so cooked. There was also little escape either for her from my snoring. I have decided that Campers are designed for people of 50 years mechanical experience with the body dimensions and suppleness of a 10 year old! It was lovely camping out in her though, and a breakfast of Earl Grey/sterilising tablet tea and chocolate biscuits whilst sat on the bed was bliss!

We’d been invited over to a friend’s house on Sunday morning. We went round for a cuppa and ended up staying for a barbecue lunch. It was a wonderfully relaxing morning and it was perhaps this that led to our second accident of the weekend. The house has a very big, ‘lawned’  garden and the children present (six under the age of seven) had been given rides around the garden in a flat bed truck that was there to help move some furniture. When we eventually left in Bob the atmosphere of relaxed fun caused a rush of blood to the head and me deciding to play up to the crowd. So I didn’t turn Bob around out the front, I drove her around the back to do it. This went down very well until I misjudged the gap between the hedge and the swings and bent one of the seeing posts. I have apologised profusely and been generously forgiven. I shall now move on…

Sunday afternoon was spent in Margaret Gardens watching more dancing and doing a bit of country dancing ourselves. It was a bit too hot sat there, but we’d have been glad of it in the evening  as the wind picked up, the sun went down and our thinned blood demanded blanket around shoulders.

We headed home just as Bob’s lights were needed and were soon in bed sleeping/snoring. The weekend has given us a list of jobs to do (passenger door alignment, throttle pedal pin, fridge door catch etc.) and a taste of what it is to camp out in Bob. It may only have been on a front driveway but it was a start – the first night of many.