Easter in Kent

This weekend me and Mrs Blakey took the van off to Kent for Easter.   The weather forecast was shocking but we couldn't wait to try out the van with all the latest upgrades!

We packed up the usual camping stuff in boxes in the back of the van, all held in with bungees and set out on Friday morning.  We arrived at the campsite at Manor Court Farm in the pouring rain and were shown to our pitch.  As we had ordered a mains hook up we were directed to the 'tennis court', which appeared to be an overgrown field which was once a tennis court.   We were there with a lovely looking splitty and no one else.  The rain had driven everyone else away.

A quick check with the spirit level showed the old tennis court was flat as a pancake so we parked with the side door furthest from the gale and rains and popped the roof.

A few minutes later we had all the boxes unpacked, the front seats swivelled, the mains hookup connected, the table up and we were settling in.  Kettle was put on, tea was made, cookies were opened - and we were on holiday.  

It was lovely to just pop the roof rather than have to faff about pitching a tent - especially as it was chucking it down outside at the time.

That evening we went to the pub and on returning had our first experience of sleeping in the roof.  It was a little tight in there and the matress was not very comfortable, but it was still easier than a tent.  It was very cold though but it was only just above freezing outside so was no worse than a tent would have been.

The next day we headed into Tunbridge Wells.  Sorry, I mean Royal Tunbridge Wells. Very posh.  It took us a while to find any normal shops. All we could find were expensive boutiques, expensive cafes and estate agents that advertised houses with no prices.  You know - the sort of place that if you have to ask the price you can't afford it.   Lovely place though.   Oh and eventually we tracked down a camping shop and even a surf shop.  Not bad.

From there we set off to Bewl Water to have lunch - sandwiches from Tesco.  It's supposed to be quite lovely there but when we got to the car park it was going to try and charge us £4 per person just to park up.   Seemed a bit steep and as there was Scotney Castle, a National Trust castle about 200m away we figured we'd go and park there for free (we're members) and have our lunch there instead.

Whilst there we took a stroll around the two houses and the grounds as the sun made a rare appearance for the afternoon.

That evening we took advantage of the major reason for going to Manor Court Farm - the fact they let you light your own fires in the grounds.  There's not much that beats a few ales and a real fire outdoors. Sweet.

The next day, Sunday, we headed off to another local attraction, Bodiam Castle.   This is a really impressive place. A 12th century construction that has survived pretty much intact to this day.   I'm a great fan of olde english historical buildings and this place ticked all the boxes for me.  Loved it.

Oh and the fact we could pull up in the car park, pop the roof up on the van and sit and eat our sandwiches and put on a quick cuppa somehow made it all the more enjoyable.  We're determined to use the roof like that every chance we can!

This weekend we really had a chance to trial the new additions to the van.  Overall I'm happy as Larry about the changes we've made.  Sitting in the back of the van at night with the thermal screens on the windows, sipping a hot cuppa which we'd made on our gas hob, with built in LEDs providing the light, tunes from our iPod plugged into a normal 240v socket and thinking of the bottle of white chilling in the 12v powered coolbox in the cabinet next to me, really made me feel like I was in a fully kitted out campervan. 

Yet I got home, put the camping boxes in the shed and suddenly have a normal van I'm going to drive to the office tomorrow morning.  And it's all ready for me to throw surf boards and mountain bikes in the back without destroying all that furniture you'd have in there if it was a real campervan.

And I think it looks pretty cool too.

Stoked.