October In Sussex

This weekend we took delivery of our new California.  A 2011 Facelift model with the 140 bhp manual engine, in silver.   And how pleased are we?   The Cali is everything we hoped it would be - comfortable, warm, spacious, cosy, practical and most of all fun!    We took it down to the Ship and Anchor Marina campsite and pub in Ford, near Arundel and spent Saturday night there.

The new Cali camped up in Sussex

The Ship and Anchor is a nice site - spacious (at this time of year) and quiet.  The facilities are old but clean and they have pretty much everything you need there - including a handy pub on site.  We only stayed one night and it was fine.   The river Arun runs alongside, although there are no views over it from the site, we were able to get to the river side path through a side access off the site - nice and easy.   From there we took the hour stroll into Arundel.

Unfortunately we didn't spend any time in Arundel as we were late for a lunch meet with some other Cali owners back at the campsite.   We'd rate the site as 7/10 and would probably go back.

Sunday was a fun lunchtime.  We met up with John, Britt, Martin and Lorraine and their families, from the California forums.  It was a little unusual meeting complete strangers who you'd never have known or spoken to if not for our mutual ownership of a car, but it was actually a load of fun.   We stopped in the Ship and Anchor, after a bit of faffing to find a suitable venue, and enjoyed a really tasty Sunday lunch and a few hours chatting about holidays, camping, shows, trips and of course the California.   They're really nice people and it was great to meet them all.   Hopefully we'll see them again in the future.

From there we whizzed home and have just unpacked as the Cali goes back into the Stealers on Wednesday for a full valet and to have an application of Shield Guard thrown over it - which apparently protects the inside and out from dirt and grease.   It was an extra the garage agreed to throw in after some haggling and we hope it will be as good as it sounds.

The next time we'll be camping in the van we'll be on our way to Portugal!