It’s that time of year again when we nip over to the NEC for The Motorhome and Caravan Show. This year I visited on behalf of a Derby based client, Hillside Leisure who create beautiful bespoke micro campers. After we built them a new Hillside Leisure website where they can upload details of the vans, I’ve […]
River Dart Country Park
We’ve just returned from a three night break at the River Dart Country Park Campsite and managed to go outside of the school holidays as the school had Thursday and Friday as inset days. We went in the campervan with two other families who were in a caravan and a tent (6 adults, 6 kids) – each […]
Road Trip around France
A couple of years ago I took our touring caravan across the ferry for a trip around France but due to the fact that towing a caravan from Derby to Poole takes so long (220 miles at 50 miles an hour) we decided to stay only 15 miles from Cherbourg in Normandy. This year we decided […]
UK Caravan Sites
Here are links to the sites we’ve visited in the last few years, some we’ve visited more than once and are planning on returning again this year. If you are planning on touring this year, have a browse through the links as they give you a good idea of the quality of the site. View […]
The New Three MiFi (Huawei E586)
Well I didn’t think they could improve on the older (second generation) Three MiFi, but I was wrong! This Huawei E586looks like sex on a stick! don’t you think? 😉 It now comes with a nice little cradle for docking the MiFi and is much faster as it uses HSPA+ Quoted speeds: Maximum Download Speed: […]
Motorhome & Caravan Show 2011
The show this year is running from today until Sunday (11-16 Oct) at the NEC Birmingham. We went on our annual pilgrimage today and as usual, here are a few shots taken and uploaded direct from the iPhone. The show is THE place to go to see the full range of caravans and motorhomes available […]
INOV8 12v Battery Charger
In the quest to run everything from 12v I needed the ability to recharge my camera batteries as well as other general purpose AA batteries. I found this product called INOV8 Universal li-ion Battery Charger on play.com for £11.99 delivered. It comes with a 12v car adapter and can be used to charge any lithium-ion battery including 3.6V,3.7V,7.2V […]
Twin USB and Twin 12v Adapter
This is a car twin 12v cigarette lighter power adapter supplied by Cables and Leads from Derby. When I’m away in the caravan I struggle with the limited 12v power sockets. This device will provide two USB sockets at 500mA and two further 12v cigarette lighter sockets which can be used with extra 12v to […]
Off-Grid Power Research
Once again I’m investigating ways of generating electricity off-grid (not necessarily green power). Part of the emphasis will be on mobility, this doesn’t mean it will fit in my pocket, but certainly could be used for living in a caravan, boat, tent or nuclear bunker 😉 The main point is to create electricity from a […]
Owning a Holiday Home at Ruda, Croyde
In all the years we have been coming to Ruda Holiday Park in Croyde Bay, North Devon we have dreamed of owning a holiday home here. Whenever we’ve asked about it we’ve been met with the response ‘no chance’ – this is because the park has a very low number of owner plots and they […]
On Tour with Social Hiking
Recently I’ve had a few conversations with Phil Sorrell (@DaylightGambler) about his geo-blogging site called Social Hiking (in alpha) and we’ve been discussing ways in which it could be used outside of hiking and for geo-event-blogging type of shizzle (see my post on The Social Media Portal). He’s amazingly pro-active and has already added extra geo-tagging services like Gowalla. I […]
Caravan & Motorhome Show 2010
This post will update throughout the day with live images 🙂 As usual, it was an amazing show. This year it even had a CAMRA Ale bar! I took the opportunity to sample a few ales as I was not driving and also try out a couple of electric bikes. You might […]
6.5W Folding Solar charger MMP4
This week I’ve been testing a portable folding solar panel. It’s called the “6.5W Folding Solar charger MMP4” it costs £110 and was provided on loan from @Select_Solar I’m trying to find a lightweight panel that can easily be carried and would provide a decent enough current to charge the Kensington USB battery (http://j.mp/df3uGI)This panel […]
Touring Caravan Energy Systems
If you grew up in the UK then a fairly high percentage of you will of been away in a caravan. I spent many a happy six week school holiday with my brother and sister totally off grid with only foot pumps for water and a gas bottle for light and heat. Things have got […]
Three MiFi Mobile WiFi
I’ve had my eye on a Three Mobile WiFi unit for a while, I managed to blag one of the original Three units from @Documentally which used my USB dongle but wasn’t battery powered. @ThreeMobileBuzz contacted me via twitter and asked if I would like to trial the new unit – luckily I was destined […]
Touring Caravan Freeview Reception
Not far from where I live, a company in Nottingham called Grade UK have been making antennas for caravans, motor homes and boats since the early 80’s at one time it seemed that their Omni-Directional antenna (flying saucer) could be seen on all UK caravans. With the advent of Freeview, Omni-Directional antennas just haven’t […]
Energizer Rechargeable Solar Flip
As mentioned in the video above, this is an AA or AAA battery charger from Energizer. It comes with an AC adaptor but also a solar panel to recharge your batteries. The pack also includes 2 x 2000mAh rechargeable Energizer batteries and feels quite solid with a rubberised finish. It claims to be […]
Caravan & Motorhome Show 2009
As you may of noticed from a few live uploads earlier, we went to the Caravan and Motorhome Show at the NEC today. Here are a load of iPhone snaps of the kit on show … the most expensive motorhome we saw today was £187k … Crazy machines! You might also like … Motorhome & Caravan […]
Roaming into France
Bonsoir … I’m in France and wanted to jot down a few of my experiences with roaming data and costs. As we sailed out on the ferry leaving Poole Harbour, the first thing I noticed was how far the O2 signal stretched. It seemed I could still twitpic at no extra cost (on the iPhone […]
Touring Caravan Kit
So at the start of 2009 I’ve been thinking about last year and the touring Caravan we bought in March 2008. We have been thinking about where we might go in 2009 and what extra kit we might need. When I first got ‘the van’ I was totally unprepared for the onslaught of kit required […]
Caravan & Motorhome Show 2008
People on my facebook account have asked what the hell was going on at the weekend with all the live postings of caravans and motorhomes! … well, we went to the NEC in Birmingham for the Caravan & Motorhome Show – it was pretty good with a lot of nice new stuff for the kids […]
Hillhead Holiday Park Caravan Club Site
We had Hillhead Caravan Site pre-booked for months and was really looking forward to spending two weeks there – I’m glad to say we were not disappointed! After the 250mile trip we arrived at the site and found the entry layout to be very clearly marked with two lanes for arrivals and one lane for […]
Hawthorn Farm Caravan Club Site
We had a week here in May 2008 and I really liked the site. Initial booking and reception was very friendly. Pitches are half hard standing and half grass – we selected grass. We had two options for Water, waste and bins from our pitch. The wardens were driving around regularly in their tractor and […]
Blackwall Plantation Caravan Club Site
First impression of the site was how nice it was to be surrounded by pine trees. Most of the site is hard standing, but we wanted grass – it was roasting hot and it seemed no-one else wanted grass! we got a great spot in front of the under 5 play area – not so […]