Somerset in September

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My humans are back again. For a change I thought I’d write this blog instead of letting them do it. Let me introduce myself, I’m a Bailey Pursuit 560-5 and I own two humans. They normally come to visit me on their own, on one occasion though they did bring their two grown up daughters with them. I don’t have a name, they don’t seem to name their belongings, apart from Louis, their tandem, who for some reason, has been named after one of the chimps in the PG Tips adverts. We are just the Volvo and the Bailey to them. The Volvo is full to busting. Must mean we are off for a good few days this time. Normally they travel quite light for our regular 2 night trips out. Hopefully we are off somewhere quiet. Having around 300 ‘vans on the storage site doesn’t give me much peace and quiet.

My fridge is on and packed. They lift my legs and hitch me up to the Volvo and off we rumble. The storage site is looking quite empty considering the kids are back at school this week.

Heading towards Basingstoke we then aimed towards the M4. Looks like they are taking me further afield than normal. Quick service stop, they obviously need a wee and some grub. Out comes my step, not grabbing a quick McDonalds then. In they hop and settle themselves down with a chicken wrap! My, they are being good. It won’t last. My female wanders over to the service station for the loos, claiming she needs the steps for her Fitbit. Bet she doesn’t have many days reaching her step goals on this trip. My male doesn’t care about the steps. Into my bathroom he goes. Complaining that my wastemaster is In his way.

Off we go again. Turning onto the M5 they head me towards Weston Super Mare. They decide to turn me into the tightest single track roads all uphill, I hope we don’t meet anyone coming the other way.

Tight left turn, God I hope he remembers I’m behind him. Gorselands Caravan Club CL is signposted, we must be here. We head left to the Caravan Club side of the site. Another field, with a fair few trees, for C&CC members meanders to the right, I’m glad we aren’t going over to that side, they gave me a good scrub a couple of weeks ago and with tree cover comes sap and bird droppings, non of which I want on my squeaky clean roof. I do have a fair few dead flies from the trip splattered on my front window, I hope they spot them and give it a wash.

The CC side is quite a large space with room for 5 ‘vans. There are 2 already here with pitches looking onto the distant coast line of Weston Super Mare. They choose a pitch also looking out to the coastline with views of Newport, Cardiff and the Breacon Beacons in the far distance on a clear day, I think I’ll settle here.

My feet are lowered into soft grass. My male goes in search of the wooden blocks he has used in the past. With a bit of cursing he realises that on the last service they went into the garage and must still be there. Probably along with the map book he is grumbling about.
My female goes exploring and comes back with a face on, northern term meaning she’s not happy. Announcing that she isn’t keen on the loos and having to pay 20p for hot water. There are only 2 unisex bathrooms between the CC & C& CC and what with them being a little bit old and having to do the walk of shame with loo roll in hand, it isn’t provided here, she is being a bit of a grump. I’m not sure why, my bathroom is lovely and my shower is really good. After elefooting about for a bit she decides my facilities will be used for her daily ablutions. Not sure why it took her so long to decide really, it’s my male that does all the emptying.

Couple of nights in and she’s complaining about the bed. They’ve turned my end dinette into a permanent bed and she’s moaning it’s giving her a bad back. I think if they take me away for weeks on end like they keep threatening the cushions will be in the garage and a mattress in situ. To keep her happy my male takes the bed to pieces and does some tetris with my cushions.

It’s blowing a hoolie outside and they are talking about taking a trip into Weston Super Mare. Looks like I’ll be able to have a bit of peace and quiet whilst they are gone. Maybe even a little snooze.

They’re back, full of chat about the walk along the front that blew the cobwebs away. My female wanted a walk along the Grand Pier and is still going on about how she won’t pay a £1 for the pleasure. She is so tight. Saying every penny not spent is going into the running away fund. Instead of walking on the pier it sounds like they walked under it. Wierdos.

Sounds like they liked the prom don’t think they were blown away with the town. They did nip into a well known burger bar for a cup of tea and some wifi. I think the digital detox that the site is making her endure is killing her.
The wind is still howling round the site and battering my awning and shaking me to the point I feel that if I could be sick I would. Any drop in the wind brings the insects out, all clammering to get into my awning. Little feet tickling my roof as they bat around aimlessly. Point to note, my front window still bears the fly road kill from my journey here.

They are talking about visiting the Camperex Motorhome Show at Bath and West Showground. Is there something I should know? Why would they go to a Motorhome show? The weather wasn’t looking too good when they left and true to form and my female not liking the rain, they weren’t gone long. Grumbling about the majority of the stock being second hand when they wanted to see the new models. Not to mention moaning about the rain. I’ve heard them talking about their dream of travelling the UK and Europe, feeling a little bit left out to think I may not be part of those plans.

The female slept well last night after even more cushion Tetris. I’ve no idea how she slept through the storm that spent the night trying to blow my awning inside out and throwing an unbelievable amount of rain at us. One consolation, it washed the flies off my front window.

They are discussing whether to go and watch The Tour of Britain. It’s in Bristol today so not far for them in the car. The male changed a headlight bulb and off they went. On their return, headlight bulb has blown again, all they can talk about is how close they got and what great views they got from the Clifton Suspension Bridge built in the 19th century. A giant screen had been placed at the top of the Mall showing the race in full. They said it was a lovely atmosphere with people partying and drinking champagne whilst watching Rohan Dennis win yesterday’s stage of the race. The weather stayed nice for them, thankfully, some moaning would have had to have been listened to if she’d got wet.

On their return the female produced packs of 3M Command Hooks that she had been planning to deface my lovely walls and doors with. She reassured me and the male that the sticky pads that fastened the hooks to my walls could be removed leaving no mess behind. Off she set. Hooks up for towels, coats even on the inside of one of my cupboard doors for cooking utensils, I do like the idea of those being hung neatly. They are too big for one of my drawers and take up valuable room in one of my cupboards. An hour after hanging the hooks they were ready for the test drive. I must admit they do seem to be a good idea, freeing up lots of cupboard space. With lots of different sizes and weight bearing limits they do seem to tick lots of boxes.

Hottest day of September since 1911 scorches the UK with temperatures registering 32 degrees over towards Gatwick. Whilst I’m sitting here in North Somerset with the rain beating down on me, lightning flashing and thunder booming all around. I must admit sitting atop Bleadon Hill in such a storm did make me wonder how safe my humans and I were. The final remains of fly road kill were washed away with gusto. My awning roof bulged under an ever increasing puddle, causing my female to go out there with a plastic ladle pushing the water off from inside. My groundsheet has started squelching underfoot. All they can do is sit, steaming cups of tea in hand, staring out of the window. I’m sure they’ve seen rain before. The storm rumbles on above for a few hours causing major downpours on and off. Suddenly we’re forced to go ‘off grid’. The storm has caused a power cut. My fridge is hastily flicked onto gas. Off goes the male to seek out the owner to be told the entire area is down and they aren’t sure how long for. Quite funny watching a neighbouring house with electric gates unable to let a visitor in. We’ll be fine. I can look after my humans without electricity.

After the rain came the slugs. Hundreds of the little blighters. All mooching around my steadies. Heaven forbid how I’ll feel if one crawls up my leg.

The next day brought wall to wall sunshine. My awning has been unpegged and allowed to blow in the breeze. This normally means one thing. Nearly time to go home. The awning is packed away, it’s nice to feel the sunshine on my walls. Still relatively clean after the storm, I settle back to rest and sparkle in the afternoon sunshine.

They choose to sit. Feet up, facing the sun. Bottles of beer in hand. They start to chat. Plans for a long trip next summer, sounds too like I’m included in the action. They’ve booked me in for a service too towards they end of the year. That’ll be fun watching them empty my belongings.

Would I come again? I feel for the price of the site the shower/facilities should be more appealing and loo roll, soap and hand drying a must. Lack of wifi, 4G and intermittent phone signal also a bit of a negative for the price. Lovely peaceful site but very windy. I’ve enjoyed looking after my humans here but feel for £18 a night they deserve some luxuries for this price and that it’s quite costly for just EHU and chemical disposal as they didn’t use the toilets and showers.