Matilda goes Mobile

After a short drive we arrived at our Christmas venue. Matilda is now our mobile bedroom for a couple of days while we spend a couple of days with our son and his family.

When it was time to turn in on Christmas Eve I for some reason decided to take the cat with us so that he would not be tapping on the door in the middle of the night. The cat took some pursuading and took a few chucks out of my arm. Once in he surveyed the whole van and made himself at home on the drivers captain's chair. 

Christmas Day morning there was a loud knocking on the door of Matilda at about 7.00am , with instructions to get in the house to open the presents. Later, well about 9.00am our other son arrived and it all started again. The rest of Christmas Day well and plenty of food and drink was consumed. We were introduced to the game Pie Face which the grandchildren loved although after the first pie in the face they wanted to continue their turns without the cream.

We went back to Matilda at about 23.00hrs and with a few minutes the cat was under the van meowing, as soon as I opened the door he was in and spent some time climbing all over the bed until finally going to the drivers chair.

We had an almighty storm during the night along with high winds. The van was parked outside the house but exposed to the full force of the wind and rain. The cat woke me at 5.00am and I got up to let him out but he saw what the weather was like and came back in. Half an hour later he is pawing the sofa so I get up and put him out, it has stopped raining but the wind has got up, I see the Sebastopol heater controls are flashing although the heating is off. I spend the next 2 hrs listening to the wind and worrying about the flashing lights. When I got up at 7am the heater control panel lights had stopped flashing but it wasn't until 9.00am that I realised the flashing lights were because the temperature around the boiler had fallen below 6' at which temp the auto drain valve opens to drain the boiler even though it had been emptied before we left home. I let out a sigh of relief that nothing was broken and spent Boxing Day with the grandchildren even though I was suffering from a little too much booze Christmas Day. 

We packed the van and left after lunch so that we could check our pony although our neighbour had made sure he had water and I had extended his paddock before we left on Christmas Eve.

One last Trip with Matilda

Two Auto-Trails in Mining Country

 Here we are parked in front of our friend Peter waiting for Gary and Carol to arrive. It took just over an hour to get here from home. The sun is out and we were soon set up on a pitch infront of Peter.

Gary and Carol arrived at about 3pm and after getting them some tea and coffee we left them to set up.

Once we were all set up the call of the Wild was pulling us towards the hills. Well we went for a short walk with our friends and then back to the camp site, a quick cup of tea and we went back to Matilda.
Sue had made a curry which just needed heating along with some Naan breads. The rice was a special microwave variety that Carol was going to heat because we do not have a microwave although Iona will have one but that will be another blog.

Supper went well and we left our friends early because they were both looking tired, Gary had been on nights and was ready for some sleep.

Dog walking field

The path to the Top of the Spoil Heap

 Day 2

Woken by heavy rain at about 5.30am, dosed until 8.00am when I gave in and got up. Sue went across to Carols for breakfast but I gave it a miss. Later Peter dropped by for a chat and he gave us some directions on where to go for a walk. Gary came over for soup and a roll and then we went for a walk.

Opposite the campsite is the site of the old Silverhill Colliery that closed in 1992. All the spoil heaps have been landscaped and planted with deciduous trees and conifers as a timber crop.
At the top of the largest hill is a sculpture of a miner and several plaques remembering the colliery and it's history.
Spectacular views although it was a dull day but what a transformation of Spoil Heaps.

Testing for Gas

The Compass on the Summit

A sad list of the Mines and when they closed, (upto 2005).

On a good day you can see 5 counties

One of several marked trails aroung the 115 hectare site.

 After the long walk we retired back to Matilda and Gaz went to his van to check on Carol. Later we all came together for supper. By 9.30pm we said our goodbyes and returned to Matilda to find that Carol's clock in their caravan was still on summertime and it was only 8.30pm. We  contacted Peter next door and arranged to visit him with bottle of the red stuff. It was a really good weekend and made better on Sunday when it was warm and fine while we all packed and headed for home, except Peter who was staying on for a few more days.

The Super Moon Climbing over Matilda

This will be the last trip in Matilda. December and January are normally hibernation months where we don't go anywhere, although we may use her as a mobile bedroom and visit one of our son's over Christmas. Then in theory we will collect Iona in January and a new chapter and adventures start all over again.

Time for a Change

Our old Motorhome - Matilda

We have had an Auto-Trail called Matilda for two years and we have written a blog about her travels. https://matildastravels.wordpress.com/

Now we have got used to this new adventure we want a slightly bigger Motorhome with a different layout. Auto-Trail were launching a new range for 2017 and we liked one of the models so we went to Brownhills in Newark where they were having a launch weekend. We looked at the model we favoured , talked at length to a salesman who said Brownhills would give us the best deal and we went home to think about it.

Two weeks later the Lincoln Motorhome show was held at Lincoln showground, all the major manufacturers were going to be there so we decided a trip was in order and we went along for another look. The model we were interested in was on the Spinney stand and we had several looks around the vehicle and interogated a salesman about all the features. He offered to give us a rough quote on a part exchange with our current motorhome. We got the quote from the dealer and then drove to Brownhills at Newark to place the order, however Brownhills were miles away from the offer we had at the show. It was disappointing because Brownhills are the nearest Auto-Trail dealer, but not too distraught we walked back to our car which was in their car park. We sat in the car and had a chat about the offers.

Having decided that we wanted to go for the new model we rang the Spinney salesman at the Lincoln motorhome show. He confirmed the offer and we placed the order for our new Motorhome over the phone, an Auto-Trail Imala 734. The rough translation of Imala in Native American is 'She Who Knows'

The new Motorhome - Iona

Iona is now on order and the provisional delivery date is in January 2017. Why Iona? Well while chatting about the new purchase the phrase, 'I-own-a Motorhome ' came up, so Iona was chosen as the name for our next motorhome.