We finally got off our butts and left Bournemouth to go on a mini-road trip. The plan was to drive to Dartmoor national park, which was only 2.5 hours away. We left at 10.30am and somehow didn’t arrive until 3.30pm!

First up, we had to stop at Lidl to stock up on supplies. We met a lady in there who was trying to find her husband. He’d completely disappeared on her. She was worried he got lost as he was wearing new glasses.

As we did our shop, we kept seeing her, looking flustered. ‘Have you found him yet?’ we’d ask.

Then we found ourselves at the same checkout. She’d finally found him.

I commented that his new glasses looked nice, and he looked at me like I was a weirdo. Only in England will you have random conversations in the supermarket with strangers.

Anyway, loaded up with “stuff” we headed on our way. By now the traffic had gotten bad. Did I mention we are going away in the school holidays? You may think ‘big deal’, but in the UK, with such a huge population, usually all the campgrounds are booked out well in advance.

And they don’t have freedom camping like we do at home. But we had a plan, which I’ll tell you about shortly.

We had no choice but to stick to the main roads, as it would take two days via the back roads. As it turned out, it took us most of the day anyway. There weren’t many places to stop along the road and any lay-bys had lots of trucks and cars parked on them.

So I diverted off the main road into Puddletown forest. This was more our kind of road. Narrow and rutted. Thankfully we didn’t have to drive too far to find a little lunch spot tucked in the forest.

After that, we headed back on the main road for a short way before heading off through Lyme Regis, which sounds like a tasty dessert. But all we could find were lots of people, so we got out of there quick. Still, it was nice to be off the main road for a bit.

Then came the interesting part. Google tried to send us on a motorway. It was disguised on Google maps as the Devon Expressway, but it looked suspiciously like a motorway to us. So Mike swerved, narrowly avoiding it, and took the back roads.

I swore I wouldn’t do this again, but they had trimmed the hedgerows at an angle, so Berties side mirror was safe. But… Google Maps kept trying to send us back onto that Devon Expressway. So I had to do some navigation work, zooming into find alternative roads.

Then I saw the Old Exeter Road. That will do! But when we got there, Mike looked at it and said, ‘It’s too narrow.’

I said, ‘It’s this way or a expressway.’

So we took the Old Exetor Road. And actually, despite it only being 1 lane all the way through, it wasn’t too bad. Not a hedgerow to be seen. Lots of walking trails and bridleways too.

But we powered on through to the campground we had booked. Now, I hear you ask, how did we manage to book a campground at last minute during school holidays?

Well, it’s an adults only campground. I know, it sounds dodgy, but it’s actually a thing. Not a dodgy thing, just a thing. A place you can camp that’s not packed with noisy kids running around. (At least I hope that’s what is is. People here do seem incredibly friendly.) I’m just thankful I managed to steer Mike away from the campgrounds he likes.

Anyway, it’s quite nice here for a camping ground. The toilets and showers are clean, , there is toilet paper AND seats. (this is how I now judge a campground.) And there aren’y too many people.

There’s a man camping next to us who has been living here in his van (same size as ours) for 3 months while he waits for a house purchase to settle. I do wonder why he has been staying put in one spot instead of travelling. Maybe I’ll ask him.

After bacon and eggs for dinner, we went for a ten minute walk through the forest next to the camp and came back an hour later. It was just so nice out we wanted to keep walking. That was it.

It was world cup semi-final day and we’d planned to watch the England-Argentina game at 8pm.

But then the worst possible thing happened. The power went out at 7pm. I have a feeling this was on purpose as my team never wins important games when I am watching. I’m a jinx like that. But I did feel sorry for the people being called out to fix the power and missing out on watching it.

So instead, we sat outside and played a game with the kids where it was cooler. That’s one way to get them off their devices!

By 9pm, there was still no power, so we went to the van. I had a message from brother Paul saying: “Go ENGLAND!”

‘Oh, they’ve scored a goal,’ I said to Mike. ‘Let’s go watch the rest of the game at the pub.’

Mike screwed his nose up. We’d been up the road earlier before the game started and the pub had been heaving with people and loud music playing and it looked like a real party vibe.

‘Come on, it’ll be fun,’ I said. Reluctantly he agreed.

But as soon as we arrived, Argentina scored a goal. 1-1. I felt really bad, and realised it was probably all my fault. But, instead of walking away like I should have done, we stayed to watch, standing on the street with a hundred other people. Except we were the only sober ones. And possibly the security guards.

Then Argentina scored again. I knew at this point I REALLY should have walked away, but I really wanted to see England come back. They didn’t. And I take full responsibility. Sorry.

When we got back to the van, I checked to see if there was an update on the power coming back on. The website said they would attempt to get the power back on by… Friday? I looked at my watch. It was only Wednesday. There was a major underground outage. Oops. Oh well, guess the people working on it were probably happy they missed the game.

Today I had an email from my rental agent with the fire report attached and just a single line in the email from her. Cause is on the last page.

So. obviously I skipped to the last page and scanned it, expecting an elaborate write-up or even a paragraph of the cause. But hidden deep in the page I found what I was looking for. And it was only 5 words.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. I had to read, re-read, gave it to Mike to read, asked chatGPT to interpret, then read again.

This is what was written:

People playing with heat sources

At 3am! WTF! I scanned a bit more and a butane cylinder had exploded. This made me very angry as it was their own stupidity that burned my house down.

Then I saw another email from my insurance company that pissed me off. 

Can you please give me the details we requested from you in previous emails.

What??? There were no previous emails. And why send me an email asking for details without actually forwarding the other emails so I know what details you want? They are not inspiring me with confidence.

Grrrr. I’d have to wait for the evening to call them. 

The other dramas of the day. Ems has a very sore elbow, so bad that she couldn’t straighten it, and a bony bit seemed to be popping out. So she went to the hospital for x-rays. 

Meanwhile we were in charge of picking Jessie up from school. But first we had to make a stop at a game store because Eddie wanted to sell his Nintendo gamecube. He was hoping to get 75 pounds. They offered him 30. So then we continued on to pick up Jessie.

We felt very important, waiting outside the school with all the other parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties. But we didn’t know which door to wait outside. So Mike stood outside one, and I stood outside the other. I chose correctly! And they let her go off with the woman with the strange accent!

Back at the house we heard back from Ems and her x-ray. Thankfully it’s not broken and she has been diagnosed with Tennis elbow. Even though she doesn’t play tennis. But we did play table tennis the other day, so maybe that did it!

Anyway. ouch. So she’ll need to keep it rested until it heals.

Other than that, it is still hot, but it’s a nice heat without that cloying African dust in it.

We’ve decided to head back to Bournemouth and try to deal with this fire claim and neither of us really felt like going away now.

Before leaving camp this morning we went for a walk in the New Forest. It’s a really nice area and all flat too (unless you are cycling). Then we headed off and took the scenic detour on the way home.

Our first stop was Buckler’s Hard, which has some interesting history. It was originally planned as a port for importing sugar from the West Indies, but for some reason that idea never happened. So instead it became one of Britain’s most important shipbuilding villages.

They cut down oak trees from the New Forest to build the ships, and it could take thousands of mature oaks to build a single one!

Don’t ask me why it’s called Buckler’s Hard because I’ll probably come up with something rude.

After that, we headed to Milford on Sea, where we managed to find free parking overlooking the water. It’s virtually impossible to find any free parking in the New Forest, so we were pretty happy.

There’s a spit that leads out to Hurst Castle and a lighthouse, so we went for a walk. It was incredibly windy, so we had to hang onto our hats. And the thick gravel was really hard to walk on. But we made it almost all the way to the castle before we’d had enough and turned around.

It was a really neat area, with the Solent and the Isle of Wight on one side, and the marshes full of windsurfers on the other. The Isle of Wight was so close it felt like we could kayak to it. Except we don’t have a kayak.

After that we headed back to Bournemouth. Not sure what’s happening over the next few days.

I had a bit of shocking news this morning. I had an email from our rental agent in NZ saying there had been a fire in our Cassidy St property. 

Thankfully everyone is alright, but the fire apparently started in the garage and spread to the house. It’s currently not liveable and the tenants have moved out. Scary stuff. Now I have to try and organise an insurance claim from the other side of the world. 

It doesn’t help either, that we’re in a dead zone in the New Forest with no phone or internet coverage. But luckily we have our Starlink, which we usually only put out twice a day to check messages.

Anyway, that put a bit of a dampener on the day. So we spent most of the morning trying to find out more details. Barry knew more that the agent had told us, so that was enough to lodge a claim with the insurance.

After lunch we decided to go into Lyndhurst to do some shopping and find a toilet. But a Sunday afternoon in Lyndhurst was heaving, and it was all paid parking, which was all full. So, I jumped out of the car while we were stuck in traffic to run into the Tesco, while Mike drove around the block. Then, I jumped back in the car, and we got out of there, fast!

But we both still needed a toilet. So I navigated to a pub in Ashurst, about 10 mins away, which had a free carpark. Everyone was inside eating their Sunday lunch, so I ran in and went to the toilet while Mike ordered two Guinesses. 12 pounds for two guinesses! That’s $28 NZD! That was a VERY expensive toilet break.

But, we are enjoying our time in the New Forest. Apart from bad news from home, it is quite relaxing.

We’ve decided to spend a few days camping in the New Forest. As I said yesterday, it’s not actually new. It was created as a royal hunting ground by William the Conqueror nearly a thousand years ago. But, I guess a thousand years ago it was new.

But thankfully, no hunting these days, just a load of horses and cows roaming freely. They belong to local families with grazing rights that have been passed down through the centuries.

It was a gorgeous place to wake up, so quiet and surrounded by nature. A couple of horses wandered by, a robin came to visit, and it was just so calm.

It’s a primitive camp with no toilets. But there is a dump station and fresh water, so that feels like a luxury. You know you’re a vanlifer when a tap and somewhere to empty the toilet feels five-star.

And the best part? We are right on all the cycle trails. So this morning we headed off on a ride to Beaulieu.

The cycle trails are mostly on gravel, but it’s decent gravel, good enough for our slick tyres. There was one point where it got a bit deep and slippery going downhill, but the rest was fine.

That last bit was on a main road down a steep hill with loads of traffic. I wasn’t keen on that bit. Not so much the traffic but the steep uphill we’d have to cycle on the way back.

It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Beaulieu, and what a neat little town. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful river with the old abbey reflected in the water.

But we were hungry. I was drawn by the pub, but Mike spotted the Beaulieu Bakehouse. It was full of cyclists, which usually means the food’s good… or they’re all knackered. But we thought, why not?

We both ordered bacon, egg, and hash brown on a brioche bun, and it was the most delicious bacon and egg bap I’ve ever had. I suspect they snuck in a bit of hollandaise on there too, as it was sooooo tasty. Proper bacon too, probably from a local farm.

But by this time it was proper hot. (Actually, it was already hot at 9 am when we left.) And we now had to cycle back. What were we thinking?

And first we had to tackle that steep hill on the main road. And as it was now lunchtime, the main road was even mainer! Thankfully there was a slight edge we could walk on as we pushed our bikes up. There were plenty of other bikes on the road holding the cars up, so we didn’t feel entirely responsible.

I was pretty heat-stressed by the time we got back to camp. I used to love the heat, but somewhere along the way that stopped. I’m not sure when.

But… we have a shower I’ve just been itching to use. So I grabbed it out, filled up a bucket of water, and plugged it in.

Nothing.

Tried another power socket.

Dead.

Shower doesn’t work.

Brilliant.

We’d been carrying this thing around for two years for absolutely nothing.

So, I did the next best thing. Grabbed a cup, dipped it in the bucket of water, and poured water over my head and all over me. It was absolute bliss!

Then I talked Mike into giving it a go. He’s not so keen on cold showers, but the water was almost tepid. Even he enjoyed it, and we felt so much better afterwards, with all the stickyness now seeping into the ground. Don’t worry, we didn’t use soap.

We had a vegetable stir-fry for dinner and a couple of zero beers. Perfect!

Today was the day we were heading off on our UK adventures, but things didn’t get off to the best start. 

The plan was for an early start, but first Mike had to go and get some keys cut for the house. He got back, and none of the keys worked. So he had to walk back into to town to get them cut again.

By the time he was done it was lunchtime, so we had some lunch before leaving. But it was already really hot and we didn’t know where to go, we just knew we didn’t want to drive far. 

So I asked chatGpt for advice. He suggested the New Forest, a mere 50 minutes away. I found a couple of primitive campgrounds, so we made a booking before we left.

But did it take us 50 minutes to get there? Of course not.

First, we needed to stop and get supplies. We stopped at a supermarket in Ringwood. We’d just finished paying when one of our bottles of beer fell out of the pack and landed right on Mike’s foot, exploding into glass and beer everywhere.

We were too scared to move in case we cut our feet on the glass (we were wearing jandals). Mikes foot was already oozing blood all over the floor.

The staff came rushing over armed with paper towels, and started throwing them on the floor. Glass had spread all across the self-checkout area and I feared for other peoples safety. Then the first aid man came to check on Mikes foot. He led him away, sat him down, looked at his foot and realised it wasn’t that bad.

But he gave us loads of antiseptic wipes to wipe away the glass from our feet and jandals. It was actually quite traumatic and a little bit amusing.

Anyway, that took care of another hour or so. Then I decided to navigate the back roads. Remind me NEVER to do this in England again. I remembered last year when we tried this and we lost our wing-mirror on a cheeky hedgerow. 

And I feared it happening again. Why are the roads so fricking narrow? And why do they insist on planting hedges right on the edge of the road? Anyway, after a lot of swearing and pushing on my imaginary brakes, we made it to the New Forest campground.

We found a beautiful spot to camp beneath the shade of ancient oak trees. The New Forest isn’t actually new… but more about that tomorrow.

It was still in the low 30s, so we just chilled out for the afternoon. It was too hot to cook, so we made an avocado, salad and pickled onion wrap with a squeeze of aioli. It was surprisingly delicious!