Cornwall - The full story!

Sorry for the delay in this post my main car decided it didn't like it's clutch anymore and wanted a new one so have been kept busy over the weekend changing that!

So Cornwall,

Friday evening came and the mad rush to get everything into the van and gone was well underway, somehow nothing was left behind and we got on the road in good time.

Amazingly the M26 and M25 were free flowing which was a miracle!

The journey went well albeit slowly!  We had a 9pm deadline to get to the campsite at Stonehenge and 8.55pm we arrived, phew!  Some of my friends live not far from the campsite so we managed to meet up with them a a local pub which was a nice end to the day.  That night was quite chilly (so I was told, I had to throw the covers off every now and again!) and Amy didn't get much sleep which didn't help in the morning!

We set off after a quick bite to eat and a shower for Cornwall another two or so hours away.  Again nothing on the road so a brilliant poodle towards our next stop at Tintagel, we arrived at the campsite amazed at the views around and decided to stop for two nights here.
A two minute walk from the campsite and we were greeted with the below view!

We had arranged to meet up with one of Amy's friends on the Sunday so Saturday was our day to explore the coast a bit and Tintagel itself.  With a scrumptious lunch in our bellies I begrudgingly followed Amy around the various local shops Tintagel had to offer.  After what seemed like forever we headed back to the campsite to start preparing dinner, out first try at using our new "Cadac Safari Chef" grill.  Chicken fajitas were on the menu for dinner and boy were they nice.  Sunshine, warm evening and spicy chicken not much more a man needs!  As the stars started to come out we retreated into the van for a marathon game of Scrabble, Amy once again defeated me in style I'm sure it was along the lines of 241 - 83!
We slept a lot better that night almost 11 hours...

Whilst waiting for Jane to arrive on Sunday Amy entertained herself with the resident hen...

 Monday morning came and we set off for our next stop in St Minver only a little drive away.  We managed to get a brilliant spot on the campsite, a large section of the campsite had long term caravan's parked up but fortunately their owners were not staying that weekend!

Monday was spent walking from the campsite to Rock and then we got the ferry across to Padstow, If you are planning on staying at Dinham Farm Caravan & Camping Park we would suggest you do the walk to Rock and Padstow, it was just stunning the whole way there and back but make sure you allow enough time!

The original plan was to stay at Polzeath on Tuesday night and then do the whole return journey on the Wednesday but we thought that might have been too much in one go, so Tuesday morning we went to Polzeath as it was glorious sunshine and watched the surfers for a couple of hours during which we had a massive American style breakfast on the beach!  

With the sun still shining we started the slow journey back but with a slight detour to The New Forest where we made our last camp.  We thought for good practice we should just try and find a campsite rather than using the internet to find one, we headed off the dual carriageway and into The New Forest.  We lucked onto a really nice campsite on the northern edge of the forest which luckily had two spaces left!

 We had a slight slope on our pitch so for the first time we broke out the levelling chocks that had come with the van and almost got her level, almost!
Amy was desperate to try out the roasting pan that came with the "Cadac" so we went for an easy option roast to begin with, although we cheated slightly and did chicken breast it was still easy peasey so roast beef is next on the list!

With our last morning upon us we sadly began our final journey home, the whole way Amelie had been behaving herself but so wanted to make things interesting so just past Fleet services on the M3 the temperature gauge stopped working.  Not a problem as she hadn't once got hot the entire time we were away so just to be sure we wacked the heating on full just as a precaution and trundled home.

All in all it was a superb 5 days out and although we didn't have any bad weather or problems we have definitely caught "the bug" and we cannot wait to get her finished over the winter and ready for next years adventures.

Cornwall

So we made it back from Cornwall this afternoon!

Amelie didn't miss a beat the whole trip other than deciding on the way home to not tell us her water temp.  Not a problem gives me something to fix, absolutely shattered so will do a big update tomorrow but a little teaser for now, we had fun with Amy's new/old Polaroid camera!

Almost ready!

So with Amy out tonight having dinner (well timed I thought!) it was left to me to give the interior a good clean up ready for our first big trip to Cornwall.

After coming to terms at the weekend that we would be going without the interior kitchen units we had a little less pressure on getting it all done in time.  Not much point spending quite a lot on the interior upholstery and curtains just to ruin it with a bodge job on the rest of the interior.

With the main bulk of the flooring now cured I trimmed the edges and flipped the floor over onto its back(?) and got the Gorilla Glue (*) out and finished the edging off.

* Amy's dad Adrian introduced Gorilla Glue to me about a year ago after telling me how much of their house is held together with the stuff, it has not let me down since using it so I am hoping it will make a good job of the underside of the trimmed floor.*

A couple of small jobs to finish off once the floor is in the van tomorrow, I need to fit a new breaker box as I am unsure of the age of the old one and it looks like it has seen better days, also to rig up a gas regulator and line to our new Cadac Safari BBQ (hoping to have a killer roast down in Cornwall on it!)

After the rush of the last few weeks since we picked Amelie up I am hoping that tonight and tomorrow is not the "calm before the storm" only time will tell I guess.

Flooring part 2

After Amy did such a good job with the PVA it was time to get the top layer onto the wood.

With the help of one of our friends Tim we had a trial fit in the van before committing to the vinyl, with everything looking ok I started the messiest job so far on the van and covered the wood with the vinyl glue.  Having never laid vinyl before I was going at it blind (winging it!) but about 15 minutes later it was on and the timer started.

30 minutes later was the now or never moment...

Having cut the floor slightly bigger than the wood it gave me some room for error, after a lot of rolling and smoothing out we called it a night and left it to cure.

Amy gets her hands messy!

So it's the morning after Busfest and while Amy was still running on a high after such a good day, she was out working before I was!

With the wood floor cut Amy got to work coating it with PVA to act as a sealant.

Now that they are done and dry we can get the top layer on and it can all go in, exciting!

BUSFEST!!

We had been looking forward to this for ages and it was not a let down!

It was better than we were expecting which made the early morning drive worth it.

We managed to get out new upholstery and curtains all order courtesy of VW Camper Curtains
You will all have to wait and see when it turns up what we have chosen.

We managed to get a new camper table, rear tailgate seal (still no hightop window seals though!) a nice flower garland to decorate the front dash and most importantly a new kettle!!

New Flooring

I'm not sure how much this will help but anything extra must be good right?

 

With the insulation all in it is now time to start on wood for the floor.

The interior

Now that I had finished all of the grinding and welding (much to the relief of our neighbours!)  It was time to start on the interior and getting everything going back in.

As we are pushed for time I am using the interior that came out as a template but instead of ply we are going to be using a tongue & groove effect MDF painted white.

I am hoping to be able to re-use some of the original shelves as they are in good condition and it seems pointless spending money for the sake of it!