Wareham Forest, Dorset

At last our first outing with Christine & Dorothy. Originally we
planned the ‘test’ trip for 7th February but the snow and ice
that week resulted in very unsuitable travelling conditions for
towing a newly purchased caravan.

The site kindly gave us a credit note and we re-booked for the
28th, just one night was enough to test that we had everything
on ‘the list’ and all the appliances worked. The day dawned
bright and mild so we packed everything into collapsible boxes
(brilliant invention) and loaded them into Dorothy. The list was
consulted each time an item was packed or found to be
missing.

At last we were ready for the off so Kenny got the motor mover
fired up and manoeuvred Dorothy off the drive. A neighbour
came out to marvel at this amazing piece of technology and
Kenny was proudly showing off his new toy. Whilst doing this
he was using the van handbrake when cars passed before
continuing to get Dorothy properly lined up with the tow bar.
Suddenly Dorothy wouldn’t move and the motor mover was
whirring and groaning. After a few expletives and much talk of
new fangled things breaking before you’ve used them, when
Kenny suddenly realised the van hand brake was still on!

With a sigh of relief everything continued smoothly and we
were on our way. The journey only took about 20 minutes or so
as we didn’t want to go too far for the test. Then if we’d
forgotten anything major we could just nip home and get it.

The roads around Wareham were very busy and we both
commented on how many people seemed to be going the
same way as us. After seeing many signs saying ‘Sunseeker
Rally’ it suddenly dawned on me. It was the car rally
weekend……and they were racing in Wareham Forest! Our
plan to have a quiet lunch in the Silent Woman pub was
shelved as we passed the car park which was packed with rally
enthusiasts.
Dorothy & Christine
settled in for the night
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Christine & Dorothy
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somewhere suitable as the Silent Woman was so busy so we set off. It wasn’t far so we soon arrived at the Bere Regis roundabout and saw the Royal
Oak ahead. What a find, we had a very filling lunch in comfortable surroundings. On the way back we went for a drive through the lovely countryside
We sat and read for an hour or so then played our travel Trivial Pursuit. The questions were hard but I won! By then it was dark and we went for a short
walk around the site and the clear sky showed the stars brilliantly and we had the added bonus of seeing a bright crescent moon with Venus shining
nearby. If only we’d taken the telescope, but it wasn’t on the list!

Time to sort out the bed and it was then that I realised I’d forgotten Kenny’s pillow! What a mistake that was. I have to admit that the bed wasn’t the most
comfortable (especially if you spend the night fighting over the one very precious pillow) so we plan to get some sort of thin mattress to go over the top
that we can roll up and store easily. And we found that the van wasn’t quite level so sleeping one way meant your head was lower than your body and
that makes a restful night’s sleep impossible.

During our short stay we checked the heating, hot & cold water and the fridge. We didn’t use the shower but we used the cooker for egg and
mushrooms on toast for breakfast (we were too full from lunch to have the risotto planned for our evening meal the night before).

The morning dawned bright and dry and Kenny emptied the toilet and flushed out all the water while I packed everything away into the boxes that I had
collapsed and stored in the wardrobe overnight.

Mental note – need more pillows, a mattress topper and a bigger spanner needed next time. We decided not to get a television as it’s nice to get away
from all that and we can take our laptop to watch DVDs.

Kenny hitched up Dorothy to Christine and we were off home. As we pulled away the man on the pitch next to ours was firing up his plug-in barbecue
and cooking sausages for breakfast. As we drove past Kenny decided we must get one of those for future trips. What is it with men and cooking outside
over a fire?

Julie
February 2009
into reception and got our pitch sorted out and we arrived. The pitch was located and Kenny
reversed Dorothy into the space and unhitched her from Christine. It took about an hour to
get everything sorted out. Kenny did the outside stuff and I did the unpacking inside. We
wanted to test the gas bottle as well as electric but Kenny found his spanner didn’t fit so he
wandered over to some other new arrivals setting up nearby and they lent him theirs. What a
friendly bunch they were, with little bits of advice for us novices that came in really handy (like
check your spanner fits before you leave home!).