Have camper, will camp
Some people say it’s not a great idea to try to combine business with pleasure. However, there are times when there is a natural coexistence which provides an excellent win-win opportunity. This summer we had one such event! My wife Lorna was taking place in a series of PechaKucha talks at Greenbelt ‘Arts, Faith and Justice’ festival at Boughton House, Kettering. The event is a 4 day festival with on-site camping. It had the likes of Sinead O’Connor playing live, so what was not to like?! Lorna got complimentary tickets as a contributor, plus a camping pass for our camper. So a great chance to get away for a few days and go camping in a field for a few days!
Camping updates
So whilst Lorna prepared for her talk, I had some preparation of my own to do on the camper. As this was our first time away together in the camper, there were a few ‘temporary’ fixes I now wanted to get more fully resolved! I might be able to live with some of the temporary things, but I knew that Lorna would see things differently. A happy wife = happy camping!
Things like working out how to put up the awning up would be good. It came with the van as part of the deal when I bought it, but I had never got around to looking at. As we were going to be away for a few days, some bits needed doing. I wanted to sort out getting a decent fridge/freezer for storing fresh food/milk etc. I knew I wasn’t going to have enough time to refurbish and sort out the Canterbury Pitt table. However, I did need to resolve some form of temporary bed supports for the double bed. So with a new focus, I managed to get a few outstanding jobs sorted. Funny how deadlines help get jobs sorted! Time we bought some food and supplies for our mini adventure ‘up north’ at Greenbelt!
Better late than never
One thing led to another and we ended up setting off a bit later than planned. When we finally rocked up at the site, it was getting dark. Glad we had previously done a test run at pitching the awning! After getting the awning set up, we decided to have a wander around the site and check out some of the late-night music tents and food stalls. It was good to get a general sense of the vibe of the festival before calling it a day and heading off to bed…
Good morning campers
The next morning, it was good to see that we had done a half-decent job at pitching the awning. Having the extra space that the awning provided makes a huge difference if you are going to be at a place for more than a couple of days. In the daylight wandering around the fields, scattered amongst the sea of white motor homes, there were a few classic campers tucked away that caught my eye. Such as this great example of French style, the Citroën H van…
Some other cool classics
I didn’t see any other Volkswagen split screen campers but were a few VW Early Bay Westfalia campers dotted around the field. I really loved this savannah beige Early Bay Dormobile pop top…
There were a fair few classic Eriba caravans around the site, but my favourite caravan of the weekend was this superb vintage Westfalia caravan. I loved its extended red and white striped awning, how cool is this!
A fun first festival in the camper
As for the festival, we had a great time. Lorna’s PechaKucha talk went down really well, there was some great live music, Sinead O’Connor was a particular standout! There were some very funny standup comedians, some thought-provoking talks and Lorna even got to see Monty Pythons ‘Life of Brian’ for the very first time!
