Daves Mini Blog

[DaveS]

Well thought I would jot a few things down as I'm sitting outside at the C&CC site at Verwood.

This is the first time we've got away this year and when I saw the pile of stuff we needed to take away with us yesterday I thought it would never go in!

We watched our pitching video again to remind us of the correct way to pitch the tent, as we seem to have developed a different way that didn't work.... and it was definitely a better effort this time.

The weather's lovely down here at the moment, hot sunshine and it's easy to pitch in those conditions, if a little hot.

The site is fantastic, quite big, loads of space although I suspect that will change as we get closer to the weekend.

Facilities seem ok if a little dated.

My inflatable sleeping mat had been forgotten... grrrrr, so I wasn't best enamoured with that. We went round trying to get one but we were too late on the day at 5pm to do this.
So my other half very kindly agreed to sleep on blankets, etc... to give me the air bed. Ok Ok I know.... but I do have a really bad back and I did offer to go home to get the mat, but she wouldn't hear of it.

It was quite cold last night. We all had thermals and silk liners in so we coped ok.

We had a few new purchases to try, a side extension to our Outwell Norfolk Lake tent, and a windbreak, Outwell of course and in matching colours.

The side extension was fidly to get in place and right, but once done looks ok and functional. The test will be when it pours down as it should come in to it's own at that point.

Rigth that will do for now, off for a shower and then to buy a camping bed!

[Mabels Old Man]

Sounds good. Your wife must be very understanding letting you get away with this interwebbing when you're away.

Oh I suppose she knows about the new notebook now as well.

[DaveS]

Sounds good. Your wife must be very understanding letting you get away with this interwebbing when you're away.

Indeed she is.

We had a great day today, weather continued to be fantastic.
First job this morning was to go to Forest Camping near to Verwood to buy a new bed after forgetting mine! We had a wander round and saw a fantastic big Khyam ... well not sure quite what to call it but basically a marquee I think. I didn't know they did this sort of stuff.
Now having got the XRV Marquee stored in my garage this really appealed to me as it's claimed it can be put up in 20 mins. In fact the chap at the store said it can be up in about 10 mins.
Although still a big pack when down it's significantly smaller than the marquee we have, so I'm seriously thinking about buying one and selling the marquee. It was called the Khyam Megatop and was very very big. Dome in shape but easily as much room as our marquee floor space wise.






We went to Moors Valley Park today and walked miles doing all the nature trail, raised walk ways, etc...

Now sat down to start a BBQ.
Cider about to be cracked open as well. Does life get any better!

[largewayround]

Good Luck finding that airbed, Dave

I can relate as I also have issues with my back...

Nothing worse than waking up with flat........ airbed..
Especially if your 50 miles from the nearest camping store.. Like 2 years ago.


Then the next day finding out the general store just along the road, sells them ......

Have a great time ... remember those pictures.

[Jenna]

looked into the megatop a little while back and pray coleman pic up on this as the concept is very clever...

putting up the megatop

the only thing i really disliked was the pole joint system khyam use (same reason i would never buy a biker tent) as i think its way to flimsy for the sort of abuse our gear gets... so if it came in a conventional pole set up it would be something we would buy.

dimensions:
5.65mts dia
1.8mts internal
37kg with all the bits!....

price tag £650-£750.

[DaveS]

A quiet morning for us today as we waited for friends to join us on the site. However the site is filling up and in fact sat here now there seem to be a constant stream of people coming in. Will be jam packed later I think.

All sorts of tents can be seen here, Outwell feature very well, although quite a few Royals about as well.
Interesting barometer to see what tents people are buying. The majority seem to the tunnel style of tent like ours.

It would be interesting to see some industry statistics to see what market share the manufacturers have and what type of tents sell well.

[DaveS]

Well we're back!

Great few days away.

Site got very busy as predicted... the site has a capacity of 150 pitches and I think it was close to that.

It actually got too busy for my liking. Showers were constantly busy in the morning, queuing for the toilet, etc... not my idea of fun.

However noise was fine despite thousands of kids and dogs!

All in all a great trip.

Few photo's to share of the site...

[Boris]

Nice campsite Dave.

Were these pictures taken before or after the site filled up?

[bigbogdog]

Looks like you got some nice weather to boot

[DaveS]

Nice campsite Dave.

Were these pictures taken before or after the site filled up?

Before!