Could there be nicer people to deal with?We were originally booked to take a van last year. I fell ill about a mile away from O’Connors’.
Friends relocated the car, which O’Connors’ very kindly garaged for me whilst I went to hospital. When they offered us the opportunity to rebook, we jumped at the chance, and we are so glad we did. This year (all recovered ) we took Barbarella, a real classic “splitty”, for five days. The noise! She’s like a Dakota firing up!
And easier to drive than I had feared, though the handbrake was so far forward that I had to duck down to reach it. Not very powerful though; a lot of low gear work got through a tank in 100miles, causing us to run dry. You do, however, meet the nicest people in a campervan: we coasted to a halt in a convenient bus stop, and knocked on the isolated house door.
The family would have driven me to the garage if they hadn’t found the dregs of lawn mower petrol in a can in the shed. It was enough to get us to a filling station, fill Barbarella (and their can), and get us on our way. We watched her drink problem closely after that.
We cheated in that we ate our main meals out, but enjoyed the “playing house” feeling preparing breakfast in the van. The berth was very comfortable and we slept well. It was a business putting up the awning (more cheating, we were with friends who had done it before), but good for a two night stop in Dart Country Park. All the sites ( from Zoe’s list ) were very good, some needed change to run the showers, others had rather brisk timers. Next time? We would go for the narrower berth and “stand up” cooking facilities, but otherwise…..SO MUCH FUN.
By Stephen Manistre.
