Friday 4th November 2016.  We collect the Camper.

God Bless my brother-in-law Pete. He volunteered to collect us at 0800hrs from home and drive us to Thornfalcon Garage near Taunton to collect the Battlewagon. Well, once I had his arm far enough up his back anyway. It was a rather dismal morning when we arrived at 0920 hrs. but the smile on Jon the salesman's face and the offer of three coffees immediately brightened the proceedings. There were formalities such as paperwork to sign, an  application for a road fund licence, V5 documentation to transfer, £50 for a half tank of fuel and a quick run through the various warranties all contained in a ginormous brief-case. Then, on to the practical instruction. How to fly the camper. At this point, once I had confirmed it would start, Pete took his leave. An hour and a half  later we too were driving out of the parking lot, with a slight degree of trepidation. I had drawn the short straw and was elected duty driver whilst Jackie as co-pilot fiddled with switches, knobs and buttons.

Arriving at No 78 we loaded up the Battlewagon with our traps. Sleeping bags, cooking implements, spare clothes, bergans, boots and rations and once again we were off. Our next stop would be www.LangstoneManor.co.uk   East of Tavistock on the B3357 Princetown road at Moortown. The manor was originally Stone Farm, the property was bought by Samuel Lang (brother-in-law of the Duke of Bedford) and developed into four villas, Langstone Villas, surrounded by the pleasure grounds (as per deeds) in 1871. These villas were probably used by mine workers. Subsequently, the whole building was developed into the Manor house and an extension added.

Previous tenants of the Manor House include family of the Writer/Poet Coleridge. The Manor House was a Country Hotel for many years and then in the early 1960's was split into two and became a camping park. Previous owners have included a pools millionaire and one man that used to bang on the door of your caravan if you were using too much water! Jane and David, previously Dairy farmers from Lancashire, have been at Langstone since 1999.Other team members (don't you just love that American expression?) at Langstone include Yvonne, Jamie, Elz & Joan.

The road into Langstone Manor was getting narrower but given it was 1500hrs on albeit a gorgeous Friday afternoon I was hoping and praying for no tractor coming the other way. In mid August it might be anything including caravans. We parked up and made our way to reception.

Langstone Manor reception.

As we opened the door we were greeted with the smell of fresh bread cooking and Jamie with a huge beaming smile and a welcome even warmer than the fresh baked bread. We paid our £37 for a hard standing pitch with electricity for two nights, ordered two croissants, two choc-au-pain and two half baguettes for the morning and followed Jamie to "look" for our pitch. As the place was virtually empty we could choose anywhere. "No that one's booked. So is that one. No someone's coming in tomorrow afternoon on that one" We agreed on a spot under a huge Oak tree and parked up. A worried look crept onto my face as I switched off the engine. "What's up?" asked Jackie. "If I was in a bivvy bag I wouldn't necessarily camp under an old Oak tree in case a branch snapped off in the winter storms." said I. "What storms, it's like a summers day, anyway I like it here, lets get the bubbly opened." dictates Jackie. Against my better judgement I do as I am told.



Neath the spreading Old Oak Tree

Before I can start popping Champagne corks there are certain tasks that I need to attend too. If only I could remember what Jon had instructed me to do first. Out comes the "hook up" cable. We plug this into the power pole. Power up the "van" it's like a scene from Apollo 13. Red Green, amber and red lights flick on, somewhere in the background something starts pumping and there is a gentle hum. We look nervously at each other and immediately things seem, to regulate themselves. We find our slippers, yes I know but at my advanced years I like my slippers! Jackie switches on Smooth Radio and the ambient lighting and asks "Where's the bubbly?" "I'm in here." thinks I

Nothing staged about this shot!



The Cocktail Waiter.

After an hour or so relaxing with a drink and some cheese and olives I decide to place the stew on to heat that Jackie had prepared yesterday. "Where's the stew?" "Where did you put it?" "I didn't put it anywhere." "What do you mean?" "What I say." Didn't you pick it up?" "No, I thought you did." Well the long and the short of it was there was no stew. Neither was there any milk. "Never mind." says Jackie "There's plenty of Gin and tonic." That was true, so to calm our nerves we had a pre-dinner drink whilst I rummaged through the battle box for some rations to cook. 

After dinner we read our books and then, as the camper had a built in TV we thought we would see what channels we could find. Now at home you switch on the box pick up the remote and select a channel to watch. It is very similar in the van but first you need to raise the TV antennae. Next, like something from an old black and white WW2 film you need to turn the antennae to lock on to the strongest signal. Remember that scene from The Heroes of Telemark? After thirty minutes of not finding any signal to lock on to and a great deal of frustration I am about to throw the zapper out of the window when Jackie looks up from her book and asks, "Why are you pointing the controller at the TV and not the Humix satellite box to control the TV?" Realising my mistake, I turn and point the controller at the Humix and everything springs into life. A simple mistake surely!

Anyway it's soon bedtime. I was all for sleeping on the separate single couches but Jackie wanted the bed made up into a double. It's easier in sleeping bags but once again I was overruled. One light in particular we could not find the off switch for so in the end opted for a complete shut down of all lighting systems. The 240v power was still on and that powered the electric heating which we switched to low. As I dropped off to sleep all I could think of was that massive oak tree with its limbs spread out "protectively" above us.