Ending Up Anywhere

This weekend was our third consecutive non-electric equipped campsite. We're never sure what the leisure battery is capable of since in the VW California Beach, which Cleopatra is, there is no battery status display. When not hooked up to site electric you have use of only the lights and cigarette lighter sockets (of which there are five in various useful places). The parking heater also works off grid, burning diesel to produce heat circulated by a small electric fan. So usually our electricity consumption off grid is purely charging our phones, lights on in the evening and heater on as necessary. The battery has coped admirably with this. Then last week I bought a coolbox that plugs in to a cigarette lighter. It was plugged in from leaving home last Friday until we noticed our phones weren't charging on Saturday afternoon. A little investigation told me it was using 45 amps. Compared to the 2 amps a charging phone uses and it's not hard to see why th

Summer has finally made an appearance! Even in the Peak District. This weekend we've enjoyed the summer sunshine and we didn't leave the confines of our campsite once. It's what we've been waiting for since about October. We've been back to a small campsite on a farm in the south of the Peak District. Heathy Roods Farm is a site we've stayed at in a tent and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. It's just hills and farmland as far as the eye can see. We arrived at 6.20pm and paid the very reasonable £5 each per night, and then we were free to choose a spot to park Cleopatra. The site consists of two camping fields. I'd hoped to pitch where our tent had been 18 months ago but a tent was already there. We chose a spot in the same, otherwise empty, field, popped up the roof, unfolded our chairs and cracked open some beers. Neither of us had mobile signal and so undisturbed and undistracted by social media I made great headway with my Ki

Sometimes the best campsites are just a field. Tom's Field is probably one of the best examples of this. Perched up high in the New Forest, overlooking trees and scrub land below, Tom's Field is a small campsite open only at weekends. Bookings are taken only for Friday and Saturday nights as a package or, in our case on May Day bank holiday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Except for a mobile toilet and shower block and a wooden wagon acting as reception, this is just a field, and it's camping as basic as can be. Tents and campervans are welcome while caravans and motorhomes are not. The site was booked solid and we only squeezed in due to a cancellation. We found it through Cool Camping, our go-to website for quirky, extra special campsites. There's no further research needed if a site is listed on Cool Camping. You can book knowing it'll be a gem. Stunning views aside, Tom's Field has the friendliest welcome and most flexible arrival