We’ve had our first weekend away in our new (to us!) motorhome. My wife, Helen, and I work full time for the NHS, so weekends off together are rare and too good an opportunity to miss.
We owned a ’van about 25 years ago and things have clearly moved on since then. After a bit of shopping around and working out what we wanted from our motorhome, we’re now proud to say that we own a 2009 Bürstner Solano T725, which features a fixed-island-bed layout. We call her Busty, and took delivery of her in November. We decided we would try to get away as soon as the Christmas holidays were over.
We had read on forums that it would be wise to spend the first night in our new-to-us ‘van on our driveway, just in case any kit malfunctioned. However, as we’d owned a motorhome before, we felt more confident and decided to go away, despite the fact it was forecast to be -2C.
However, being the first trip in our new ‘van, we wanted to keep it quite local. We settled on an hour’s drive to Rutland Caravan and Camping Site at Greetham, near Oakham. The journey was uneventful and we were warmly welcomed by the site’s warden.
Feeling in need of exercise, we decided to follow a circular walk from the village. The leaflet we picked up from reception described a 3.5-mile walk out towards Fort Henry and back again. Excellent; it wouldn’t be dark for two hours so we had plenty of time, and it would give us a chance to locate in daylight The Plough pub, where we were booked in for a meal that evening.
The walk was muddier than expected and was more like six miles, so it was no wonder we arrived back in Greetham in the dark. We just had time for a gin and tonic before changing and heading back out for our evening meal at The Plough.
With the heating on low all night we were warm and comfortable in Busty. A sharp frost and stunning white landscape greeted us the next morning. Despite the time of year, there was, perhaps surprisingly, a steady turnover of visitors to the site.
Our first trip out in Busty had gone well and there had been no mechanical hiccups, though we had one mishap when the iPad fell out from an overhead locker and dented the table top! It was wonderful to be motorcaravanning once more.
So where next? We’ll read some magazines, check the forums, then throw caution to the wind and do our own thing. I might even write about it as well!
We had one mishap when the iPad fell out from an overhead locker and dented the table top!