Our next outing was scheduled to quench our thirst for West End musicals. Now that we had our caravan, we could camp near London and take in the shows and sights at leisure without being strapped for time as we often were with the usual excursions!
So a quick trawl through campsites in or near London and I soon found a site which seemed to be highly recommended for what we wanted. Our criteria is simple, a good quality site with good transport access into the centre of London. Abbey Wood Caravan Site ticked all the boxes, so Sat Nav programmed and we were off.
As our caravan is in storage with no real opportunity to bring it home, our fridge can’t be charged ready for the journey. We’ve started to realise this is a bit of a drawback as we packed the food supplies, so on the agenda next is to purchase some form of cooler box which we can put in the car to keep the goods chilled until we pitch where the fridge can run on full from the EHU.
It was an early start as the journey time was going to be around 6 hours and we wanted to hit the site between 12 and 1pm. The journey itself was simple and fairly quiet with it being a bank holiday Monday. On the M11 a toilet break was ordered, so the eyes were peeled for the next service station. Luckily this was Birchanger Green which is a large Welcome Break services. As we pulled in I was pleased to see a sign for caravans pointing me in the correct direction. This we duly followed and then as if by magic, no more further signs! As we passed the coach park we pulled in there thinking this could be the place for us. But just as we were ready to stop we caught sign of another caravan sign. Hooray, out we went basically heading for the exit where upon we came across the dedicated caravan bays. Very nice, shame it just wasn’t signed better. We were making good time so we decided to stay for a while, whilst we tried to eat a few melted chocolate sweets washed down with warm pop. Thoughts turn to the cooler …
M25, not too busy, bustling with road works however, but all perfectly manageable. Over the bridge and time to cough up. I was expecting to pay more with us towing a caravan, but no we got through with just a car charge. Now it was time for the Sat Nav to earn its keep! I had keyed in the route I wanted to take to the site, so now it was just a case of following the instructions the Garmin lady served at every junction. I have to say that if feels as though you are in the centre of London itself and you start to doubt that you are in the correct place. But sure enough, one left turn off a typical residential street and we were presented with Abbey Wood Caravan Site.
First impressions were good. A very well presented and maintained site. We reported in and were greeted by two very friendly owners who gave us a map of the site and told us to find a pitch and report back when we had done so. As there are a couple of options as you drive around the one way system, we were informed as to the best places for the sun and not to worry if we went around a few times. Apparently the
leader in this event holds a healthy score of 5 laps!
We circled the site once and then decided the inner circle was for us. So we headed for that and found our plot, number 9. A quick unhitch, a quick deployment of the Mammu
t and we were pitched, ready to relax and take in London. Oh yes, things are getting easier, experience is starting to show as I confidently took on the water management duties, with a single hand no less this time!
We were blessed with good weather and so began with a walk into Abbey Wood in order to find somewhere to eat. Low and behold right before us as we entered Abbey Wood was the Abbey Wood Café. A great café with a good selection of meals to chose from with friendly staff. Food was great and we were soon no longer hungry. We returned to the caravan for the night. One thing that we did differently this trip was to not make the front bed up, but leave it as two singles and use a sleeping bag as a cover. This actually worked quite well as the Alde heating ensured we were plenty warm enough. For time constrained holidays we might continue doing this. Of course for longer holidays and indeed in France we would make the bed and probably leave it, as we’ll have awnin
g space as well. It’s all interesting, just got to find the way that ‘works’ for us best I suppose.
The next day we were heading into London to see a show, so we set off in the morning and headed for the train station in Abbey Wood. We were greeted by a very bubbly character who duly sorted our tickets out coupled with some friendly banter, we also were pleased to discover that being off-peak we were due some discount! And before we knew it, we were riding the South Eastern on our way to Charing Cross (If you’re not from the area, that’s ‘Charring’ as in ‘Char’ from ‘Charity’ and ‘ing’ as in, well just ‘ing’, sorted).
Following a brief walk around Trafalgar Square we headed for Leicester Square, firstly to eat and then to the TKTS booth to decide upon which musical would be our first this afternoon. With some good seats and tickets at half price, it was off to Her Majesty’s Theatre for a viewing of Phantom of the Opera, brilliant! The weather was extremely good, so upon return to the caravan, we sat outside and soaked up some of the sunshine. The site has some 
regulars who are not of the white box on wheels variety, namely squirrels and foxes. We saw them in abundance, especially the squirrels who seemed undaunted by the presence of us humans with their contraptions. Reception very kindly warned us no to leave anything outside of the van, especially at night, as our furry friends here were well known for taking such things!
Toilet blocks are immaculate, as is the rest of the site. There is a useful information room next to the reception. Pitches are well spaced and well maintained. I have to say that out of all the sites we have stayed at so far (3 and counting!) this is our favourite. Maybe the CC sites are for us? Well we’ve got a few more booked so we’ll soon see!
Wednesday was claimed as a shopping day by the daughter! So we headed for Oxford Street and pounded the streets. Underestimating just how long this street is we were soon eager to find a café, plenty about so no problems there. Thursday we were off to see Shrek the Musical. Again an easy walk from Charing Cross, we soon found ourselves at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane following a walk around Buckingham Palace an
d back along the Thames. Amanda Holden wasn’t performing this particular week, but non-the-less the show was very good and the lady playing Fiona was superb. Back at the caravan and before we knew it, it was the last night of the holiday yet again!
Friday morning and the pack up began. I’d made a check list for preparing the caravan for journey and storage, this was proving a useful tool as it made the whole procedure stress free and would eliminate that one time when I would no doubt forgot to do something, causing damage, causing stress and further outlay of money I’m sure. Hitched up, we were ready to tackle the motorways yet again.
The return journey was fairly plain sailing bar the toilet stop request which beckoned early whilst on the A1. Peterborough looked a likely target, but this place was no where near as big as Birchanger Green. The caravans were sign posted to the same section as all of the other cars. There looked to be only a few caravan spaces, but all were taken and the car park was swarming with cars like bees on a busy day. It soon became clear that we weren’t going to get parked up here, so I made for the exit, which included negotiating some tight turns whilst patiently avoiding the cars which wouldn’t give you an inch to budge in their bullish determination to reach thei
r destination. Boy was I relieved to get out of their unscathed! With a firm voice I declared the next stop would be in Ferry Bridge, just a l-i-t-t-le further up the motorway! Knowing that the A1 was pretty much all non-motorway from here until then, I didn’t want to risk another exposure to a service area unsuitable for the towing fraternity. I was starting to think now about the benefits of having the caravan toilet charged and ready to go. We could pull into any lay-by to use it and not have to fight our way around the useless caravan unfriendly services we have in the UK. It is said that fluids shouldn’t be stored whilst in transit, but surely only a little fluid is required for one or two uses and that may not be too detrimental to the towing stability, especially with ATC and a stabiliser. More research into this topic is required!
Back at storage we duly unhitched and before I could put the tow ball cover on, our caravan was pulled back into its bay single handled by the storage owner. To say he makes it look easy is an understatement. I’m still hanging on to the front whilst he pulls it back normally. I need to let it go, I know – it’s just difficult, after all it is our brand new baby!
- Date: 30th May 2011
- Nights: 4
- Pitch #: 9
- GPS: 51.485615, 0.120038
