Our second outing in the caravan and we’re off to Fallowfield Dene Caravan and Camping Park in Hexham, Northumberland. With it being Easter, a lot of the sites were already fully booked, but we managed to get a pitch on this site luckily. It’s set near the village of Acomb which is a 5 minute drive away from Hexham, just off the A69.
The day began with the collection of our caravan from storage. Now with it being Easter, it was the big get-away! We had to be quick, efficient and professional in getting the van out, hitching up and getting out of there! The staff are always on hand to give you a hand and with a quick push from the back, the site owner had pulled the caravan out and brought it to the car, before I had even managed to remove the tow bar cover! It seems to me that manoeuvring a caravan on solid ground isn’t too bad. Previously, I thought that to move the caravan it was car or mover, but it seems there is a third option! Hitched-up, green markers showing on hitch and stabiliser, ATC glowing green, we were ready to depart and hit the roads again!
Armed with the Sat Nav, I selected the pre-programmed route to take us to Fallowfield. This I duly followed, along the A69 and then through the village of Acomb, until we were on the final approach to the site itself and what a final approach it is! The site is set back off the main country road by way of a single track lane. Needless to say, s
econd time out with a 24ft caravan and you’re faced with a single track lane, prayers began that we would not meet an oncoming outfit! There are two ‘passing places’ along the track, but that didn’t seem enough somehow. Just as we made it to the end, thinking we were home safe and dry, we were faced with a little wooden bridge following by a sharp left turn into the site. Would this bridge take the caravan, it doesn’t look wide enough? Silence fell in the car as I edged very slowly across the bridge. Furious mirror checking later, we started to breath again as we cleared the bridge. Following by a wide swing to take the corner and finally, we had made it to the site. I knew we’d have to face some tight manoeuvring at some stage, but please, on our second outing?
Entry is via an electronic barrier. So we reported into reception and picked up our barrier card. The site is divided up into sections denoted by Roman names. Three of these sections are used for touring whil
st the remaining six are for static tourer use. We were assigned to plot 47 in ‘Caesar’. The site is enclosed by trees pretty much everywhere, so the one way road through the site is again tight in quite a few places. Our pitch was right next to the toilet block and was not the easiest of pitches to get onto. Opposite us was an open field containing most of the pitches for Caesar, but no, we had a shaded pitch in a tight corner! You win some, you lose some I guess. Having ruled out reversing because of the tight nature of the bend and coupled with the fact that there was a seating area right in front of our pitch, I decided rather swiftly that this was a job for the Mammut!
We pulled up at the corner of the bend and unhitched the caravan. Remote in hand I proceeded to pair it with the mover. This I had a little trouble with on the previous outing. The procedure goes that you switch on the remote, wait for self diagnostics and then proceed to pair the remote by holding down the drive engage buttons whilst holding it over the magnetic switch on the A-frame. This I did a few times but it seemed to take quite a while before I got them to pair up? Following a more systematic approach, I finally discovered the ‘knack’ to pairing them up. It seems you have to press the drive engage buttons away from the magnetic switch, then whilst still holding them down place the top lower surface of the remote directly on the magnetic switch, hold it there for a couple of seconds and hey presto, they pair up and the mover begins to engage. As an 80’s child, I am very much used to joystick control, what with Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Atari CX-2600 console and my beloved Commodore 64. But, I never thought that one day I’d be using a joystick to control a 1.5 tonne white box on wheels! I have to say this mover is brilliant, I may have already said that in a previous post but there you go, it is! I had parked the caravan up with ease. With no mover fitted, it would have been a very difficult reversing manoeuvre. Without reversing, it would have been a difficult push into place on the gravel surface. We’re on holiday to enjoy it, and the Mammut is welcome every time!
Time to set the caravan up. Levelling first, we’re pretty much level side to side, but we’re on a slope towards the back. I dropped the jockey wheel as much as I could which got us nearly there, but we were still inclined a little, we could live with it though! Steadies down, EHU mains connected, gas switched on, heating fired up, water management sorted, time to relax with a nice cup of tea. Alcoholic beverages will have to wait, as I still need to work the first few days, the joys of being self-employed!
Further acquisitions for the caravan this time saw the inclusion of a new television and a Playstation One! We didn’t want to lug the TV from the bedroom every time we were away, so we decided to purchase a TV dedicated for the caravan. There are two ways you can go with this, you can either purchase a dedicated caravan TV with 12v connection, wide viewing angles, easy set-up and high price tag or pick up a supermarket TV. We decided to go with the latter and pick up a 22″ Technika with integrated DVD player from Tesco’s. It doesn’t have a 12v connection, but we’ll be on EHU pitches most of trhe time and if on the odd occasion we weren’t, we can live without it or use an inverter. Viewing angles are fine, set-up is really easy and at half the price of a dedicated caravan TV, it was a no brainer really. What’s with the Playstation One? We have one at home and we love playing some of the older classics. And as you can pick these consoles up from eBay from as little as £4, along with games from 99p, it will make a great addition to the caravan when it comes to entertainment on a rainy day!
Time for a little background music, so on goes the radio. Well at least I pushed the on button, but no power? It was working fine on our last trip to Doe Park, but now suddenly no power? The electrics are hooked up, 230v is switched on, therefore we have a wiring problem or a fuse issue. Wiring I can’t check as the radio is very much integrated into the furnishings of the caravan. The fuse I can however. This was easily located and checked with the multimeter, fuse was fine. Back in it goes, scratching head, tried radio again and voilà, it sprang into life. Conclusion, the fuse wasn’t fully seated and had worked loose. Time to check the other fuses, sure enough a few near the bottom weren’t fully seated either, so all fuses were given a firm push to ensure no more quirky power failings!
After we were settled and relaxing, I thought it was time to trial the AL-KO wheel lock. I had already thought ahead on this one and positioned the caravan so that the receiver was mid-way between the wheel apertures, thanks Mammut again! It’s then just a case of bolting the insert to the wheel and then inserting the lock, job done. Very simple to do and provides another inconvenient hurdle to anyone who has eyes for your ‘van!
Time to explore the site. As was mentioned earlier, our pitch was right next to the toilet/wash block, which is kept to a high standard I’m pleased to say. No queuing for the showers, even on this busy bank holiday weekend. Dish washing and laundry facilities are provided at the rear of the block. Water point, grey water disposal and chemical disposal point are all provided in one convenient area just by the toilet block, along with bins. Reception doubles as a shop and stocks the usual essentials, along with good information on the surrounding area. Staff are very friendly and pleasant. The site is geared towards static tourers, as they dominate the majority of pitches. Of the three touring pitches, one also accommodates tents, although there were only a couple there during our stay. Trees are everywhere and can block a lot of the sunshine out, it also creates an enclosed feel to the site. There is no park for children and no ball games are allowed either, so maybe not the best site for youngsters, although there were quite a few there enjoying their bikes and water pistols!
The following day we donned our walking boots and headed on a 1.5 mile trek to Fallowfield. This was a pleasant walk, along a stream, eventually bringing us out behind a farm house. From here we continued walking down into Acomb itself. A very small and quiet village with a couple o
f pubs. The return journey involves quite a steep walk back up to the campsite. There is a more direct route from Acomb to the campsite, but we didn’t know where this was so we just stuck to the main road.
Hexham is a 10 minute drive from the campsite. Here you will find a Waitrose and a Tesco’s, so stocking up on all of your essentials is easy. Car parking charges are also reasonable, you can spend the whole day in Hexham and only pay a couple of pounds. The abbey is worth a visit (free), Rob’s department store also serves a mean and inexpensive breakfast. Plenty of shops to be perused and the walk down by the river is simply stunning.
Back at the caravan, it was time to fill the Aquaroll. With the caravan being on a slope, the Ultraflow connection point was very close to the ground, as it is near the front of the caravan on the Clubman ES. This was causing the pump assembly to bend rather tightly, so I decided in order to give more headroom, I’d lay the Aquaroll on its side and use the centre hole, normally used for the mains connection kit. This worked well, I made sure the Aquaroll was well seated in the gravel so that it wouldn’t roll anywhere unexpectedly! The pump assembly was nowhere near as tight now, success!
It was observed whilst on site that the handle on your Aquaroll should be detached and re-attached with only one hand! What was this? No mention of this skill requirement in the manual? I had been signalling to the rest of the caravanning fraternity that I was a newbie, by attaching the handle with two hands! This was an oversight I would have to correct. In order to compete in the ‘Caravan Olympics’, I would need to master this event. Practise at home would be required! Which other events could I participate in? Well there’s the main event of ‘Reversing’, something which will take a little longer to perfect I feel. ‘Discrete Neighbour Observation’ is an event best left to the wife and daughter. I thought we were all watching TV, reading books, playing cards, but no it seems! Eyes were being cast far beyond the immediate focus of these pastimes and reaching into the lives of our fellow caravanners, where tails of activities, equipment purchases, lifestyle choices and attitudes were all being scrutinised! But, the ‘One Hand Aquaroll’ event was within my grasp, it would be perfected before our next outing and I’d take gold, by consuming a beverage at the same time in the other hand!
Visitors need to park in the car park situated just before the barrier. There’s not a lot of room here for such a big site and on busy occasions such as this one, cars spill out onto the approach road, making access even more difficult. The wardens recommend parking in the hotel grounds, found just along the single track lane.
Before we knew it, it was Wednesday morning and time to pack-up and leave. On our last trip, I had made a mental note to create a check list for prepping the caravan, for journeys and also when left in storage. Leaving it to memory was too much of a risk, damage could easily be done just by forgetting to do one simple task. So armed with this new check list, we duly went through it stage by stage until the ‘van was travel ready! The Mammut swung the caravan out and up to the car and we were hitched and ready to go in no time at all. I think I have mentioned on this post that the site is a little tight in space, to say the least. Following the one way system around the bend at the far end of the site is another ‘hold your breath’ encounter. I’m sure the two neatly parted parallel trees, following a tight bend cornered off by a tree stump, which then leads into a bollard were not all placed there for fun. Unless the warden has a camera there and uses footage for ‘You’ve Been Framed’? But let’s just say I took it slowly and even winced a couple of times to myself as the caravan neatly passed the stump whilst I needed to swing out right to avoid the bollard! Back on the single track lane leaving the site, the bridge didn’t seem as bad this time around! And the single track lane itself was a breeze, now that I had been up and down it a few times in the car, knowing where the passing places are. But prayers were answered once again and we didn’t meet an oncoming outfit, just a horse and rider, which is a lot easier to let past!
From here we would normally head for storage, but some warranty work needed to be undertaken on the van, our ‘not closing properly’ bed locker. So we’re off to Catterick Caravans as agreed to have this fixed!
- Date: 22nd April 2011
- Nights: 5
- Pitch #: 47
- GPS: 55.002111, -2.099690
