On the road again: Wild Camping at Malvern

OK! I know it’s been a few days since our last blog input but much has happened since our stay at the Briarfields campsite came to an end.

We departed the Briarfields site on the 18^th leaving the toad with the trailer & cycles stored with them as we would be travelling past the site at the end of the show anyway, so it seemed silly to tow them all the way there and back.

We drove up the M5 to the junction with the M50 and then onto the A 38 through Upton on Severn following one of our friends in their American RV to the Three counties show ground at Malvern.

The drive over the narrow bridge at Upton on Severn and through the narrow roads of Hanley Swan was interesting as they were packed with other European & American Motorhomes heading for the show, not counting the hundreds of caravans as well. But the organisers at the showground were on the ball, the flow of traffic was quite steady and without any major hold-ups.

We pitched up on a grassed area marked out for the ARVE group (American Recreational Vehicle Enthusiasts) of which we’re members and were amazed at the amount of American RV’s were there, there was literally hundreds of them old, new, large and small all shapes and sizes.

RV's on Site at Malvern

Our rig with the others

More RV's

and More

There were no Electric hook-up points so it would be four days and three nights surviving on the two 110 volt batteries and a 120wat solar panel, hence the reluctance to hook up the laptop.

We filled the water tank and levelled the RV as the ground sloped off to one side making the first step up into the RV a bit of a challenge.

We decided that we would use the toilet facilities on site to the maximum to save on water and waste usage as there was only one RV dump point and that was some distance away, one that everyone would probably use only once on the last day of the show creating a large tailback.

The toilet & shower blocks were archaic and most of the times dirty but it were wild camping after all, so we had to grin and bear it. At lunchtime our daughter turned up with Kay’s mother and our grandson. They both left after lunch leaving Rhys in our charge for the next two weeks so that in its self would be a challenge.

Keeping the munchkin happy

On Friday the show was great as there were loads of stalls, yet we still never managed to get everything we wanted on our wish list (typical). The western re-enactment camps were fun for our grandson with the cowboys & Indians but the food stalls were hellish expensive, don’t the vendors realize there’s a recession on?

In the evenings the music was good with three halls full of C&W music, this was something that our grandson had never heard before especially played live so he really enjoyed it and watching all the people parade in full western regalia.

Easy

How?

Darn Indians

We met with loads of other RV’ers over the next few days, re acquainting with some that we had met previously and making many new ones.

Sadly though the show didn’t quite live up to our expectations as we would have liked to have seen more American RV specific stalls. The bands were OK but I’ve heard better and for the main attraction in the Severn hall on the Saturday night it was baking hot, pity the poor lasses dressed as below complete with bloomers.

Very dear!

Howdy Ma'am its hot

We left the show ground on Monday morning to retrieved our trailer & toad from the Briarfields site on the way down the M5 before heading down to our next stop The Tudor Caravan Park near the Slimbridge Wetland centre.

The drive down was fine but the road through the village and on down to the caravan park is very narrow for an RV especially the last half mile.

Rhys leading the way

The site is a great place for RV’s with excellent water and dump facilities and with a brand new shower & toilet block. It has neatly kept lawns and picturesque trees with new hard standings for the largest RV’s right alongside the Sharpness canal where this morning we watched one of the tall ships sail right past us on its way to Gloucester docks.
It was strange to look out of the RV's window to see huge tall three masted ships pass you by.