A Message for all Purpletraveller Followers and Friends......

I hope that all regular and not so regular readers of the PurpleTraveller blog have a great Christmas and a truly Peaceful New Year.......

I will start posting on the blog again from early January. 
Anne and I will hit the road and return to actual touring in Eva the Eriba from early April........

Scary Rocking and Rolling.....

Over the past nine days since my last post the wet weather has continued..... 
Luckily for us the area we are in has not suffered any flooding unlike some places in the north of the country......
We heard that one of the camping sites that we know well in the Lake District has suffered badly with flooding. We saw some images of the site following the floods and it was staggering to see the damage caused by the flood water.....frightening to see how easy a caravan can break up with the force of the water.......

What we have had though have been some strong winds.....
The pitch we are on is quite well protected from most normal winds but a few nights ago we had quite a major storm with some huge gusts of winds that caused Eva to do a lot of rocking and rolling.....
Tucked up in our beds it was a scary experience..... You could hear a gust coming before it hit us..... It sounded like a locomotive as it roared over the moor towards us and we held our breath as a few seconds later the gust would hit the caravan with a bang......
No damage was done to either us or Eva but it was an uncomfortable few hours.....

We still have the awning erected as it is a four season model and we do have it pretty firmly anchored to the ground. 
We have two sets of sprung storm straps across the entire roof, three porch tie down storm straps and also wall ties with bungee cords as well as all the normal pegged down fittings ......
So far we have not even had a peg pull out.....

The Awning Fully Anchored Down...

Where the sprung webbing storm straps go over the awning poles at each side as well as the centre ridge I have used  plumbers pipe insulation as a protective measure. 
The idea is that as the straps have springs at one end so that there is a bit of give in the wind, they will move within the tube and therefore avoid any abrasion damage being caused to the awning material....

Another use for Pipe Insulation....

One other tip that is worth remembering when using storm straps such as these is to put a couple of twists into the webbing before pulling it tight.... this stops the webbing vibrating in the wind and causing a noise like a machine gun in strong winds.......

When we were staying at the site in Verwood, a motorhome on a pitch near to us had his awning out and held down with some webbing straps, but because he hadn't put any twists in the webbing the noise the straps were making in even a light wind became very annoying and we were about fifty feet away from him... the noise inside the motorhome caused by those straps must have given him a few sleepless nights....

Today we had a wind and rain free day and the mild weather we are experiencing is pretty amazing for this time of year so we are enjoying it for as long as it lasts....

It's Been a While......

It's been a while since I last posted on this blog.... 
All is well but I have just allowed myself to become pretty lazy so it's now about time for me to update you on the reason why and where we are.....

We left Dorset in early November, changed counties and are now in Devon.....
We decided that we would take a winter seasonal pitch, so we will be here until just after Easter next year.....

The reason for choosing to take a seasonal pitch for the winter is because being static over the winter months seemed preferable to towing in bad weather and short days.... We also fancied the idea of getting out on Dartmoor in the nice crisp and cold weather for some serious walking......  

However.........
Since we have been here we have not had any crisp and cold weather, all we have had is rain!!
We have been here over a month and not a day has gone by when it hasn't rained...
In actual fact it has been rather depressing weather and that is one of the reasons that I haven't posted on the blog because not a lot has happened...just wind...rain...dark and dank...
Mind you from what I gather the rest of the country has also had very similar weather.....

Due to all of the continuous wet weather I have not been able to get out on the bike either.....
So a trip to a local bike shop produced a turbo trainer for use in the awning..

New Turbo Trainer in the Awning

When I was living in Bournemouth I had an all singing and dancing indoor bike trainer, but although I still have it stored away it was too big for caravan touring hence the turbo trainer....
At least I will be able to work on my fitness over the winter period.

About ten days ago Anne and I spent a few nights away from Eva and had a mini trip to St Austell in Cornwall.....

Welcome to St Austell...

 One of the rules of our winter seasonal pitch is that we have to be off site for three nights every twenty one days, so this gives us the opportunity for some small trips to various places....

The China Cafe Mural...

We stayed at a hotel in St Austell but both Anne and I didn't sleep very well..... The beds were comfortable enough but not as comfortable as our beds in Eva... Also, even with the window open and the heating turned off we found the room to be too warm which was one of the reasons for not sleeping well..... We have obviously become too used to being in the caravan....

Whilst we were walking around the town we saw the mural in the photo above... As we walked along the road towards it, it looked as if it was real and certainly got a double take from us both.......
Even in Cornwall the weather delivered us some rain with a few dry spells in between the downpours that we managed to take advantage of....

Today the weather started dry and sunny..... by 1045hrs the rain decided to give us it's daily visit and the weather forecast on the TV at the moment is confirming that it will continue wet into next week.....

Two Rusty Old Pumps and a Bicycle.....

One of my cycling buddies.... Jason Boynton-Lee... sent me this picture today....
He took it when out on one of his cycle rides yesterday.......

Knowing that I like images of things like old petrol pumps.... in fact anything man made that is being taken over or reclaimed by nature......  he thought that I would enjoy the image....

Well I did enjoy the image so I decided to share it.....
It is a similar shot to the one of three old pumps that I posted on this blog earlier in the year when I was cycling in the Hereford area.......

Jason said:-

"I decided that this autumnal pic needed a suitable title so I came up with:-
The futility of man's technology against the inevitable vengeance of nature.

Or for those with little imagination:-
Two rusty old pumps and a bicycle"

I like the shot and also Jason's sense of humour....

Stable Weather and 100 miles....

Yes...since we have been back at this location the stable weather has continued....

New pitch and continued good weather.

Good stable weather means more opportunities to get out on the bike and work on my fitness...

This past week I met up with Jon Joynes who rode with me on the 10in10 and Jason Boynton-Lee who I have known for a good few years and rode the ACCR with back in 2009.

(LtoR) Jon and Jason enjoying the after ride coffee and cake.

 Due to pressures of a job change Jon has not managed to get out on the bike much this year so it was decided that we would just do a short loop around some of the local Dorset countryside...
Sticking mainly to the local lanes we enjoyed an almost traffic free route......

Jason is currently the fittest of all my cycling mates due to this year really putting in the miles and the day of our ride was no different.... 
Before we did our loop Jason had already completed over thirty miles cycling over to our meet up point from Totton near Southampton....

After our ride together we all enjoyed coffee and cake in Wimborne Square....

Following our after ride indulgence Jason headed back home again aiming to complete the Magic 100 miles.....

Jason sent me a text later with an image of another chunk of cake that he had enjoyed on his return ride and confirmation that he had achieved his goal with 100.8 miles recorded on his bike computer....

Our faithful steeds.....

A Noticeable Change

One of the things that you pick up on when living outdoors over many months is the way the seasons change.....
Once August was done and dusted, obviously the nights started to draw in quickly but in the last two weeks they have really sped up.... The moment any sun starts to go down the temperature drops quite rapidly.

It's not just in the evenings either...in the morning gone is the light that a few months ago used to filter through our pop top and now the transition from night to daylight seems long and drawn out....even the sound of the dawn chorus has changed.

Now I am not saying that you don't notice these things when living under a normal roof but when living outdoors over a longish period these changes seem to affect you more...
We check the temperature a couple of times a day which is something that I hardly ever did at Purple Towers...I check it because it affects us in a closer way.... 

Because the weather also has a big effect on every thing we do, from taking the awning down....putting the awning up.....moving on to the next site....I find myself checking the hourly forecasts rather than just a daily one....

I suppose what I am trying to say is that we have become more aware of how changes in the natural world affect our daily life.....

Today we packed our awning and the rest of our kit away again as we our moving on tomorrow.
We are moving back to our last site for a further three weeks before heading to our winter season pitch in early November.....

Below is a picture of more fungi....
This little group has sprung up behind the hedge that we have been camping close to...note the large cluster growing out of the tree stump.....

The latest group of Fungi.....

After ride drinks.......

Well, if the latest forecasts are anything to go by, the good weather that we have been enjoying for just over a week is all set to change.....

It's a pity because I have been really enjoying getting out on the bike in the glorious weather and starting to improve my fitness levels......

Mind you.... after the rides each day I have been taking advantage of the sun and have been sitting out in front of my awning next to my bike loaded and primed with my after ride drinks.....

It's probably not helped to improve the fitness levels too much but it just had to be done.....

My after ride drinks.....