Our first rally!

Being new to this we wanted to explore all options that the ownership of a motorhome and members of the Caravan Club brought to Sharon and I so having only ben away twice at the back end of last year we decided to joining the East Yorkshire Centre and try a rally. I must admit we were a bit selective in our first choice and selected a fully serviced rally and made sure we did it before our holiday to Spain a few months later so that we gained as much experience as possible before we crossed the Channel.

We registered with the Centre as soon as we were members and quickly received contact from a committee members then in January we received our 2013 rally booklet through the post and sat down to decide where and when to go. We settled on a rally at the St Helens in the Park commercial site at Wykeham, just outside Scarborough, from Friday 22^nd to Sunday 24^th February. The rally marshals were Steve and Maureen Farley assisted by Neil and Jane Marchant. It was advertised as a ‘Clear the cobwebs’ please yourself weekend so we were not going to be thrown in at the deep end with lots of activities amongst strangers for our first outing.

I sent the cheque off for the £22.60 rally fee but later learned from our neighbours that you normally only pay the £2 non-refundable deposit and pay the balance on site so that was the first thing we learned.

Knowing the area of North Yorkshire reasonably well I know how to get there by car but was unsure about the best route in a 4 tonne motorhome and was unsure about Staxton Hill so I emailed the site and the owner, Chris Tedman, was particularly helpful and said Staxton Hill would not be a problem for me. I later spoke to another Centre member with a similar motorhome and he said that would be the way he went to Wykeham so that was the route decided up the east coast road to Beeford then across to Driffield and onto Staxton, only 50 miles.

The forecast was for a cold weekend with the expectation of snow and below zero temperatures. I brought the van home from our storage facility and gave it a good wash, which seemed to take most of the Wednesday and then prepared all the other things on the Thursday, including getting the heating on so it would not be so cold for our Devon Rex house cat. He has little fur so suffers from the cold and has spent almost all the winter in the house glued to the side of a radiator.

We are both on strict diets at the moment, and doing very well I might add, so storing the pantry for the weekend was hard as we were determined not to lapse and indulge ourselves with what we are missing. Soon we hope we shall though! Sharon had planned for Friday night a favourite meal of meatballs in tomato sauce with paprika potatoes and a mixed salad and for the Saturday a home cooked chilli con carne with rice. No wine, beer or chocolate!!!

Friday morning came and it was very cold as we packed the final things into the van putting our underwear into the locker above the heater where it keeps beautifully warm after the morning shower. The hats, gloves and scarves needed to be kept warm there as well on this weekend away. We had been used to the cold as on the two previous occasions we went away we had frosts and snow but at least this time we were not forecast for rain, which was a bonus.

The drive north was an uneventful one, although the road from Beeford to Driffield was a bit narrow and windy in places causing me to decide to come back along the coast road from Filey instead. The van was pleasantly warm and I decided not to travel with the gas heating on as last time it became very hot by the time we arrived at our destination. We arrived at St Helens for 1230 to a warm welcome from our rally marshal, Steve, well wrapped up against the cold as he guided us to our pitch.

The site was very pleasant from our first views as we drove to our rally area which was located on a middle tier of the site with all hard standing pitches in rows of gravel separated by grass roads over a harder sub surface. This was a nice touch so you were seeing grass all around you. The site was quite large and tiered and had a beautiful clean and very hot shower and toiled block close to our pitches. Every pitch had EHU and it’s own fresh water tap.

We set the van up and this time I decided not to fill the water tank with my hose but used a food grade 10 litre canister with a long spout which I sourced after staying on a site with no readily accessible tap that I could get close to to use my hose. It worked quite well but was slow to pour and in the cold winds my hands quickly became very cold. At least I know now I have a suitable alternative to having to use a hose and I filled the tank all weekend that way just adding a bit at a time. I had learned from previous occasions that I needed to empty the grey water by using a bucket to save moving the van to the waste point and that worked well with grey waste sinks dotted about the rows making the journey a relatively short walk from where we were pitched.

It was not long before we were having lunch and watching the fellow ralliers arrive, which appeared to be all caravaners. I was hoping to find another motorhome owner with us so I could pick their brains about touring with a motorhome but it was not to be. Instead I had some very pleasant and very informative talks with my fellow ralliers and as I have come to expect now I learned something new and helpful, this time it was that I did not need to remove the cover from my water heater when I was only using electric.

That evening we all gathered around the rally marshal’s awning at 2000 for a meet and greet with a welcome mug of hot tea or soup and a roll. We sadly accepted the less calorie tea but the soup smelled good and the bread would have been a treat. We spoke to quite a few of the members there and were made to feel very welcome as Steve pointed out that it was our first rally. We had a pleasant conversation with a couple who also travel with an older cat and learned that we had guests from the Derbyshire Centre with us. There were some children with us as well which was good.

Saturday brought another bitterly cold day but thankfully the snow came down in a very dry and short lived form for us and really only looked like a smattering of frost on the ground. The cab end of the van was very cold due to all the glass and metal and there are a lot of ventilation channels around the door areas. The ‘silver screens’ I had purchased second hand from the Club site were a big help and we had no condensation at all on the windows of the cab area. I remembered I had a very small electric fan heater in the garage of the van and once I set it off working it quickly made all that area of the van pleasantly warm. At night we also used a large throw over an extendable curtain pole to separate the habitation area from the cab and this helped greatly with keeping the cold drafts out. Our cat realised where the heat was now and gave up his igloo basket for a sprawl on the carpet in front of the fan for a short while.

We had planned to take a stroll the three miles to the Caravan Club site at West Ayton to have a look at the facilities but decided against the journey along the footpath next to the main road because it was so cold for a shorter walk around Wykeham. The village was clearly quite old and had a welcoming hotel in the centre where we would normally have enjoyed a beer or two. We discovered close by an ‘ice house’ which had been renovated as part of the Millennium Project. It had been built around C1800 and when the ice on the nearby lake was 1” thick it was cut and stored in this deep brick built cavern with a domed roof. The ice was then used in the summer. We had seen similar buildings, but much larger, in the Sierra Espuna mountains in Murcia, Spain where snow was packed inside the building which then froze and was used for medical purposes in Murcia city in the summer months. The frozen snow was carved out and transported by donkey down the mountain and I was surprised to see the same technology being used here.

On our stroll around the village we had a chat with some of the residents and watched the sheep being fed by the farmer and his trusty dogs. On the top of the hills towards the south we could see patches of heavier snow settled on the tops and as look would have it my camera batteries ran out before I could photograph all I wanted to. I am pleased I snapped one of the snowdrops coming into bloom in the gardens of a rather large house on the main street.

The next organised event was the thing called ‘Flag’ at 1100 on the Sunday morning with a raffle and ‘paper quiz’ winner. I should have asked about when the quiz had to be returned as in the end my answers missed the boat, I would not have won though, a bright young girl got 17 of the 18 answers correct and won a box of chocolates so that saved me from spoiling my diet efforts. At the meeting we again enjoyed a hot tea or coffee and biscuits for all who attended and Steve gave out the lucky draw prizes and raffle prizes. We were introduced again and were awarded a small plastic plaque acknowledging it being our first rally, which was a nice touch. Thanks were given and received by those who organised the event, who are all volunteers, and afterwards some started to leave for the return journey home. We decided to stay and have lunch and finally left, with the last of them, around 1430.

We enjoyed the weekend, had an opportunity to relax away from home, became more used to our van and had a chance to meet up with fellow members. All in all a good time appeared to be had by all and we shall certainly attend another one, hopefully choosing one where there was some social event organised as well with a diet free meal to enjoy! Our thanks must go to the four organisers who enabled it all to take place and for making us feel welcome.

Regards, Roy & Sharon