The Rosabella II's First Trip, November 2010

The Mid-Wales Loop, Nov 5th-7th 2010 (279 miles) 

Well, not exactly the first because we did have a run down to Bristol, just to get an idea of how she felt on the road - great, was the answer.

However, this was our first chance to spend the night and twiddle with all the buttons and switches for real. T had the day off on the Friday and, although reeling from an unexpected defeat on the golf course at the hands of No 1 son, was able to pack the van and get to Hereford in time to pick up K from work at 6 o'clock. A shopping and fuel stop, and we were on our way back to Abergwesyn Common, not the little lay-by we'd inhabited earlier in the year but a larger, flattish spot next to the river at the end of the valley. It was a little scary on the narrow mountain road, still not used to our new dimensions, but we managed to make it to our spot without to much squeaking and just a bit of scraping. Supper was duly cooked and we bedded down for our first night in The Rosabella II. Just as comfy as her predecessor, bed a little smaller maybe, we both slept well, although T was awake early as usual, head full of ideas and jobs to do.

First morning cuppa in The Rosabella II

Breakfast,  washing up, and no water coming through. We couldn't figure it out until we looked in the water tank and found it empty. T thought he had filled it before he left Cleeton - obviously he hadn't, and we'd used more than we thought. Our original plan had been to head for Abereiddy, near St Davids, but we decided that we would forego the pleasure of driving another 80-odd miles and head instead for New Quay, topping up with water there, if we could. We would also try to find some chemicals for the loo as well, just so that we could try that out as well! The Rosabella worked hard up the steep hills and round the hairpins leading out of the Abergwesyn valley but coped far better than her predecessor would have - something to do with an extra 500cc no doubt.  We had coffee and cakes in a cafe in New Quay (The Hungry Trout) and headed back up the coast to Aberystwyth, stopping at a garage on the way to top up the water.

A quick shop at Aberystwyth and off again, heading for Devil's Bridge with the intention of finding somewhere for an overnight on the mountain road to Rhayader. More steep, narrow roads and we pulled on to a Forestry Commission carpark at the entrance to the Hafod Estate. It was dark by now, but we decided to have a cuppa and then get on with a couple of jobs - K sorting cupboards, T messing with an incalcitrant light fitting. Apart from the water pump's tendency to trip the switch every three minutes it was going quite well. That was until T decided to plug the computer in to the 12v socket so that we could listen to some music.

"I'll use this two-way adaptor I think, so we can have that extra light on. Ha! do you remember how the old Rosie always used to blow a fuse when we used it?"

BANG!!

"Sod it, it's done it again!"

T fiddled with the trip switches to no avail. We plugged our auxiliary light in to the van's dashboard socket so we could see what we were doing. T puzzled over where the fuse could be before remembering that when he'd been setting up the old van's leisure battery charging system he'd read that a fuse should be used as close to the battery as possible. A quick scrabble under the driver's seat and there it was - and T knew he'd put spare fuses in one of the boxes he'd packed, in fact he'd told K as much when she'd suggested buying some in New Quay's pound shop. Which was why he was even more fed up to find that they weren't there! still, the cooker worked, the heater worked, the computer could run off it's battery so there were no big problems. T took a bottle to fill by dunking in the water tank - almost empty again! What's going on with the water for goodness sake, it was three-quarters full a couple of hours ago? More sitting down and thinking. The hot water tank takes ten litres, if the tank was slightly less than three-quarters full that would take quite a chunk out of what we were carrying, and there'd been the cleaning that K had started. Maybe it did make sense after all. Bedtime again, worn out with puzzling it all out, b ut we knew there were no serious problems and another great night's sleep ensued.

Forestry Car Park, Hafod

Sunday morning was beautiful. K investigated the porta-loo on the carpark and reported that it was spotless. We decided that we would have a walk before breakfast and set off on a truly beautiful route through the Hafod Estate. It was cold and there was a mist rising from the River Ystwyth, so gorgeous, past waterfalls, ravines, an old ribbon bridge, about two hours of working up an appetite for a huge Left-Over Pasta Fritata, cooked by T for brunch.
 
We headed off for home at about 2pm, over the mountain to Rhayader, a new fuse in Cross Gates, water in Hereford, and back to Cleeton by 6.30 (T managing to scrape the gate post on the way over the grid, damaging The Rosabella's trim in the process.

All in all, a satisfactory start to our relationship with our new van, and an appetite to get out again as soon as possible.
 










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