Devon, Easter 2012

At last! The Rosabella was ready for our first proper trip for nearly a year!

Well, when we say 'proper', we mean a trip of more than one night and to somewhere other than a garage forecourt!

As K's last day at the Royal National College for the Blind approached we decided that we'd mark it by spending Easter at the same place we'd been on the two Easters before the ill-fated 2011 trip to France - Bolberry, near Hope Cove, one of the few campsites we were happy to use in the UK.

T added the Wednesday before Easter to his holidays in order to get the jobs he'd promised himself would be completed on The Rosabella and the plan was to pick up K from her leaving do on Wednesday evening, and head south.

Wednesday dawned with a howling breeze and snow in the air. K went off to Hereford and T snuggled down again waiting for the day to get a bit lighter and, hopefully, the weather to settle.

No such luck though so he ventured out into the increasingly heavy snow to start work - topbox to be drilled and fitted, canoes to be secured to the roofbars and bikes to be loaded on to a newly adapted bike carrier.



Rosie in the snow at Cleeton

After 45 minutes on the roof, messing about with all the fiddly nuts and bolts of the topbox doing what should have been a quarter of an hour's job, T retreated to the house to warm up. Ten minutes later, in full winter gear, he was back up on the roof fighting a losing battle with frozen straps and boats that were in imminent danger of becoming airborne and taking him with them.

After half an hour he gave up the struggle, lowered the kayaks back to the ground and beat a retreat again to The Old Schoolhouse. This time there was real pain as the blood returned to his frozen fingertips. Another look outside sealed the decision.

"Hello love. Look, I'm really struggling, the weather's ridiculous and I think we should stay put tonight and go tomorrow".

K realised from T's tone that he'd been suffering and readily agreed to another night at home - the gas fire in the van was a bit iffy as well so we couldn't even be sure of staying warm once we were on site.

T continued tinkering inside the van - the hot water system needed bleeding, a light had become detached and needed sorting and the wardrobe needed the clothes for the weekend to be loaded. Eventually he'd had enough and went and sat in front of the log burner until K came home.

It proved to be the right decision as the snow set in again, but next morning was a little warmer, and two pairs of hands made light-ish work of the remaining jobs on The Rosabella, although it was still midday by the time we left Cleeton.



Van-face!

An uneventful run down to Hope Cove, with ears cocked for any strange noises from the gearbox, and by evening we were esconced in the familiar surroundings of Bolberry and the added luxury of a hook up to power the electric radiator that we'd brought to cover for our dodgy heater.






T does his Cyclops impression

Salcombe

It was good to bed down for a good night's sleep in The Rosie and, although the weather was cold and showery for the weekend, at least it wasn't snowing. We had a good relaxing few days, talking and planning for the wedding, watching MotoGP on a very in-and-out mobile broadband, and introducing ourselves to the joys of off-road, night-time mountain biking - lots of squeals and giggles ensued (and that was just T!) but a great time was had despite the fact that the canoes stayed firmly in their place on the roof!