Witch o't Woods

Tales of Wandering

Between Campfire and Hearth

A Cracking Good Walk

I completed the two-and-a-half-day hike along the East Coast!
I battled heat, sunburn, and blisters and walked around 39 miles from Hinderwell, just next to Runswick Bay, to Scarborough.

This was my first ever multi-day hike. I’ve always wanted to do one but somehow never got around to it. Partly because I didn’t have anyone to do it with, so I was thrilled when my sister suggested it.

Day 1

From Hinderwell to Robin Hood’s Bay

We were dropped off at a lovely little campsite called Serenity Camping in Hinderwell on Thursday evening so that we could wake up and go first thing on Wednesday morning.

The entrance to Serenity Camping, where our journey began.

This campsite was the perfect starting point. It had a beautiful little camping field complete with ducks, blackbirds and those little black birds with green feet. I don’t know what they’re called. I’ve always just referred to them as ‘Greenfoots’.

These little guys were wandering around near our tents. The mum was following behind, quacking at them to stay away from us!

A group of ducks taking a nap on a straw bail in the pond area.

We pitched our little coffin tents side by side, then went to the kitchen area to make ourselves a nice hot drink, which we drank sitting on a nearby bench and watching the blackbirds peck around for their ‘shopping’.

Coffin tents.

Offering a worm to Mr Blackburb.

My first night’s sleep was terrible. I didn’t blow my mattress up all the way because I didn’t want my hip to hurt in the night (the curse of a side sleeper). Unfortunately, this resulted in back and shoulder aches and dead arms. Which felt much worse than an achy hip.
I found myself awake at ridiculous o’clock in the morning, listening to the sounds of birds fluttering around the tent. I also watched as the shadow of one bird landed on top of the tent and then watched the subsequent liquid poo dribble down the outside of the tent. Lovely.
But apparently, good luck.

At around 7am, we were up and out of the tents. Packed away. Ready for off. This was the hardest day.
We covered 30 kilometres, and my shoulders were furious at carrying my rucksack despite it not being all that heavy.
We were lucky that the weather was overcast and mild. It made the walk much easier, and we made a good pace along the coastal path.

Marching along, feeling good.

We came upon the first big set of stairs pretty early in the day. They just kept going, on and on. We felt like they’d never end. When we got to the top, we collapsed onto the floor and prayed to the coastal path gods that there would be no more like that for the rest of the walk.
To their credit, the coastal path gods did bless us. There were many more stairs along the way, but never as many as on that first morning.

One of the many coastal staircases we encountered along the way.

By the time we arrived in Whitby, we were really flagging.
My feet were killing me, and I’d developed a bit of a limp. We worried that we’d taken on too much.

Our view on arrival in Whitby

We found a little sandwich shop and bought takeaway paninis, and I had coffee to try to wake myself up. We also bought ice-cold bottles of water, glugging them down gratefully as we limped through the crowds.

After finding a nice place to sit and eat, we removed our shoes and socks and allowed our feet a good rest in the sunshine for half an hour.
I also applied sunscreen as I’d not felt the need to put any on that morning, but by now, the sun had come out, and I was baking. I’d chosen to wear cycle shorts, and my poor legs, having not seen the outside world since last year, were unprepared for the horrors of full sun.

Next, we had to walk up the 99 steps, and we were not looking forward to it. We decided to do the steps, then sit for another half hour at the top and maybe have an ice cream before continuing.

However, that half hour of rest and food did us wonders. We didn’t struggle on the steps at all, and when we got to the top, we decided to just keep moving, vowing to get ice cream at some point along the way.

Looking back at Whitby Abbey as we headed out of town

We never did get the ice cream. There wasn’t really anywhere else to stop along the route as we made our way to the next campsite, and we were quite happy to plod along without it.

The sun made things slightly harder, but we were on a roll. We didn’t struggle until we came off the coastal path and turned inland toward our campsite. It was up a mild and neverending hill, and I swear it felt like the longest section of the walk so far.
By the time we arrived, my brain was beginning to shut down from tiredness. I could barely understand the owner as he described where we should pitch up and where the facilities were.

We’d picked another brilliant campsite, Hooks House Farm. It had rolling green fields with an amazing view of Robin Hood’s Bay and the surrounding landscape.

The view from our tent pitch at Hooks House Farm

The land we pitched on was on a bit of a slope, but we were so tired we knew it wouldn’t affect our sleep at all.
We headed straight for the showers as soon as the tents were pitched. Never has a shower felt so good.
The facilities were clean and spacious, and the showers had great pressure. We left the shower block feeling fresh and ready for food.

Unfortunately, we also left waddling like stick people, as we’d forgotten to stretch when we stopped walking. This became a theme for the rest of the walk.

We took a slow and stiff walk down the field into town, where we fell into the first eatery we came across, which happened to be a local Hotel serving food, called Hotel Victoria.
I had a minted lamb burger, and Kim had a ‘lie pie’, which is what we call a pie when it has only a pastry lid but no bottom. Both were delicious but also a bit on the expensive side. We didn’t care. We were starving and not willing to walk any further to find sustenance.

Burger and Lie Pie

We also ordered a celebratory glass of Prosecco because we’re worth it.

Tasty bubble rewards

Waddling back up the hill to the tents was hard, and we went straight to bed, even though it was only around 8.30pm.
With the sounds of the other campers making merry around us (including one very loud, cackly lady who made us chuckle at each other through the tent walls), we drifted off to sleep.
I slept much better that night, partly because of exhaustion and partly because I blew up my mattress properly.

Our little houses on day two, Hooks House Farm

Day 2

Robin Hood’s Bay to Almost Scarborough

The next day was Thursday. When I awoke at the bottom of my tent (the slope, remember), I was already baking hot. I could hear Kim pottering around, and when I stuck my head out into the blinding sunlight, she was already up and dressed. I’d slept in, and it was already 8am. She’d let me sleep in since today was easier, with only around 12 miles to cover.

We took our time getting ready and packing away the tents, had our Huel breakfasts, and set off again at a reasonable but slower pace than the day before.

For anyone wondering, Huel is a meal powder that’s a bit like a protein shake but with all of the nutrients of a complete, balanced meal. It’s brilliant as a breakfast option because it provides me with plenty of morning energy without any planning or cooking. If you fancy trying it and want £15 off your first order, use this link.

The sun was crazy hot as we walked away from the campsite, and we couldn’t wait to get back on the coast path for that lovely sea breeze.
But first, we went down to the bay and stopped for a coffee by the sea.

Heading down into the bay.

Our morning coffee view

Then it was time to climb another huge staircase to bring us back up from Robin Hood’s Bay and back onto the coastal path.
We were glad when we had to stop halfway up to let a pack of small children walk by. They were out on a school trip with their little high-vis vests, and they politely thanked us in turn as they trotted by like ants.
We stood to the side, sweating, and tried to catch our breath to say, ‘You’re welcome’, five hundred times.

Our view from the top after climbing out of Robin Hood’s Bay

We struggled to find somewhere to stop for lunch that day. There were no more towns to pass through, and the path was much less walked than the previous day. We figured this was because unless you were dedicated to walking all the way to Scarborough, there wasn’t much reason to come this way.

We did pass a few other walkers. Occasionally, they’d stop to ask us how far we’d come, where we were going, and if we were walking for a charity cause.
We didn’t walk for charity on this occasion because we wanted to ensure we were up to long walks before gaining sponsorship. But if we do another one, we may raise some money for charity.

The view from Ravenscar, looking back at the coast we’d walked along. A fly photobombed the picture!

Disaster struck around lunchtime when I started to feel some soreness on the bottom of my right foot. There was nowhere to stop for a while, and the longer I walked on it, the worse it felt.
We eventually found a place where the path widened out a bit, and I removed my boot to inspect the damage.

The pad of my foot (the front bit where the toes join on) had a gigantic blister. It was around three cm wide and getting bigger by the second.
I also had a giant blister on one toe, which I hadn’t even felt. I decided to pop that one, as it wasn’t sore.

Kim had brought some Compede plasters, and I stuck one of those on the giant foot blister, hoping it would somehow fix the issue.
We sat for half an hour, drinking water and re-applying sun cream, but when it came time to walk again, I knew I was in trouble.
Every time I took a step, I could feel the blister getting squashed, and I realised I should have drained it before applying the plaster.
We were looking for another space to sit down without blocking the path when I felt the blister burst. I couldn’t walk any further with it sliding around in my sock, so I just had to sit in the bushes at the side of the path, remove the now completely soggy plaster, clean it up and put a new one on.
Once it was cleaned up, it felt better, but it was still quite painful to walk on, and I worried that it would take hours of limping along before we reached the next campsite.

At around 2 in the afternoon, we came across a sign pointing us off the coastal path to an Inn. The sign said it was 1/3 of a mile away, but it felt much longer. We were almost out of water and definitely out of fuel. The sun was hot on our backs, and the packs were starting to feel like small elephants.

Thankfully, the Inn had a nice shaded area for us to sit under, and the sandwiches were packed full of filling and only £5.60, complete with a side salad. We chugged two glasses of ice water and asked for extra to fill our water bottles. Then we set off again.

The path was getting quite overgrown at this point, with some sections weaving through ferns taller than us!
At one point, we passed a topless man carrying a gigantic pair of sheers, snipping at the overgrown foliage as he meandered along.
He told us it was around two and a half hours to Scarborough. We giggled at the thought of him snipping his way along the path all the way from Scarborough whenever we came across his snipped leaves on the path.

Walking through this part felt like walking on a tropical island. It was so green!

Luckily, our next campsite, Scarborough Camping and Caravanning Club, was not two and a half hours away. We reached it at around 6.30.
Being one of the Camping Club sites, we got a phone call at 6.20pm, asking where we were because we’d put a 6pm arrival time on our booking forms.
I find that these types of campsites are a bit naggy sometimes. This is not the first time I’ve had a phone call because of tardiness. But if you book a campsite weeks in advance, it’s difficult to know exactly when you’ll arrive on the day. It never seems to be a problem with the small, private campsites. Just the Club sites.

I can’t complain about the service once we’d arrived, though. The lady at the counter gave us a refund as we’d booked normal pitches online, but apparently, if you book over the phone, they have backpacker rates.
So that was nice.

We had lovely flat pitches here, too, on the ‘sunrise field’, which was beautiful and sunny still at 7pm when we were pitching the tents.

Home for the night in the sunrise field

Unfortunately, the showers left much to be desired. Mine was cold, and my sister got the even shorter straw as hers was just a trickle rather than a shower.
Not the best experience after a long, hot day of walking in the sun.

Our evening meal went much better. There was a pizza pub called Scalby Manor just down the road from the campsite, so we rolled into it three minutes before final food orders and looked pleadingly at the man at the door.
He was kind and allowed us to order food if we were quick.
We scurried inside and ordered a stuffed crust pizza each and a bottle of Prosecco to share. It was half the price of the Inn the day before, even with the whole bottle of Prosecco.
The pizzas were tasty, but they had a different type of cheese in the crust. Not bad. Just not expected. I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not. I definitely prefer the mozzarella stuffing. Still, it hit the spot.

Once again, we waddled back to our tents and said goodnight, proud of ourselves for completing our second day of walking.

Pizza and Prosecco at Scalby Manor Pub

Day 3

The final waddle into Scarborough

The next day was Friday, and we only had around 5 miles to walk into the centre of Scarborough, where we’d booked a train back to York.
We took our time getting ready, and I used my little stove for the first time to make us cups of tea since this campsite had no kitchen facilities.
I’m impressed with my little stove. It boiled the water in no time and packs down really small, so it hardly takes up any space in my pack.

My foot was still really sore from the day before, but once I started moving, it quickly settled down into a dull burn, which was manageable.

Finally, we can see Scarborough!

It wasn’t long before we arrived in Scarborough and happily walked along the Promenade, with the sun shining and the sea blue and glittering.

The view of Scarborough Castle as we walked along the Promenade.

We’d been debating whether we were up to the walk up and over the castle hill. We decided we couldn’t come all this way without doing that tiny bit, so we went for it.
Going up was surprisingly easy, but coming back down the other side with stiff legs and achy knees was torture. My blister awoke angrily and started to make its displeasure known. By the time we came back down into town, I was limping like the walking dead and moving with the speed and balance of a drunken snail.

The view from Scarborough Castle. The final hill climb.

This only meant one thing, of course. Food and rest.
We found a traditional fish and chip restaurant called The Anchor, overlooking the sea. We slithered under a sun brolly and ordered our meal.
Amazingly, despite it being 11:30 in the morning, the restaurant provided us with a small bottle of Prosecco each, allowing us to continue with our tradition of food and Prosecco at the end of our walk.
The fish and chips were delicious, and we made our way to the train station full, happy, and slightly sleepy.

The final Prosecco reward. Followed by a Dandelion and Burdock to wash down the fish and chips. Which we forgot to take pictures of, because we were so tired.

My dad picked us up in York and drove us back to Ripon, where we’d booked the bus accommodation at Ivy Bank Stay-Cation.
We had a BBQ and sank into the wood-fired hot tub to soothe our aching muscles.
With another glass of Prosecco, of course. Hic.
Absolute bliss.

The hot tub awaits!

That was four days ago; my blister is already feeling much better. I can walk around now without limping. I did a lot of sleeping in the two days after returning from the walk. My body must have needed to catch up. But I’m feeling much more lively today.

I took Nettie, who belongs to one of the ladies in Ivy Bank Café, for a walk around the block this morning. It was nice to get out and about again after a few days of hibernation, and having a little doggy companion on my walk was nice.

Nettie! Sorry for the blur, she moves quite fast when her little legs get going!

I’m away to Wales this weekend, for camping and a day walk with a friend, so I’m hoping my blister will be fully healed by then. If not, it’ll have to be more of an amble.

Fox
xx

June 25, 2025
Home Improvements and Adventure Packing

Last weekend, I finally bought the paint for Noah’s new front wing, which was damaged a few weeks ago when the gate blew into it while I was driving through.
I’d already sourced a new wing a few weeks back at the painful price of £119.00. I was initially quoted £90 when I called up to enquire, but when I arrived to pick it up, the price had jumped for some reason.

With few options nearby, I decided to just pay the money for an easy life. It was annoying because the man behind the counter was also rude. I would have preferred to give my money to anyone else but him.
But I really wanted to get started on the fix, and it felt like a lot of effort to source a different panel, so I paid the extra money.
The place I bought it was called Mount Panels over in Leeds, and although they were rude and gave me an initial false quote, the panel is perfectly fine.

The new panel. Apologies for the poor picture quality. New panels come ready coated in black primer.

I sourced paint from a shop called Soll in Kirkstall. The guy there was really friendly and helpful. He asked for my fuel cap cover so that he could match the paint to my van exactly, and the paint was ready in under an hour.

My dad gave me some lessons in spraying because he’s done this many times before. I can’t afford to spend too much on this, so we’ve had to opt for spray cans over a spray gun.

Dad giving me spraying lessons. This is the back of the panel. Apparently if you don’t spray this side too then it’ll rust really quickly.

I went for paint with lacquer included, hoping it would make the job quicker and easier, but it hasn’t worked out as well as I’d hoped. I could have done with one more can of paint, as the finish is not brilliant. I need to sand the whole thing down with fine wet and dry sandpaper, then buy a tin of spray lacquer to go over the top.

Part of the issue was how sunny it was on the day we sprayed the panel. There’s a slight orange peel effect in places, which is apparently where the paint is drying as it comes out of the can. Very annoying, but I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy job, and it’s also a bit of a learning curve, so I expected a couple of issues along the way.

After consulting YouTube, I now have a clear idea of how to fix it, so I’ll pick up some lacquer when I next have time to work on it and have another go.

In the meantime, Dad used a piece of wood and a hammer to beat the dinted panel back into place so that I can at least open the driver door properly. It’s made things easier for now, which is good because I won’t have time to work on the repair this weekend due to the walking adventure and family plans when I return.

Still looks rubbish, but at least I can open the door now.

In between waiting for the paint layers to dry, I removed the awful blue stripes, which I’ve wanted to get rid of since buying Noah almost a year ago.
I have nothing against stripes per se, but they were not to my taste. They were also not applied very neatly, which meant bits were coming unstuck, and there were places where they hadn’t been trimmed very well, and even some rips which had been stuck back together overlapping. It just looked cheap and nasty.

Noah with his blue stripes

I removed the top stripes a couple of months back. These went along the roof’s edge and down the front of the doors to meet the stripes on the front wings. It took me ages to clean off the sticky residue they left behind, so I’ve been procrastinating over removing the rest of them.

While watching a random van conversion video on YouTube recently, I found a product that made the job much easier. It’s called G&T Glue and Tar Remover by Car-Chem, and it just melts the glue in under a minute. It was still a grim job to wipe off the jellified glue after it had melted, but it was much faster, and I got all of the stripes and glue removed in one afternoon.

Glue and Tar remover by Car-Chem

Noah now looks very neat with just his black stripes on either side. I plan to get a couple of nice campervan stickers from Etsy, but first, the whole exterior needs a proper cleanup. There are a few chips in the paint, which I need to learn how to repair. There are also marks on the side panels from where the old business stickers were when Noah was a plumbing van. The paint, in general, just needs brightening and polishing.
I’ll have to consult YouTube again for lessons. What would I do without it?

No more blue stripes

I plan to get Noah looking nice and neat inside and out by the end of summer and then post him online for sale in the spring of next year. Spring is the best time to sell a campervan because that’s when everyone starts thinking about camping and enjoying the sun.

Overall, I’m enjoying my home improvements and learning how to fix things rather than paying others to fix them. It’s quite satisfying when a job is finally completed, and Noah is a little more improved.

Found this little guy on my van while I was removing the stickers. I’ve never seen a green spider before, but apparently he’s a Cucumber Spider and they’re quite common in the UK.

However, the work will be put on hold for a week or so. I head to Redcar with my sister tonight, where we’ll begin our two-and-a-half-day walk along the coast. We’re very excited to be doing our first camping walk. I think I’ve packed everything I need, but I’m sure I’ll have forgotten something.

I got a great deal on a hiking tent from Mountain Warehouse. I decided to have a go at putting it up immediately after collecting it. I was at my mum’s house at the time, so it went up in her back garden.
It’s not the most spacious of tents, but it’s very light, which is the most important thing, and it was also easy to put up.

It has doors on both sides, which makes for a great through-wind. This is good, because the temperature inside felt like 100 degrees within two minutes of putting it up…

Mum did all of my washing for me while I was there. She’s such a good egg. Washing is always a pain when living the van life. Usually, I have to go to a laundrette or book into a campsite with washing facilities to get the job done, so the laundrette of mum is very welcome!
We had cups of tea and admired the tent from the patio while my clothes dried.

Admiring the tent. Also using the tent as a cardigan dry rack.

My sister also came over, and we decided to tackle the issue of the security tag on my walking rucksack.
I bought it from Go Outdoors a couple of months back and then realised they hadn’t removed the security tag before I left the store. I don’t remember the alarm going off, but I was concerned that it would set off other alarms if I went in and out of stores while on the walk. Also, I didn’t want people to see the tag and think I’d stolen my walking bag.

At this point, I had no idea where the receipt was, and I didn’t fancy trying to convince the checkout assistant that I hadn’t stolen the bag, so I again turned to my good friend YouTube for advice.
We were assured that the tags are easy to remove with just a couple of forks and some light pressure. We also needed to cover the whole thing in a plastic bag because the tag contained dye capsules designed to explode if the tag is tampered with.
I’d imagined masses of dye exploding into my eyes as I tried to prise the thing off, but then I watched a video of one exploding and realised it was only a tiny bit of dye and would probably not blind me.

Two forks, a garden fork, a hammer, and two screwdrivers later, we finally succeeded in removing the tag. Without breaking the dye capsules, which was a nice achievement.
I would not recommend this method, though. It was a lot of faff. It’s definitely better to check your items for security tags before leaving the store!

The little dye capsules look really cool. I didn’t want to throw them away, but also had no idea what I’d do with them if I kept them.

My bag feels quite heavy now that it’s packed, and my back is about to have a rude awakening. The last time I carried a pack like this was when I went on a month-long trip to Hawaii. That was back in 2018, and I’m nowhere near as fit as I was then. The pack is a bit lighter than that one was, though, and I’ve been doing a lot more walking this year to build the strength in my injured leg, so hopefully, I’ll manage okay.
My walking boots are rubbing on one of my ankle scars, so I’ve packed my trainers just in case it gets bad.
I’m looking forward to the trip and will be recording the route on the All Trails app, so I’ll share the map next week.

Wish me luck!

Fox
xx

June 17, 2025
A change of Scenery

This week, I’ve come to Ivy Bank Stay-Cation, a farm campsite in the village of Kirkby Malzeard. It’s a great site where I holed up for most of last winter. They won the Vanlife Awards Campsite of the Year a couple of months ago, which was great and has seen a big boost in business for them.

Sometimes, when I stay at the cottage for an extended period, I can go for days and days without speaking to another person. At first, it’s nice. I enjoy spending time alone, and tranquillity is often needed after some of my travel adventures. But after a while, I feel the need to speak to other humans again and access nice hot showers and running water. This is the great thing about living in a campervan. When I get bored or feel the need for adventure, I simply drive off and find somewhere else to settle for a bit.

Ivy Bank has its own little café, and it’s a farm campsite, so there are chickens and sheep and lots of birdlife. It’s tranquil during the week but can get busy at the weekends, especially since they won the award. Having the option to return to the cottage on weekends is great because it means I get the best of both worlds.
My dad also has a season pitch here for his campervan ‘The Whale’, so we often get more time to hang out while I’m here.
I’m friends with the lady who runs the café, so it’s nice to go for coffee and chat some days when I’m feeling the need to be social.

I’m also starting to feel the need for some sun on my face again. The weather in this part of the country has been rubbish recently, so I’m considering going down the country for a while.
However, the next couple of months are full of plans with family and friends, so I won’t be able to head down south until the end of July.

A rare moment of sunshine. That bus over there is where I’ll be hot-tubbing after the long walk with my sister.

Speaking of family adventures, my sister visited the cottage this weekend. We needed to plan for a three-day walk we’re doing in a couple of weeks. So we decided to have a fire night at the cottage to make the plan and catch up, as we’ve not had time to hang out for a while.
We try to fit in a ‘sister night’ once a month or so, but we’re both quite busy with life, so sometimes we go a bit longer than that between meet-ups. But it’s always really nice to just chill and catch up when we eventually get together.

This was the first fire night of the year at the cottage, so we had to gather stones first to make the fire circle.
My dad removed the old fire circle while I was away, healing from my accident. He said it made the lawn easier to mow.
I wanted it in a different place anyway, so it now sits directly in front of the cottage door. Easier to ferry snacks and drinks in and out of the cottage.
Dad was only mildly grumpy that I burned a small patch of grass and that he’ll now have to strim around it when he mows the lawn. He also commented about buying a movable fire pit, so I won’t be surprised if one appears in the garden at some point.
But until then, we have the nice new stone circle.

My sister has bought a new tent for the walking trip we’ll be doing, and so she decided to put it up in the garden and try it out. It’s a pretty nice tent, and despite the heavy downpour in the middle of the night, she stayed sound and dry inside. I’ve ordered the same tent for myself.

My sister making her bed in the new tent, and the nice new fire pit which we built in under ten minutes.

This will be our first multi-day walk, so we’re excited but also a bit worried that we’ll be exhausted from carrying our camping gear. We’re planning to walk from Redcar to Scarborough, stopping at three different campsites along the way.

My sister has done most of the planning. She loves that stuff, and I’m not a planner at all, so it works out well. I need to buy a few extra bits like a small stove and a new sleeping bag.
I bought a sleeping bag from Mountain Warehouse last weekend, but it turned out to be a child-sized one. It didn’t say it was a child’s sleeping bag anywhere on the packaging, and I didn’t notice that it was only 160 cm long until I opened it when I got home and tried to fit inside it.
I’ve already removed the label, so I probably can’t take it back to the shop now, but since it was only £20, I’m not too bothered. I’ll probably give it to my friend’s little girl as they sometimes go on family camping trips. But it does mean that I now have to go and shop for a new sleeping bag again.

The long walk will happen in a couple of weeks, followed by a much-needed hot tub when we return to Ivy Bank campsite, so I’ll be sure to post about how it went.

In other news, I’m happy and sad to report that the baby birds have flown the nest! After shopping, I arrived home on Friday to find only one bird in the nest. When it saw me peering in, it did a little hop and flew across the garden.
It was impossible to grab a picture of them as they flitted around the woodland area in the garden to the left of the cottage. They’re just so fast!
The nest is now empty, and it doesn’t look like the mum is interested in returning to lay a second clutch. So, I will take the opportunity to chop the bush right down before it falls away from the wall again.
I’ll miss my little bird babies, but I think they’ve decided to stay in the forest garden, so at least I can still hear them cheeping, and sometimes I see them looking for worms in the lawn. I’m happy that they all survived and grew up to be healthy adult blackbirds.

The only picture I managed to get of a baby bird after they flew the nest.

Now that I’m at Ivy Bank for the week, I have a new set of birds to watch. There’s a little blackbird here who likes to look under my van for worms, and the chickens make an appearance occasionally to look for wayward crumbs. I like to keep a pot of dried mealworms by the door to entice the birds out for snacks.
Drinking tea with the van door open and watching the wildlife is honestly one of my favourite things about vanlife. I love that as soon as I open the door, I’m basically outside. I feel so much closer to nature and the outdoors this way.

Unfortunately, one chicken was killed by a loose dog last weekend. The campers in question had simply opened their van door at night to let the dogs run free, and one of the dogs decided it fancied a poor chicken. They denied all knowledge the next morning when the chicken was found dead under their vehicle, but the campsite has cameras, so it was easy to see what had happened.
For those of you who own dogs and stay on campsites, please always keep them on a lead. There’s usually a good reason why the campsites ask you to do this.

Until next time.

Fox
xx

June 9, 2025
Leaky Lids and Growing Chicks

The weather this week has been awful, and I find myself wondering where the summer has gone. Of course, this is not unusual for North Yorkshire, but it would be nice to have the top up on the van again.

When I bought a pop-top campervan, I did so with the thought that I would still be able to fit under those annoying car park barriers but also enjoy headroom and being able to stand up while parked.

When the top is up there’s ample headroom and its a different space entirely.

However, the pop-top is not quite the handy solution I thought it would be.

To start with, the thickness of the pop-top lid, plus the solar panel, makes the van still just too high to fit under the barriers. We’re talking a cm. Most annoying.

The other annoying thing about having a pop-top is that it’s like a tent.

In a heavy downpour, the water eventually starts to seep in. It’s also really cold because it has zero insulation. I have a diesel heater, but it feels wasteful to run it with the top up, as the heat just escapes, so you have to run it continuously.

Then there’s the wind. You can’t have the top up in heavy wind because of the risk of it blowing off entirely or, worse, tipping the van over.

There are more windy days than you realise. Trust me.

Even in mild wind, the noise of the tent sides billowing and flapping is quite annoying.

Pair all this with the fact that whoever fitted the pop-top didn’t seal things properly, so rain seeps in through the fixings when the roof is in the up position.

An outside view of Noah with the top popped. And a Cockrill called Barney, because all the best campsites have chickens.

When I first bought the van, the roof leaked even in the down position.

The previous owner drilled holes in the roof to fit the solar panel and didn’t use adequate sealer. In fact, on a couple of the bolts, he didn’t use any at all…

The first time it rained heavily, I suddenly found myself scrambling to find enough pots to catch the water.

That issue was easily solved with some gutter seal and a ladder, but the leaky fixings have so far resisted treatment. I plan to make another attempt at this next month, weather permitting. I’m also planning to reproof the tent material to help with the water seepage.

During the winter, the van spent a lot of time in cave mode. Top down, me moving around like a hunchback inside. I longed for summer when the roof would be up continuously, and I could even sleep on the upstairs bedboard!

Noah in his winter cave state. He was lovely and toasty inside though.

However, I forgot that I live in Britain, so even in the summer, there are a lot of rainy, windy days.

Honestly, I regret my choice, and I will definitely go with a high-roof van next time. I dream of cosy rainy days in the van, walking around upright like a normal person. I watch YouTube videos of van lifers walking around in their high-top vans, and I get the envy.

Such is life.

Anyway, enough about the van; it’s time to move on to more positive news.

The Ugly Babies are growing fast!

There are five chicks in the nest, and they all seem to be thriving. I expected a couple would die off along the way due to insufficient food, but the mum is doing a fantastic job keeping up with five hungry bellies.

When I peek in now, the little eyes are open and staring back at me.

If I make cheeping noises, they all stand up, beaks open and ready for food.

Look how tall they are!

The mother is still not amused with my nosiness but is tolerant.

I forgot how fast the baby birds grow. Soon, they’ll be flinging themselves out of the nest and causing the mum lots of stress, I’m sure.

They almost have all their feathers now. Surely, it’ll only be another few weeks before they learn to fly. I wonder if they’ll hang around the garden or fly off to new territory.

I’ll keep you posted.

Not much else has been going on this week.
I achieved a new front panel for the van to repair the damage from the gate. This Friday, I need to buy the correct paint to spray it.
It’s a long and faffy process and one I could have done without. But that’s van life.
The bad weather has ended my gardening plans, and the cottage has been very cold due to the lack of sun. I’ve been holed up in the van for most of the week with the heater running, although I did have a lovely movie evening in the cottage, in front of the TV with the fire burning, which was nice. Hopefully, the sun will return soon, and garden work can resume.

Fox

xx

June 4, 2025
Ugly Babies

This week, the cottage saw the arrival of some new tenants. The tenants in question will not be paying any rent. Nor will they be helping with the cleaning. By the look of them, all they’re currently capable of is eating and snoozing. Their eyes are still closed, and they don’t have any feathers yet. They are quite ugly, but we don’t tell their mum that.

These are blackbird babies, and they arrive at this time every year. I’m happy to see they’ve continued their tradition of nesting in the briar rose, which grows next to the outhouse door.

The mother sits, eyeballing me through the leaves as I enter and leave the outhouse. She always has a slightly grumpy look, as if my very presence is rude and uncalled for.

Disaster struck a few days ago when the heavy rains came and almost tipped the bush over. This happens quite often as the birds have usually built their nest before I’ve had time to give the bush its summer trim.
The bush was leaning so far away from the wall that the nest was fully exposed. The mother stared at me. Please do something.
So out came the trusty secateurs, and off came the top half of the bush, which is now leaning nicely against the wall again, ensuring that the ugly bird babies are snug and dry.

Is the mother thankful? Hard to tell. She still looks very angry with me. As if it’s my fault that she chose to build her nest on unstable ground.

A few years ago, her one very fat baby threw itself out of the nest. Using gardening gloves very carefully, I untangled it from the thorny bottom of the bush and gently placed it back into the nest. Only for it to jump out again a few hours later.
In the end, I had to just leave it in the flowerbed.
Luckily, the flower bed was relatively safe because I’d added a wire mesh fence to stop the rabbits from digging up the plants.
The fat baby bird had to live in the meshed-off flower bed for weeks until it was finally ready to fly.
The mother, looking jaded, sat on top of the rosemary bush, waiting for the day when the baby could jump out and begin its adult life and she could finally go back to living in a nest and not getting rained on.
Such is life.
Hopefully, the four babies will stay in the nest this year until they’re fully baked, and she’ll have an easier time.

In other news, an accident happened on Saturday when I went to drive through the big gates at the end of the dirt track which leads to the cottage.
A big gust of wind grabbed the gate and swung it closed as I drove through. The angle was just right, so the gate got stuck on the front wing of my van, disintegrating the gate and causing a big dint in the front panel. The driver-side door now doesn’t open fully as the bent panel is in the way, and no amount of banging or bending has resulted in this being any better.

Ouch, poor Noah!

I’ve sourced a new panel (£90) and will pick it up on Friday.
Unfortunately, they don’t come ready painted, so I’ll also have to buy the correct paint and spray it white before I can put it on the van.
I’ll also lose part of the decorative blue van stickers, which I’m not entirely sad about.
I’ve never been keen on the blue stripes, which were badly applied to my van by the previous owner, so this gives me a good excuse to remove them entirely and pick a different type of campervan decor.
Another job on the list.

Driving out of the cottage yesterday, I was surprised to see that the gate had already been replaced by a new, second-hand one. There’s also a nice big chain on it, which I can use to loop over the bush when it’s open, ensuring that the wind can’t blow it closed in future. That was fast work by my landlord!

The end of a good old gate

On Tuesday, I checked the level of my new leisure battery and saw that it hadn’t been charged for four days!
The problem was a loose connection on the negative wire coming from the solar panel.
Credit to the new battery, I hadn’t noticed for four days that my solar wasn’t working. If that had been my old battery, the fridge would have screamed at the end of the first day.

I took the van to my dad, who helped me diagnose the issue.
In the pouring rain, of course.
I had to stand with my purple umbrella propped on top of the open rear door while Dad rooted in the cupboard, trying to access the wires to test them with his meter. Why do these things never go wrong in good weather?

The problem turned out to be with the connector plug. I accidentally pulled on it when grabbing something from the cupboard, and the wire inside the plug is now loose. It works as long as you wiggle it in the right way, but sometimes it stops working again, so I’ll need to order some more plugs.
More money.
Whoever said vanlife was a cheaper living alternative?

In the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of money on van repairs and improvements, and I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to put much more into it.
I’m considering selling this van next year and replacing it with something bigger with more living space. I want to claw back some of the money I’ve spent when I sell Noah, but it’s reaching the point where if I spend any more on him, I won’t be able to.
It’s a tricky balance between being comfortable (he is my house, after all) and being sensible with my money to not lose too much when I come to let go.

My dream is to own a Luton box van. They have the perfect living space, and everything is square, making it much easier to convert.
I’m intimidated by the size, though, and the thought of driving something that huge does cause me some concern. Will I fit into car parks? How much will one of those cost to insure? Will campsites still accept me? Will repair costs be horrific?

I plan to do some research over the next couple of months and then decide between buying a larger panel van or jumping to a Luton. The Luton conversions look so homely, and I’d have all the space I need, so I hope to make it work.

It does mean that I’d be converting the van myself, though, as there are very few ready-made Luton campervans out there, and the ones that do exist are usually over 3.5 tons.
I don’t want to do an HGV licence, so I’ll need to find a 3.5-ton Luton and ensure the conversion doesn’t add too much weight.

It’ll be an exciting project if I go ahead with it, though. I converted my first campervan years ago. It was a lot of fun, and it helped me learn what is necessary and what is overkill when building a conversion.

All of this needs to be put on the back burner for now until I’ve repaired the issues with my current van. The front panel is the first job on the list. But there are other jobs that I need to complete before I can sell.
It will probably take up the rest of the summer, so I see myself spending another winter in Noah.
Spring is the best time to sell a campervan, so it will line up nicely.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to find innovative storage solutions for all of my things and enjoy the space at the cottage while the weather is warm.

Fox
xx

May 25, 2025
Grumpy Spiders and a Power Upgrade

Great things have been achieved this week!

The Big May Clean is almost complete.
It’s taken longer than anticipated, but I’m on the home run!

All but the highest Alien Spiders have been evicted, and the Juicy Window Spiders are grumpily rebuilding their webs after I cleaned the windows.

Just one of many pans of dust and dirt removed from the cottage. I really don’t know how it all gets in.

For anyone wondering, the Alien Spiders are those weird, uppity-legged ones with rice-shaped bodies and hair-thin legs. I think they’re called Basement Spiders?
They started appearing inside the cottage a few years ago and quickly took over, killing all of the juicy spiders and not even earning their keep by catching flies.
They catch the poor juicy spiders, wrap them into a ball, and lay their eggs in them. Then they sit in the corners, holding their dead eggspider ball until it hatches, and the cycle continues.

I’d never disliked an insect until I met this kind. I think it’s the fact that they kill the poor juicy spiders who do nothing to deserve it.
So now, every time I spot one of these guys, I evict them immediately.

However, even with a ladder, the eaves are too high for me to reach. This gives the Alien Spiders a place of safety, and so naturally, it’s absolutely covered in their webs.
I plan to devise a long stick with some kind of duster on the end to clean up the webs—another task on the great cottage to-do list.

I found this giant Juicy Spider out in the porch, eating an Alien Spider. How the tables have turned!!

Anyway, the bulk of the dust and alien spiders have now been removed, and the cottage is starting to feel like her old self again. I even picked a small selection of wildflowers from the garden to brighten the place up.

My dad came over on Friday afternoon and cut the grass while I finished things off in the cottage. Then we cooked some burgers and sausages on a small disposable BBQ I found in the outhouse. I don’t remember buying it, but it must be left over from a camping trip, as cottage BBQs have traditionally been done over a garden fire.

We cracked open a nice bottle of dessert wine, which we picked up at the Camping and Caravanning Club show earlier this year. It was the perfect amount of food and drink, and it felt good to sit out in the garden with the freshly cut grass, listening to the birdsong.

Dad brought along a new lamp, which he also bought at the Camping and Caravanning Club Show. It’s similar to my paraffin lamp but runs on gas.

I spent Saturday upgrading the leisure battery in my campervan.
Since I bought this van last year, I’ve struggled with a measly 80-ah lead acid battery paired with my Anker 500wh portable power bank, which I use to power my laptop while working.

However, with the arrival of warm weather and the removal of winter electric hook-ups, the camper fridge has frequently complained that there’s not enough power in the lead acid battery, even when the sun has been shining on the solar panel all day.
It also complains on cloudy days because I have to charge the Anker battery using the 12v socket.

Since arriving back at the cottage, I’ve been using the 50-watt solar panel, which used to live on my car, to power the Anker battery on sunny days, which has helped a bit. But it hasn’t resolved the issue with the fridge on hot days, and I still struggle for power on overcast days.

This problem has meant that I’ve had to prioritise all of the leisure battery power for the fridge and occasionally charging the Anker battery, not even using my diesel heater on cold days as the fan takes a surprising amount of power while it’s running.

But no more! On Monday, I finally ordered a brand new 150-ah lithium battery, which should give me roughly three times the power of the old battery.
It should also recharge faster on sunny days, so this should end my power struggles.

The battery arrived the day after I ordered it, which was much faster than I’d expected. I went with an Eco Tree Lithium battery, after spending some time reading reviews on the internet.
The battery charge was half full when it arrived, so I dragged out the generator and charged it fully before the installation. I’d already anticipated the need for this and had ordered a plug-in Victron charger to do the job.

Charging up the battery before installation.

In the few hours it took to charge, I moved all the connection wires and the solar charge controller to the back of the van.
The new battery is too big to fit under the driver’s seat where the old battery lived. Because I plan to take it with me when I upgrade the van, I’ve just installed it underneath the rock n roll bed in the back for now.

Before disconnecting the solar charge controller, I had to climb onto the campervan roof to cover the solar panel with a blanket, as disconnecting a live solar panel is dangerous.

Doesn’t the solar panel look cosy?

After that, it was just a case of disconnecting the charger wires from the old battery, unthreading the cables from behind the cupboards (the solar wires come in at the back of the van, and so they’d been threaded through to the front), and connecting up the cables again at the other end.

The new battery has much thicker cables going to the fuse box, so I can use things like my 12v cooking pot and 12v iron without the risk of pulling too much current through the cables.
My dad showed me how to apply the lugs needed to connect either end of the cable. It was fun to learn, as I’ve previously only used the small wire crimping tools, and this time, we had to use the big hydraulic ones.
I’m lucky that my dad is a trained electrical engineer and has also renovated a house or two, so he usually has the tools I need.

Van improvement days always leave the van in complete carnage. Here’s a picture of what happens when you have to reach the little nooks and crannies for wiring purposes!

It was hard work, but I’m already enjoying the benefits.
Last night, I made some prawn ramen by sticking everything in the 12v cooking pot and leaving it to slowly cook as I tidied up the mess in the van. So easy and delicious!
Today, I’m charging the Anker battery using the 12v socket, and the fridge is happily chugging along without complaint. Blissful harmony is restored to the van!

I’ve yet to try out the little 12v iron I found on eBay a few weeks ago.
Not only will it help me to look neater by not wearing crinkled clothing, but it’ll also help with my sewing projects.
I’ve been unable to complete many sewing projects since I moved off the winter electric hook-up. An iron is necessary to press the seams, but even my travel iron needs too much power for the Anker battery to manage.
I already have a few sewing projects in mind, so it’ll be nice to start them once the main jobs are finished in the cottage and the van.

It’s a relief to resolve the electricity problem finally.
I’m now in a position where I shouldn’t need to worry about saving power to ensure I can run my work laptop and fridge, even if there are a few overcast days in a row.
Later down the line, if it turns out 150-ah is not quite enough to run all of my things, I know that I can easily buy a second battery and wire it in series without making any more changes to the existing cable setup.

After all the hard work this week, I’ve decided that today will be a lazy day. The weather outside is windy and overcast, but I’m cosy indoors, napping, reading, and writing this blog post.
The perfect end to a busy week.

Toasting the feet.

I hope you’re all enjoying your Sunday, too.

Fox
xx

May 18, 2025
A bit of a backstory

I mostly live the Vanlife in my trusty campervan, Noah. Noah is a short-wheelbase Ford Transit Custom with a pop-top roof and very little storage space. I love him dearly and have just spent a wonderfully cosy winter travelling around different campsites in the UK.

I bought Noah in the middle of last year after recovering from a serious climbing accident, which left me unable to walk for over a year. By the time I could walk again, I had massively itchy feet and wanted to spend as much time outdoors as possible.

Before my accident, I lived between my off-grid cottage, which I rent from a lovely farming family in Ripon, and various accommodations mostly found on Spareroom.com.
The rented rooms mostly came about because while the cottage is fantastic in the summer – peaceful, surrounded by nature, off the beaten track – life is not so comfortable in the winter.

Made of stone, she holds no heat, and the two fires struggle to heat even a small area of the living space in the depths of winter.
She’s also at the bottom of a sloping field, which becomes very boggy in the wet months, making it impossible for even a 4×4 vehicle to get up and down, never mind a little campervan. (Or the estate car, which I had before Noah).

Being unable to drive in and out means ferrying shopping and other supplies from the top of the field by wheelbarrow. (Whoever invented the wheelbarrow was an absolute genius).
There’s no running water either, so drinking water must be carried in, along with food and other essentials.
Between the biting cold and the difficulties getting in and out, the cottage becomes a difficult living option in the winter.

However, rather than this being a downside of cottage living, I see it as a benefit. I used my winters as an opportunity to try living in different areas of the UK. As a result, I’m well-travelled and have met some wonderful people along the way.

At the time of my accident, I lived in a gorgeous old house in Spennymoor, just on the outskirts of Durham. I loved my room, with its enormous old fireplace big enough to step into, my Bedknobs and Broomsticks style brass bed, and the amazing picture window which opened up like a door into the walled back garden, enabling me to climb directly out, or on sunny days have it wide open and feel like I was out in the garden while still being in my room.

Alas, after the accident, I had to move, as I was wheelchair bound and there were too many tight spaces and steps for me to manage.
I was also unable to return to the cottage, as her access is definitely not wheelchair friendly.

However, after leaving the hospital, I was lucky enough to find a lady in Darlington who was looking for someone to live in her house and take care of it while she lived with her mother, who was sick and recovering from an illness.
Technically a lodger, I paid a very reasonable fee for a room in the house, but had the whole place to myself for the entire year and a half I lived there.

It was the perfect space for my recovery. Set back into a small newbuild estate, it had good bus links into town but was quiet enough that I could take myself out on daily wheelchair ‘rolls’ without being in too much danger of getting squashed by traffic.
Being in a wheelchair for six months gave me a whole new appreciation for people who spend their lives in one. Britain seems like quite a wheelchair-friendly, accessible place until you experience wheelchair living firsthand.

By the time my leg bones had (finally) decided to stick back together, I was desperate to get back out and start driving again. Those first few weeks back in my car were nerve-wracking, but I pushed through and didn’t let the anxiety take over.
After a few weeks back behind the wheel, I started to get the vanlife itch again.

I’d already lived the vanlife for two years, between 2016 to 2018, the same year I started renting the cottage.
It ended abruptly when I returned from work one day to find my van, Gomez, nowhere to be seen, and I never saw him again.
The police were less than useless, logging the case and then closing it immediately unless ‘something came up’.
They refused to even check the nearby security cameras, which could have easily given them ‘something’ to go on.

I was sad about losing my van, which I’d lovingly converted into a comfortable living space.
Still, I accepted the loss and decided that perhaps the universe was nudging me towards a different path.

I’d been considering selling Gomez and swapping him out for a 4×4, which would be more suitable for cottage life, and so after the theft, I bought an old Nissan X-trail.
Unfortunately, that vehicle was an absolute nightmare of intermittent, untraceable faults, which caused it to limp along at 30 miles per hour regularly, sometimes even on the motorway, and always when it was most inconvenient. In the end, I replaced it with a trusty Ford Focus Estate, whom I named Egg because he was a good egg, and I was so relieved after having such a rotten egg before him.

I never imagined I’d go back to vanlife after suffering that loss, but after being cooped up for so long, the thought of living in a van, with the outside world on my doorstep, was starting to appeal again.
And so along came Noah, and I’m so glad I decided to try again because so far, I’ve had a fantastic time.

Now, summer has arrived again, and after two years away, I’ve finally returned to the cottage.
I did manage a couple of trips down with my dad during my recovery, once in the wheelchair and then later with my crutch. But otherwise, I’ve barely seen her.

My dad, bless him, has regularly visited to keep the lawn in check and let some fresh air into the place. I suspect he’s starting to fall in love with her, just as I have.
Thanks to his efforts, she’s looking less dishevelled from the outside than I’d expected.

Inside is a different story.

The mice have had a whale of a time.
They ate the bird nuts. They ate the chair legs. They even ate an entire box of tealights, leaving only the metal dishes behind.
I imagine they had a bellyache after that one.
I also found little nests everywhere. In my oven glove, behind a sofa cushion, in the back of a drawer.

Yes, those mice lived their best lives while I was away.

Luckily, they moved out in the spring, leaving their discarded winter homes for me to clean up. Thank you, mice.
I can imagine them practically rolling out of the cottage, fat, contented, and ready for a lovely summer.

The spiders haven’t been doing too badly for themselves either. A carpet of webbing covers the eves, and in every corner, at least three spiders sit, staring at me in the hope that if they sit still enough, I won’t notice and evict them. They hope in vain.
Although I do like to allow the fat juicy ones to stay in the kitchen window, as they’re very good at catching the giant bluebottles, who love to zoom in and buzz around loudly when the front door is kept open on dry days.
Thanks to the efforts of the window spiders, all is usually quiet again by teatime.

Everywhere is a layer of dust, and the fires are cold, damp and reluctant to be awakened from their damp slumber.
I’m calling this month ‘The Big May Clean’. Since it may take all month to set things in order.

Still, it’s nice to finally be back. There was a deep feeling of calm, groundedness as I opened the big oak door and stepped inside, breathing in the ‘cottage smell’ for the first time in far too long.

I’m looking forward to enjoying another glorious off-grid summer.

Fox
xx

May 11, 2025