Welcome to 'The Old Crow'!

Well now, I can hear you all thinking.... at last!
And look how the time has again flown by!!

Reading the title, you may think that this is another chat about birds, well, it's not. Although birds do come into it.

You have read about our caravan Hyacinth, if you have been following my rambles closely, and you may remember that we bought her in 2013!! You also may remember that Rob and I did not fit together into the bed, we managed half an hour on the first night before I shuffled off to the other end and re-arranged the cushions and the table.....

What I did not tell you was the frustration with the curtains in Hyacinth!!! Now, as any woman knows, if there are curtains on a window, they must open and close... easily... at the touch of a hand or the gentle nudge of a finger. Not these!! They looked gorgeous, cream with a navy blue trim at the top, small round metal rings in the navy piece that fitted on to a thin metal rod. They had a 'stop' screw at the end of each rod to prevent the whole curtain sliding off. In theory. In practice the metal rings were too small to slide along the rod, they just went sideways and stuck!! Plus, if you tugged too hard, the whole rod just slipped off the bracket which caused a lot of cursing from me! Rob finally became the Curtain Man as he has far more patience than I have, but it took him ages to get them either open or closed as each little metal hole had to be gently moved bit by tiny bit.......

Moving on.....
Last month Rob decided to take Hyacinth to have her yearly service back at the dealer as we were planning to head off for a week's break. So we emptied every cupboard and hooked her up and off we set to Cape Town. While Rob booked her in, Alfie and I wandered round climbing in and out of the New and also the Previously Loved Caravans..... and I fell in love!

On the Road Again............and Again.............and Again!

We have just returned from a week's adventure in Hyacinth. It wasn't planned as an adventure, we had booked to spend the week in one park, but we ended up going to three!

There must be something strange about caravanners. Here we have a lovely three bedroomed house with private bathrooms and showers, all the mod cons, and we choose to live in a 'room' smaller than a single garage! Plus, to share bathrooms and loos with total strangers, cook over open fires, sit under a canvas sheet that gets hot in the sun and cold in the wind, spend ages unpacking and repacking, and praying that it doesn't rain or the tent will be too wet to fold and put back into the bag and place under the bed again! And we just love it!

So, our week went something like this:

Monday morning we loaded up, dodged Basil and headed off towards Cape Town. We had made a booking at a Caravan Park overlooking a golf course, that we had found in the Caravan Magazine. It had a good write up, so Rob phoned. To be fair, they did tell us that they didn't usually allow dogs as they had two large ones that roamed the park as security, but that we could take Alfie, so we headed off. Well, the minute we drove in we could see that it was not for us. No view of the golf course, but a lovely view of a huge pylon and right on the approach path for Cape Town Airport. I love to watch the planes but not every few minutes and so low!! To add the final touch, a lady staying there had parked her car in the only bit of shade in our 'row' and then told us that the dogs were vicious and would rip Alfie to pieces! So, we did the right thing..................we left! They refunded our money with no problem and we headed towards Stellenbosch and 'Mountain Breeze', one of our all time favourites. Yes, they had room, so in we trekked and set up camp. Alfie spent a happy time watching squirrels and we sat back and decided that this was perfect! We should have gone there in the first place.

Heaven in Hopefield!

On Friday we headed back to Brackenfell to fetch Hyacinth. We nearly didn't go actually as on Thursday night we had a storm. When I say 'storm', I really mean 'STORM'. Or should that read 'STORM'.

The wind woke us both, and then Alfie abandoned his bed and clambered onto ours as he was worried about the rattling and banging of the roof. So were we, but we stayed strong for him! A smattering of drops in between the howling and crashing was all we got in the way of rain, as  I think the wind simply blew most of it back up into the clouds! So we lay in bed just after 3 and discussed the merits of ice-cream vs coffee, and also whether it would be clever to tow a caravan if the winds were that strong and we were giving a really wide area to blow onto.

But, by Friday morning proper (by that I mean the sun had risen and the birds were up), it looked good to go, and after Rob had a quick look on 'windguru', we loaded Alfie into the car and headed south. (I think!)

On the way, we passed a lovely farm dam between Hopefield and Malmesbury, and there must have been ten or so flamingos in the water, flapping their wings and showing the pink underfeathers, so I said to Rob that I would like to stop on the way back and take a photo or two. (Were they there on the way back?? You guessed it. All gone.)

Hyacinth Goes To The Doctor!

No, this is not the title of a children's story book, although it would make a good one!

Rob decided that it was time that our caravan Hyacinth had a check-up, brakes and necessary things like that! There is no Caravan dealer near us, the closest is in Cape Town, so at the beginning of December last year Rob phoned them to book her in for the once-over before we use her again. We have had her since August 2013, and goodness knows how long the last chap had her or when she was serviced last. And she does a lot of standing around and waiting! So before we had a wheel fall off and overtake us down a hill, it seemed like a good idea.

And that's not all......... Look at the floor!

On the Road Again!

Well, we have Christened our new caravan! Both figuratively and literally! Read on...

Last week we decided to go to Stellenbosch to a caravan park called Mountain Breeze. Rob had contacted them a month or so ago to make sure that we could take Alfie and they said that as long as they didn't see him then it was ok! Rob explained that he was very very well behaved and that he was a celebrity in his own right. Rob stopped short of telling them that they should be honoured to have Alfie gracing their property, but I think they got the gist!

In the meantime, I had been racking my brain to think of a name that conjured up the van's personality, and finally came up with 'Hyacinth'. Let me explain further. There is a TV sitcom called 'Keeping Up Appearances' that we just loved when we watched it, and the main character is a lady called Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bookay). She is large, tries hard to be correct in everything that she does, and is a bit of a snob!! Not that our van is a snob, but she is larger than Gemsquash, and more up-market! She is also blue like a hyacinth, and, wait for it, this is the best part and comes from Rob.......'We had to make the carport higher sinth she wouldn't fit!'. Get it? A play on words there! (Try saying it out loud, lisp and all!)

Basil ready to come too! (Pic thanks to Isabel)