Firstly dear reader, we apologise that this is totally out of sync with the timeline of our blog posts. We are catching up…..slowly, but a change is going to come!
Well, after dangling the hook and bait with our reader for the past couple of months, we can say now that a huge change is going to come for Kev & I.
After a bit of a crappy year so far, and following the 9 crappy months that everybody had last year, we decided that we needed to find a way to start following our dreams and live the life that we wanted to live, where we wanted to live it.
Before we go on, we apologise for the lack of content on the blog recently. We have tonnes of stuff to put up about our two week tour and loads of footage that we need to get to grips with editing into our first YouTube vlog but things have happened very quickly for us in the last two weeks that time has just run away from us.
Rewind to April 2021
With us both feeling completely fed up, demotivated and demoralised in our roles at LBS, and with the shitty cards that we had been dealt so far this year we had a bit of a light bulb moment.
Back in April we watched Sam & Claire of Next Stop Everywhere take up their new positions as Assistant Site Wardens with the Caravan and Motorhome Club at Troutbeck Head in The Lake District.
‘Why don’t we do that?’ was the unified cry one evening!
We ‘ummed and arred’ and exchanged a few messages with Sam and Claire to get their viewpoint on working for the CAMC. Kev & I both had to fill in an online application form on the CAMC careers page, even though we were applying as a couple. Our applications were sent by email and we also stated that we would be looking for a 2022 season start. We had an email in response stating that we would be contacted in October / November when the interviews were due to take place for next season but that if our circumstances change to contact them straight away.
That was that. The wheels were in motion. We’d done it!
Fast forward to June 2021
Marley had an accident in early June. Trying to get downstairs with his dodgy hips when Kev got up, he lost his footing and went top over tail down from landing to hall floor. He didn’t move for a few moments. Our poor boy rallied as the day went on but as a few more days passed, he gradually gave up. He wasn’t moving. We had to carry him or drag him on a blanket to the back door. He was peeing involuntarily, he wasn’t drinking & he was sleeping all day. We could see him aging and fading before our eyes.
On the 18th June 2021 we took him to the vets. Due to Covid, the vet had to see him in the boot of the car. She was lovely. Very sympathetically she explained our two options. She could give him an injection that would temporarily rally him somewhat. Or we could say goodnight to him and end his suffering. It was the hardest decision we’ve ever made. Marley, our boy of 16 years, fell asleep in our arms at 13.15. We were in bits but the staff were wonderful and gave us time with him alone before they took him inside, in his favourite blanket.
This year just gets better and better.
Our 10 Counties Tour………….
On the 25th we set off on our two week, 10 County tour of Northern England. We had a fabulous time in Lulu even if we had to make some adjustments to Kev’s precision planning. Figuring that since applying for a job, we needed to stay at and experience more CAMC sites than C&CC sites – we cancelled the latter and booked onto the former as we went along. The only problem was that we lost about £50.00 in non-refundable deposits.
We’ll cover the tour in a soon to be published blog. We had a great time – Marley would have loved it. He enjoyed a country pub did Marley!
Dragging ourselves into July 2021
We arrived back at home on the 8th July. Our first stop was to collect Marley’s ashes from the vets. He had been put in a tiny rosewood casket. It was beautiful. We spread his ashes under his favourite rosebush in the garden.
On July 10th we attended our son Jack’s wedding to his ever lovely Ebonie, on a farm / wedding venue not 4 miles away from our front door. We had a fabulous day (even if it did end abruptly) and the happy couple along with our grand-daughter, looked amazing. It was a long time in the planning, the cancelling, the postponing but they pulled it off magnificently. They did us proud!
It all starts happening…………
We were due back in work on the following Monday but after the weekend we’d had – Kev in particular, neither of us could face the place at all or all of the bullshit, backbiting and stress that came with it. We had a long chat and sent a quick email to CAMC HR department. Our circumstances had changed dramatically and we let them know that we were available asap, if they still wanted us.
Boy, did they want us. We had a telephone screening interview that afternoon. Two days later we had a Zoom meeting with the Head of HR and one of the Regional Managers of the club.
The next day, Thursday, we had a call offering us a contract with a start date to be advised once we had handed in our notices to LBS, but asap. We were to be assigned to Hillhead CAMC Site in Brixham, Devon until early November 2021!
A change is going to come and we were happy, beyond belief!
All change……..for the better!
I handed my notice in and agreed on three weeks notice. Kev was told in no uncertain terms that he HAD to work a months notice as his boss needed two weeks off! So he did – all bar one day. I kept on to him to just walk, but that’s not him at all. He wouldn’t leave his colleagues in the lurch.
We took on a storage unit for things that we could not part with and we made numerous trips to the tip with things we did not want, need or that were beyond repair. We did sell a few bits and pieces – wardrobes, our treadmill (clothes horse) and Kev’s shiny ride-on lawnmower! A trip to Attwools in Gloucester secured an air awning for Lulu. We gave notice to our landlords and packed the car and Lulu up to the gunwales.
Kev left work at 16.00 on 12th August and at 11.00 Friday 13th (!!) we set a Brixham postcode into the satnav and said goodbye to Marley and to Caeglas Farm, our home of the last 7 years. That was it – we were full-time vanlifers!
New beginnings
With me driving the car, I closely followed Kev and Lulu down the M4 and onto the M5 South towards Exeter. We came off the motorway at Bridgewater and headed to our overnight stop at CAMC Exmoor House site. OMG! That change that is going to come, has arrived!
Exmoor House is adjacent to the lovely town of Dulverton where we quickly found ourselves a seat outside The Bridge Inn for a couple of sharp ones and a burger. This also led to us later finding a seat outside Woods Bar & Restaurant for a couple more sharp ones!
Brixham bound………….
Once ready on Saturday morning, we both mounted our trusty steeds and set off, through Tiverton towards Brixham. We pulled into CAMC Hillhead smack-bang in the middle of peak arrivals time. We were shown to our compound and told to just get set up and that we could catch up with the rest of the team, later in the day.
As we were not starting work until Monday, we wandered over to the onsite bar and restaurant that evening and partook in a couple of yellow fizzy drinks and some spring-green and wild mushroom risotto.
Sunday morning dawned and we woke to bright blue skies and the promise of a gorgeous day ahead. After a quick breakfast, we caught the local bus from the park entrance, to Brixham. Wow, was it peopley!! Every café or restaurant had ‘closed / full’ signs outside – if you hadn’t booked, you weren’t coming in! We were extremely lucky in getting a table in the wonderful Simply Fish and enjoyed a tasty lunch and some local brews.
Time for work……….
Monday morning and we donned our new shiny wardens uniforms and reported for duty! The first day was introductions and machinery training and so it begins!
The future for us
When we were discussing a change of career & a change of lifestyle back in April, the plan was to do this site wardening thing and then to travel during the winter months, So that is what we have arranged to do.
We will do 12 weeks on site which takes us to early November. We’ll tour the UK for four weeks visiting the kids and then head off to Europe for 12 weeks coming back to Hillhead in early March for the 2022/23 season.
We will not, for obvious reasons, be blogging about our roles, the site or our customers/members. We will not be reviewing CAMC sites that we stay on. However, the OTHER clubs sites and independant sites will be fair game though!
We will take this opportunity as well to thank you all for sticking with us. To thank our new colleagues at CAMC for making the transition and the decision to return an easy one to make. To our kids for understanding that we are spending the inheritance and that we do have a slightly nomadic bent.
Stay safe……….
With that, we’ll be back to update you again at the end of the season with news of Lulu, because a change is going to come here too & also with our travel plans.
Untill then, stay safe & happy travels to all,
Mags, Kev & Marley
xxx