Quest for Robert Burns

Hi, Reader

Today I had a full day in Dumfries and a chance to walk around. I wanted to learn about the poet, Robert Burns.

I started my day at the Ewart Public Library, which has been serving the local community since 1904. 

This was a chance for some free Wifi to check my social media, update my blog and give all my electronics a much needed charge.

I had mapped out a route of local attractions for the afternoon, but my sightseeing was to be thwarted ...

First up was Robert Burns' house. Burns, the national poet of Scotland, moved to this house in 1793, and continued to write until he died here on the 21st July, 1796. Unfortunately, the house was closed to visitors so I couldn't see inside. 

Later in the afternoon, I met an old gentleman (85 years old) who told me that Robert Burns was from Ayr. He assured me that although Burns only lived in Dumfries for the last three years of his life, this is where he produced some of his best and most memorable work. That old man also told me I could stop my journey right now, since I'd already found the best place in Scotland: Dumfries. 

I walked around the outside of Burns' house and found some plaques and artwork relating to him.

Next I found a café called Pumpernickel. This place has only recently reopened after closing for 15 months due to Covid. The owner told me he'd decided to make the café fully vegetarian and vegan, and was getting a lot of business, particularly from younger people. I had the Thai vegan burger. Not sure what made it Thai exactly - maybe the sweet chili relish? Anyway it was delicious and I couldn't believe it only cost 4.95!

Next stop on my walking tour of Dumfries was the Old Bridge House. The sign proclaims it was built in 1660 and is the oldest house in Dumfries, now a museum of everyday life from that time. You've guessed it - closed to the public. An old guy I met later in the evening (different old guy) told me it's not really the oldest house in Dumfries. That old guy had a lot to say about a lot of topics and he started everything with "Just let me tell you this, so that you know ..."  For example: "Just let me tell you this, so that you know. If you want to fill up on fresh water, you just need to go to a graveyard. Every graveyard in Scotland has a water tap in it." 

Fancy that!

I walked along the River Nith to the next attraction: The Robert Burns Centre. My chance to learn more about this beloved Scots poet. Three for three: it was closed to the public too!

Well, at least I got some exercise.

As I made my way back to where the van was parked, I passed a statue of Burns' wife, Jean Armour, also known as 'The Belle of Mauchline'. She was Robert Burns' wife. Jean Armour inspired many of Burns' poems and bore him nine children, three of whom survived into adulthood.

I found myself back at my van much earlier than expected, so I tidied everything up a bit and settled down for another film: The Straight Story (my laptop was fully charged again, after all). 

Cup of tea

Bombay mix, bourbon biscuits, pack of crisps.

Comfy pillows and cushions ... 

...and the best seat in the house. 

I was asleep by 10:30 and awake again around 6:30 when the rain started. It wasn't particularly heavy rain, but it was persistent. An hour or so later and my worst fears were confirmed - the roof is still leaking. There wasn't much I could do except put out a basin and plastic sheeting to catch the worst of the drips. When the rain stops, I'll need to get back onto the roof and look again to find where the water is leaking in. Cold and wet are a terrible combo.

So no travel for now. I drove to nearby Castle Douglas (nice town) and Dalbeattie which is a picturesque, small town where I found a quiet place to park and sleep. Finding places to park has been pretty easy so far, and the Park4Night app has been helpful in finding good locations. 

I've decided that tomorrow I need to get the roof leak fixed professionally. It needs to be completely waterproof before I face a torrential downpour. I'll let you know how I get on.

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Brian

Welcome to Scotland

Hi again, reader

I've finally made it to Scotland. If you're just joining my blog, read some of the earlier entries to find out how I got to this point. 

It didn't take long to drive from Sleddale Reservoir in Cumbria to Dumfries and Galloway. Dumfries is a lovely town and I took an afternoon stroll along the River Nith. Lots of things were closed because it was Sunday, but I found some handy public toilets.

Later, I attempted my first proper cooking in the back of the van. Up till now, I've used my little gas stove to heat water for tea, but this was my first attempt to cook a meal. I got some mushrooms, an onion and a carrot from Tesco and found a quiet spot to park the van. Here are my ingredients (plus some salt and dried chili flakes):

Half an hour later, I had a hearty, warming plate of pasta.

Unfortunately, by the time my pasta was cooked, I was so hungry I ate it right away and forgot to take a pic of the finished meal. D'oh! But it was good.

I've located a public library where hopefully I can charge my electronics and get some Wifi. For tonight, though, I've used the Park4Night app to find a good parking spot. I'll save my batteries this evening and read my book - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It's a page turner!

I plan to spend another night in Dumfries and tomorrow I'll visit some places of historic interest in the area. 

That's all for now. Cheers for reading.

Brian

Are You The Farmer?

I'm on the move again, and for my next goal I decided to visit Crow Crag in Cumbria. Known in real life as Sleddale Hall, this is the farmhouse location from the film Withnail and I, where two acquaintances, Withnail and Marwood, go on holiday by mistake.

Anyone who's a fan of Withnail and I will instantly spot that the title of my blog is a quote from the film, as is the title of this post. If you haven't seen Withnail and I, I really recommend checking it out. I think it's one of the greatest British films ever and one of the funniest films too. 

The drive from York to Sleddale Hall took a little over three hours. There's a small, free carpark at the bottom corner of Wet Sleddale Reservoir. You can see the house from the carpark, over there at the end of the reservoir and up the hill a bit. It doesn't look like it from here, but the hill up to Sleddale Hall is a pretty steep climb and made me feel out of shape.

The walk around the reservoir was easy and well marked. I had my hiking boots on, although some websites suggested wellington boots would be better, since the ground can get very boggy. My luck held, and three days of very little rain meant the terrain was firm underfoot. I made haste, as the sky was beginning to bruise.

I arrived at 'Crow Crag' and was surprised to find I was the only person there. I was also surprised to find the building in good repair. All the windows and doors are new, with new frames. Various websites and discussion boards had suggested the buildings were now derelict and rundown, but it seems like it's in the advanced stages of restoration.

I did find some examples of graffiti, quoting lines from Withnail and I.

So with the place to myself, I sat on the farmhouse's front step and ate some fruit, then wandered around taking photos. I also used my phone to watch the YouTube 'are you the farmer?' clip, which you can see here: https://youtu.be/bRTpwyNGT6w

I made my way back to the carpark and my van. It's a three mile round trip from the car park to Sleddale Hall and back.

I put my feet up, had some dinner and relaxed with my book.

Later, it got surprisingly chilly, so I got into bed and used half of my laptop's battery to watch Nomadland. It won six Academy Awards this year, including best actress for Frances McDormand. Good film. I really enjoyed it. https://youtu.be/6sxCFZ8_d84

This morning, I shook off the chills and made some breakfast to eat at the side of the reservoir.

After finishing this post, I'll relax some more and plan my next move. Today I hope to make it to Dumfries and Galloway, which will be my first day in actual Scotland. My next update will depend on when I can get Wifi and charge this laptop.

Take care and thanks for reading. 

Brian

Another Leak! (but I'm going anyway)

Hello again, Reader

Quite a lot has happened since I last posted. On the eve of my departure, I decided to sleep in the van a second night. Some time before dawn there was torrential rain and at about 6:30 or 7:00 I was woken by the drip drip of water making a puddle on the van floor and soaking the bottom of my quilt. There's a leak in the roof, and I think it's the seal around the air vent. It looks old and worn. 

I headed to nearby Llandow industrial estate and got a cylinder of clear silicone gel and a calking gun. I dried off the roof and the vent as best I could and put a thick layer of gel all around the seal. An hour later I was off. The guy at the hardware place said the gel wouldn't be fully set for twenty four hours, but it would be fine to drive to York.

So here I am in York, reunited with my British Council colleague from fourteen years ago, Alasdair Lord. Because it took time to address the leaky roof, I didn't arrive in York until nearly 9pm. And there's Lordy finishing cooking a spicy vegan curry. What a legend!

Before I go on, Lordy insists I plug his YouTube channel: The Renaissance Yorkshireman Podcast - YouTube . He tells me it's the coolest YouTube channel for anything postcapitalist. So if that sounds like your cup of tea, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe :)

Although Lordy had a camp bed available for me to set up in his living room, I opted to sleep in the van again. I wanted a relatively safe experience of wild camping on a residential street, and I wanted to be in the van if it rained - to see if the leak was gone or not. But it didn't rain throughout the night. I also didn't sleep very well, as I discovered a new hazard of urban camping: both sides of the road sloped down towards the pavement, so the van was parked on a camber. Which meant my bed was sloping to the right. I'll have to find as level ground as possible for future park ups.

Sights of York

Today we went for a walk into the centre of York to see some of the famous sights. It's a beautiful place and our route into the city went through lots of lovely parks and groves of trees. It's a glorious, sunny day too.

And here's the first sight. York Minster. This is "one of the world’s most magnificent cathedrals. Since the 7th century, the Minster has been at the centre of Christianity in the north of England and today remains a thriving church rooted in the daily offering of worship and prayer." (York Minster homepage)

Next up, the statue of the Emperor Constantine. He was the first (only?) emperor to rise to power outside of Rome. Constantine was made Emperor of Rome right here in York! The fact that the statue's sword has a broken tip is symbolic of something or other Lordy was explaining. 

Moving along, this is the famous Bettys Café Tea Rooms. "With beautiful interiors inspired by the Queen Mary ocean liner, it’s been making a splash since 1936." (Bettys website)

Finally, we took a stroll down The Shambles, most famously known nowadays as the real life inspiration for JK Rowling's Diagon Alley. "The Shambles is an old street in York, England, with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles, probably from the Anglo-Saxon Fleshammels, the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat." (Wikipedia) 

Back to Alasdair's house and he made me his famous banana coconut vegan smoothie. It's got cinnamon, maybe vanilla ... some other ingredients. Tastes awesome!

And that's everything up to speed. 

It's really lovely weather outside, but weirdly I want it to rain, if not this evening then tonight. I'll sleep in the van again on the sloping bed. I'd really rather find out if the leak is fixed before I leave York. I'm off now to research the next one or two parts of my journey.

Thanks for reading,

Brian

 

As Ready As I'll Ever Be

Hello again, reader

Just a short update on the eve of my journey.

It looks like the leaking diesel problem is fixed. I needed to find 'an o ring for an injector return pipe' for a Ford Transit Connect. Not easy. I finally found one yesterday at Bridgend 's Ford Motor Centre. This is it:

A tiny circle of rubber. 

Three mechanics have looked at the engine now and the general verdict is that I'm okay to travel.

I had intended to be already on the road today, but I lost a day getting that leak sorted. So today was spent shopping for supplies and camping items, then packing everything into the van. It's a squash and a squeeze. 

Last night, I slept in the van as a trial run - just on the driveway. I had an awesome night's sleep. Nine hours straight. It's really cramped getting dressed and undressed, remembering where you've set things. I'll get used to it. Organization will be key.

And tomorrow I'm off. I think this is about as prepared as I can be, and winter is coming. In the morning, I'll be driving to York for a few days, and I'll make another blog post from there.

Thanks for reading,

Brian

The Second Build

Hi again, reader.

Yes, I'm still camped out in my Mum's spare bedroom in South Wales and NOT travelling around the wilds of beautiful Scotland. There are still three problems to sort out before I can depart and I attribute them all to this gentleman:

This is the dodgy bloke who sold me the van and made grand promises about converting it into a luxurious mini-camper. I don't want to name and shame him here, so let's refer to him as Del Boy.

When my friend Gavin and I went to look at the van the first time, we could tell Del Boy was shady, but he talked a good game. He described his grand plans to fit the van with a solar panel, leisure battery control panel, full insulation, ample storage and so much more. He claimed he could get it finished in 3 days and keep the total price for van and conversion below 4000 pounds. In the end it took him 11 days, cost 4370 pounds and the end result was a far cry from what he promised. As soon as I saw his conversion work, I knew I'd have to undo his shoddy work and start over.

During this last week, two more problems have become apparent:

Firstly, an electrician friend of mine inspected the leisure battery set up and wiring and his verdict is that it is possibly dangerous and likely useless. He estimates it will cost around 400 pounds to put right.

Secondly, I drove my Mum to nearby Barry for shopping a few days ago. The tank was nearly empty, so I put 20 pounds worth of diesel in. By the time we got home (less than 20 miles round trip) the tank was nearly empty again. I took a look underneath and confirmed my worse suspicions - a fuel leak. Given all the lies and broken promises over the last few weeks, there's no doubt in my mind that Del Boy was aware of this leak when he sold me the van.

I'd love to wring Del Boy's neck, but I'm determined to stay positive and keep moving forward. I'm getting the leak and the electrics looked at tomorrow morning. In the meantime, let's focus on the rebuild. Gavin is a jack of all trades and has done quite a bit of carpentry. So starting Friday morning, he set about ripping out all of Del Boy's work and building something better.

It didn't take long to pull it apart. This pile of scrap represents 570 pounds down the drain. Gavin noted that there's no way he should have billed me 370 pounds for materials, since this is clearly random odds and ends of scrap wood, probably fished from a skip or left over from some previous work. 

And here's the van ready to start over:

The first thing we did was unscrew the wall panels and put some insulation up inside the walls. It's not ideal - just some left over carpet underlay pushed up from the bottom, but it's better than nothing.

Time for Gavin to get to work. 189.75 pounds for new wood, screws etc and 200 pounds for two days of his labour. This van is getting more expensive by the day!

By lunchtime, the van had a new bed. It's like a futon. Ideally, the bed would be on the right, keeping the sliding side door clear for easy access. However, the van's short wheel base means it's too short for a bed to go behind the driver's seat. Luckily the passenger seat folds right down allowing the bed to extend into the cabin. Nobody will see my feet there when I'm sleeping thanks to the window shades I've made (see earlier post).

This bed is much lower. There's hardly any storage space below it, but I can put shoes, extra blankets, butane gas cannisters and other items under there. The upside is that I can now sit up on the bed without my head hitting the roof. so if I find myself confined to the van by bad weather, I'll be able to read a book, use my laptop or cook in relative comfort.

This mattress folds in three places. I bought it from Amazon for about 40 pounds. In these pics you can see that when the passenger seat is upright, the bed folds up to make a kind of sofa or chair. When it's time to sleep, it takes a couple of minutes to fold down the passenger seat, extend the bed and put the window shades in place. 

Next up, the storage and work area.

On the left there are three levels of shelves for food, clothes, kitchen items etc. On the right is a little work bench area where I can cook, write, use my laptop and so on. Below the work bench is where I'll have the leisure battery and a plastic container that can hold a few gallons of water. Up above the bench, we've fixed two plastic baskets which can be used to hold regularly used items such as toiletries, phone chargers and the like.

I'm concerned that there is very limited storage space. This wood is good quality and sturdy, but it's also thick and heavy and takes up valuable real estate. This is the smallest model of the Ford Connect. Other versions have a longer wheel base and higher ceiling. Bottom line - I'll have to think carefully about how much to bring, what's essential and what gets left behind. 

There you have it. After two days of work, Gavin has made the back of the van ten times better than that clown, Del Boy. It's been a costly learning experience. Tomorrow, I'll drive the van to Cardiff where I'll find out the extent of the fuel leak problem and the viability of getting that leisure battery working.

Fingers crossed, if everything can be sorted, I'll use Tuesday to do some shopping for supplies, then I'll say goodbye to Wales on Wednesday and hit the open road. 

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Brian

Stealth Mode

Hello again, reader. 

There are a few more factors delaying my departure for Scotland, which I'll go into in more detail in another post. Meanwhile, I decided to make some window shades/covers so that nobody can see inside the van while I'm sleeping.

You can buy these readymade from places like Halford, but I thought it would be better to make my own so that they are the exact shape and size for my van's windows. I hope this will enable me to have a light on inside the van without any light leaking out and giving away the fact that I'm living in my vehicle.

So I watched a bunch of YouTube tutorial videos and it seems the most popular material is this insulation stuff which comes in rolls. In America it's called Reflectix, but in Britain it has a less exciting name: Thermal Foil Insulation Roll. Seventeen pounds for ten metres from Wickes.

It's basically bubble wrap with a thin layer of foil on both sides, and it's easy to cut with scissors.. Supposedly it'll provide some level of insulation and will help keep heat in. And on hot, sunny days (I think Scotland has hot, sunny days sometimes) it reflects the sunlight away keeping the van cooler inside. 

First step is to use some old newspaper to make templates.

Then cut out the shapes I need. These two are for the side windows.

After some experimentation, I decided to cut the side window pieces into two and tape on some strips of cardboard to give them support. They fit very snuggly in place so no light can leak in or out.

Nobody in here, officer.

The windshield was more problematic. The larger piece of insulation was collapsing and drooping under its own weight, so I decided to cut it into two overlapping halves. It doesn't look so pretty from the inside, but it looks fine from the outside:

And that's it. Job done. 

Also today, my friend Gavin has torn out all the awful conversion work done by the guy who sold me the van and started rebuilding it. This adds a lot more cost and has delayed my departure until next week, but it'll be worth it. More on that in my next post.

Cheers for now. Thanks for reading!

Brian