The Motorhome aka The Tank

 The motorhome was a great way for us to travel as a family.  There were many positives to it.  Mainly that we travelled like snails, with our house on our back.  We didn’t have to pack and unpack, were able to sleep somewhere different each night with no fuss and always had access to food and a fridge.

The children enjoyed travelling sitting facing one another.  They invented wonerful games to pass the time while we drove.  It is amazing how long it takes in England to travel a short distance.  

However with there were a few challenges.   

 Firstly driving something of that size on the tiny UK roads.  It can be a royal pain to get into tight English villages or to find somewhere to park.  Patience is required especially when you meet a large oncoming 'lorrie' - that's truck to everyone else.

Then there was the sleeping accommodation.  By the end we had all slept in most of the beds.  Dave and I were unable to sit up in bed and it tended to get hot and stuffy, even in the cooler weather in the bed over the cab.  We did however get used to it.   

It was noisy to drive.  Dave and I had to shout to talk to one another.

 

But with a bit of planning and reliance on the patience of other motorists we got everywhere we wanted to. We constantly reminded ourselves that lorries and buses travelled these roads, so there was no reason for us to be concerned.  And using the final piece of advice given to us by Tony on handover; to ignore the other traffic and just go for it.  This approach was helpful.  We were definitely bigger than they were; except for the lorries of course which we paid due respect to.

Along the way we found many wonderful places to stay.  In Autumn, we lowered the average age in the campgrounds significantly.  There was only one night the the children found another child to play with.  Which meant that the rest of the time they had the playgrounds all to themselves.  A great advantage when there was a special flying fox which didn't need to be shared.  

We developed a very short repertoire of meals that were easy to cook for 5 in one small frypan or one saucepan.  But that got us through supplemented by pleasant pub meals.

We highly recommend a motorhome as a way to get to see England.