Tuesday 26th September
After what seems weeks of very intensive nail biting we have been offered an appointment as Winter Sun Holiday Stewards in Almafra with Pete and Tina Edwards. We start work on the 15th November and currently finish on the 4th January. It’s very likely that we will be asked to do extra dates. Whatever happens, we’re very pleased and have alternative plans in place to cope with every eventuality.
We are stewarding again for East Essex at Porth Beach Touring Park. We were initially allocated 71 pitches but very quickly had to ask for extras. At the moment we have an additional 28 pitches but reckon that things will start easing off now that the ground has started drying out. When we arrived, two of the link roads were flooded allowing water to soak into the edges. By Saturday evening we had 20 pitches out of action and it has been a real nightmare trying to locate pitches firm enough to put everyone on. After 10 days, we have had 68 booked units in and 92 unbooked. One couple spent 8 hours driving down from Oldham without checking to see if there was a space!
Yesterday, the sun was out so we took the opportunity of leaving the site (for the first time) and checking out the local Wetherspoons, The Towan Blystra, with Pete and Tina, our new bosses, a very welcome break.
This morning, three of our merry campers went fishing off Porth Island.
Trevor caught four mackerel and is today’s winner, there is no doubt in my mind that the training I gave him two years ago is paying off.
Less was less fortunate and ended up going very hungry (again).
Here is a view from Porth Island looking back to the site. Large sandy beach on the right with no dogs (until the end of the month) and lifeguards every day. The tide is in at the moment, when it does go out you’ll see that the beach is very gently sloping. The site is just over the road from the beach and there are bus stops for Newquay and Padstow. At this time of year buses are every hour and a half.
Reverse view. If you squint hard enough you can see Newquay in the far distance. It’s a lovely walk along the cliff top and only 2 miles.
Trying out some HDR again. The sky was actually very bright and the sun was shining brightly. The forecast is for heavy rain all day tomorrow so I’m making the most of the sun today in the knowledge that I’ll be moving vans about tomorrow when the pitches go soggy again.
As most of you know, I’m a bit stupid so I may have got this completely wrong. The owner of this unit used to have a Winnebago which weighs mega tons, so when he got to 70 he had to go and have a medical to continue driving it. He failed the medical because of an eye condition and lost the ability to drive the Winnebago. He has gone and bought this monster which weighs in at around 3 tonne plus a couple more for the 4×4 he uses to pull it. All totally legal to drive what is basically a 5 tonne unit whereas he is not permitted to drive a motorhome weighing over 3.5 tonne.
I thought you couldn’t tow more than 3500 in total of the two vehicles?
More research needed!
Think I’ve worked it out. When you get to 70 you lose some of your driving categories, you can no longer drive any vehicle over 3.5t without an eye test every three years.
If you passed your test before 1997 then you still keep your BE category which allows you to tow any sized trailer up to something very heavy.