Our first Ad'Van'ture

So Ron the camper had been a part of our family for at least 7 days and as we had a sports tournament to attend in Nottingham, I had an idea for an adventure. Sure we could make the 2 hour trip in the car and get back that evening but where's the fun in that?

So the plan was in place, we would load up the van with a few essentials Friday night; crisps, snacks, bacon, sausages more crisps, more snacks. We would leave early Saturday, explore the area, attend the tournament and then spend the night at a small campsite.

The van was loaded, the children were briefed for an early start and I spent the remainder of the evening researching campsites and things to do in the area. This is what I do best. With the assistance of google maps and a ton of websites, some options were found and added to the million other stars that adorn my Google Maps page.

Elvaston Castle Country Park

 Nottingham is not somewhere we had been before and we wanted to avoid the city centre. I had a country park in mind and a few options for campsites. 

 Elvaston Castle Country Park was our first stop off but traveling with kids takes a lot longer than expected and we arrived around an hour late. We just about had time to find a decent parking spot, put on a brew and play in the park before rushing off to the tournament. 

The thing about VW owners is that we like to stick together so I was pretty pleased to see a couple of other vans in the car park. I tried given them the VW thumb wave but they just looked at me as if to say "who are you trying to be in our club"
We spent half of the day watching the game and the other half hanging out in the van with M. We even watched some TV.

McCracken and Flint wearing borrowed jerseys

 The games dragged on until the early evening but C finally came out with a silver medal. One very happy but hungry child.

 Dinner…? In the rush to get out I hadn't thought anything about dinner and after a day of dodging balls C was about to go loopy at me. Google maps to the rescue and a fish and chip shop nearby. 

 After all that entertainment and full bellies all round we still had to find somewhere to sleep for the night. Luckily I had seen a small camping club site down the road and after a phone call they were happy to take us in, even without membership. 

 It was now getting on for 8pm and getting dark, we all tucked ourselves up in bad cracked open the chocolates and watched an old DVD of Transformers the movie.
We fell asleep after a great day and dreamed dreams of vans and robots and ROBOT VANS!

Ron looking rather lonely