I should mention that one of the great things in good weather in a motorhome is that you can have an awning which adds to your living space outside and shelters you from the sun or the rain. They are rigid in certain ways and not in others – in wind for example they can be quite dangerous.

The 21st October was a windy evening. However before that we got a call from a friend, Lucy, who mentioned she and her partner were in Coniston and we should meet them. We scooted to Coniston on Sons of Anarchy (our trusted Honda PCX) and had tea and cakes looking at the Lake talking to Lucy and G who live just under 1.5 miles ways from where we used to live in Welwyn Garden City.

That evening we cooked burgers on the BBQ, watched some TV, ate dinner and then went to bed. At about midnight I woke up really hot and could hear the wind. Toby woke up and we looked out and realised the awning was being blown about quite a bit by the wind. We both went out at midnight in the pitch black and had to work out the best way to get the awning in without it blowing over and causing the awning or Beatrix damage. We talked through the method needed and then delivered it relatively seamlessly. I am very pleased I have a Toby who walks through what needs to happen, if it had not been for him I would have just tried to get the awning in with no formal method and that could have caused all sorts of damage to both Beatrix and the awning. At this point I then became highly tuned to the weather forecast – particularly wind speeds. The wind gusts were pretty mad and you could feel the wind on Beatrix. I started googling what speeds impact a motorhome both driving and at what wind speeds can a static motorhome be blown over, things I would never have been interested in when I was living in a flat or a house! (If you are interested speeds over 50mph are a watch out for driving and being static). 

After the strong the winds the day after was amazing. We took the kayak for its second outing and this time we took a picnic! We decided to move on Sunday rather than on the Monday as we realised the trucks would not work on a Sunday and we moved to Windermere campsite for the half term week.

And in Windermere the rain came – again!

I was obsessed with the weather forecast. The rain sounded and felt like we water was being pumped at us from a fire engine – it was relentless, the noise and the movement in Beatrix was quite unbelievable. The campsite slowly started to flood – there were some caravans that were under water – luckily for us we had a pitch that was on higher ground. The wind was also pretty strong and it was generally a realisation that we had given up bricks and mortar and were now living in nature with whatever it would throw at us. We had been toying with multiple sites that we could have stayed for the half term week and boy am I glad we chose the one we did as the other two we had thought about flooded and people from those campsites ended up on the site we were on. You may quite rightly question why we stayed in the Lake District when we knew what the weather prediction was? Well I can safely say it was my fault, as it was my birthday and friends had asked for the address we would be at so they could send cards and presents to the campsite. We stayed as we were waiting for cards and presents to arrive. Whilst we were in Windermere we got my flu jab in Kendal and had a couple of non rainy walks to Staveley.

On my birthday I cooked pumpkin soup and Toby liked it which was fabulous as Toby is not really a lover of vegetables so the fact he asked for the soup was a win! We then cooked a mini roast dinner for my birthday dinner which was great. Had a lovely birthday with cards and presents my first and our first birthday in Beatrix!

We moved out of the Lake District on the last day of October and also bought our season ski passes for Montgenevre which was really exciting – the next big thing we had wanted to do and we were planning it and making it happen. Always have dreams that you can make a reality!

I have to acknowledge here that this new life is pretty cool. We were travelling down south to meet friends and family. The first stop on the final day of October was Wortley Hall hoping that we would be able to catch up with Jacs and Chris. We had a bit of difficulty leaving the site at Windermere as it is a really busy road, we waited ages and the caravan behind us then said look don’t turn right out of here go left and there is a petrol station where you can turn in just down the road. We tried that and when we arrived at the petrol station Toby got nervous that he would not make the turn, however we did and eventually got out of Lake District. We soon got onto main roads – travelling towards Sheffield. Beatrix suddenly got a warning light on saying there was a gearbox error. Toby worried we would not be able to change gear, I tried to look things up on the internet whilst he was still driving. I looked at the Iveco manual online and could not find anything helpful however what I did find was to switch the engine off and then switch it back on again. We were travelling on the M62 a pretty busy motorway and not somewhere you can just stop. We pulled off at the next available point which was a petrol station. We used the old IT solution to most things in that we switched the engine off and then back on again and the error message disappeared. After reading more about the issue we tried to drive around the petrol station as the internet suggested that at higher speeds there may be some issues. We started again and it all seemed fine for a while however Toby suddenly started stressing and there was another engine warning light and the power started cutting out of Beatrix – she was also trying to go up a slow long hill. Toby was very stressed and was not sure what to do. I told him to pull onto the hard shoulder and put the hazards on. We did that and Toby read something on the internet and we restarted – poor Toby was very stressed and there were some winds and it was all a bit much. Anyway we restarted and it was all good and we got to Wortley Hall. We were given pitch 4 however we didn’t really fit in that pitch so I told the lady where we fitted and although she seemed a bit grumpy she allowed us to move pitch and that is it for October.

Summary of October

Lots of fun things like learning to kayak, cooking scones, how to deal with adverse weather conditions and making sure you know roughly what the weather will be doing, wonderful scenery in the Lake District, and the fact that life is too damned short to sweat the small stuff. 

Thanks as always for reading

Sally, Toby and Merlin