It’s perhaps an old cliché but Italian vehicle wiring has a reputation.
I’ve owned a few Fiat’s and a Ducati in the past and it’s just one of those things that you acknowledge and accept kind of comes with the territory.
Now Beatrix is half Italian and half German and, continuing with the stereotypes for a moment, I would like to say that her styling is Italian and her build quality is German. Alas, that’s not quite how it worked out.
Now, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we love our home on wheels but this week we did have a few electrical gremlins to contend with.
On a wet Saturday in January, our travel this week takes us from Welwyn Garden City to Cheltenham and then on to Bath.
The journey cross country was peacefully uneventful. We were travelling on the weekend, the roads were fairly quiet and we had the complete mix of needing our shades for the bright sunshine immediately followed by having the windscreen wipers on max speed to deal with the pouring rain.
Suddenly, we were shaken from our easy rhythm by the fuel gauge which I noticed was now showing totally empty with its amber light flashing insistently at me. I was sure it had been a quarter full?
I’ll not lie, a small panic ensued in the cab whilst we found somewhere to pull over to check if diesel was leaking down the road. Thankfully there was no rainbow telltale sign of fuel on the wet roads or on the underside of Beatrix anywhere. Phew.
Sally found us a petrol station which was only 2 miles down the road and we made it ok. After only squeezing in £60, Beatrix must have been at least half full so it must be the gauge. Double phew.
Drama over and we found our little CL campsite at Salt’s Farm which is just outside Cheltenham and close to the Cotswolds. Relax. Lovely.
Making it more special, whilst out walking with Merlin, we found a Cider shop and bar close to the campsite which had a really bohemian tented bar with food trucks and fire pits. Welcoming dogs inside, needless to say we stopped for a well deserved draft cider and a burger.
As we finished our first cider, the heavens opened with what felt like monsoon rain. It was hammering down on the tents and pouring through every open seam whilst the wind howled through the tent flaps. We stayed for a second.
The next day, the weather looked a bit brighter and considerably less wetter so we made plans to walk into Cheltenham and explore a bit. As the campsite had electric hook up included in the price, we were using our electric kettle and toaster in the morning, when Sally said “I think I can smell burning”.
To give you some context, this is quite unusual for us as normally it’s me that first realises if food is burning for example and if I mention I can smell something, Sally looks at me blankly.
Sally smelling something burning made me jump up pretty fast.
I grabbed the fire extinguisher and we quickly turned the kettle off. As I stood up, I was expecting to see a problem in the kitchen with something smoking where the plug sockets are but everything looked fine there. I dashed out to disconnect the mains electric hook up cable.
Getting back into the van, I too could now smell that acrid burnt electrical stink. Sally was busy taking the seat cushions off so we could easily get into the electrical cabinet. When we looked underneath the smell was much louder and we could see smoke coming from the 230v breaker box. Flicking the main breaker off and then by shutting off the inverter and mains hook up, I was confident that everything was now safe and the problem wouldn’t get any worse. It did however smell really bad and we hadn’t even had our first cup of tea!
I think the fact we keep some screwdrivers and the Multimeter in the main cabin says something about our confidence in the electrics, or at least how often they’re used, and I set to opening up the 230v box and confirming the power was off.
Needless to say, the smell was much stronger and the reason for it was immediately clear.
The problem, it emerged, was that one of the wires had likely been pulled from out of the connector and the small amount of cable that was left was degrading and simply wasn’t enough to manage a kettle or Nespresso machine. In overheating it had melted the adjacent cables and even the plastic that separates the Earth and Live cables. It wasn’t technically a fire but it was a long way from ideal to have this happen in our home.
Time for a cup of tea, made with gas I might add, a bit of google-ing to help come up with a plan.
In the end, we got ‘Sons of Anarchy’ out of the garage and I whizzed about the Cheltenham and Gloucester area looking for a motorhome or RV place where we might find a spare.
Predictably my quest was met with lots of head scratching and chin rubbing. No one had ever seen a plastic block like this before and the more people I talked too, really the less I liked this as a solution for the 230v system. So it was Screwfix to the rescue and we ended up with some household style connector blocks which I think are much more up to the job.
Now we just had the horrible smell to deal with and would you believe it, after some research, Sally found that the magical bicarbonate of soda and some white wine vinegar would work best. Who would have thought it!
Whilst we were messing about with tools, we had read that our fuel gauge problem might be solved by disconnecting the engine battery for 10 minutes. Essentially turn it off and turn it on again. Sure enough, when we put the key back in the fuel gauge came back to life and shot up to full.
With our electrical gremlins behind us, we had an afternoon out in Cheltenham. The town centre was ok but to be honest felt a bit generic with the usual high street stores and a bunch of empty of shop fronts which was a shame. Happily, someone had recommended we also see Montpellier and I’m glad we did as this part of town was really nice. There are lots of independent stores, hotels and plenty of bars and cafes around some green spaces. As we’d had a good walk to get there, we treated ourselves to coffee and cake at a lovely little Merlin friendly café and got the bus home!
Bath
We’d been to Bath before for a long weekend but it was years ago and one of the joys of being in the motorhome is being able to visit beautiful places and spend a little longer there, so that we can get to know them better. Bath is one of those places we had wanted to come back to.
It was a little tricky getting into the Penn Hill CL site at Bicknam but we made it no problem and by following the written instructions not the sat nav, we avoided accidentally straying into the Low Emissions zone and a hefty fine. We received a warm welcome from the site owner, Merv, who was not to be rushed in giving us a big information pack and the full tour despite the heavy rain that was now lashing down and the fact that Beatrix was parked with hazard lights on, blocking the road.
Over the next few days it really rained. Reminding us of the Lakes last year, it didn’t let up for 36 hours or so. By the time it had stopped, the River Avon had flood warnings and parts of the city were flooded with the Bath rugby game called off as the ground was partially under water. We were both glad to have chosen the campsite at the top of the hill and not the campsite in the marina which looked decidedly soggy.
Finally, the weather broke and although it’s colder, not being constantly soaked is great. With Sally as acting tour guide, we did a walking tour through the city to see the sites. We’d been to see the Roman Baths before so didn’t go in this time but did see all the other amazing architecture of the city.
It really is a beautiful place with the history and design, the colours and the relaxed feel in the centre all combining to make a visit really special.
The water fell as
Bath Thermae Spa
rain over 10,000 years ago
The temperature of the King’s Spring
is 45oc
There are 42 minerals in the spa water
Since we were last here Netflix has filmed a lot of its popular series Bridgeton here. We realised this as we found a little dog friendly café by the cathedral to have lunch and we were somewhat surrounded by merchandise, photos and memorabilia. The café was apparently the Modiste dress shop from season 1 if you’re interested.
After a getting in a lot of steps, the next day we’d managed to book into the Bath Thermae Spa for a couple of hours of relaxation and bathing. This contemporary glass and stone spa is newer than I’d realised having only opened in 2006. Apparently the old pools became somewhat poisonous and were closed in 1978. Bath was originally populated because of its famous hot springs and it has the warmest natural hot springs in the UK. The waters here have been enjoyed through history by the Celts, Romans through to the Victorians and now by us!
The new spa has a cool open air pool on the roof, which gave us an amazing and unusual view out over the cityscape, a series of treatment and spa rooms in the middle and a naturally warm pool with Jacuzzi’s in the basement. All in all it was an excellent experience and it’s always especially nice to enjoy when you don’t have have a bath in your house.
Thanks for reading,
Sally, Toby and Merlin
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