Our first ever overnight in 'Bryony', our new Autosleepers Broadway EB, at the Dartmouth Camping and Caravan club site

 To help you navigate our blog more easily - this link - https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2025/06/how-to-navigate-our-blog.html will take you to a summary page detailing all our blog posts. Clicking on a link will open that post in a new browser window. To return to the home current page just close the browser page and return to the post you were reading beforehand. 

Our first outing in Bryony – Dartmouth Camping and Caravan club

We look at the ground ahead, totally unconvinced. “You’ll be alright, there’s a gentle slope. Inertia and gravity – you’ll roll out tomorrow”.

Not reassured at all, we fix the site manager with our best ‘Paddington Bear’ hard stares, perfected over thirty-five years of dealing with the nation’s children and teenagers.

“It looks pretty wet and there is that dip – are you sure we’re going to roll out tomorrow – this is 3.5T”

“Seen it all before Sir. You’ll have no problem rolling this gentle incline”.

And with that he wanders off to welcome another Autosleeper onto the site. We draw cautiously onto the grass from the safety of the gravel track. Time would tell which of us has made the right assessment.

 

Our first night away in Bryony and we are privileged to have stunning views across rolling South Hams countryside and out over the gorgeous Start Bay. But stunning views are tempered by that gnawing feeling of doubt. We remain unconvinced about that slightly sloping grass pitch. So much rain in the week before, our wheels are going to be spinning tomorrow, we are sure of it.

A short bike ride away from the Dartmouth Camping and Caravan club site - the rather fabulous Blackpool Sands 

Looking along the sweep of Start Bay

Copyright:visitsouthdevon.com

There is, of course, so much to learn when you are new to motorhomes.  In our enthusiasm, we forgot the first step – levelling up on the Fiamma ramps. In a whirlwind of coordinated teamwork, we had hooked up the electrics, turned on the gas and sorted the Thetford toilet cassette and cistern. The harmony panel had lit up, we’d turned on internal gas and water taps and one of us had done numerous trips to the local water point with a 10 Lt jerry can to fill up the water tank. Of course, sensible people would have called in at the motorhome service point first on their way into the site. We all live and learn!

This is our snag finding trip – a thorough inspection of Bryony and test of all her systems. Our dealer has promised to pick anything up the following week and so we set about things with gusto. All the draws and cupboards are opened, closed and checked. The trim and veneers are inspected. We try all the plugs, lights and electrical systems. One of us crawls under the van, down into the deepest recesses of the driving cab and inspects roof seals and skylights as well.

As we spend the day and evening inside Bryony things are moved about to get a better living and working arrangement. Everything has its place. Items are grouped – a toolkit cupboard, a safety cupboard, individual lockers for crockery, electronics and gadgets. Slowly we work out the Feng Shui of efficient living in Bryony. Some things get stored in the shower tray – the cycle panniers, the empty rucksacks. Everything else just seems to disappear into a locker somewhere! We draw up a rough sketch of what goes where. It will be analysed and pondered over during the non-touring winter months and, will of course, change several more times as we do longer tours next spring.

We learned the importance of electric rear step management after one of us walks out the door and steps down into nothingness, a near face plant on the grass narrowly avoided.

We agreed an etiquette to guide our living in a restricted space and draw up a ‘negotiable’ list of his, her and joint jobs – see our post on’ agreeing an etiquette to avoid divorce’ blog post!  

Our first mistake was not trusting our guts.

Our second mistake was not walking the pitch before we drove onto it!

The list of ‘snags’ at the end of the night isn’t as bad as we initially thought:

·        Veneer coming away below microwave and between bathroom door and main habitation area vanity mirror.

·        Bathroom window catch coming away.

·        Parts of bathroom window frame popping out.

·        A ‘dropped’ draw which just keeps coming out when driving; ditto with the oven door.

·        The alarm activation/deactivation fob on the spare key set not working at all.

·        The main set of keys not doing proper central locking of all doors.

·        A tiny linear gap appearing between bench toilet and interior wall – needing some re-caulking.

And that is it. Minor issues, all easily resolved.

That night, our first error code appears on the Truma panel. E514H. Nothing in any of the handbooks, nothing on the Truma website help pages. The error code crops up three times more over the weekend. We manage to ‘fiddle’ with the symbols and buttons on the panel so that we get hot water but the heating is very hit and miss and finally doesn't come on at all. 

Steep learning curve!

 

The following day we cycle down the hill into Dartmouth and sit in the late September sunshine on the waterfront reading the Sunday papers, admiring the boats (well one of us does the admiring) and drinking take-away lattes. 

An amble along the main shopping streets of this quaint old town on the banks of the river Dart with its nautical history, Elizabethan houses, views across the river to Kingswear and the steam railway station. Then the bike ride back up the three-mile-long hill, with a quick detour to admire the castle at the entrance to the ria; hard work but made easier with E Bikes.

The small church just along from the Castle overlooking the entrance to the Dartmouth Ria

Monday, we cycle the coastal road to Torcross where we stop off for cake and coffee at the delightful ‘Billy Can’. Here, you get smooth music, excellent service, fantastic homemade cakes and a little gallery and traditional sweet shop attached to the cafe. Newly opened, it is a delightful stop off and designed around the theme of the war years, linked to the memorial in the neighbouring car park. You can read about the ‘Exercise Tiger’ memorial here at www.exercisetigermemorial.co.uk .

We support local businesses whenever we can. 

When we visited in September 2020, this was 'The Billy Can's' first year of trading in tough and uncertain times. 

Overlooking Torcross at the end of Slapton Beach 

Arriving back at the site invigorated (it is up hill most of the way), we decide to try and move Bryony, before the evening rain storms arrive. We want to drive her onto the gravel track ahead, drive around the loop and then back onto the grass, directly up onto the mud mats and ramps.

That’s the plan.

The reality? Those wheels spin and dig in deep. 

Copyright Johnandlinsadventure.blogspot.com

Our wheels were far deeper in and we didn't think to stop and take pictures. 

Blind panic had set in by then! 

Huge ruts, akin to tank tracks! Did we move? Nothing? Did we roll under gravity? Of course not! Stuck and in deep. We break out the new Milenco Giant Lattice Mud Tracks and wedge them under the front wheels. The wheels just spin on their edges, gaining no traction whatsoever. After five minutes of wandering around, head scratching and then trying second gear, we finally admit defeat. We are stuck!

Rescue comes in the form of the nice man opposite who owns a massive Nissan 4 x 4 ‘truck’. After assuring us he can tow 4 tonnes, we scramble around trying to find the tow eye kit (under the passenger seat, just in case you are interested). Someone gets very excited breaking out the recently purchased AA towing strap. He feels its money very well spent and he genuinely tries not to gloat when he receives a grudging affirmation from the treasurer, that it is indeed a worthy investment.

Effortlessly, we are towed onto the gravel track and our plan is resurrected. We circle Bryony back around and the ramps and mats are lined up with the front wheels. Easing onto the grass, she keeps moving up onto the mats and ramps. The boggy areas have been avoided and ‘the plan’ successfully executed, with a little help. The next morning, we should roll off the ramp onto the rear end of the mats and then move forward across most of their length, thus giving us enough traction movement to reach the track ahead.

Boy does it rain during the night and we lie there listening to the fantastic orchestra of drumming rain and howling wind and that happy, smug feeling that when dawn arrives, we should be able to move off the pitch, slowly diminishes.

We of little faith! Cutting a long story short, the plan works next day but the less said about the battlefield quagmire left behind, the better! Suffice to say the ground team are very understanding and good humoured about it.

 

So, what did we learn from this first outing?

• Pick a correct pitch carefully and trust your gut instinct for a start. It isn’t a humiliation to ask for help! 
• Develop routines...a routine for arriving at a site; a routine for leaving a site; a routine for day to day living in an enclosed space. (There are some excellent apps available to motorhomers.  We list a few at the end of this post). 
• Work out how to use the exterior universal silver screen on the windscreen BEFORE it gets dark, so that you don’t discover next morning it is upside down and inside out! 
• Resolve the ‘how do you turn your driver seat to face backwards without having to release the handbrake first’ conundrum. (The answer is to move your seat forward before spinning it around).  
• Breathing in sharply on narrow roads when lorries are coming towards you doesn’t physically decrease the width of your own vehicle, sadly!
• If you are of a certain height with short arms, you will have to dive head first into the door foot well to release the handbrake fully! That shrill bleeping alarm means the handbrake is still partially on! It is very difficult to execute a ‘smart’ hill start when your head is in the foot step well and you are trying to reach the handbrake!
• Read the information boards in car parks before you pay for your ticket – then you’ll discover that motorhomes are not allowed BEFORE you have paid for two spaces (Kingsbridge quayside car park)!  
• Take your shoes off before getting into the driver’s seat OR come in via the back door and wipe your feet. In this way the driver’s cab area doesn’t take on the appearance of marshland after it’s been raining! Better still just convince the treasurer to allow you to buy some cheap car mats instead!
• Carry spare fuses, lots of them! Have a ground mat so you can crawl under the motorhome to switch on and off the gas tank beneath without having to take on the appearance of someone who has just completed a ‘Great Endurance Mud Run Challenge’!
• Bring plenty of tea towels and sponges to cram everywhere to stop all those incessant irritating rattles which drown out the radio when you are driving along B roads!
• Remember to make sure the drain taps are closed when you start filling the freshwater tank. Then you won’t be standing there for AGES, pondering about how amazingly big your freshwater tank seems to be!

The apps that we have already started to use are:

1.       myLPG.eu and Autogas app – both helped locate nearest petrol stations with LPG supplies (shell stations at Trago Mills, Newton Abbot and also Saltash roundabout on A38; and Esso garage on B3052 at turning to go down to Seaton).

2.       Park4night app – which gives details of parking places where you can get motorhomes in.

3.       Searchforsites – shows campsites for motorhomes in your immediate locality or region.

4.       For parking in the east Devon region – car parking apps – RingGo, PayByPhone and Park-mobile.

We have had so much fun on this trip. We are smitten with Bryony and are loving the whole concept of motorhoming! Send us a postcard - a picture and caption of your motorhome for us to display on the blog. 

In the meantime, take care out there and have plenty of fun motorhoming.

 

Steve and Maggie

If you would like to find out more about us then visit these blog posts: https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/10/welcome-to-our-blog.html and https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/11/who-are-main-characters-in-our-blog.html

 

Information about Dartmouth:

The campsite we stayed on is https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/campsites/uk/devon/dartmouth/dartmouth-camping-and-caravanning-club-site/

Tourist information about Dartmouth and the South Hams can be found at https://www.visitsouthdevon.co.uk/places/south-hams and https://discoverdartmouth.com/  (everything from hiring sailing boats, to steam railway trips, boat trips up river to Totnes and much more).