Mud, mud, glorious mud

I had a Master Plan this year, having noticed that for two years running (down to global warming and climate change?) the weather from the start of November was way too wet, and quite uncongenial for late-year caravanning. In any case, once the clocks had gone back an hour at the end of October, the days were really too short for doing all that much. 

So this year, instead of ending the season with a week in early November, squelching in the New Forest, I'd bring everything forward and begin my 2023 caravanning during the second half of March. It was a risk, of course. It might easily turn out to be as rainy as November, and just as chilly. But on the other hand, I had known warm, sunny March weather in several previous years in the area I was going to. It might even be as fine as it was in 2012. Here I am on 25th March 2012 at Sidmouth, walking barefoot on the beach, lightly clad, and sporting sunglasses:

Anyway, I felt there was a sporting chance that I'd see more sunshine than showers. But I was wrong!

I did arrive in dry weather. I had the place to myself too (always my preference). I chose a good spot close to the water tap, with a great view westward into the sunset. Lovely. 

But the sun went in, and it was wet thereafter. Really wet - squally showers that threw rainwater fiercely at caravan and car. The ground, which had taken some rain in the days before, and had been firm but slightly soft when I arrived, now got thoroughly saturated. 

It made no difference to the caravan itself. I was here for ten days, and could expect the ground to dry out before I had to hitch up again and tow the caravan away. But I needed to get out in the car every day, and I became concerned that the place might soon become a sea of mud. It was that on arrival there in March 2018. I'd been preceded by a family in a front-wheel-drive van drawing a larger caravan, and that outfit had got bogged down in muddy ruts. The husband got out and tried to stop me entering, but he was a hundred yards ahead of me, and I didn't realise his predicament and why he was gesticulating, before I too got bogged down.  

The farmer Colin had to haul both of us off the site with his tractor. The weather wasn't his fault, but he still apologised for what had happened. I'd been travelling back from North Devon, and decided - in view of the wet weather - to abandon my booking and press on for home, which I did. (I returned in September, when it was all as dry as a bone)

Conditions weren't nearly so dire this time, in March 2023, but I still wanted to avoid churning the grass up with Fiona's tyres. So I have, so far, limited myself to just one trip out per day. The ground has remained soft and potentially slippery, but the rain has finally eased off, and as I write it's actually sunny. If it stays like this for most of the day, then, combined with a strong drying breeze, the ground will begin to get solid again. 

Fiona herself tackles wet grass with confidence, being shod with expensive grippy tyres suitable for any kind of soft surface in all seasons, plus in any case having permanent all-wheel drive. All-wheel drive is highly desirable for caravanning. It didn't get me out of trouble back in March 2018, but that was a bit extreme. Ordinarily, it's a boon when it's been raining, and I have to pull the caravan on wet grass. In fact, so long as I continue to haul a caravan, I wouldn't want to be without it. (I suppose that's one big argument in favour of hanging on to Fiona, no matter what repairs and replacements might be necessary)

Meanwhile, it's warm and snug in the caravan. When the weather is awful I emerge only to refill my ten-litre water containers, dispose of waste water, pop a bag of rubbish in the bin, and every three days empty the toilet cassttte. And I wear my trusty green wellies, which are serious and heavy-duty, and kept in a plastic box in the caravan, with a boot jack to make getting them on and off a quick and clean job:

I always take wellies along, even in the height of the summer. You just never know when waterproof (and mudproof) footwear will be needed. 

The weather forecast over the next week or so shows an improvement, with drier conditions in Devon and Dorset, though not necessarily with all that much sunshine. But if the ground drains, I'll get out and around again, as much as usual.