Returning Home – April 2026

April 2026

Cast your mind back to April. We’d just returned from a skiing trip. The wind was blowing, the rain was falling and the grass was green. Such a contrast to this summer.

Woolacombe: Catching up with friends

When we got back from our skiing trip we only had one day at home before we were off again for the Easter long weekend in Woolacombe. We quickly ditched our skiing gear and did a wash to make inroads into the mountain of laundry.

Woolacombe Sands caravan park is a good place to catch up with friends, especially those with children. It has two small pools and an on-site bar with entertainment. The less said about the bar prices the better. At least we’d managed to get a reasonable nightly rate by booking well in advance.

This part of North Devon is beautiful, rocky and craggy with sandy beaches between. Although the weather was not amazing – including some ferocious winds which rattled vans and threatened awnings – we managed to get out for a walk along the local coast path to Croyd. I also managed a run in the muddy cow-pat festooned lanes between drinks and socialising.

Walking back from Croyd

Motorhome warranty work

We got home after Woolacombe, looking forward to giving the van a good clean. While rinsing the van Paul noticed that we had two splits in the trim at the rear of the van. We added it to the list of warranty repairs that need doing and visited Highbridge in Newton Abbot to take them through the list. Most of our issues are small things, for example the plastic cover over the relay box between the front seats of the van has split. But we have a leak around the habitation door that needs attention as well as this new issue.

One of the splits in the rear panel of the van

We’re also seriously considering the future of the awkward grill which is above the bench seat. Although we have used it a few times, the heat and poor positioning has also caused some issues. The edge trim above it has now peeled away twice – after being repaired the first time we have now just cut it off – and during our latest trip it deformed one of the plastic vents for the large roof light which jiggled free while driving along. We’ve seen some people replace the grill with a microwave but I think we’ll just take advantage of the extra storage.

Selling our flat

The middle part of April was taken up with non motorhome related activity, catching up with family and friends and generally getting back into home life. We’d accepted an offer on our flat while we were away skiing so we had a few bits and bobs to do for the solicitor as well as a few jobs to complete prior to the sale.

We found a storage unit and started to box up some of our belongings. We’ll eventually be moving back into our house, which we’ve been renting out since we first started travelling in our motorhome. We will almost certainly have a gap between the sale completing and our tenants moving out. Our motorhome will be very useful in this period but there’s no way we can carry around all of my books or Paul’s tools.

Early July was the target for moving, but as I write this blog we’re still not moved out. Everything is moving very slowly.

A few days apart

Over the last weekend of April I was enjoying a weekend in Salisbury with friends. The sun was shining and the skies were blue. We joked that it was probably our only glimpse of summer for the year. Little did we know.

I used to live in Salisbury in the 90s when I worked at Friends Provident and all of our group had travelled from Exeter to work in Salisbury at some point, so it was a good walk down memory lane. One of our group had an even more prestigious connection with Salisbury – a Great…(insert more greats)…Grandfather had been Bishop of Salisbury and had a very fancy tomb in the Cathedral.

While I was in Salisbury Paul was in the van on a farmer’s field in Cornwall, setting up for a Land Rover event the following weekend and that is where I drove down to meet him when I returned from Salisbury.

Parked in a field in Cornwall

A field near Crackington Haven

The farmer had kindly give us permission to stay on site until the following weekend so we had the camping field ourselves for a couple of days before people started to turn up again. We had our car with us which gave us some more flexibility, so we managed another section of the South West Coast Path, from Duckpool to Bude and back again with a swim in Bude sea pool to break up the hike. The sun was still shining but the wind was pretty strong, chilling us to our bones when we got out of the pool.

The next day we’d planned a bike ride, but the wind was blowing hard and we decided against it. Instead we just had a day chilling out, using the shelter of a hedge to keep the wind away. When I got stir crazy I popped out for an evening run around the lanes. The run got longer and the sky darker with each field full of cows I avoided, but eventually I got back to the van in the light of the setting sun.

April Summary

11 nights in the Motorhome: 7 nights off-grid (3 of which were just Paul) and 4 nights in a campsite.

Average Cost Per Night: £15.60