I am booked to go on a weekend bowl carving course in a couple of weeks which includes camping space. So I really needed to break the ice and try out the camper. I’ve been driving it around as my day vehicle for months, had a little play with the cooking facilities but so far but haven’t slept in it or tried some of the facilities. That was the primary reason for going on Tuesday. The forecast was good but not so good for Wednesday.

I arrived late morning and parked up, using the ramps for the first time to level it. I put the pop-top up which allows me to stand inside and it becomes a really useful storage space. It’s got several moveable sturdy panels which can be laid down to create another two sleeping spaces but I used it to store the sleeping bag and memory foam mattress and a few other things until bedtime. I had a few jobs in mind and the first was just to cut up some more logs, split and stack which has almost filled the new log store.

I had a good walkabout and heard the distinctive call of a buzzard. Looking through the tree tops I spotted it circling over next doors plot. Then another and another and I think maybe there were four altogether. As it’s nesting time, I guess they were looking for a mate and courting buzzard style. I tried to get a photo but it’s very difficult as yu need to zoom in but that makes it harder to follow, then the camera’s auto focusing tends to lock onto the trees rather than the bird. This was the best I could manage. See if you can spot it – top left third in the frame.

There are lot’s of flowers out now – celandine

Wood sorrel

Wood anemone in profusion

I did a few more jobs, replacing rotten stakes that were supporting some netting around saplings and removing some tree guards that were no longer necessary.These are jobs I would normally keep putting off but the luxury of two days there meant I could deal with them.

I wanted to imagine I was on a basic campsite and live in the van for two days to get used to it, so no campfire cooking. However, I did want to light a fire for comfort in the evening so I went foraging for suitable materials and put them aside for later. I wanted to do it “properly” – bushcraft style, using natural found materials and flint and steel. Dried grass, honeysuckle bark and dead dry bracken leaves for the “bird’s nest” tinder and assorted thicknesses of dead twigs for the kindling. Teatime came and I’d planned a simple one – using the Ridge Monkey sandwich maker (which is very versatile and can be used as two small fry pans or a mini oven when closed up and put on the camper’s gas ring) I cooked fish fingers, vegetable fingers and in a separate pan, heated some baked beans.

Time to light a fire and just relax around it. Here it is just getting going. Nothing says more than a fire when camping.

I sat and enjoyed the lovely evening with a couple of glasses of wine and a good (and appropriate) book Rewild by Nick Baker. It’s about retraining yourself to be at one with nature and develop observational skills and modes of behaviour to help you get more out of your natural surroundings.

The light was mostly gone by eight pm. I sat awhile longer then decided to decamp to the van, read some more, drank more wine then set up the bed and climbed into my duvet by ten pm. Sleep eluded me for a long time. I was comfortable and warm but my mind was on alert as it does when sleeping in an unusual environment. I eventually fell asleep but woke several times in the night, each time taking forever to get off again.

Eventually dawn came, I made a coffee and sat in bed looking out the window into my beautiful piece of woodland. Somewhere close was a Spotted woodpecker hammering away announcing his presence. Eventually I packed the bedding away and got out for a stroll, returning for some cornflakes, a banana and coffee. The weather was dull and rain forecast for the afternoon. So I took the opportunity to do a few more jobs. By late morning it started drizzling. I returned to the van, had another brew, ate some fruit tea loaf and read more of the book. It was so good to be able to escape the rain and sit in comfort, something you can’t do in a small tent. I really enjoyed the luxury.

Lunch was a simple affair of a tuna and vegetable mini meal in a tin. Why complicate things? The rain eased off a little and I headed out again to tackle a job I really wanted to do. I had spotted two small Cherry laurel trees growing. These are non native and very invasive. They were planted as game cover all over the country by the Victorians. Now they are despised by foresters and it’s best to remove them if possible. I set about trying to uproot them. They are tenacious even when small. I wasn’t going to be beaten by them and eventually ragged them out and piled them on some old logs to die off. It’s dangerous to burn them as they give off poisonous gas – cyanide.

I decided to cut the day short and headed off early afternoon. I had accomplished my mission and learnt a lot, gaining confidence to do more camping with the van. I made notes of a few things I need to get and some tweaks to the way I did things but generally it was a huge success.