It’s Joe’s birthday this week, so last Thursday we hitched up the caravan and headed off to one of our favourite and the most pristine of sites – Old Oaks, Glastonbury. This is an Adults only site and the facilities and pitches are absolutely first rate.
Old Oaks Touring site, Glastonbury 2023
We have a fully serviced pitch with views across to the Mendip hills.
Our views from our pitch at Old Oaks, Glastonbury 2023
In the “Top Oaks” area of the site, a large grassed area separates us from the units on the opposite side of the field and it is just a short walk to one of the incredible facility blocks.
All the washrooms are immaculately clean and there are around 10 “private” rooms which consist of a shower, toilet and wash basin. Breakfast is served in the mornings and a different takeaway available every night. Sundays currently have no on-site catering. There’s also a fully stocked shop with a decent selection of beers, ciders and wine as well as much locally sourced produce.
It was only a short 2.25 hour drive to Old Oaks and we arrived very close to the opening time of 13:30. By late afternoon we had everything in place and setup. Thursday night was Mexican food and the nachos and chicken quesadillas were excellent.
Friday and the weather was very hot and sunny with temperatures in the mid 20s. After spending the previous day setting up, and several days prior, preparing to leave home, we had a lazy day relaxing in the sunshine and cooked a BBQ in the evening.
Saturday we headed over to West Huntspill where the annual Steam fair was taking place – the Sedgemoor Vintage show. Not quite the Dorset Steam fair but a great day out nonetheless. In the evening we cooked fish on the BBQ.
Sunday and we visited the village of Catcott. We had spotted the previous day that there was a charity open garden event taking place and we decided to expose ourselves to an afternoon of garden envy.
Not only were there some amazing gardens to look around but a local businessman had loaned 6 vintage cars to transport people around the village. One of them has featured in “Peaky Blinders” and they were likely valued at anywhere between 250,000 and 1 million pounds. It was a stunning idea to ferry folks around the village.
We leave Black Knowl in the morning after a hectic time here. We’ve packed a lot into the trip since the last posting from Brownsea Island.
Last weekend, the Cuckoo Inn at Hamptworth hosted one of their beer festivals. The Cuckoo Inn is a long cycle ride from Black Knowl but it’s worthy of a visit with or without a beer festival. Friday nights are always popular, with the visiting Fish n Chip van aka Tony’s frying machine.
Cuckoo Inn Beer festival, May 2023
Cuckoo Inn Beer festival, May 2023
Ploughmans at the Cuckoo Inn, May 2023
Donkeys in the Forest, May 2023
Friday afternoon was wet at times but the weather improved significantly over the weekend.
Saturday we had a lazy day at the campsite, a hot sunny day and an afternoon BBQ with our friends Chris and Alison.
Sunday we cycled to the Sir Walter Tyrell for a Sunday roast. The food here is excellent and on this particular Sunday there was a band playing from 4pm.
Cycle ride to the Sir Walter Tyrell, May 2023
“Hotline Band” at the Sir Walter Tyrell, May 2023
“Hotline Band” at the Sir Walter Tyrell, May 2023
Monday we walked a circular route around the deer sanctuary.
Deer in the New Forest, May 2023
Deer in the New Forest, May 2023
Tuesday we spent in Lymington, first a walk into Brockenhurst and then the train to Lymington. It was our wedding anniversary and in the evening, back at Brockenhurst, we enjoyed a fab pizza at Enzees.
Wednesday morning and an early start as set off at the crack of dawn for a day-trip to Brownsea Island. Being National Trust members we only needed to purchase the ferry crossing.
Brownsea Island, May 2023
We walked to Brockenhurst station and caught the train to Poole. When the railways aren’t on strike, this is an easy journey with 2 or 3 trains every hour. Once at Poole the Quay is a short walk from the station and we arrived on Brownsea Island by 11:30am.
Famous for red squirrels, the island’s habitats include heathland, woodland and a lagoon – internationally important for overwintering and summer-nesting birds.
Brownsea Island is the largest of the islands in Poole Harbour in the county of Dorset, England. The island is owned by the National Trust with the northern half managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Much of the island is open to the public and includes areas of woodland and heath with a wide variety of wildlife, together with cliff top views across Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck.
The island was the location of an experimental camp in 1907 that led to the formation of the Scout movement the following year.
From 1 August until 8 August 1907, Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp on the island, to test out his Scouting ideas. He gathered 21 boys of mixed social backgrounds (from boys’ schools in the London area and a section of boys from the Poole, Parkstone, Hamworthy, Bournemouth, and Winton Boys’ Brigade units) and held a week-long camp. The boys took part in activities such as camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Following the successful camp, Baden-Powell published his first book on the Scouting movement in 1908, Scouting for Boys, and the international Scouting movement grew rapidly.
Brownsea Island – Birth of the scouting movement
We have visited Brownsea Island on one other occasion, primarily to see the Red Squirrels but on our previous trip we saw no activity whatsoever. This time we were treated to a wonderful display by these charming little creatures
Brownsea Island, 2023
The Squirrels we saw, were following their same route each time as the moved food stores from one location to another.
After the highlight of our trip we walked around the Island, taking in the lovely views and admiring the wildlife.
Our bikes, complete with their latest conversions, have had a good run out around the New Forest and have performed remarkably well. The only issue we had is that Moe had a puncture after the first day, despite having only recently swapped our tyres for the latest Continental anti-puncture versions.
Repeated new inner tubes all failed very quickly despite being unable to find any evidence of any objects damaging them. We *think* that because the inner tubes (and our spares) are all in excess of 15 years old that the rubber had become weakened with age and having bought a new one, this has remained inflated without issue…
The weather has been predominantly dry over the last few days but the temperatures remain un-seasonably cold. Our first ride out was a circular route from the campsite to Minstead, via Rhinefield Ornamental drive and returning through Emery Down.
The Fitbit didn’t record the entire journey, running out of battery whilst we “enjoyed” lunch at The Oak Inn, Bank, Lyndhurst.
Circular route to Minstead (part)
They seem to have taken the cost of living crisis to a new level, with no evidence of any ham in their ham sandwich. This was rectified but it was an expensive and not great experience.
“Vegetarian” ham sandwich at the Oak Inn
Sunday we cycled around the Eastern side of Brockenhurst, enjoying a picnic at the side of a railway bridge. Normally, such bridges have very tall sides as a deterrent for “jumpers”. This bridge seemed to have a wooden rail to more easily lean over the bridge and spot the trains. Remarkably, there were trains running!
Lunch on a Railway Bridge
And proof that we do run trains, occasionally…
New Forest Ponies, 2023
New Forest Ponies, New Forest 2023
Someone has a sense of humour in respect of this “carving” of Rudolph!
Rudolph in the Forest, 2023
Our route around the New Forest on Sunday.
Cycle ride East of Brockenhurst
Tuesday we cycled to the Sir Walter Tyrell, near to Rufus Stone where we met our friends for lunch. Great company, the food was good and the Abbott Ale nicely kept..
Our original bike conversions were a DIY project, back in 2018. Whilst they have served us well, the front hub drives have their limitations. They lack the power / torque, balance and grip offered by the mid-drive eBikes. They are also very heavy to lift on top of the Sorento and we hoped the new conversions would be a little easier to handle.
Regarding torque, the modern mid-drive motors have around twice the torque of the front wheel hub drives.
We wanted to upgrade both of our bikes to mid-drive motors and essentially I’d decided to go street legal again, this time with the Bafang BBS01b 250w mid-drive motor.
We wanted to preserve the battery system as my Dillenger battery pack is still in first rate condition and came with high quality Samsung cells. Moe’s battery pack had only just been replaced a year ago.
I’ll come on to the kit’s we ordered but for my bike, I needed to buy a new bottle battery holder. That’s because on the hub conversion, the controller electronics are part of the battery holder and the mid-drive motors require simply a battery with all the electronics encased in the main motor unit. I was able to source a new battery holder relatively easy at a cost of around £30 or £40.
For Moe, we wanted to replace the rear rack (which houses the battery unit) with a lightweight aluminium version. The original steel version makes her bike incredibly heavy and cumbersome – her bike was an absolute monster to lift on top of the car. This was more of a challenge but eventually I found something on eBay which looked compatible, of very light aluminium construction but with a price tag just shy of £60.
The kits were ordered from an Internet company called Custom Built eBikes. I was originally planning on fitting these myself but I noticed a special offer on their website of £129 for installation of their kit. I though that was good value and whilst researching a bit more, realised the company is a short distance from us near to Exeter airport.
Their normal business model is to collect your bike, convert and then re-deliver but not surprisingly, this incurs some fairly heft delivery charges.
In this instance we were able to deliver and collect the bikes ourselves. No special tools to buy, plus they had some difficulties removing the bottom bracket which would have presented me with a challenge. On one of the installs the motor was dead so they had replaced that before we collected.
Here are some after pictures of our two bikes.
Specialized Cross Trail elite with Bafang mid-drive
Specialized Cross Trail elite with Bafang mid-drive
Marin Kentfield (vintage 2009) with Bafang conversion
Marin Kentfield (vintage 2009) with Bafang conversion
Display unit for the Bafang
The Conversion – Custom Built E-Bikes, Exeter
What about the conversion company? They were excellent. We wanted a quick turnaround which was a little beyond what they would normally commit to but they delivered both bikes on a tight timeframe. Despite one of the motors failing during installation.
One of our chains was stretched so they replaced this, again at a reasonable cost.
Communication was brilliant and all-in-all great value.
Weight
Moe’s bike is so much lighter and better balanced. It’s now the easy-one to lift on top of the car. The weight of mine is similar but much better balanced.
Power / Torque
Just a different world. Because the motor is driving the front chain cog, the speed and torque is reflected through the rear gears. It takes a bit of getting used to compared to the basic hub drive but the results are superb.
Other
What you do lose with a mid-drive motor is the high range of gearing. This is particularly noticeable on my 2009 Cross Trail because as an older bike, it only has 9 gears at the rear. The front chain reels previously had 28 – 38 – 48 teeth on each cog. The Bafang chain reel we chose has 44 teeth. This is fine when cycling normal hills with electricity but without electric, the really low gears just aren’t available any more and this is less than ideal.
There is a special Leckie ring which will take the front cog down to 40 teeth but this is expensive and requires a modified Bafang motor case cover.
There is also the option of fitting a 10 or 11 cog cassette to the rear but this will also require a new derailleur and shifter. I might just push the button on this change…
Our original bikes, purchased in 2009 (one Marin Kentfield and a Specialized Crosstrail elite), were converted to electric some years ago. We decided this year, on our return from Spain, that we would have the electric hub wheels replaced with Bafang mid-drive motors. I’ll post a blog entry over the next few days with more details but this trip to the New Forest is the first trial of the new setup.
I’d already cycled around Brockenhurst yesterday and today Moe and I headed into the town for provisions. The mid-drive motors performed extremely well. They have a lot more torque than the front hub drive wheels and the entire setup feels a lot more balanced.
First stop was the butchers in Brockenhurst.
Village Butchers, Brockenhurst, May 2023
Village Butchers, Brockenhurst, May 2023
The butcher made up some chicken kebabs, Chinese style and we left with a selection of artisan sausages and some venison burgers. We can highly recommend the establishment.
Meanwhile, the Forest is teaming with livestock and the fruits of spring.
We arrived at Black Knowl following a 3.5 hour drive from East Devon. We managed to avoid the massive East Devon and wider South West floods which arrived in the late afternoon, turning streets into rivers and causing many main roads to be impassable.
The weather in the New Forest is looking typically English over the next week or so. Temperatures below average and rather unsettled.
Despite the forecast of rain post arrival, the day remained predominantly dry and we had set everything up on our serviced pitch after just over two hours.
In the evening we ate at the Snakecatcher in Brockenhurst and spotted this herd of deer close to the caravan site.
We are on-board the Brittany Ferries flagship ro-ro ferry ship “Santona”. Powered by Liquid Natural Gas. We were first to board which is great but our location on Deck 5 is such that we will need to travel a full circle of the boat before disembarkation, so it looks like we may be one of the last off tomorrow evening.
We did though, manage to bag ourselves a couple of Commodore Club lounge tickets which I think means free food and drink for the duration of the journey. Expensive at 49 Euros each but very comfortable. Passes for this lounge are also included with a certain class of ticket but there were none available when we booked our crossings. We were also first into the lounge and have just the best window seats.
Prior to our arrival at Santander, we spent two nights at Camping El Astral in Tordesillas before a 4 hour drive to Camping Virgen del Mar, close to Santander.
We also ate at the restaurant at El Astral which we would highly recommend.
Some pictures from El Astral and Tordesillas.
And a few pictures from our overnight stop at Santander.
Day 85 and soon our enforced allocation of 90 days in the EU will have expired. Just as the weather is starting to get very warm with the last few daytime highs around the mid 20s and very pleasant to sit outside during the evening.
We had an early start today and were on the road at precisely 08:00. We had a number of options for a stopover site – Camping Arco Iris or Aranjeuz or Riaza in the Madrid area but in the end we drove all the way to Camping El Astral in Tordesillas, a distance of 405 miles and an elapsed time of 8.5 hours which included a pause for lunch and one other stop. Traffic was light until we arrived at the metropolis of Madrid.
We will stay two nights here and then find a site in Santander for Tuesday night, in preparation for our ferry crossing on Wednesday.
Our journey so far…
Eurotrip 10, 2023 – Trip Summary as of 12th March 2023
