Although I have the plan for Scotland, which I wasn't sure when that would take place, I have been buying all my camping gear over a period of 6 months ready for when it was time, Jaspers untimely passing coincided with my stay in hospital for 2 weeks due to a lung infection (we think) as the doc's still have no idea what it was. I'm not the type of person to go away on holiday and kennel a dog, if I can't that the dog then basically I'm not going away, simples.
So whilst laying in hospital, I decided Scotland was not on the cards this year, and I started planning somewhere closer to home. My biggest fear was due to still having trouble going up and down the stairs to the bathroom, and I basically decided that if I could not push my Z1000SX (knick named Toothless) then I'm unfit to go anywhere.
I also didn't want to be miles away and have some sort of health issue, or situation whereby I had to get home quick, which makes sense and is sort of logical. So I started planning a few nights in Minehead and if that worked out ok, then I could make my way around the Cornwall coastline, staying a couple of nights at each campsite over a 2 week period.
But every time I checked out the long term weather it was miserable and wet. Then as I was scrolling around the south coast on the weather map, the Isle Of Wight showed no clouds at all, which made perfect sense. Being no more than 40 minutes away plus the ferry crossing time.
I had already joined the Caravan and Camping Club earlier in the year and I was member back in the 90's. In the 70's and 80's most of our family holidays was camping then caravanning, and as a family we had a lot of breaks with the Caravan and Camping Club, so joining made sense, as you know what your going to get, and then there is the security on the campsites, which is much better than some farmers field, lets face it, unlike a car a bike doesn't have a lot of secure out of sight storage , at at least only members are on the site. Besides that, I have to say the the C&C club are an old institution and that, unless we are prepared to support them, they will die out and that would be awful. Plus the camping fees are so much cheaper than most other sites.
As the weather was starting to look grim and I tried for over a week to get away, I have some sleep issues and my plan was to leave home by 10:30am but each night before I would panic I would be up onetime and therefore I couldn't sleep and then not wake until lunchtime. I hadn't pre booked anything, which is unlike me, and again with my health issues, it was a case of "if I'm up early" I'll book the site, load the bike and go.
And thats what I did.
