Got down in good time, considering the van developed a misfire, seems its spark plug.
Anyway, set up camp, made dinner and relaxed and watched the sun set. Had a great night to, woke up at 6 with my work alarm call though which was annoying, but it was then we were hit by a torrential rain storm and high winds. We stayed it out for a bit, but then our gazebo blew away followed by wind breaks and tables and chairs. In the van, water leaks developed that had never occured before as a result of the horizontal rain! after 5 hours in the van, we got out and cleaned up the mess then realising that the van was parked in a 5 inch deep puddle and everything was seriously wet, but in the back of the van it went, we were now very wet, then 10 minutes later having got changed it stopped raining and the sun came out! We were packed up and ready to go then friends asked us for dinner outside Brockenhurst. En route following them, with the van missfiring, it then developed a horrid bang under the drivers foot plate when going over bumps and small pot holes, thought it might be the drivers wheel wheel bearing playing up again. Got the AA out in the lovely sunshine and he said it was fine and couldnt see anything obvious, but that the steering idler might be worn to excess, after the MOT 2 weeks ago!
Having had that done, we both decided to head home, everything was wet, including the bedding as the door leaked unexpectedly. Leaving the new forest with misfire at low speed or putting the engine under load, the knock banging away underneath, we went over a cattle grid at Lyndhurst and a tinkleling noise started, we thought what the hell was that now, we then turned a left bend and noise started again. Further up the road underneath a bang occured and I heard the tinkleling get quieter - we stopped as soon as we could, looked on the road and around the van, the tail pipe extension had popped off with the chrome end peice attatched!
Oh well, what else could go wrong, well nothing much more than that, we made it after 2.5 hours. Saturday will be spent changing plugs and checking for the knocking underside.........
