On the Thames

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Today we were heading to my nieces in Benson Oxfordshire, we had to pick up our mail and the rest of our stuff as we only took a few things with us to the Netherlands. Normally we stay with my niece but this time we will have to find somewhere to park Matilda as Lisa's house has no driveway and the parking area by her house is small. She suggested maybe leaving it on the more major road next to her road and even though its a quiet road I wasn't too happy leaving it until we had more security devices fitted so we booked ourselves into Benson Cafe which had units and a small area at the end for motorhomes, tents and caravans.

Our first stop on our drive to Oxfordshire was Reading to pick up some thermal blinds for the cab windows. We had a curtain but they were useless and you could still see into our home from the front so you had to cover the gap with a towel. I was a little annoyed with myself because Wietze had some of these blinds in his shed but I did't know what they were for so didn't think anything of it, it was only when we went to our first stop in Holland that I saw other motorhomes with them and cursed for not picking them out the shed. We had already booked the ferry so it was too late to go back and pick them up. Go Outdoors had a set for a reasonable price so picked some up as well as a steering wheel lock. We stopped by Lisa's first, parking in the road she suggested so we could load up with the rest of our gear before driving to the caravan park. The park was a great spot, a hidden gem that is not really mentioned in any camping guide. Not only were we literally on the Thames but we were 7 minutes walk from my nieces house. There was another motor home there, an English couple in their 50's introduced themselves and told us they live full time in their motorhome and spend the winter in Spain and Portugal when it gets cold. There was also a couple of caravans but didn't see the owners much. We spent the afternoon sorting out all our stuff and working out where in the van I was going to put it. Lisa and my little nephews came over around 4pm after she picked them up from school and we sat outside the van and enjoyed the glorious weather, the boys were pleased to see us again. Early evening after dinner we headed over to my nieces and I helped her in the garden while Vaughan updated the maps on our new Garmin device.

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