Leaving the site relatively early in quite a downpour, we had to stop after a mile or so when the van overheated. Further inspection showed that this was due to the drive-belt breaking. T25’s don’t have a “fan belt” as such, as the fan is at the front and the engine is at the back. The drive-belt powers the alternator and the water-pump. We pulled up at a local beauty spot and moved all the kit from the boot of the van into the main body (as the engine compartment is accessed through a hatch in the boot).

Fortunately we had a spare drive-belt, but I found that fitting it wasn’t as simple as the manual would have you believe. A very kind chap who was out walking his dog gave me a hand and by using the old belt to pull the new one we managed to get it fitted. The whole process took a couple of hours though, delaying the journey significantly.

As a result, we decided to travel only as far as Shrewsbury. On reaching the town, we headed for the supermarket to restock on food, and to the local Halfords to replace the drive-belt. We phoned ahead to Beaconsfield Farm Caravan Park to check what time they were open until. They said they closed at 7pm and at 6:30 we were still shopping. As we came to the checkout, there was a slight power blip, causing the lights to dim. It also caused all of the checkouts to reboot. (For those of a nerdy persuasion, the tills were using an AMI BIOS and running Windows 2000 Professional). Fortunately, as each till came back online, they recovered their session so that none of the shopping had to be re-scanned. The delay made it unlikely that we’d get to the site for 7pm, so we called again and they agreed to hold on until 7:15.

We made it with a minute or so to spare. The site uses a barrier with a passcode so once reception is closed, no new arrivals can get onto the site. The site also had a restaurant and swimming pool, though we didn’t make use of either facility. The rain continued to pour down, with some still coming through the sky-light in the van. We managed to stay dry by getting up every now and then and wringing out the Jeyes cloths which were soaking up the leak.