Campervans To Hire – Low Season
Low season campervans to hire
So what to do with your lovely shiny or possibly getting dirty, campervan in the winter or early spring? Wait longingly for those May or summer holiday trips down to Cornwall? Well no, of course not, the advantage of a new VW California campervans to hire is that it’s warm inside, even without the heater on. This can be surprising to those that haven’t been in a new VW California, or similar campervan before. With the Cali, you just put the heater on and it quietly ticks away, sipping at the diesel, without the engine on and blows warm air out, before turning the van into something close to a tropical sauna, so you then turn it right down. So you’re good to go any time of the year. Our VW campervan hire business is still quiet this time of year, until Easter that is, so we get to go out on lots of camper van road trips.
Last April, remember that freezing one? I had planned to go away for a few days with the new girlfriend. Not perturbed by the 4 degree maximum daytime temperature, I took a risk, we had only been together a few months and it was her first camper van holiday after all, and headed out in Bertie.
We drove for an hour or two to Dungeness, an eerie and remote shingle spit on the coast between East Sussex and Kent. It’s a flat landscape, with stunningly beautiful timber cottages made from old fishing boats and train carriages. Artists have set up residence here and there are many galleries, and even sculpture gardens with old nets and the local driftwood featuring in their creations. It is probably best known as a nuclear power station site, the grey buildings casting an ominous and brooding prescience over the landscape. This contrasts with the more elegant wind turbines on the Romney Marsh we passed on the way. For diversion we climbed the pretty and tall black & white striped old lighthouse to get buffeted by the freezing wind at the top, but it was well worth it. We had a view over the old Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Steam Railway and to France, a short distance away. There’s also a great bird reserve, but it was too cold to even think of stalking feathery creatures, so we headed to the station cafe to warm up and watched the steam trains pull up.
Earlier we had popped by the mediaeval Sussex town of Rye, heaving with antique and tea shops, very pretty indeed. We had been to Camber Sands, which indeed has lots of sand dunes. I remember going on the beach here as a kid and getting the ultimate sandwich, yes bread with added sand blown by the wind off the exposed beach. A true bucket and spade holiday! The sands here are pretty amazing though as they just go on for miles and the sea seems to disappear at low tide. As it was getting late we set off to find a campsite that wasn’t too exposed and was actually open in this dreadful weather. After some driving we chanced on Romney Farm, a delightful little campsite outside the small town of Old Romney, and crucially in pub walking distance.
When we booked in, we were told by the friendly owner that everyone else had cancelled due to the cold weather and we had the place to ourselves, hurrah! So we parked near the shower block as close as we could get and 5 minutes later the California was all set up with the roof up, top bunk extra external roof insulation on, and bed made up. We went out to get a drink and left the heater on low. On return the camper van was so toasty warm we never had the heater on again that night. We woke up the next morning to a flurry of snow. Put the heater on again and surveyed our own personal campsite from the cosiness of the camper. The gas went on, the window opened a crack, tea was made and a breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, toast (on the hob top toaster) and beans was cooked up. I was then ordered to inch the van right in front of the shower block door. Yes it was a bit cold in there, but we certainly woke up from our lazy slumber! Then on and out for another day of cruising around.
The VW Campervan man hires the VW California from Active Kampers in Brighton, East Sussex.
