campervanliving

Maggie hanging out with the Rothfink crew Hello again. I went to Devon Dub Fest this weekend. I was invited along by the team to give out prizes for the Show and Shine Competition. I gladly did it. They give all their profits to CLIC Sargent, the charity that did so much for us when Maggie was ill with leukaemia. It's a remarkable thing to do and is to be applauded - especially when you consider the work they put in. If you have never heard of CLIC Sargent or don't know what they do or why they have inspired me so much too, then please have a read of the blog I did for them here. Anyway, the dedication of the team at DDF got me thinking. So that's why I am going to donate £5 for every copy of my book, 'The Camper Van Coast', that I sell through my website at www.martindorey.com throughout August. That's it. It's the least I could do. And I'll sign every copy too. Thanks. Enjoy the summer. Click here to buy the book.

Sometimes you need to stop for a moment and take stock. It happened to me on Saturday, during a busy day looking after the campers on the last of this summer's Wild Weekends. I had just finished serving a seafood paella with razor clams, smoked dogfish (that we'd caught on our long line) and barbecued chicken. I had spent all day cooking, washing up and making sure my guests were well looked after and having fun. The fire was burning, the marshmallows were toasting, the sun was going down in the meadow and the temperature was still in the high twenties. I opened a beer (it had been chilling in the river next to the camp site) and sat down in the grass to listen to Nat play guitar and sing. Looking around our campsite, I reminded myself to remember this moment, because later, when I would be washing up again, the gloss would have gone from the camping experience. After all the work I had done setting up the Wild Weekends and all the work still to come to clear up the camp...