Dr Mark's Tardis

Cheat ...it was not actually at Christmas and ...it was not in the Tardis. Work did not permit a long Christmas break so we decided to do a fly and apartment in Essaouira. We went the week before Christmas so that we could still have a family Christmas in Napton. Why Essaouira? Well it seemed to have the best of Morocco in one compact place: beach Medina, forest, interesting stuff, wildlife. And we were not disappointed. The pictures and comments are all on Facebook

This blogs tells you how a windscreen works!  that may seem obvious - but its not. Trust me, I've found nine relevant drainage holes that all help to keep the rain out. New windscreen and I still got leaks. Squirted in sealant and used black stixall in places. It leaked more than ever. The only thing left to change was the rubber seal. I bought a new windscreen seal from Vexi, part number   93940727 (or 93936149 ). It is the wrong one, my vehicle started life as a high room van and they have a different windscreen seal with a wider rubber at the top. Iveco call the seals "Filler sections". I ordered the right seal part number 93902026 I removed new windscreen myself - scary. treated the small amount of rust, and tried to understand how the rubber seal works: Removing the old seal myself starting at top left. The glass goes into a slot in the rubber seal. If water gets past the glass to rubber seal it can drain out through two slots in rubber. Holes ...

Alternator failed again (lasted 5 years). Did some research and got a lot of help from Grahame on an upgrade to a 90Amp version (from 55Amp). Note that the Sterling B2B is rated at 50Amp so it could be drawing power at the alternator maximum for long periods. That should not be so serious now that I have 280W solar as well. Alternator model: Lucas LRB197 (Bosc 0986035770) Needs longer brackets  - 40mm longer, obtained by buying two new ones (Vexi were selling them for £2.55 to clear stock). Welded beautiful by Lee at work. Two different part numbers for alternator bracket. Mine was 99449305   Longer fan belt 10 x 950mm All in place Issues: It was to awkward to put in a bigger cable from alternator to the starter motor (main battery connection). I may do a separate longer cable back to the battery. The ignition light does not come on until the alternator is energized by the revs going up to 1500. People say this is not a problem. A potential fix is to put...

No pictures, just a list of places and dates: 14-17 September Broad Haven West beach Trefalen Farm campsite full so we went to a Farmer's campsite nearby. 51.60867 - 4.93551 18-20 September West Hook Farm campsite Nr Marloes 51.73428 -5.23819 21-22 September Whitesands campsite Nr Saint David's 51.8978 -5.29291 23-24 September Celtic camping Nr Abereiddy 51.92615 -5.21866 25 September Cwn Berwyn view point and lake wildcamp 52.20012 -3.84869 Llyn Teifi No entry? 52.29809 -3.78157 26 September Tyllwyd campsite B4574 and then a minor road 52.3633 -3.72907 27 Cartref campsite Just outside Shrewsbury 52.70372 - 2.87049 28 31 September Shrewsbury Folk festival 52.71459 -2.7615 Total 575 miles

Pembrokeshire Our first holiday in Pembrokeshire ever . That must be good, but in August with the school Holidays? We aimed to do the three main peninsulas and then drive through the Cambrian mountains to our regular folk festival at Shrewsbury for the bank holiday weekend. 1) Broadhaven We aimed for Trefalen farm campsite on the beach. It was full but a farmer's field campsite was not much father away an gave us a relaxing informal stopping place. We did the beach, walked round the Lily ponds from the old Stackpole Estate, walked to Barafundle bay, and along the coast to the west. It's an amazing coast . A playground for sea kayakers exploring the coves, and climbers taking on the challenges of the vertical cliffs. Weather was great so we stayed four nights.  lilly ponds Hidden bay to the West Barafundle bay 2) West Hook farm near Marloes and close to Skomer Island. lots of places with English and Scandinavian names rather than Welsh. ...

Our Domestic CR80 fridge had a cheap noisy computer fan. And the fan comes on every time the compressor Switched on, regardless of the air temperature. 1) Cut a 120mm hole behind the fridge and fitted a vent cover. 2) Bought a simple thermostat with the intention of running the fan only when the compressor was on and when the air was too hot. Once I had the fridge out, It was not at all clear whereto put it, or even how the radiator worked . 3) Replaced the fan with high quality salvaged fan. Not good. It rattled, sounded like a noisy computer and then packed up. 4) Bought a new quiet fan,  PQ277 Gelid Silent 12 cm , Fitted it behind the fridge, because there was not quite enough space between the fins. -... That seemed to work well. Not quite silent but hardly louder than the compressor itself. 5) then the fridge light failed . I tracked it down to a failed voltage regulator. Salvaged fan and original small fan. Original fan top right. Mains/12/24V corner ten (now ...

We are always nervous about gas leaks and gas smells, so I wanted to get it all correct and hare it tested. That involved.... Replacing the rubber hose to the oven., because all internal pipes should be copper . That meant taking to oven out and patting in a long s-shaped length of copper to the manifold. All the joints that I look apart looked messy from repeated tests with washing up liquid. They say it has salt in and is corrosive. So I bought so specialist leak detector fluid that is supposed to be non-corrosive. It is yellow and sticky though. Used more PTFE tape on the joint to the Paloma water healer, but it was not convincing . No leaks showing with the fluid though. "Gary'' came to help. He soldered an 8mm to 10mm reducer to make the joint simpler.    pressure lest paint. It passed the manometer test. I must make a manometer. The gas pressure is only 37mbar that is 1/30 th of an atmosphere. So it just needs a U-tube with one foot of water and a ruler. Pre...

Festival at the Edge 2015 17-19 July 2015 Our third year at this amazing story telling  Festival at the Edge. We camped in the festival grounds on the outskirts of Much Wenlock. The fields are high on top of the Limestone ''Edge"that gives the festival its name and gave us great views. I'd say this year was probably the best we have been too. Highlights were: Hugh Lupton with "Richard Howard's Violin" Kasper Sorensen the guest entertainer from Denmark who did three great sessions.          (Did you know that we bombed Copenhagen in1807 ?) Dominic Kelly "The Trickster" funny ... I wonder if I will be able to try out any of the tricks in his story? Most memorable of all was Debs Newbold. She told stories, but they were delivered like plays where she took on all characters. Not comic as that may sound, but genius. So much talent . The emotions brought tears to our eyes and won an irrepressible standing ovation.

The go anywhere motorhome got stuck ... just one mile down the road in Napton brickworks old quarry. 8pm on Friday evening I went down the road to empty the fresh water tank. Not quite dark so I decided to check out the diff locks by driving off road in the old brickworks quarry nearby. Most of the clay was rock hard so I drove into the reed bed. No problem. Then again ... and I'm stuck. All four wheels spinning. Well the name ''Brickyard Quarry" says it all. The clay had packed into all the tread. And a wet day slip had coated the wheels. I had a winch but no anchor point. I spent an hour with bricks and waffle boards before giving up. It was dark. But I nervously left it overnight and walked home. The next morning it was still there. The overnight rain only made it more hopeless. See pictures below. I needed help. Charlie from next door stopped what he was doing and came on long with his pickup. I clipped on my winch cable and -...drag...

Great festival like last year Karen enjoyed the music. I studied physics .... Zoe joined us and we went whitewater kayaking together on Sunday No photos... Top tip: learnt from last year -no point me paying for, music, just Karen.

Lots of jobs done on the tardis (and then a rather demanding time at work). Here's the progress report: kitchen cupboard walls and shelves Remaining walls repaired and recovered. sietz (now dometic) window fitted near the sink. The view is not important, but the integral blackout blind and fly screen is most welcome.  New flooring in "hall" using an off cut from work. Fridge fan replaced (twice) that's another blog. Fridge light fixed (the 10 V power regulator chip had failed . New kitchen storage space. Reading light. kitchen roll holder (how could we manage without?) Oven rubber hose changed to copper , plus leak testing - see gas blog holder for umbrella yet another solar panel. Now nominally 280 W Fantastic fan fitted -see picture below.. Straps on battery box replaced- well one broke Painted remaining walls and covered the other cupboard doors (Karen did them) Mobile MiFi might now be working.Huawei E5332 with small externel aerial.  New winds...

Shell Island again, We survived the storms and wind on Thursday and Friday night - much better weather on Saturday when David joined us. This really is an amazingly large beautiful campsite. I was very tempted to try driving up into the dunes, but resisted. Spot the new wheel cover