The Travels of Tel's Tin Tent.

CHOOL!!! Terry. No bugs in the UK?

Thanks chaps.

Sorry to say Karl, but your case of Staropramen is rather depleted........ er ...... empty !!

Yes Mike, plenty of bugs, although so far, I only have three mossie bites - little bar stewards seem to love me !!

I was wondering why you had everything open like that with the lights on. Does that door have any screening? Next thought is citronella candles. When we go out one of the first things I put out are large citronella candles in buckets on either side of the entrance door (post #193 blue bucket). All the windows also are screened so for the most part the interior is bug free. I'll also put them around the picnic table

Airframes said:

Thanks chaps.

Sorry to say Karl, but your case of Staropramen is rather depleted........ er ...... empty !!

Click to expand...

No sense in letting them get past their use by date

Very true, Red Two !

Mike, the opening side windows have screens, and if the interior lights are on, then the sliding side door is normally closed, so not normally a problem with bugs inside. As the temperature here is fairly low (max this week has been around 22C, average 18C, night 13 - 10C ), there aren't too many flying biting things - it's the cr@p from wood pigeons that needs to be dodged !!

Decided to make the trip to Leiston on Saturday, rather than Friday, as some rain is forecast for Friday afternoon, but better weather over the weekend. Should be going to Framlingham (Parham) airfield on Sunday, and maybe Framlingham castle.

Excellent mood-setting pics.

Good stuff Terry!

Thanks, Andy and Hugh.
Chilling today, and trying to see the military aerial activity around here, mainly screened by the trees - Ospreys, Chinooks and Hercs are flying around, probably an exercise on STANTA (Stanford Training Area) just a few miles to the west.

A few abstract images from my pitch on the campsite - moving into Suffolk tomorrow, and the campsite located on the former Tech site of Lesiton airfield.

Good thing you took the last one before the bottle was a little lighter. Would that be a Chateau de Macclesfield 2017?

Very nice Terry, a beautiful area to say the very least. How about water and electricity and sewage? Around here 90% of campsites have at least water and a 30A electrical hook-up. An "Improved Site" would have a sewage hook up and 50A service. It's illegal here to dump any type of "used' water on the ground so the "Beast" has two drainage tanks: Black Water (from the toilet) and Grey Water (from the sinks/shower). Internal 100 gal fresh water tank and 60 gal Grey and 50 gal Black. Every campground has a "Dump Station" coming and going where you can empty these tanks before setting up camp or on your way out and fill your fresh water tank with potable water. Primitive sites have nothing often not even a pad/gravel area to park on. In general these are for tent campers.
Temps around here are still +35C - 40C so the roof air conditioners are needed 24 hours a day.

No Andy, it's a Nuit St.Woggwogga - not a wine for drinking, but for laying down .......... and avoiding !! (with acknowledgement to Monty Python.)

Yes Mike, got full facilities. Electric hook-up, with water tap on the pitch. I have a cassette toilet ( for emergency only !), and a grey water tank for the shower and kitchen sink, and the disposal points are just a few yards away, as are the shower / toilet blocks, and the washing facilities for pots/pans/plates etc.
Only slight draw back is the Internet/ mobile 'phone connection, being surrounded by tall trees, and parked directly under a very tall, large conifer - 'net connection is slow and intermittent, and the signal can be lost if I move the lap-top or 'phone a foot or two.
But it's all worth it, especially for the peace and quiet and fresh air, and the virtual silence at night.

And the DARK. Every once in a while some cretin from the city will hang one of those Coleman mantle lanterns that put out 1000 Watts of blue-white irritating light suitable for lighting an entire hectare with enough light to read by.
Then there are the "Camping Requires a Bonfire" people. It could be 29C at night but they have a blazing fire going. We had one clown with an air conditioned motor home who would come out every hour or so to thrown another log on the fire and then go back inside. A few years back we were in a large state campground. We went out to dinner and came back late, perhaps 10PM to find 350 individual campfires going strong and so much smoke in the campground that you could not even see the roadway, was like a heavy fog. Took us 20 minutes of driving around to find where we'd parked.
One of my few vet benefits is free camping at military bases and my "Golden Age Passport" gives me 50% off National Park and State Campgrounds. Many private camps will give a discount as well. Then there's free camping/parking at Walmarts. They have signs that say "No Overnight Parking" but no one ever enforces it so we'll park there overnight in a pinch.

Ah, the wine that opens the sluices at both ends.

That's the one Bruce !

About to set off to deepest Suffolk, and the campsite on the former Lesiton airfield, where I'll base myself until Tuesday.
Some final pics from the campsite at Scole, although it's likely I'll return to this site on Tuesday, chasing the sun, before heading home, after staying at Mildenhall on Thursday and Friday, and probably visiting Lakenheath too.

Pics :- Moonrise last night, a sudden rain shower this morning, and my daily visitor.
Again, these were taken with the little Fuji compact, so not great quality.

More up-dates when I'm established at Leiston.

Thanks my friend.

After departing from the campsite at Scole, I had a leisurely drive along some narrow country lanes, some single track, through countryside that probably hasn't changed much in at least 200 years. I missed two turnings, due to them being hidden behind high hedges - rather like the Normandy 'Bocage' - but quickly got back on track.
Driving these lanes during WW2, and for our American cousins, on the 'wrong' side of the road (or the center !), especially at night, must have been an experience, and it's no wonder military vehicles sometimes got lost just travelling a few miles between airfields - and that's without taking into account the lack of signposts during the war !
I stopped off, briefly, along the way, to grab a couple of photos of some of the scenery and villages, and arrived at the campsite on the former tech site of Leiston airfield, once the home of the Mustangs of the 358th Fighter Group, 8th USAAF, at around 15.15 hours.
From what I've seen of the site and facilities so far, it looks to be a very nice, tidy, well laid-out touring park, and the hard-surface pitches are mostly laid where the dispersal hard-standings once were, with the perimeter track and some of the actual hard-standings still visible, including the hard-stand once occupied by Bud Anderson's 'Old Crow'.
And oh dear - there's a bar !
This is "The Yoxford Boys" bar, after the nickname given to the 358th, with the village of Yoxford being just a couple of miles away from the edge of the former airfield. It's only open on weekends at this time of year, so I suppose I'll have to check it out - although in moderation, as I have to drive tomorrow, to visit the airfield and museum at Framlingham (Parham) !
There's also a small museum here on the site, and I hope to cover this, and the airfield itself, in the main 'report' when I get back home.
Meanwhile, here are a few 'happy snaps' taken during today's journey, and I'll post another up-date probably tomorrow.

Pic 1. The windmill at Billingford, just south of Thorpe Abbotts airfield.
PICS 2 - 5. The village of Laxfield.
Pics 6 - 8. Part of Yoxford village.
Pic 9. My pitch at Leiston airfield campsite.

All these were with the little Fuji compact which, as I've mentioned, I find a bit difficult to use, due its small size and fairly 'stiff' shutter button.