Tommy and I thought it would be a good idea to spend a night or two away in Hans without electrical hookup, just to see how we'd get on. We'd managed it plenty times before, including 3 straight nights on Lewis wild camping, but we hadn't tried it before in the winter. After all, with the heating, water boiler and fridge running off gas, and our solar panels charging the leisure battery for the little bits of electricity that we'd need, how hard would it be? With the weather looking clear for the weekend, we booked two nights at Dunallan CL outside Drymen. We'd stayed twice before so we knew what to expect, even if the lady on the other end of the phone seemed a bit surprised to get a booking at this time of year! We headed up as soon as we could on Friday evening and managed to settle ourselves in before the darkness came in. Tommy took this picture and I posted it on our Facebook page, along with the caption 'Nice and toasty'. And we were! For now... Tommy then braved the dark to take these shots too. The temperature was really beginning to drop but it was a stunning night. It was all going so well, then around 9pm, the battery warning light began to flash ominously. With sudden clarity, we realised that you needed sun to make use of the solar panels and for the whole of November, it had been distinctly missing from the sky. And with it being night outside, there as no chance of it getting any better before morning. Even the short drive to the CL would have done little to top it up. And realising that the boiler needing a small amount of electricity to run the gas, it wasn't a good situation. We were running on flumes... We turned everything off except the boiler and sat in torchlight, wondering what to do. If the battery drained completely, we'd have no heating. It was minus 1 outside so that wasn't an option. The battery warning had stopped flashing so we cautiously turned the heating to its lowest setting. The light stayed off and we breathed a sigh of relief. If it could just stay that way till morning, when sunshine was forecast, we might just be ok. We packed the children off to bed with hot water bottles and settled down ourselves, hoping for a warm night. Just as we were falling asleep, the rain started. And the wind. Massive gusts that shook us around and howled through the nearby trees. What a night. It stopped around 2.30am. And so did the boiler. It was a cold night. Thankfully the sun woke me up at 8, and gave us just enough juice to bring the temperature inside from Baltic to parky. But it didn't last long. We walked into Drymen and took advantage of a lovely tea room called Skoosh, huddled close to their electric stove drinking coffee and eating hotdogs. While we were there, we decided to accept defeat and head home, rather than face another freezing night. The site was only £6 a night so we were hardly out of pocket. We enjoyed our time in Drymen too. We're now chilled out at home, slightly pink from hot showers and feeling a bit more human. It was a valiant attempt, but we learned plenty. Obviously electricity use is much higher in winter, we just hadn't realised just how much. We've plans now to change our halogen bulbs for LEDs, and to check just how efficient our old solar panels really are. But I think we'll leave the leccy-free winter camping to braver souls than us! Thankfully we've had more successful visits to Dunallen CL.
|
Categories
All
|