Autumn in the Dales and a brand new campervan

Jackie Pickles
Nov 8
7 min read

In this weeks blog - catch up with what we have been up to this Autumn in the Dales and catch a first glimpse of our brand new Sunlight Cliff Adventure 540 campervan.

We have been back from our French road trip for over 5 weeks now and it is hard to believe how busy we have been and how much we have packed into such a small window of time!

This time last year we were in Thailand enjoying the warm weather and beaches - something we have definitely missed as we seem to have had a couple of weeks of dark, wet and quite miserable weather in the Dales.

But we have had quite an exciting time here in the UK - so here are a few highlights of what we have been up to.

Our New Sunlight Campervan

After 7 months of anticipation, we finally picked up our brand new Sunlight Cliff Adventure 540 campervan last week. It was an exciting yet tiring day! The handover took a couple of hours because the controls are surprisingly more sophisticated compared to those in Nelson.

By the time we drove the van to the camping field next to Lowdhams, it was dark, so we quickly set up the bed and transferred some of our equipment from Nelson. For the rest of the evening, we relaxed, enjoyed a celebratory bottle of red wine, and sat grinning while stroking the seats!

We'll write a full blog about the new van after our first trip to Hawes later this week, but we're happy to say we absolutely love her.

The NEC Campervan and Motorhome Show

October marks the time for the NEC show, and this year was quite an unusual experience for us as we received press passes! Even better, this allowed us access to the press room for tea and coffee. The main advantage of the pass is the ability to enter the halls an hour before the public, which is a perfect opportunity to film the vans.

Having already ordered our van, which arrived in the country on the first day of the show, we were eager to explore the accessories hall—I had an extensive shopping list!

As always, the show was lively—it truly engages all the senses from the moment you enter the halls. The lights are bright, there's a constant buzz of noise and activity, and at times it feels like you're a fish swimming upstream against the current!

There were some fantastic new 2026 models for all budgets. We particularly loved the new Sunlight Vanlife 540 with its steps leading up to the pop top bedroom. We also checked out one of the £380k Morelo motorhomes—wow!

Richard was impressed with the Project Yonder vans and admired the young couple who started the company and manage all the building and marketing of the vans themselves.

We did a behind the scenes video of our couple of days at the show which we hope captures some of the highlights. Clink on the link below to view:

Award Winners

One of the reasons for visiting the show is that we had recently been invited to join the Caravan Writers Guild as a result of both our YouTube channel success and freelance writing for various magazines.

We had submitted one of our Outer Hebrides vlogs in a videography competition and were truly humbled when we were announced as the winners of the John Wickersham award at the annual CWG dinner.

It was a fab evening meeting like minded people - the hosts and Chair of the CWG - Kara and Julian from Here We Tow YouTube channel were lovely.

Isobaa Brand Ambassadors

All of Richard's dreams were realized over the summer when we received a delightful email from Isobaa Merino, inviting us to become official brand ambassadors after noticing that Richard almost exclusively wears Isobaa tops in our videos.

Naturally, we eagerly accepted the opportunity, particularly since they offered to send us some sample products. Who would have thought that at the age of 54, we could become social media influencers 😂

We do have a discount code ERW25 which will give you 25% off any full priced items using the link below. Isobaa also frequently have great offers on their website which we post on our instagram story when we see them pop up as we truly believe they are a great company with a fantastic product.

https://www.isobaa.com/?ref=ERW25

Selling of the Family Home

After 2 years of stress and hassle sorting out the subsidence issues at Richards family home we finally completed on the sale of the house at the end of October.

A huge relief on many fronts. We have spent 30 months travelling to Bingley monthly to check on the house for insurance purposes and it means Margaret is secure in her lovely care home for several more years before we need to worry about finances.

As with any house sale, the progress was slow and we had the constant worry that the buyer could pull out at any moment until the contracts were signed.

Clearing out the house and the garage for the final time was heartbreaking, with so many memories of happier times. Richards dad was a self employed carpenter for many years and used the garage as his workshop. There was nearly 60 years worth of wood, tools and saw dust to clear!

A hike Over to Malham

Whenever we have spotted a nice weather window amongst the rainy days we have tried to get out hiking and last Saturday was a stunner. With a cold, crisp, blue sky day forecast we decided to hike from Settle over to Malham for lunch and back again.

It is a 23km round trip with over 900m of elevation gain. I had forgotten that you needed to climb out the valley both ways! But it was a stunning, the views were incredible as we dropped down into Malhamdale and the Cove was alive with people exploring the limestone pavements. We love to see places busy with people out enjoying the great outdoors especially with the children.

We had £40 left in our cash is king budget so we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch out. We had a great meal and a pint at the Buck Inn which is under new management.

Wild and Wet Weather in the Dales

As I mentioned a couple of times already - autumn in the Dales has been pretty miserable at times. We have really noticed the dark night coming in - especially since the clocks changed. The wood burner has been on most nights which gives the cottage such a cosy glow.

We have had a couple of lovely evenings with our neighbours and have a busy few weeks with friends and family coming to visit us. Lets hope the cold crisp days return!

Christmas Baking

When we were working, half term week was always christmas cake baking and home made mince meat making time of year. I love the smell in the house when the spices and sherry mingle with the fruit and the first spark of the Christmas excitement is ignited.

The cakes are baked and look delicious, we have been a little slow in getting our selves sorted with the mince meat - it is on next weeks jobs list. Luckily I have one jar left from last year so am off to bake some pies to take away with us in the new van tonight when I have finished writing this blog.

A Visit to Vanshades

Most of you will have heard about the van break in while we were in France. Luckily, the window was pushed through but the glass wasn't broken, so Richard was able to fix that with the help of a YouTube video and 2 small dinner knives! Unfortunately, when they pushed the window into the van, it did smash the Vanshade housing which needed replacing.

We have had the Vanshades in for over 8 years and they are fantastic. When we contacted them to ask about a replacement they were so lovely and offered to sort it out for us if we popped down to their factory in Barnsley. We spend a really interesting morning there, with a bit of a tour of the factory while they worked their magic using our original blind in a new housing. They managed to colour match the carpet perfectly - you would never know there had been a problem!

A HUGE thanks to all of the team.

Highland Cows

One of my constant pleasures living in the Dales in the herd of highland cows that saunter around the lanes on the moors just above Malham. They are incredibly docile and like to show everyone in the area just who truly owns the roads up there! We were diverted via Malham on one of journeys home when we met the cow road block. All very cute and curious.

Family Fun Gin Making Session

Another huge thank you - this time to my sister who came up trumps with Christmas presents last year and bought all of our family a gin making and tasting experience at 3 Wrens gin in Nantwich. We had such a fun day together on a very wet Saturday afternoon and lots of gin was drunk!

As part of the session, you get a cocktail on arrival, followed by a tray of 6 different gins with tasting and pairing notes for you to sample over the course of the afternoon while your gin is distilling.

We had fun choosing the botanicals - we went for seaweed and ginger which turned out to be a good combination.

Early Retirement Wanderlust Merchandise

In other exciting news - we have had some samples through for out T-shirts and hoodies that we have been trying out this weekend. They look fab - we owe a huge thank you to my neice Ellie who has designed all the logo's. Hopefully the tops will be online and for sale by next weekend.