Some of you would have seen my first post about our Apollo and Navara. We bought a 2nd hand Apollo and Mazda pick up about 3 weeks ago. The idea was to put the Apollo on the Navara we have, but after reading about the chassis problems and also not wanting to put loads of miles on the Navara we decided to stick with the old Mazda the Apollo it came with. The Apollo needs quite a bit of TLC, as there could of been a damp problem, but hopefully in the past. We have upgraded our leave springs from 4t to 6t on the Mazda.
Anyway.... We took this on a little trip on Monday 4th July (Apollo is called 'Space Snail' and it was his independents day)! We went from Cambridge to Gloucestershire and stayed for one night at a campsite called Appletrees ( no Apple Trees there though! ). This was about 150 miles and for the first 30 miles or so and I was so worried I do not think I went over 45mph, thinking will the straps hold the unit? Will the new suspension be enough? Is it top heavy? Silly little things, which I am sure a few of you have gone through on your first trip. By the end of the first days driving I was pretty cool with things and got up to a top speed of 55mph... Watch out Hamilton! That evening we cooked our meal in the space snail and watched a DVD and then off to bed. It was great, just like a little home from home

My Lady putting her walking boots on outside our Space Snail

Next day we went to Branscombe Airfield, the ones you guys meet up at a week before. Really nice place and chilled out. Andrew showed us his plane in the hanger. Getting to Branscombe was another thing...OMG, sat nav took us into the woods up really narrow and steep bendy roads with .5m drops of the edge. Then on coming traffic now and then...let's say I would of used the BLEEP machine a lot if I was on the BBC! Lesson learnt, do not trust sat navs and take a paper map.
After Branscome we went to Wilcot in Wiltshire. A lovely pub campsite called the Golden Swan. This was recommend by Mike, who we met up with Friday night and his lady Wendy. Really nice meeting them and great comparing demountables. Mikes was bigger than mine! Had a lovely meal at £8.50 each, very reasonable we thought. Mike has given us some helpful ideas.
On Saturday we drove back home to Cambridge.
We spotted this Ranger on the M5 near Bristol on our 2nd day. Going more than 55mph


All in all about a 390 mile trip, which cost about £90 in fuel.
Had a great experience, lovely meeting Mike & Wendy.
Hope I have not bored you all with this. I can get Zildjian to add photos if you like.
Thanks Tim & Simone
Ps... We are off to Kent this weekend in the Space Snail
