Leaving canvas behind

Hello! Me and the OH have had an old folding camper ...a Combi camper...for 4 years and have loved getting into camping and went to France, Germany and in the UK.We are secondary school teachers so have holidays and camped for approx 6 weeks last year but we found the canvas so restrictive, much as we loved it. We couldn't do weekends unless absolutely sure we could dry it out , and then the put up and down was a fair job. We used to chat on campsites to various people and admire their setups and have been round the houses on what to buy, from Trigano pop tops to van conversions and back again. We like to go canoeing and have a big Canadian canoe as well as bikes and this caused problems when we eventually started looking at bigger motorhomes but felt in the end it couldn't decide what we bought. 

Fast forward to lockdown and we inherited a bit of money so have bought a Malibu Carthago which should be registered to us very soon. We are really looking forward to getting away from Chelmsford on a Thursday evening when we both finish,  driving for an hour or so to get away from home then another little drive to get to the sea or elsewhere on Friday. At least that is our plan.

I've subsequently been a bit spooked by stories of vans bring stolen and wonder if we need more than the Thatcham tracker? But I am mainly looking forward to seeing more of the UK and also travelling through Europe again when that is possible. 

We fancy rallying as well as we are fairly social types ...we joined North Essex though tbh Chelmsford is probably somewhere in the middle so not sure how that works. We shall see!

I am glad there is a site for advice and chat from more experienced motorhomers and caravanners. Any advice on places nearish to us welcome. We want to get down to Folkestone a fair bit, and Rye, which we know but are looking forward to exploring Suffolk more too.

Plenty for an intro...thanks for reading!

Amanda