Month: May 2024

Tuesday 21st May 2024.

We had a quiet night on the car park shared with four other vans. We drove south from Newquay and stopped off at Tescos in Cardigan where we stocked up the fridge and filled up with fuel.

Our next stop was a garage in Fishguard where we attempted to top up the LP gas tank but the pump refused to work😵‍💫 the road from there took us into the ferry port. We had made a last minute booking for the Fishguard to Rosslare ferry a new experience for us, all seemed to go smoothly with very little officialdom until there was an announcement that due to technical difficulties we would be 90 minutes late boarding. The ferry left 50 minutes late but picked up time on the crossing and we were only 15 minutes late docking.There were no checks on arrival, someone asked us what nationality we were and when I replied” English” they just waved us on, annoying as we had gone to the trouble of making sure by visiting the Vets that Layla’s pet passport was all ok for entry to the Republic of Ireland.

Layla was desperate to get down to the beach but we wouldn’t have been able to prevent her going into the sea and as it was late evening we didn’t want her soaking wet in the van, a thrown pebble in the opposite direction distracted her.

Monday 20th May 2024.

Since the beginning of April Homer has stood still on our drive, cobwebs gathering on the wing mirrors and wheels. It’s not his fault he has had to wait for me to have almost 8 weeks of radio therapy for prostate cancer and for me to have a 3 week recovery period, not only did he have itchy tyres but I had itchy feet desperate to travel again.

The treatment plus ongoing medication haven’t left me in a strong place but determined not to give in we packed up Homer and hit the road. The furthest I’ve driven in the past 3 months in one go is approx 20 miles so todays drive of 126 miles was a challenge but I’m pleased to say it went smoothly, Homer is a joy to drive, comfortable and the engine and gear box cope with everything, a plus factor is the brakes work well unlike on the old Homer😊We are spending the night here on this large car park which could easily take 50 motorhomes and costs £8 for 24 hours.

It’s a steep walk down to the beach and Newquay harbour( even worse coming back up but I made it. We rewarded ourselves with an ice cream whilst Layla played on the beach. There isn’t a lot of commerce here but plenty of ice cream shops and places to eat.

In my teens and twenties I and other friends travelled here from the Midlands for weekends and longer holidays, we had a a large social circle of friends who either did the same journey or lived locally. It was in the times of no pubs being open on a Sunday so getting into a private club “Captains Table” on a Sunday was a must , we went so often I think in the end they thought we were members. The club was situated on the top floor of the building below.

We last visited here for the afternoon in September 2020 a post Covid lock down trip with motor home buddies Alison and Peter, unfortunately a few miles short of Newquay their engine battery stopped working and their motorhome had to spend a few hours in a local garage whilst a new one was sourced, thankfully it didn’t take too long and we travelled onto a campsite in Cenarth.

Well if this pub was good enough for the famous Welsh poet Dylan Thomas then it was good enough for us😊