Category: Uncategorized

Sat 2nd November 2019

After watching the Rugby final between England and South Africa with the somewhat inevitable ending of us losing we wrapped up for the walk into Leek.

And the sky did leak ! It began to drizzle a little at 9am but by the time we left Homer it was raining steadily, thankfully it was quite mild and unlike the South of England we didn’t have strong wind.

It was a mile walk downhill into Leek which is a pleasant town to visit, it is known as The Queen of The Staffordshire Moorlands and is a former textile town evidenced by the mill buildings that are still standing. It has a good range of small shops in the High Street and an indoor market in the Butter Market, outside this there were stalls selling antiques/bric-à-brac. The town is also well serviced with the well known supermarkets. We enjoyed for lunch a bowl of broccoli and cauliflower soup with baguette in on of the several cafes that are here.

A few days ago I discovered a small hole in both the heels of the walking trainers I have taken to wearing, this was annoying as although I bought them a year ago it was only on our recent trip to europe that I started wearing them. The outer layer of the sole had punctured and underneath it was cellular to give an air cushion effect as you walked. Well today that hollowness turned itself into a pump and as I walked in the rain it gradually drew the water up into my trainers making them useless, so I had to make a visit to the Clarke’s shop where I invested in a sturdy pair of shoes, unfortunately because of the state of my socks I couldn’t wear them straight away and had to walk back with wet feet.

Peter also had an expensive trip into Leek as Alison declared his coat was scruffy and he was dragged into Millets to purchase a new waterproof, he also splashed out on a warm flat cap, Alison restricted her spending to a bunch of bananas, I did treat Michelle to a pair of inner soles for her new boots.

Now as I sit here writing this blog after our evening meal and before we go to join Peter and Alison for drinks nibbles and a chat we are being entertained by fireworks being let off in the distance to celebrate bonfire night. Thankfully Layla ignores them completely.

Friday 1st November 2019.

We left Whitchurch at 10.30 am and drove a meandering route to to tonight’s stop over at Leek Edge Caravan Park. We were trying to get to Rudyard Lake after which Rudyard Kipling is named but failed as the narrow lanes didn’t seem suitable for Homer. We did make Rudyard village where we had lunch in Homer but after this we turned back and made for this weekends stop over at Leek.

Peter and Alison arrived later in the afternoon and after exchanging a few pleasantries we gave each some space until we joined them in their motorhome later in the evening and over drinks and nibbles caught up on news and events that had occurred since we last saw each other in Germany about 5 weeks ago.

A very pleasant evening.

Thursday 31st October 2019

We have been back from our long journey for just over 3 weeks now and it’s been a busy time. Both Homer and the family car have been MOTd and thankfully passed without any problems and we had the usual wait in for the engineer to service the gas central heating boiler. The Sky box has given up the ghost and with usual British levels of service it will take over 4 weeks before an engineer can come and install a new upgraded system

It hasn’t only been mechanical items being serviced, Michelle has been to been to the Nuffield hospital to see a specialist with regard to her “frozen shoulder” and now has an appointment for an operation on November 11 th. Following a visit to the opticians to obtain new glasses I was referred to the eye department of the local hospital over a problem in my left eye, which I’ve been told is nothing to be concerned about but just to make certain I have to see the senior Midlands consultant in Birmingham.

We had planned to spend most of November visiting our French house but as we now don’t have a clear spell of time we have had to postpone that and now it looks like it will be January before we get there.

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in the garden of our youngest daughter Steph and her partner Will, we are going away for the weekend to meet up with motor home buddies Peter and Alison and took the opportunity to stop over here and catch up on news etc. We have had a very pleasant evening chatting about a great variety of matters including their forthcoming wedding in 2021, Michelle and I have happily volunteered for further duties prior to the wedding.

I have no wifi or 4g connection at the moment so this blog will be posted tomorrow.

Thursday 10th October 2019

Having been home for a few days now we are beginning to reflect on our recent trip.

We left home at the end of August and then spent 3 nights at the family gathering in Peterborough, the European trip started on the Monday 2nd September and we were travelling for 35 days, so in total we were away 38 days.

*On our trip we visited and stayed in 7 different countries, in order they were :

France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria,Liechtenstein and Switzerland, we then travelled back through France.

* We travelled out by the Euro Tunnel at a cost of £140 and returned by DFDS ferry from Dunkirk at a cost of £95.

* We stayed on 31 different sites, 10 nights were free, for the remaining nights it cost in total £395, a lot of that amount being created by staying on sites in Austria and Switzerland where nothing is cheap. There were some sites we could have stayed cheaper but elected to stay where we felt happy.

* We travelled a total distance of 2,800 miles bought 399 litres of diesel at a cost of £490, we averaged a whisper under 30mpg.

* We used gas for cooking and running the fridge when off grid and used 22 litres at a cost of £11.

* We used our Nationwide Credit Card for most purchases, supermarket food, shopping, other shop purchases, the odd meal out, cable car costs etc and this totalled £630.

It wasn’t our intention to attempt to do the trip by watching every euro we spent, I know there were times we could have saved on our costs and spending but even though we never described the trip as a holiday we did intend to enjoy ourselves.

After reflection there isn’t a country we wouldn’t revisit and see more of, we did enjoy our travels in Germany and they were very well set up for motor-homers with many stop off sites/ Stellplatz and we will certainly revisit as soon as possible.

Sunday 6th Oct 2019 – Day 35

Homer’s wheels are now at rest on our drive, just over 5 weeks since we left, and he will now have a rest, a good clean inside and out before his MOT due soon.

Last night it rained heavily virtually all night and as we were on a grass pitch with a slight upward slope I was concerned about getting off the grass. My fears weren’t in vain, we couldn’t move this morning, I got out the trusty ( never used before) grip mats, lined them up and hey presto job done we reached the tarmac. You carry some things for years just in case and sometimes it pays off.

We took a leisurely drive through the Cotswolds nice scenery poor roads and arrived home in time for lunch.

Sat 5th October 2019 – Day 34

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels at Oxford on the Camping and Caravanning Club Site, we were last here for New Year 2 years ago with good friends Alison and Peter.

It was a short trip this morning to the ferry terminal at Dunkirk, security was pretty tight we had Homer searched twice with only a 50m gap between each search area, we don’t mind going along with the flow it’s better to be safe. The ferry crossing lasted two hours and the ferry was modern and pleasant to travel on as it wasn’t too busy. Layla stays in Homer on these short crossings and she is always pleased to see us upon our return.

The motorway journey from Dover was its usual nightmare with mile upon mile of 50mph restrictions and very little evidence of work going on, I hate every minute of it and derive no pleasure at all.

The site here at Oxford was chosen only because trying to get on other sites enroute from Dover became a nightmare. I spent hours on the internet on Friday trying to find something suitable and book it, several sites would only take bookings for 2 nights or more, 2 sites wouldn’t let me book by email less than three days before and others were full. It’s such a huge difference to travelling in Europe where we never book, turn up on spec and as long as it’s not too late in the day have never failed to find somewhere to stay, and when it comes to price there’s no competition. Even on this site as members it cost £15 which is reasonable but we couldn’t have electric hookup as standard unless you booked for two nights.

As you can tell I’m glad to be back in the UK!

We did walk from the site to the local pub where we had a drink each and a meal, well I had a part of a meal as Layla was starving and eat most of mine, I’m a soft touch.

Friday 4th October 2019- Day 33

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels at Bergue on the same site we spent the first night in France almost five weeks ago.

This morning when we left the site we drove about 2 kilometres to the Ascenseur a Bateaux des Fontinettes which is a lift system designed to connect the Canal de Neufossé and the River Aa. It was designed by Edwin Clarke who designed the Anderton boat lift in the UK and could lift boats of 300 tonnes and avoided the need to use 5 locks. It went into disuse some time ago when a huge super lock was built to replace the 5, but it is currently being restored.

From there we drove to a nearby out of town shopping centre, we espied a Decathlon and went in to see if they had a new step for Homer, sadly they didn’t but I bought a new fleece. It doesn’t help me get in and out of Homer any easier but it should keep me warm as I take much longer than normal. We also went into the Hypermarket Auchan and stocked up on a few essentials to keep us going until we can get to an English supermarket next week.

Arriving in Bergue after 5 weeks seemed sad as it marks the end of this trip and we had to have a walk around the town and sit outside the same bar for a beer and kir which has become our custom.

Thursday 3rd October 2019 -Day 32

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in the small town of Arques next to St Omer after a long drive of 122 miles on A roads. We decided to spoil ourselves this evening and are staying on a 4 star camp site, we are blowing the budget at 17.5 euros for the night!

Today’s journey was quite sobering at times as we were travelling through the area where a lot of the first world war was fought and there were many military cemeteries for differing nationalities. As always these cemeteries are maintained by Commonwealth War Graves Commission and are kept immaculately.

I entertained Michelle this evening by finding on my ipad the tune and lyrics to the First World song ” Mademoiselle from Armentieres.” quite amusing.

During our afternoon walk, in keeping with our philosophy of spending a little in the local economy, Michelle called in at a boulangerie and purchased two rather nice cakes and a loaf of bread to have with our evening meal, the crust was so hard that we ended up eating the centre out of it.

As we have driven slowly north and closer to the UK it has got cooler and cooler, so yesterday and today I have had to wear jeans after spending the rest of the journey in shorts, the warm jackets have also been found from the wardrobe, as it is positively chilly on the evening walks.

Wednesday 2nd October 2019 – Day 31

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels below the town of Couch Le Chateau, at the last census home to 995 people.

We started the day with a visit to the vets( driving there this time) and Layla put up with the usual trials and tribulations of being prodded and poked and then force fed a large tablet, we left with my pocket being 39 euros lighter.

After lunch we went for a walk into the town, it was a long steep one mile uphill drag to get there and although we found the ruined walls and gateway entrances interesting there was very little else, no shop, one bar and two restaurants all firmly closed.

Later this evening we went for a long walk along a country lane to a pair of lakes or etangs as they are known, we saw wild deer grazing and we enjoyed the walk on the level, the air was cool and there’s definitely an autumnal feel now.

When I took Layla out for her late night walk at 10.30pm the temperature had dropped to 5 degrees, this morning the grass was covered in frost which Layla delights in rolling in.

Tuesday 1st October 2019 – Day 30

Tonight Homer is resting his wheels in Chateau Thierry next to the River Marne, to the east of Paris.

We decided to come here because we needed a largish town where we could find a vets and get Layla’s Pet Passport completed. I’d looked up an address and so this afternoon we set off to find it and make an appointment, Google said it was 1.8 miles away. So off we set walking alongside the river an attractive walk and the sun came out to make it even more pleasant, however we didn’t find the vets it wasn’t where the internet said it was. Out came the phone and Google maps and eventually we found the vets in its new location and booked Layla in for tomorrow morning. We were so shattered by then we had to stop for some essential refreshments.

By the time we got back to Homer we had walked 4.5 miles and were glad to take the weight off our feet. We were having lasagne for tea and as next to our camping aire there is a 24 hour McDonalds, we bought 2 large portions of fries to go with it, they cost 3 euros a portion, I’m not sure if that s expensive but I cook most evening meals for less than 6 euros.

As we finished eating we were treated to a 30 minute thunder storm with some heavy rain thankfully it’s dried up now so we will be able to take Layla out for her evening walk, the walks obviously do her good as she sleeps solid for at least 9 hours every night.