taraabit

Thursday 23rd February 2023.

We have stayed here tonight as a stopover on our way to Lancashire.

The site backs onto Delamere Forest which covers 2,400 acres and has walking and cycling tracks, orienteering course and there’s a Go Ape outdoor centre.

We didn’t use the campsites facilities but we had a quick look and they looked more than adequate, there is a railway station opposite the site. In the area you can visit Chester, Chester Zoo and the Anderton Boat Lift.

Feb 1 st 2023

Well exactly as planned I awoke this morning 75 years old after spending the night in the new motorhome with Michelle and Layla what could be better😊 Text birthday messages began arriving from 8 am so we didn’t have a lie in.

Late morning my sister Joan and her husband Brian arrived and we walked into Moreton to have lunch at The Bear which is a dog friendly pub. We had a very pleasant meal and would definitely return.

Michelle bought me a new camera for my birthday it is smaller than my current one, pocket sized. It is supposed to be indestructible, it can be dropped in mud and buried in sand and just needs a rinse off, it will take photos underwater to a depth of 15m. I’m not much into swimming but it will be useful if I fall in the canal/ river or lake😂 I’m looking forward to the opportunity to using it on our travels.

This short trip is again designed to give us some experience on travelling in the new Homer. We have already moved a few items into different cupboards and drawers, drawn up a short list of a few extras and begun routines that enable friction free living together in a small environment. There are still a few controls ( everything is computerised) that we can’t get our heads around but U Tube is helping👍 all good fun. Here’s to the next trip.

Tuesday 31st January 2023

On the way here today we stopped off for lunch at Broadway, it seemed appropriate as our new Autosleeper Broadway was constructed a few miles from Broadway.

After lunch we meandered around the shops that were open I managed to buy two pairs of cords at a greatly reduced price from Edinburgh Nylon Mill.

We are staying at Moreton in Marsh Camping and Motorhome site, as expected a pleasant well laid out organised site. We were last here 5 years ago almost to the day, we had only had Layla a few weeks and in the morning it was obvious she needed to go out. She was only tiny and the step was high off the ground, unfortunately over night we had had a heavy frost, I was carrying Layla and I slipped off the icy step, fell heavily and broke my wrist. The staff took me to the local cottage hospital where my arm was put in plaster. Hopefully this visit will be quieter.

One of the benefits of upgrading the motorhome is we have more facilities so tonight I was able to use our new cooker to cook our evening meal.

We also have the opportunity to use the cab seats as armchairs which makes a pleasant change.

Tuesday 17th to Thursday 19th January 2023

We have just returned from two nights on the above site just outside Taunton. It is a site of high standard with well laid out pitches and excellent facilities, the wardens were very friendly and helpful.

The purpose of our visit was to have an Alarm and Immobiliser fitted by a company called Van Bitz which are based on and own the camp site. Their security fittings are highly rated and constantly get good reviews, they are not cheap but they appear to fit top range equipment.

We arrived Tuesday afternoon as they needed the van in their workshop for a full day. After driving 50m to their workshop on Wednesday morning and handing over the keys we used their excellent directions to walk the two miles into Taunton, the route is mainly on footpath/ cycle track with a few short stretches of urban avenues and leads you into Vivary Park and emerging from there into the pedestrianised shopping street.

Sadly en route it began to rain heavily, then sleet and snow showers joined in and the temperature dropped rapidly so by the time we arrived we were soaked. Thankfully within metres of exiting the park we found a warm comfortable Portuguese cafe where we spent some time with an excellent coffee. We then spent a few hours wandering in and out of as many warm shops we could find ( not spending any money) until at lunchtime we had a good meal in the the dog friendly pub Ring of Bells. Thankfully the walk back was dry and uneventful.

The controls for the immobiliser work from your iphone and once we had set up the app we were given instructions on its use, however by the time they had finished all the other work it was very dark and cold so we agreed to return this morning for a demonstration on setting the alarm and to pay the bill.

This has been our first trip away in Homer 2 and it was a learning curve for us on how to operate all the different systems, but thankfully we had a comfortable trip away and it an easy drive.

January 14th 2023

Following the sale of our French house in November there followed much soul searching as we decided where our future would lead us. We knew we would be freer to travel more in the motorhome so we decided it was time to upgrade.

So today we collected our latest vehicle an Auto-sleeper Broadway with an end bathroom purchased from Moran Motorhomes in Ludlow. For the past 6 years we have driven the old Hymer which although it has done us proud, to say the least wasn’t up to date in many areas. So now we have a motorhome which apart from the driving and emptying the toilet😂😂 everything can be operated from an app on the mobile phone😵‍💫😵‍💫 the stack of manuals could be used as a foot stool, it will take me some time to get my head around how everything works.

One of our friends Caroline refers to us as the Travelling Green’s, so to reflect this we have a new logo to decorate the rear.

We will be taking a few short breaks in the near future to get used to everything and we have already booked the ferry for April👍🚍🛳

Friday 30th December 22 – Tuesday 3rd January 2023.

We are enjoying a four night break in Homer on the outskirts of York in the company of Peter and Alison.

The site is approx a kilometre from Monks Cross retail Park where there is a Park and Ride service into the centre of York, which cost us£3.50 return for Michelle and £1.20 for me.😊

We took advantage of the service when we travelled into York and wandered its many narrow streets including the famous Shambles.

Of course a visit to York wouldn’t be complete without looking at the famous minster, you have to pay to go in and unfortunately Layla isn’t allowed in so we had to make do with the exterior view.

Of course it’s a very tiring experience walking around a city and the need for nourishment soon raised its head so we had a very good meal in a hotel restaurant The Judges Lodgings, the cutlery even came wrapped in a linen napkin.

One of the interesting things you can’t help to note as you walk around is the range of street names.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with a range of food and drinks in Peter and Alison’s motor home making it the fourth time we have managed to do so over the time we have been motor homing together, we should have stayed here two years ago but the Covid lockdown meant we had to cancel. January 1st was a quiet ish day but we did visit the adjacent retail park at Monks Cross where some of the stores were open. On Jan 2nd we returned to York and whilst Peter and Alison visited the “historical “ parts Michelle and I walked the narrow streets and partook in some retail therapy.

We purchased Homer in March 2017 and opened a new chapter in our lives, we have travelled many miles since then and have covered a fair bit of the UK plus nine European countries some several times. At the end of November when we sold our French house we decided as we wouldn’t be spending 10 weeks a year there we would in the future “up” the number of trips we did in the motor home. As Homer is 23 years old we decided to upgrade to a newer motor home that would provide us with a little more comfort and a more modern driving cab, we take delivery of that on January 14 th 2023 so this will probably be the last blog from Homer.

Monday 28th November 2022

In July 1981 we purchased an old property in the Dordogne region of France, it was an old farmhouse or “fermette”. It had been empty for many years, the roof was caving in over the house, there was no mains water, just the well and the electricity fed 2 light bulbs and one socket. We purchased it with 1,000 sq metres of land.

Well I like a challenge and learning new skills so over the past 31 years I, Michelle, Matthew and other family members plus many friends have contributed to its development and modernisation.

A year or so after it’s purchase we acquired the adjacent field and a small wooded area making our total land to just over 10,000 sq metres. That bought a new dimension to our life there and over the years lead to me wearing out 3 sit on mowers until eventually I bought a proper tractor with a grass cutter.

View across the field to the house, all the trees were planted by ourselves.

The house started with one bedroom, a combined kitchen( joke) dining room and living space all theoretically heated by an open fire, there were a further 3 small interconnecting rooms to the rear of the house that had polished clay floors.

At the time of the sale it had grown to 4 bedrooms, two lounges, a large dining kitchen, two bathrooms and a utility room plus an open verandah on the end of the house which we used most of the year round, a workshop and a mower store. There were two wood burning stoves plus an open fire and electric heaters in most rooms. In all we had 10 rooms which Michelle took great delight in redecorating on a regular basis.

It’s a sad decision to take to sell after all this time but a combination of rising costs, both upkeep and travelling to and fro, Brexit restrictions on the time we can spend there and finally age is catching up with me and I find keeping up with the maintenance harder and harder. We are pleased that a young couple have bought the house and we are sure they will improve it further and enjoy living there.

After we left the notaires office having signed all the legal papers and began the journey home I did a quick calculation and worked out that if I averaged 3 visits a year( sometimes more) at 1,080 miles return journey for 31 years then we have travelled over 100,000 miles in that time.

So what now, well we believe it’s time to upgrade our current motorhome and and knock up a few more tens of thousand miles exploring amongst other places, FRANCE👍😊🍷🥂🌞

Fri 4th-Mon 7th November 2022

We decided to take a long weekend break and chose Cirencester as it was a new venue to both of us.

We made our way there with a drive through the Cotswolds stopping off in Broadway. We traditionally visit here once a year and enjoy a mooch about there chuckling at the price of items, we rarely buy anything as we can usually source it cheaper elsewhere. The Cotswolds is corduroy trousers, sports jacket/ Barbour jacket country so I made sure I was wearing my cords, sadly they were blue, not good enough I’m afraid.

We stayed at Cirencester Caravan and Motorhome Site, selected for a few reasons, firstly it was far enough away from residential areas so that Layla wouldn’t be overly bothered by fireworks going off all Saturday night. Secondly it’s not often we stay on such sites even though we are members, cost is a factor but we thought we would spoil ourselves, it turned out to be a good site, well maintained, we would visit again, sadly there was no wifi connection, hence having to write the blog after we returned. Thirdly it is on the edge of a huge area of parkland with a paved footpath lead directly into the centre of Cirencester a mile away.

Over the weekend the above mobile kitchen is on site serving breakfasts in the morning and meals for two hours every evening, even though it’s called mac and cheese, there wasn’t any. A menu in the info hut next to it showed quite a range of items for sale including burgers, however it wasn’t to be, all they were cooking was pies and fries. On Friday evening I treated Michelle to a pie and fries, sadly I’m not keen on meat pies and there wasn’t a vege option so I just ended up with fries, it’s a hard life.

It was an easy walk into Cirencester through the park part of the Bathurst Estate, it’s open from 9am to 5 pm every day and was a haven for dog walkers, Layla loved it and as usual on one of our walks found a brand new tennis ball amongst the leaves, she carried it for 3 miles, it was her treasure.

Cirencester is in Gloucestershire 80 miles west of London on the River Churn, it’s a Roman town and was known as Corinium and was second in size to London, however in 6th century the Saxons destroyed the town and only re-emerged in medieval times as a “ wool town” becoming very prosperous.

It’s a busy market town with markets being held in the town centre and market hall, we missed the weekly market but over the weekend there was a craft fair on Saturday and a vintage and collectibles market on Sunday.

There is another park behind the church known as Abbey Park, we visited this on Sunday there is very little to see with regards to it once being an Abbey but it was a pleasant walk nonetheless.

There are a large variety of shops, cafes and restaurants in Cirencester plenty to keep people occupied, we had a very pleasant lunch in the Bear and would recommend it for both the menu and excellent service.The weather could have been kinder but we knew rain was forecast and boy did it rain at times, we managed to end up damp a few times but it didn’t dampen our enjoyment and we ended up walking well over 4 miles on both Saturday and Sunday. We will return sooner rather than later.

Friday 30 September- Sunday 2nd October 2022

We left Lytham in sunshine and by the time we arrived in Skipton it was lashing down with rain and the wind was rocking Homer back and forth.

Peter and Alison had booked for us all on a Camping and Caravanning Club meet at Sandylands Leisure Centre home amongst others to Skipton Rugby foot ball Club.

Thankfully Saturday morning it was dry and sunny and we walked into Skipton along the canal for a day of retail therapy.

We were on the receiving end of a few sharp showers as we walked around but strangely there was always a convenient shop to shelter in. Unusually for me I managed to go all day with purchasing anything but the other three members of the party made up for that.

We had lunch in the Red Lion in the High Street a Greene King pub that was dog friendly. After our second visit to Skipton in three months I have to say we are becoming quite fond of the town, we plan to return next year and explore the area to the North.

The evening was spent with Alison and Peter where amongst other things we discussed future trips away.

Thursday 29th September 2022.

Lytham St Anne’s is a seaside town in the borough of Fylde in Lancashire south of Blackpool and is on the Ribble estuary. It has amongst other attractions a Victorian pier, historic windmill and a “Royal” golf course.

We are staying for the night next to an artificial lake known as Fairhaven Lake which is an important wildfowl habitat. It has a circular footpath around it and a pleasant cafe at the far end from us.

Approx 50 m from us is the coast line, it makes a change to see the sea close up instead of from the deck of a ferry.

After lunch we went for a 4 . 5 mile circular walk, taking in some of the walk next to the sea, a shopping area, urban area( selecting a property here and there we liked) and then back to Homer via the sand dunes.

About 50 m in front of our parking position is a replica Spitfire aeroplane on the top of a steel column.