taraabit

Tues 11th August 2020

Homers itchy wheels have brought us to Builth Wells, this is a place we have stayed before but on that occasion we stayed on a campsite on the edge of town, which sadly is now closed.

When we were here last time we noticed motorhomes parked in the long stay car park on the edge of the park next to the River Wye and that’s where we are tonight, free to stay from 6pm until 8 am.

It has been extremely hot today it was 28 degrees when we arrived, clear sky and no wind, we were quite uncomfortable and after a ramble around town we had to have a cooling beverage. We sat outside on our chairs for some time until at approx 6.15pm a thunder and lightning storm commenced which went on until 7.30pm accompanied by heavy rain. When it had finished everything felt much fresher and we took Layla for a long walk through the park alongside the river

When we arrived back at Homer there was an ice cream van parked in the car park so we treated ourselves to an ice-cream for our dessert.

Monday 27th July 2020

I’d love to write a glowing report of our visit to St Neots but unfortunately the weather has been pretty miserable on and off all day, heavy rain and strong winds. When I took Layla out for her early morning walk it was lashing down and didn’t ease off for some time.

When it stopped we took a walk to St Neots, unfortunately we had only gone about 400m when the rain started again, by the time we got to the town centre it was raining so heavily it made looking around too unpleasant so we headed back via a lovely riverside path through parkland back to Homer where we spent a few hours drying out, never mind we will have to come again.

We can’t fault the camp site we are on, staff are friendly and helpful, facilities are good and there’s plenty of good walking all round the site, I would certainly happily return again at some time in the future. Michelle has been greatly amused all day as people struggled to put up tents in the strong wind, it was quite evident that some people had never put up a tent before, makes us appreciate the motorhome lifestyle where within 10 minutes of arrival we can be sitting outside with a coffee.

We managed to sit out for an hour early evening until the rain reappear ed and drove us indoors

As I was sitting here writing this blog a wonderful rainbow appeared, I have taken a photo using my phone but the picture doesn’t do it justice.

Sunday 26th July 2020

After last night’s heavy rain, today started bright and sunny, we packed up quickly and were soon on the road.

We had decided to take a small diversion from our planned route and visit the city of Ely, last night we had carefully tracked down a suitable car park.When we first drove into the city we went straight past the car park, mainly because the name at the entrance was different from that on the map, we quickly backtracked, not easy in a city, and found a good spot, it was free for 3 hours and only about 200m from the cathedral.

We weren’t able to enter the cathedral but it was pretty spectacular from the outside and is one of the largest in the UK.

Very close to the cathedral is a house that once belonged to Oliver Cromwell and is now the Tourist Office.

After the sight seeing we walked around the pleasant town centre and came across a Food Street market where we were tempted by some goodies for lunch and tea. We returned to the van for lunch and then drove to St Neots where we are staying tonight on a camping and caravanning site. It didn’t take long to set up and we all decided to go for a walk to stretch the legs. The Great River Ouse borders the site and we walked along its banks until we reached a Weir, lock and bridge enabling us to cross the river. By some strange chance on the opposite bank was a pub and we felt duty bound to partake in a drink or two in its garden.

Sat 25th July 2020

We are staying on this campsite near Wisbech, it is 11 acres in size but only has 34 pitches, the site is divided up into little clearings where you can park in one’s, twos or even a group of four. Each pitch has a fire pit and they sell firewood for you to burn. There is a mini brewery on site and you can buy drinks during the evening, there are shelters provided against bad weather where you can sit in comfort. This evening we had ordered a curry meal from a mobile curry van, it was Sri Lankan cooking. We shared between us, onion bhajis, naan bread, Sri Lankan coconut dhal, chicken kothu rhoti, Sri Lankan cashew nut curry and Sri Lankan chicken curry all washed down with local beer, delicious😊

This morning we walked into Wisbech along the River Nene, you get the feel that it is a town going through a change, it’s a little down at heel, it has been a wealthy town, in the past a busy port brought prosperity and this is reflected by the buildings near the river. However now it seems to be populated by many eastern Europeans with their culture and shops, Im sure like many other towns in the UK this change will be assimilated and bring a new strength.

During the afternoon the weather changed and we had heavy rain showers which began again later in the evening, thankfully we had dry weather this morning on our 4 mile walk to and fro Wisbech.

Friday 24th July 2020

A beautifully sunny start to the day, marred only slightly by some petty official on site barking in a bad mannered way about me walking Layla on site, ah well. We walked a few hundred metres from site to Overton Station on the Nene Valley Railway, unfortunately the trains weren’t running but the station was very attractive.

We drove north from Peterborough to Spalding and parked up in Sainsbury’s car park. The town centre was nothing much to get excited about but the river area running around the town was very attractive.

On the opposite side of the river next to the church we discovered Ayscoughfee Hall a house built in the 1500’s as a family home which now houses the town museum. Unfortunately like many other things at the moment it wasn’t open but the gardens were and we spent a pleasant time there wandering around and sitting on a bench in the sunshine.

From Spalding we drove a short distance to Moulton, near Holbech, this hasn’t been on our original itinerary but I was keen to visit as it was the birth place of my ancestors on my father’s side, they lived and worked in Moulton, Holbech and Fosdyke.

Moulton also has the highest windmill in the UK and was used similar to Holland to help drain the surrounding flat land.

There was a wedding going on in the church whilst we were there so we couldn’t explore that or the grave yard, but some of the local building s were interesting.

From Moulton we drove to Wisbech where we are staying for the night at The Secret Garden Campsite, which thankfully has turned out to be a great place. We had pre ordered pizza for an evening meal from a van on site so no cooking necessary!

Thursday 23rd July 2020.

There have been in the past several blogs written from here as it has been for some time the venue for our annual family gathering, the Bash. Unfortunately we didn’t get together this year due to Covid, however we decided to use the site as a one night stop over as Peter and Alison hadn’t visited before.

After setting up and having lunch we went for a long walk around Nene Park which is a fantastic country park with cafes, lakes, wildlife, a miniature train, picnic areas, BBQ points, and acres of open space for family gatherings.

We had a BBQ meal this evening, chicken kebabs, salmon, baked potatoes, sweet corn, salad, cous cous etc eased down with a drop of red wine.

We took another long stroll this evening around another lake where the setting sun gave us wonderful views.

Wednesday 22nd July 2020.

The New Broom seems an appropriate title at the start of our first longish journey post Covid lock down.

We are using this pub/ campsite as a spot to meet up with motorhoming buddies Peter and Alison again being reasonably equidistant between our respective homes.

There are two areas that can be used for camping, plus dedicated parking bays behind the pub which we have chosen to use. We pre booked a table in the pub which had enough people in to give some atmosphere but the tables were well apart and organisation for movement around the pub buying drinks etc was sensible without being Draconian.

We enjoyed a good meal with large portions plus some delicious desserts, a couple of pints of HPA ale washed it all down, we should sleep well tonight.

Saturday 11/12th July 2020.

Well here we are our first day away from home territory since March, and a 30 minute walk away lay the Cheshire town of Nantwich, a small compact town full of old interesting architecture.

From the site we had to walk part way along a busy road but soon we were able to cross the road and enter a green area that contained Nantwich lake and the River Weaver. We took the path that followed the river and walked into the town, most of the shops were open and it was quite busy but people were taking social distancing quite seriously.

After wandering around for an hour or so and queuing to go in shops we decided to have lunch, again a strange experience after so long. We chose an outside table but had to hand sanatise before we sat down. We had an excellent toastie and coffee and it was really pleasant to do something normal again.

As is also the norm now we had to pay by card as no cash payments were accepted.

We began the walk back but paused by the lake for an excellent tub of ice cream each , altogether we walked approx 5 miles and enjoyed a sit down in the sunshine upon our return

Today we left the site by 10.00am and drove the short distance to Dagfields Antique Centre a place that is becoming a favourite of ours. After wandering around the various buildings and Michelle adding to her Poole pottery collection we had lunch in Homer and drove the short journey home.

I think it’s fair to say that we enjoyed being able to get back to doing something we take great pleasure in, only 10 days until we are off again😄

Friday 10th July 2020

Freedom to travel again!

We have for the first time since February joined up with Peter and Alison our motorhoming buddies. We are outside Nantwich which is approx equal distance between our homes staying on The Willows Touring site.

It’s a new site to us and we are quite impressed, well laid out,good facilities and very pleasant helpful owners. At long last the weather has improved and we are able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, after the evening meal we went for a walk and met a new neighbour.

The evening drew to a close with the traditional sharing of drinks and nibbles, it’s good to get back to normal, even if it is the new normal!

Tues 9th June 2020

We had no commitments for the day and the sun was shining, Homers wheels were itching to move so we decided to have a ride out, dipping the toe into normal motorhome life before Covid restraints are lifted and camp sites open.

First stop Sainsbury’s petrol station for diesel at £1.05 a litre and then we headed west into Shropshire via Bridgnorth. It took a while to get used to driving along and enjoying looking over hedges and fences and seeing those things out of bounds to a car driver. We had also forgotten the state of the roads as we thumped and crashed along, it was like driving in Belgium!

Just short of Ludlow we turned left and drove up Clee Hill to a car park on the left at the highest point the road reaches. From here you can see for miles and the view is well worth taking the time to enjoy.

We had the makings of a drink with us and a few biscuits but the fresh air and pleasure of being on the road made us hungry so a quick nip 800m back down the road to the chip shop solved that problem. We took a short walk after lunch sheep were as wandering around as usual blasé to people and cars, Layla dismissed them with a glance, obviously didn’t think they were worthy of her time. We drove approx 70 miles in all and we were out for 5 hours, it felt as though we were participating in normal life again, not a queue in sight!!!