Last day (for us) & Handover of Brunnehilda to Thom & Rach - 9th Dec ‘19

A strange day today - were going home without Brunnehilda!

A lovely winter’s day again today ... rather cold but lots of busts of blue sky and sun with no horrible rain around to dampen spirits.

Kim tidied the van up and I emptied and filled stuff ready for the baton to be handed over ...
Thom and Rach arrived at about 12.15.  We gave them a quick tour round of Brunnehilda and set off to show them the walk over the Great Park to town.

It was a lovely afternoon and the dogs thoroughly enjoyed their run in the mud!

A brief lentil and rice lunch on the Market - courtesy of the same folks that came to the campsite on Friday - Cotswold Made. We left T&R at Waitrose as we hit the Fosse Way at about 1.45 - leaving us 1 3/4 hrs to get to West Haddon and pick up the Twinnies.

It was a good run, making it with 2 mins to spare. With no Brunnehilda in tow we could afford for the right foot to go down!

It feels odd leaving Brunnehilda in someone else’s hands - no matter how capable!
We go back down the Fosse on Thursday morning to help pack her up and get her back to Whilton.

Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site
Pros:
1) Superb position - gorgeous 30 minute walk thru Park to town
2) Due to lack of winter foliage, we did get ourselves a nice view across the Park
3) Friendly enough staff
4) Spotless toilets and showers
5) Smashing visiting takeaway food van on Friday night
6) Good 4G
Cons:
1) Extended and inconvenient toilet shut times - 10.30 to 12
2) Wet and muddy
3) Friendly determination to have you park “their way”
4) Chemical toilet disposal a real trek away
5) Felt cramped when full but a bit desolate when empty

Laura, George and boys join us at Cirencester & Bourton- 8th Dec ‘19

Not a great day weather wise! Lots of wind and rain overnight and plenty of showers during the day. The upshot bring the site (and everywhere!) is very wet and muddy!

The normal leisurely (aka lazy!) morning getting ready for the arrival of the MacArthurs at about 1.30. They arrived in one of those shower storms so they piled into Brunnehilda and ate buckets full of crisps as we waited for the rain to stop.

When it had, we walked across the Great Park to Ciro. There were plenty of other dogs for Lottie to play with / annoy. Although 5 months old and getting quite big, she is showing no real signs of slowing down! She is great fun and still gets a lot of “puppy” attention from fellow doggers!

We walked around the town with “spending stops” at the sweet shop and the book shop. So the boys were stocked up for the walk home back across the Park. Of course the rain can back at this stage so it made it quite a trek at the end.

We jumped in the cars at the campsite and went straight off to Bouton on the Water. As we were so close it made sense to have our annual pilgrimage see see the “tree on the water”.

Before we walked round the atmospherically Christmas lit village, we had something to eat at De La Hayes restaurant. The food was good and the staff superb - including giving the boys a present from Santa each. As usual with the MacArthur boys, you can’t get through a meal without at least one incident ... Charlie and Finn managed to pour a complete glass of coke other themselves just as we were finishing.

After the walk round, the MacArthurs got off home and Kim and I sat by the tree and finished our coffees. Then the 30 minute drive back to the warmth of Brunnehilda.

Kim thinks we’re bouncing again so I need to check the stats again in the morning. No chance of doing that tonight as the rain has really set in.

Lots of Modern Family and another episode of Ken Burns history of country music - Kim has tired of Sneaky Pete - before bed. Oh, and we also managed a game of Canasta - a reassuring thrashing to make up for the inhalation of me last time we played. The earth is thankfully now back on its axis!

Bella goes up & an afternoon out in Cirencester - 7th Dec ‘19

The first few hours of this morning were fantastically warm and sunny but then from mid morning it clouded over and make a rather mild grey day.

After a nourishing omelette, we started our list of chores. Firstly I sorted out the water and then the slightly unstable Brunnehilda - in the dark last night I hadn’t put a couple of the corner stays down properly. If I’m honest I was putting her up slightly stressed / mad which is never a good state of mind for following a process!

At 11am we started the Bella erection! She didn’t seem to go up as easily as her inaugural outing in Harrogate - don’t know why though? Anyway, Kim stepped up and re-watched the You-tube instruction video which helped.

Before .....

As before, the most challenging bit was putting those damn pegs in the hard standing. I’ve invested in a new mallet but I think I need some more expensive pegs? After Bella was up Kim put some Xmas lights on her and I went for a shower and change of clothes.

... After

Bella took about 2 hours, which was longer than a typical “big sister” Isabella erection. But clearly size isn’t always an indication of time taken!

After a cup of tea we headed into town over the Great Park and down the beautiful Cecily Hill, by the biggest yew hedge in the World (honestly it is, we Googled it!) and into the Town Centre.

We spent a very pleasant hour or so strolling around the Christmas lights, the wee lanes and markets as well as finding a nice park just behind the church - don’t know how we’ve missed it before!

We even had time to run an important statistical survey during our walk from caravan site to TC - there were 6 spaniels and 6 collies!!

We had a cup of tea before calling into Waitrose to buy dinner. We then walked home back up the hill by the Kebab van and bought a portion of fries - thus rendering the tea purchased not a moment earlier from Waitrose null and void for tonight!

Noticed something today about the campsite - nearly all the caravans and camper vans are very new. There are no old rigs at all! Kim thinks it may be that it’s only rich old fogeys can afford to holiday this time of year but I think it’s a weather thing ... you really wouldn’t want to be in an old van in the winter?! Also, the campsite is pretty much full!

More TV / Amazon Prime, a bowl of cereal for supper and then off to bed! The wind is getting up again but Bella seems quite happy.

From Padstow to Cirencester - 6th Dec ‘19

A very wet moving day!

And a story of a record quick pack up and a record slow set up!

We were up and at it after a quick breakfast and had Brunnehilda all ready to go I’m about 45 mins!
We rolled off the pitch at 10.45, leaving the site promising ourselves this was definitely a site to return to - see pros and cons below.

It was about a 4 hour journey to Ciro that we split up with an hours stop at a rather grotty McDonalds Services at Cullompton. We avoided the McDs and Costa and went for a bakery - probably should have stuck with one of the big boys?!

At the grotty services - but at least we got a space!

Moments before Kim gave up and admitted she hated this vegetarian pasty!

We arrived at the site at a perfect time - with about 30 mins of daylight left to break the back of the set up! Well that didn’t work! This is one of these sites that has very definite ideas of how you park your van - just like Hitler had very definite ideas about the master race!

We found a spot, motor moved Brunnehilda in front ways to avoid any bad feelings about nasty foreigners taking up all our best places. I got her all levelled and set up in good time and Kim went to tell them on reception which pitch we had picked. She came back with the extremely helpful info that if we were in that particular pitch we had to have the van right up against one side - funnily enough, not where I had put her! So, now in the dark I had to move her and attempt to get her level again - not possible this time as we are now on quite a steep left to right drop.

The end result was twice as long taken to pitch, we’re on a definite slope and a reinforcement of my hatred of bloody rules and petty regulations!

The evening got significantly better when we bought dinner from a stall that had set up on site - Cotswold Made - a Persian style fusion (or so they said!). The food was spot on and the folks were smashing. They only took cash and we only had a tenner, so like kids in a sweet shop they gave us a tenners worth - and to their huge credit, a bit more!

We finished the day with an unusual thing for us - live TV! Via the BBC I-player App. We also watched a couple of episodes of an Amazon series called Sneaky Pete which was rather good.

Bella goes up tomorrow - assuming there are no more rules to follow on that?! If there is I might just explode!

Padstow Touring Park:
Pros:
1) The best ever toilets / showers - like a 5 star hotel!
2) Perfect 30 minute walk into town - we just weren’t fit enough to do it!
3) Super friendly reception staff - even asking me to park front ways in was done nicely!
4) Good 4 G reception
5) Fantastic shop
6) Reg number recognition security gates so no need for codes / cards - see cons
7) Perfectly kept - given the wet weather everywhere looked pristine
8) Toilets didn’t shut for cleaning - the only UK one not to!
Cons:
1) One time the reg number recognition security gate didn’t work!
2) A bit of road noise but not too bad
3) No great view from our particular pitch - there were better ones but we didn’t get to choose!

I think this is a hard one to beat for best UK site to date - especially if we’d managed to pick our own pitch with a view!

The Sharps Experience and Padstow Winter Festival - 5th Dec ‘19

The first day we’ve both been feeling anywhere near par in this trip - so the best day so far! That said, tonight the weather broke with lots of wind and not insignificant amounts of rain.

Although we felt better we didn’t feel up to the walk into Padstow so, after a good Brunnehilda breakfast we headed into town and parked in the top car park to walk down the hill in time for the noon opening of the Festival.

When we were over in Rock yesterday, a very nice lady serving us in the Beach House coffee shop told us about a special secret - she said it’s not publicised but go to the Sharps Rock Brewery tent and ask to go on the Sharps Experience. She said they don’t like people to talk about what goes on but it’s great fun and memorable - even if you don’t like beer.

We arrived at 11.50, mentioned the Sharps Experience and were booked on as the last 2 places of 6. Turns out the only do about 5 a day so can only accommodate 30. And the cafe lady was correct- it was amazing! It involved the 6 of us squeezing into a very tight dark place with a host / barman. He served us 5 different beers with 5 different food items - all done by local chefs in the area. Doesn’t sound much but it was awesome- the host told us all about the beer and food and was like a very unpretentious tasting session. The weirdest thing was that for 40 mins we had this exclusive session where we were sitting only 2 yards from thousands of people who literally knew nothing about what was going on!

After that the Festival seemed a bit of an anti-climax. Don’t get me wrong there was a wide variety of food, drink and other vendors (Kim bought a very very nice cotton throw) but it was ramming and a little samey ( but a lot smaller) than say the Portmeirion fair.

We popped out the other end at about 1.30 and decided we should go over the water and thank the coffee shop lady. Also one of the dishes we were served in the Sharps Experience were Mussels by local chef Paul Ainsworth and he has a pub in Rock called The Mariners - that sounded good for lunch. Oh, and one other reason, Kim saw a nice coat in the Quba sale which they didn't have in her size at Padstow - they had one in the Rock store!

So that’s what we did -  had a nice lunch at The Mariners (I had the mussels as we looked over the bay at where they were farmed), walked 20 mins up the hill to Quba, had a coffee from the Beach House and thanked the nice lady and caught the last ferry back to Padstow at 4.30.

When we got back the Festival was winding down so we just headed back to Brunnehilda. The walk back up the steps to the car park was quiet a challenge and a gentle reminder that 100% had not yet been re-reached!

After a bit of battery charging - phones and selves - we headed back for tea at Rick Steins fish and chip shop. Kim had the obvious and I went for the curry - a mistake, it wasn’t great. A visit to Tesco on the way home and back safely in Brunnehilda by 9 as the weather started to change and a really gale was brewing.

3 or 4 Modern Family episodes on Prime then off to bed! A good day. A Sharp Experience day. Not one that I’ll forget in a hurry!

Another quiet day around Padstow - 4th Dec ‘19

The day started with a trip to the local surgery for me to get my hands on some antibiotics! It was an hour wait but at least I got them and, guess what, as I’m over 60 there was no £9 charge! Result.

By the time we were out of the surgery it was time for lunch - and we’d missed breakfast! As we were in St Columb it was only a quick journey to the big M&S. So we lunched at their cafe. It really is the biggest most modern M&S I’ve ever seen and it’s right out in the middle of no where -weird?

Another gorgeous sunny day - the 3rd day in a row. After yesterday’s big journey we didn’t want to go too far so we just went back to Padstow.

We had a very pleasant walk around and then caught the ferry over to Rock. The tide was out meaning that we had to take a detour around the Doom Bar.

We grabbed a coffee and then walked along the beach to find a Rock rock to sit on! When the tide is out the beach is huge - perfect for dogs.

Kim noticed yesterday that there are a lot of Spaniels down here and as if to confirm her observation about 80% of the dogs we saw were some sort of Spaniel.

We caught the last but one ferry home (about 4). We walked through all the frenzied activity as all the vendors were getting ready for tomorrow’s Christmas Festival.

When we got back to Brunnehilda I had a go at levelling her up again to see if we can stop the water in the shower issue. Fingers crossed, it seems to be better!!

We both weren’t feeling too hungry so we just had cereal and headed for bed. We watched a couple of episodes of an Australian comedy series called Please Like Me - we didn’t!!

A day of bad decisions - 3rd Dec ‘19

I think today can be put down as just one of those days...

We had a bit of a lie in not getting off the site until 12.30pm.

I’m afraid this blog is going to read like a list of bad decisions - well that’s pretty much what it was!
It started off OK going into Padstow to get some drugs and a pasty! I found a spot just north of Padstow on the map to eat them... bad decision 1, their was a big sign up encouraging cars not to go there. So we decided to go to Watergate Bay ... bad decision 2, they had closed the road and if you know that part of the world, there are no quick diversions. So we swung around to Constantine Bay - today’s only good decision. We had a really nice walk on the beach - the weather was about perfect.

We decided then to head to the Seasalt Factory Shop at Falmouth ... bad decision 3, the 1 hour journey was definitely not worth it as the selection / price was no where near as good as when we went last time! We bought nothing. Undeterred we thought we might visit a beach to gather some pebbles for Kim’s Xmas cards. I was sure that Portscatho had some pebbles - most of the beaches around here are sandy. We decided to miss out busy Truro and go via King Harry ferry ... bad decision 4, we just missed one and had to wait 20 mins for the next!

When we eventually got to Portscatho it was quite dark but whatever the light there was certainly no pebbles to be found ... bad decision 5.

We headed home stopping at a big M&S to stock up for tea. When we got back to the campsite I opened the back door and the half dozen eggs we had purchased fell out - there are now only a quarter of a dozen ... bad decision 6. As if to finish us off, the automatic number plate recognition camera on the front gate didn’t work so we had to park outside the campsite!

It turned out we had done 100 miles on our travels today and that is 100 Cornish miles which is double normal miles!!

We watched the Spielberg film, The Post. Kim stayed awake so it clearly was better received than last nights movie! We finished the day as it had run all day - a load of brown coloured water in the shower tray! We think it is coming up from the shower outlet. It may be being caused by the pitch of the van? A job for the morning.

Let’s end a fairly pooey day with a gorgeous picture...

A recovery day in Wadebridge & Padstow - 2nd Dec ‘19

A strange day! We decided to take it easy today. The colds are taking it out of us with little energy and lots of coughing, groaning and wheezing!

After a bit of a lie in we abluted and headed off to Wadebridge. It’s a quant wee town about 6 miles from the site.

We found a really nice vegan cafe but were informed by the lady behind the counter that the chef was off sick so no hot food! Not a bad result though as we stumbled across an American Diner called Route 39. It was really nice and relatively inexpensive. The food intake gave us a bit more energy - well enough to have an enjoyable walk around the town.

Like all similar towns, it has lots of interesting small independent shops. I don’t know why all towns, of all sizes, don’t do that and leave the big national stores to slug it out at the huge out of town malls?

We called into Tesco’s on the way back to Brunnehilda to stock up, fuel up and buy a new toaster- for £11!!

I was then a complete wimp and cried off to bed for an hour. The power nap recharged my batteries. We headed into Padstow at about 4.45pm. It was inexplicably still light. Indeed it was a gorgeous light and air as we parked and wandered through the harbour. The Christmas lights were up and it looked very atmospheric.

It was incredibly quiet - we’ve been to Padstow so many times but never like this. The impending hoards though were hinted at by the large amounts of workman activity as they worked furiously to get the temporary structures ready for the forthcoming Food Fair.

We ate at a pub called The Shipwrights - nothing special but certainly adequate. We arrived back at Brunnehilda at about 7. Time for a cup of tea and another movie in bed. This one was The Death of Stalin and judging by the gentle snoring sounds from about half way through I don’t think the current Mrs Pitts was a fan!

It is such a shame, we were both really looking forward to this week. The site is perfect, the weather is splendid .. if only we were feeling 100%. Never mind, as they say ... tomorrow’s another day!

Oh, we have a leak in the toilet. As you might expect Kim’s original diagnosis was poor aiming by yours truly. I think we have established now that is not the cause but we are no nearer finding out what is! My best guess is condensation.

The 266 miles trip from Whilton Marina to Padstow Touring Park - 1st Dec ‘19

A long journey today - find in 3 x 2 hour shifts with breaks at an M4 service station by Chippenham and a grotty little garage / car park/ toilet just outside Okehampton on the A30.

The long journey not helped by us both suffering - me with a cold, Kim with a chest infection. She’s in a lot of pain when she coughs so the journey was interspersed with some strange noises as she did everything to try and stop herself coughing!

We arrived at 4 and were all set up by 5.15. It was blimin cold setting up so we fired up the gas heating for some time to take the chill off.

The site looks really nice - 20 minute walk into Padstow, beautiful toilets / showers and, most importantly, good 4G!

Given the tiredness and our state of health, we weren’t too ambitious tonight! Beans on toast and an early night! Although we did find time to watch a film called The Report on CIA torture. It was pretty good and, like all fact based films, left you with a lot to think about! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Report_(2019_film)

Beans on toast was a challenge as the toaster won’t stay down, so Kim had to do it the manual way! Me thinks a trip to Tesco is needed tomorrow to spend £15 on a replacement - that’s the toaster not Kim!!

Long journey home from North Yorkshire to Whilton - 21st Nov ‘19

It really is true that you only miss something when you haven’t got it!!

We knew the lack of gas would mean no tea but no omelette and nighttime hot water bottle too!
We had the electric heating on low overnight so the gas fire wasn’t missed too much but no tea and omelette was hard to handle!!? Coffee made from hot tap water is just about drinkable but a far from pleasurable experience.

We were aiming for a noon leave time so leaving at 11.45 was a wee bonus. Kim gave Brunnehilda a good clean inside and I went through the usual pack up process - probably slower than normal as a luke warm cup of coffee and toast was far from rocket fuel!

We arrived back at Whilton at 4.30 - just in time for the 5pm closure, although judging by the gateman’s very deliberate look at his watch, a little too near the wire for him?!

I decided to go a different way home - mainly because I didn’t want to have to go through Bradford and the M1 from the M18 to home is incredibly boring. So we picked up the A1(M) south of Wetherby by cutting the corner through Ilkely and Otley. We then kept on the A1 all the way down to Newark and joined the A46 to Leicester. A bit longer in time but a much more pleasant journey.

We had a short stop at Blythe services to take onboard a veggie Greggs and a rather nice cup of coffee. We were overcharged by a couple of quid and the fact we didn’t get a receipt makes me suspicious it wasn’t a complete accident?! As always, the caravan lane was full (of non caravans!) so Brunnehilda moseyed up to the HGVs.

Brunnehilda was filthy by the time we got back to Whilton but I’m afraid she’ll have to stay that way until the next trip - next week to Cornwall ... can’t wait!

Wharfedale Caravan Club Site:

Pros:
1) Great position with lots of nice places to visit
2) Good facilities with super clean toilets and so many of them!
3) A rare non sizeist washroom mirror - equipped for all sizes
4) Super friendly book-in lady
5) Nice walks from the site
6) Very quiet and no light pollution
7) Considering in the middle of nowhere, easy to get to
Cons:
1) Not much vegetation between pitches - not good if busy
2) I suspect in the summer they may have been more officious with where we put our “foreign” awning?
3) No great view from the van

As you can see by the one sided list, I think this was one of our favourite UK sites so far?

Walking to Grassington & Linton Falls - 20th Nov ‘19

No frost this morning but still cold enough to require a blast of the gas heating to take the chill off before we switch to the less powerful electric heating.

Back to our normal “trip” morning routine. Which of course means a cheese and mushroom omelette with a side of English Muffins to get the day started!

A bit of a lie in - well why get up when it’s cold outside? - so we didn’t leave the site until 11.30. We decided a walk would be nice. There wasn’t a lot of sun but it was dry. We wrapped up and headed for Grassington. It was a pleasant 35 minute walk over footpaths initially then back roads and pavements. We crossed the River Wharfe taking us from Freshfield (where the site is) into Grassington.

It was much busier in the daytime with all the wee shops open. We had a quick look around and then stocked up with some pastries and a coffee from a local bakers called Walkers.

It was then only a 15 minute walk down to Linton Falls. Definitely worth a look but unfortunately no where to sit and eat our pastries!

We walked through the wee hamlet of Linton Falls and found a beautiful little church - St Michaels Linton - nestling by the river. There was a sheltered bench against the church wall amongst the gravestones which made a nice place to sit and eat. We then had a quick look around the church. It was only small but had lots of interesting history and the wardens had the way with all to tell you about it as well with useful information kindly left around the building.

A pleasant walk back along the bank of the River Wharfe and back to Threshfield for a cup of Yorkshire Tea and a slice of lemon drizzle at Hedgerow - a florist / gift shop / cafe. They were very friendly and, as you would expect, the Yorkshire tea was spot on.

We only found out that the name of the river was the Wharfe when we looked it up later. S’funny because Kim had said it looked like the river in Wetherby (30 miles away!). I had laughed at her stupidity to think rivers could look alike 30 miles apart. Oh how we both laughed when we realised she was of course correct and it was the Wharfe at both Grassington and Wetherby!

We got back to Brunnehilda at about 3.15pm. Time to grab the car and head out to Skipton - this time the prettier way through Bolton Abbey. As normal we got to the Abbey when it was shutting up - at 4pm. So we made a note to return and headed into Skipton.

There is so much to do and see around here you really do need a full week to do it justice. 1 day and 2 nights clearly doesn’t cut the mustard!

So twice now to Skipton and both times in the dark! That’s the problem with winter touring, the days activities stop at 4.30pm!! We did manage to have a nice walk though to buy a couple of hats in a Black Friday sale (OMG!) - I look gorgeous in mine! - then found the canal, castle and mill. The latter 2 being shut and the canal being open but dark!

Back home to Brunnehilda for tea courtesy of Mssrs Marks and Spencer. Kim then absolutely slaughtered me at Canasta. To cap it all the gas ran out so no cuppa tonight (and tomorrow morning). So all in all a truly grim end to a smashing day!

As if to prove the point made above about the hat .... here’s the evidence ...

N

Skipton to Driffield and Jenny’s Funeral - 19th Nov ‘19

An absolutely gorgeous morning. A hard frost on the ground and the sun in the sky. We abluted and were on the road by 8.45. Sat Nav said 2 hours so we had 15 mins to spare for a 11 arrival and 11.30 start.

2.5 hours later we arrived- just in time. What a huge county Yorkshire is - 150 minutes to drive from pretty much it’s Western to Eastern border. Of course we made (sorry, I made) some bad decisions along the way - including going on the Northern York bypass rather than the southern one. Why is it, whenever you are running late every light is on red, every roundabout has a queue and every single carriage road has a lorry crawling up a hill. We did manage to grab a McDonalds drive through breakfast on the way though so it wasn’t all bad.

Jenny’s funeral was at the East Riding Crematorium- a beautiful place on the edge of Driffield. As if on order, the sun shone for the whole ceremony. Luke delivered a fabulous eulogy and the place was crammed full of Jenny’s family, friends and work colleagues. A very sad day but, as usual at these events, huge amounts of pride for my big Sis and her wonderful family as well as pleasure in seeing everyone together.

Thom, Rach, Bobby and Laura had come up leaving George home alone looking after kids and dog.

We went onto Wetwang to the Vic for a very pleasant “wake”. Lots of nice food, friendly chat and fond memories / stories of Jenny. My cousin Alison and her husband, Russ, kindly took Mum and Dad home at the end of the afternoon.

We headed off to the other side of Yorkshire. We did find time for a quick coffee with the kids at the services just off the M62 near Donny. Kim also amazingly found the time to give her youngest son a haircut in the service station car park in the feezing cold and using the light from a car park lamppost!

We went back to Skipton via Wetherby / Harrogate so it would have been rude not to stop at the Wetherby Whaler for a bit of tea. Wetherby looked very pretty with the Christmas lights on and, although we really weren’t hungry enough to do the fish and chips justice, it was a pleasant journey break.

We arrived back at Brunnehilda at about 8.15pm just as the live debate started between Jezzer and Boris - praise the Lord, we don’t have a tele in the van!!

Tea, reading, blogging and another early night. Once again heating systems , water bottles and duvets were essential to a pleasant evening!

RIP, my brave big sister.