Formby and Beach - 26th Jan ‘20

For the first time this week we’ve heard the sound of rain beating on Brunnehilda. Yes, we’re at Southport so no surprises there! We’ve spent a lot of time in Southport over the years and it’s fair to say I’ve been to colder places and I’ve been to wetter places but when it comes to cold and wet it’s blinkin’ hard to beat Southport.

For the first hour of the day I laid in bed listening to the rain and watching England playing cricket in sunny South Africa - ah well, I suspect there are worse starts to the day? I realise how lucky I am when I think of poor people like Anne Widdicombe who have to wait an extra half in hour in A&E while some wretch with nothing from half way around the world gets life saving medical treatment that they don’t deserve?? So things could be a lot worse!?

The quality of a nights sleep in Brunnehilda is largely measured by wee visits!! At the start of the week it was the usual, given a man of my age, onewee per night. Since the cold kicked in we are up to threewee, even fourwee nights! And getting up for a wee in Brunnehilda is not as easy as it might sound... firstly I have to let Kim know I’m on the move. A tap on her bum is enough to get her to pull her legs up (she’s very well trained, much like Pavlov’s dog, and only needs a tap even when she’s fast asleep). Then I gradually swing my legs out and back up. I put my feet down carefully as very often I end up standing on a dog. Once out the bed then it’s a lot less complicated! Anyways, times that by 4 times a night and it’s all very tiring!!

To be fair to Southport and it’s climate, the rain did stop at lunchtime and although it was still cold and windy it was at least dry and overcast!

We went back to Formby to get lunch with Gog (Kim’s mum). We went to a Thai opposite her flat called Suay Pan. It was very pleasant although not the best Thai I’ve had. Anyway we all left with empty plates so ...

Gog’s flat in Formby

After this very late lunch Kim and I took the dogs for their last beach walk of the trip and Gog headed for the Bingo! We took them to Formby beach. We parked at the National Trust car park and walked across the dunes to the beach. Not quite as vast as Ainsdale but still a huge area for the dogs to burn off some energy. We got a bit lost finding the car as the darkness came upon us quickly and, much like castles and trees, sand dunes do look very alike!!

Thankfully we made it back to Brunnehilda, via Starbucks, and settled down for our last night of this trip. More Waltons, more Backgammon, more Wire - our cup does overfloweth!

Night night Jim Bob!!

Heading off to Whilton Locks early (ish) tomorrow so this will be the last blog - hence ...

Southport Caravan Club Site:
Pros:
1) Good position to walk to town/ beach
2) Well kept and pitches quite good size
3)  Wardens seemed very laid back
Cons:
1) Long walk to the toilets / wash facilities
2) Toilets out of action (blocked up) on Sunday am
3) Long & barrow site layout means it feels quite cramped
4) Toilets were locked all time so needed a key
5) No views - not very pretty

Onto Southport - 25th Jan ‘20

Well it’s goodbye to Llandullas. The site has been a great success - I think it’s in my Top 5 of UK sites we’ve stopped at. For pros and cons of Ben Y Wendon see below ....

Good news - no BBIs today (Ben Based Incidents!) A quiet night although, like all nights before a trip, I had a restless night - awake at 4am! I think it’s physiological, as I’m neither anxious nor excited about the journeys?! Weird!

Travel day today and the weather has changed. It’s not so mild and a wind has gotten up.
An early start today - up and at it at 8.30am. Dog walk and quick breakfast before taking down Bella, packing up and getting Brunnehilda stripped and ready to go.

We left at about 11.10am - 10 minutes after the official leave time! The journey to Southport took about 1 3/4 hours. We went over the new (ish) Mersey bridge at Runcorn as we weren’t sure how easy the Mersey tunnel would be with Brunnehilda?

We arrived at 2 and were eating soup and toast by 3pm! The site is full and not particularly nice. Although it’s very handily placed for walking into town and the beach so there are lots of “motor-homers” here.

The dogs were gagging for their daily beach walk so we headed to Ainsdale. We walked down the huge beach towards Southport - then walked back again. The tide was out so we didn’t get as far as the waters edge - which Tilly was not too happy about!

It was getting dark when we got back to the car so we headed straight off to Gog’s (Kim’s mum) new flat in Formby. It was Burns Night so very appropriate that Jill and Russ (Kim’s sister & husband) came round for haggis, neeps and tatties.

Back home to Brunnehilda for an episode of The Wire and then bed!

Ben Y Wendon:
Pros:
1) Sea views
2) Dog walk on pebble beach close to hand
3) Next to Expressway meant everywhere close / easy to get to
4) Serviced pitch with everything to hand
5) Good 4G
6) Short walk to very clean and modern unisex facilities
7) Toilets not shut for cleaning
8) Friendly staff
9) Big plots with good space between
Cons:
1) Main toilets only “average”
2) Road noise from Expressway

St Asaph Cathedral & Prestatyn Beach - 24th Jan ‘20

Another grey, dry and mild morning. We slept in as we had another Ben based drama in the middle of the night! It was about 1.00 am when we were woken by Benny jumping on the bed. Clearly something amiss as, as badly behaved as they can be, they only ever get on beds when invited to!!

It was a bit like Lassie trying to warn their owner that someone had fallen down the well - we knew something was not right. It turned out he was having troubling swallowing and decided his best bet was to wake us up as Tilly was clearly not showing any sort of concern!

After massaging his throat and sticking my fingers as far down as I dare, Kim read that dry biscuits / bread might help. So we fed him some dry bread. A combination of all 3 finally did some good and he seemed to be a lot better and happy to settle down again. Tilly didn’t blink throughout the whole episode and was indeed the only one in Brunnehilda that didn’t get their nights sleep interrupted.

So that’s our excuse for a lazy morning. I even grabbed a shower a day ahead of schedule! Not sure if it’s Kim’s sense of smell coming back or the combination of old man and damp dogs was getting too much!?? Kim showers in Brunnehilda and I go to the very nice shower facilities on site. As we have water on tap on this pitch (a fully serviced pitch), it is very easy to keep the internal tank full - a full shower uses about 1/2 a tank.

So it was after 1pm that we set off to have a look at St Asaph. Interesting fact - with a population of just 3,500, St Asaph is the second smallest city in the UK. Competition time Q1) What’s the smallest? Q2) What's the smallest UK city measured by size / area? (This one is quite surprising!)
Answers at the foot of the page.

We parked outside the Cathedral and went in for a look round. It was very pretty inside but really only the size of a decent sized parish church. The BBC were setting up for a Radio 4 show to go out live tonight. Have a look at the picture to work out what the show is?

We looked round for 30 mins - there was a lot of information available so we felt very informed.Turns out, its biggest claim to fame is that it houses a very rare first edition Welsh language bible!

After the bit of culture we wandered down the fairly boring High Street to the river. There we followed signs to a Pottery Studio. Kim bought a really nice Lasagne dish and we spoke for some time with the very nice lady potter / owner. The shop was called Earthworks.

She recommended a coffee shop back up the hill opposite the Cathedral- Jacob’s Ladder. And indeed it was a good call as the coffee was as good as the broccoli and cheddar soup (me) and the smoked vegetables and chilli beans (Kim).

When we left St Asaph it was getting busy - the schools were turning out.

We headed to Prestatyn beach for the daily beach dog walk. It is huge beach - with the tide out! Lots of space for mad dogs and lots of birds so even greater fun for Tilly!
The beach is 5 miles long but we didn’t get that far as we were fighting sundown at 5. We got back to the car just after 5pm.

On the way home we went to Morrisons to stock up with diesel and some very nice veggie “beef” burgers. They were indeed splendid and were devoured as we watched another episode of The Waltons.

The Cobblers are playing in the cup tonight so I had one eye on that as we listened to Radio 4’s Any Questions ... did you see the banner on the picture? In finding the Radio 4 iPlayer we also discovered that the Cobbs were live on Radio 5. So, it seemed rude not to listen- especially as Anne “bloody” Widdicombe was on the Radio 4 show bleating on about all these foreigners destroying the NHS - ignorant woman!

The Wire and then to bed. Up early tomorrow to get packed up and out by 11am. The dogs are particularly wet, sandy and smelly tonight. It’s definitely not me - I’ve just had a shower!

Answers:
Q1) St David’s
Q2) City of London!!
VG if you got them both.

Ynys Mon & Caernarfon - 23rd Jan ‘20

A day of contrasts - weather wise that is. We woke up to glorious hot sunshine. On the usual morning short drive down to Llandullas beach the Volvo’s temperature gauge was registering a barmy 15 degrees. In deed the short walk with the dogs felt like a Spring morning.

The weather spurred us on to go through the normal morning Brunnehilda motions in double quick time and were out the campsite before noon - which given a post 10am rise wasn’t bad going.

We thought we would head for Anglesey and a beach called Llanddwyn that got very good write ups on line. It was about a 45 minute journey - mostly down the wonderful North Wales Expressway which seems to give us a quick journey to wherever we want to go!

As soon as we passed Llandudno and got closer to the mountains the weather changed dramatically. We were embellished with a thick fog for most of the journey. In fact when we crossed the bridge over the Menai Straits we literally couldn’t see the water let alone the other side! When we arrived at the beach, the other side of  Newborough Forest, the temperature was down to 7 degrees and the fog was not only thick but damp and cold as well - all in the space of 30 miles!

The car park was relatively busy but the beach was so vast (we timed the tide well again!) you only occasionally saw other people. They would suddenly appear out the fog and then disappear again - it was very atmospheric.

Of course the dogs loved it! We had planned to walk on to the Island (only accessible at low tide) and see the lighthouse but .... as we both seem to have started colds again (can you bloody believe it!!) we didn’t feel up to the extra yomp.

We were back to the car by 2.30pm. We made the short journey up to Beaumaris for a wee walk round. It wasn’t as big / pretty as I remember - might have been the freezing cold damp fog though! The gorgeous views across to Snowdonia were only to be imagined - as was the other side of the water! We walked through the village to visit the Gaol - l like a good gaol tour - but it was shut! We considered the castle but as the current Mrs Pitts says ... “once you’ve seen one castle you’ve seen them all!”. Reminded me of the George Bush quote when he sanctioned the destruction of thousands of acres of ancient Alaskan forests to build pipelines. His infamous retort to the criticism was “once you’ve seen one tree you’ve seen them all”. Obviously Mrs Pitts and President Bush have the same simple way of cutting through the bull!

We did buy a coffee and a roll from a local bakery and sat on a bench for a few minutes before hitting the road. I have to say Beaumaris wasn’t a hit!

We decided to go into Caernarfon on the way home. The damp fog was still around so it wasn’t as nice as it could have been. However we spent a very pleasant hour walking round the foggy castle walled lanes.

We were looking for a pub we stayed at with Laura when she was a toddler and Kim was pregnant with Thom. After a lot of near misses we found it ... the un-PC named Black Boy.

No where was open to eat so we headed back to Llandudno.Kim consulted Trip Advisor and she found us a fabulous Chinese Restaurant called Tops. The people were fantastic and the food was first class - I had a very tasty king prawn in batter with honey and chilli sauce. Never seen it anywhere before but it was smashing. A bit of embarrassment at the end... one of the very nice Chinese waitresses came over to take our payment and asked if this was our first visit. The current Mrs Pitts said yes, and it’ll be our last! The look on the girls face was a picture of pain and disappointment. Kim followed up quickly with an explanation that we don’t live around here so, as much as we’ve enjoyed it, we wouldn’t be back. The Chinese lady smiled sweetly but I could tell she was crushed by the original comment. We gave them a big tip and hurried out...

Back to Brunnehilda for the usual evening of The Waltons, Backgammon and The Wire. All Norman castle builders and Chinese waitresses will be delighted to know that I soundly beat the current Mrs Pitts at backgammon!

Conwy and Llandudno (and a sea rescue!) - 22nd Jan ‘20

Shower day today! For me that’s every 3 days when on tour with Brunnehilda - that’s slightly more frequent than the average high street rough sleeper! Good job Kim has lost her sense of smell - getting on well with the dogs though!!

The road noise (from the North Wales Expressway) is quite noticeable at night but you sorta learn to block it out and we are both sleeping well.

Pretty much the normal morning (with the exception of the shower) ... tea in bed, mushroom omelette on bagel and a brief dog walk to let them do their stuff. I’m taking them to the wee rocky beach at the end of the road. We walk across the rocks to a waterfall going into the sea and then back along the banks of a wee river running parallel with the beach. Most of the local dog walkers are on the other side of the water so it works well for our “unpredictable” muts.

Out by 12.30 and heading for Conwy. The weather is grey and slightly damp but no rain. The weather guys were right and the sun did make an appearance later in the afternoon. It was very mild all day though - no wind and between 8 and 10 degrees.

Conwy is a fabulous place. A pretty quant town with a fantastic Norman castle and almost intact town walls. It has a quay as well so if you’re into boats there is even more to look at. We walked on the walls a bit but the current Mrs Pitts is not a fan of heights so we thought the £10 admission fee for the castle might be a bit wasted. Plus, as Kim said, we’re National Trust members so we shouldn’t be paying for any entrance to old buildings! Can’t fault the logic?!

We spent a very pleasant couple of hours strolling round the town / quay. Ending up at a coffee shop / cafe called “Love to Eat” for a bit of light lunch. Not a hit from me I’m afraid - I had Welsh Rarebit which was as dry as a nun’s habit! Annoyingly the pot of tea for 2 was indeed only 2 cups of tea! I felt a bit cheated, you should always expect to get at least another 3/4s of a cup each out of a pot of tea for two! Or is that just me??

At 2.30 we headed off to Llandudno to find a beach for the dogs. Again we timed the tide perfectly. If the tide had been in Llandudno beach would have be rubbish for our crazy dogs but with the tide right out it gave them lots of space to go mad. There was so few folks on the beach as well which was really surprising given the size of the town.

The sun was out by now and the late afternoon winter light was gorgeous. I wish I had my posh new camera with me but the iPhone did OK.

One bit of drama. We thought Ben was just relaxing in the water. He had stayed still for ages - prompting me to take a picture (below). It turned out he was stuck! He had run into a very rocky area and couldn’t find a way out. Of course swimming would have worked but that didn’t occur to Ben!

Kim had her wellies on so she put the hero’s coat on and bravely waded into the wild sea to save him. The video below records this - although my guilt at letting “the woman” go out to sea to make the rescue finally got too much for me and the filming was aborted just before the dramatic conclusion - and all the sea water coming over the top of Kim’s wellies!

Llandudno seems to be a little higher class / better kept than most of the other local seaside resorts around here. It’s kept some really nice local hotels on the prom and still retains some of that Victorian charm. We had 2 free Starbuck coffees so we made the long walk into town to redeem them. There is no lengths we won’t go to to get free frothy coffees - although in Kim’s case it was a mint tea.

Home to Brunnehilda for a splendid M&S prawn stir fry! A lot better than the Conwy Welsh Rarebit!
We have settled into a routine on this trip of watching an episode of The Waltons while we have our tea and an episode of The Wire just before we go to bed! Not sure this is the right way round for a peaceful and content evenings sleep?

A third night in a row where Kim was embarrassing thrashed at Canasta - it can’t just be luck now surely?? Although she got her own back and drubbed me at Backgammon! I never was any good with dice!

Bella up & a Beach Walk on Colwyn Bay - 21st Jan ‘20

No sun today but it was dry and, considering it’s January, fairly mild. The day started like most ... tea in bed and a breakfast omelette!

As soon as we were washed and ready we put up Bella. The last time, in Cirencester, it was a right faff and she looked a bit wonky / scruffy. Slightly better this time, although it still took us the best part of 90 minutes to erect her.

The temperature was really warming up and by the time we had finished I was down to my t-shirt to go off to ablute! On that subject, the shower facilities here are good - not as good as a Padstow and Weymouth who currently share top spot for that award. Although this one, like the other non-Club sites leaves the showers open all day - a real benefit for late risers like us.

Once Bella was safely pegged out we headed for the beach just down the road at Old Colwyn. Luckily for us, and it was luck no time tables had been consulted, the tide was well out. This gave us, well to be more accurate the dogs, a lot of space to run, chase birds and dive through the waves. Although the sea was very still and placid so the waves were not that impressive.

We walked from Old Colwyn to Rhos on sea. About an hour there and an hour back. We managed to find a tea cabin open to get a cuppa before setting back along the beach.

We got back to the car just as it was getting dark. We needed to get tomorrow’s tea from M&S so we set off for the nearest one - Prestatyn. It only took about 30 minutes- we went along the coast road which seemed to be one static caravan holiday park after another. I have to say, most of them looked quite grim but hey ho holiday places in the winter always seem a bit “grey”.

After the M&S visit we popped over the road to look at a Mexican restaurant we noticed when we were passing. On closer inspection it wasn’t up to much but next door we were lucky enough to find a place called the Torello Lounge. A pub / restaurant with loads of veggie options. I had the veggie breakfast and a side of mac & cheese. Kim had a veggie burger. We were both happy with our choices!

Back home along the infamous North Wales Expressway to settle in for the night. A repeat of last night really ... an episode of The Waltons, an episode of The Wire and another drubbing for Kim at Canasta. Tchh, I think the current Mrs Pitts used up all her luck when she bagged me!!?

Shrewsbury to Abergele - 20th Jan ‘20

Actually to be more geographically accurate - it’s Llanddulas which is about 3 miles west of Abergele. After doing a bit of exploring this afternoon it’s fair to say, in the words of the current Mrs Pitts, “it’s no Devon!”. Llandullas is very small and Abergele is a scruffy run down place that feels like a place on its uppers and now it’s winter!! Oh, and they’re digging up the high street which meant we had to wait longer to drive down it than a Nicaraguan crossing the US / Mexican border!!

The day started off well - another frosty sunny morning. Still catching up with our sleep we didn’t raise our head from the pillows until gone 9.30am. We read on line that the nursery we are camped at has a cafe so it seemed rude not to use it for breakfast / brunch. We had a lazy hour or so drinking tea in bed and doing the morning ablutions. Tilly enjoyed watching the birds out the window...

We walked over to the nursery to discover that it had just reopened after the Christmas break and that the cafe wouldn’t be open until the end of February. We bought a plant - which has now become a real thing to do on all our trips - and headed back to Brunnehilda.

Kim whistled up a very acceptable cheese omelette in a bagel and we made some coffee for the journey. It only took us about 30 mins post breakfast to have her hooked up - that’s Brunnehilda not Kim!! The really nice chap who owned the site told us there was no hurry to leave as he didn’t have any more bookings until the weekend. That said, we were on the road by 12.15.

The journey took about 2 hours via Wrexham and then the A55 - otherwise known as the North Wales Expressway. This super fast highway joins the metropolis’ of Rhyl, Abergele, Colwyn Bay and Llandudno rather like pearls on a necklace.

The site, Ben Y Wendon, is bloody fantastic. It’s very quiet so they have given us the prime spot - a fully serviced pitch allowing us to put Brunnehilda on front ways and overlook the sea. There is a train track between us and the water but that just adds to the excitement- especially for Tilly!? The toilets are spotless and only 50 yards away and the folks we’ve met have been incredibly helpful and friendly.

After we had got ourselves set up we decided to take the dogs to explore. You access the beach by going under the railway line. It’s only about 1/4 mile but we took the car as the road was quite narrow and the dogs are not good on leads!

I know English is supposed to be blessed with lots of different words for things but I really think that someone needs to invent a new word for a “beach” full of rocks and boulders! A beach it certainly wasn’t but there was a bit of green and a cycle path for the dogs to vent their frustrations on after the journey.

After this we went straight out to explore. Firstly eastwards to Abergele - see first paragraph- and then Colwyn Bay. We drove round, parked up, wanderered around the town centre and then bought tea (and other provisions) at Morrisons.

We got home at about 6pm. Which gave us a pleasant evening eating, playing canasta (bit of a slaughter tonight - modesty prevents me from saying who was the slaughterer and who the slaughteree!), watching 2 episodes of The Waltons and 2 of The Wire - could you get 2 more extreme examples of TV Americana?

A couple of negatives as we troop off to bed. The A55 is pretty loud and our electric heating system seems to have given up the ghost! Hopefully the latter one can be fixed in the morning?!

Pros and Cons of Roden Nurseries CL Site:
Pros:
1) Only caravan there so it was great for dogs
2) Fabulously kept pitches
3) Each pitch had its own water tap
4) Quiet but close to Shrewsbury and nice dog walks
5) Exceptionally friendly owner
6) If opened the on site cafe would have been a real bonus
Cons:
1) Toilet a bit of a hike (at least 100 yds away)
2) No recycling facilities
3) Approached through a fairly scruffy car park
4) Having to get out the car to unlock a gated padlock (after 5pm) was a bit of a pain

Off to Shrewsbury - 19th Jan ‘20

The first trip of 2020. The first trip for 6 weeks! I think this the longest we’ve been away from Brunnehilda since we got her back in June!

Well it’s true ... absence does make the heart grow fonder! After a very late night last night watching old videos of the kids and family holidays, our plan of being up and out by lunchtime didn’t really stand much of a chance of succeeding!

By the time we had breakfasted, bathed , packed, loaded the car and walked the dogs it was gone 1.30pm.  It was a smashing winters day - a nice hard frost but glorious sunshine from early till late. We had the sun right the way up the motorway to Shrewsbury with the exception of a 15 minute stretch going by Wolverhampton where there was thick freezing fog - I don’t know what that says about Wolverhampton but whatever it does I’m not saying it!

We soon got Brunnehilda hitched up at Whilton and the journey was less than 2 hours - arriving at the Roden Nurseries CL site at about 3.45pm.  We have this little 5 pitch site to ourselves. Which at 4pm, when the nursery shut, meant we also had a whole huge car park to ourselves as well. Not such a bonus for us but a real treat for the dogs who could run about like maniacs while we got set up. As usual Kim was on inside duties while I was on outside. All settled and cozy inside an hour.

Even after the 6 week lay off, we felt like a couple of old caravan pros as we rapidly went through the set up processes - what a difference 6 months makes?!  Only one snag - our water tap on the pitch had frozen so it meant a trip to fill up on one of the other pitches - but as they were empty, it really wasn’t a problem.

We then drove the 10 minute journey into Shrewsbury town centre to pick up a curry and take it round to friends Rowan and Gonzalo’s.

And a very nice curry it was too! We were officially celebrating Rowan’s 40th but Sunday night with a 7 and 5 year old are really not good for many things apart from getting an early night. So after a very pleasant couple of hours and very full bellies, we set off back to Brunnehilda soon after 9.

Still suffering from our 3am bedtime yesterday, we were happy for an excuse to get to bed early tonight. The dogs settled down quickly as well!