The end of the first European Trip - 3rd Nov ‘19

So 19 days later - our longest Brunnehilda trip to date - we are heading home.

Given the awful weather we’ve experienced in the last 3 weeks it was fairly ironic that we packed up in the dry and travelled home in the sunshine!

The Burford site is shutting down for the winter tomorrow so it seemed that virtually everyone on the site was packing up and going this morning. Isabella was soaking wet so we just threw her in the back of the car - I will try and dry her out in the garden tomorrow.

After just 3 nights it was interesting to see just how many leaves had been shed over Isabella ...

The journey was an easy one- 90 mins up the A361 and we were at Whilton. Quite ironic though as we had 2 mishaps at the end of the trip... firstly, there was a power cut when we arrived at Whilton they couldn’t open the gate for ages. Secondly, when we went to motor move Brunnehilda one of the wheels wouldn’t engage! We pushed her back into her space and will investigate the mover malfunction at the weekend. We also plan to wash her then as she is absolutely filthy!

Then the funniest thing happened during the whole trip ... Kim was unloading the van when she slipped and did the splits between the bed and the table. She was stuck fast - had to take a picture before realising her!

So, after 8 sites in 19 days, here are the summary pros and cons for the 7 “non rated” sites we used:

Barfrestone Court Farm (Dover):

Pros

1) Fab setting in a very up market farm court yard

2) No one else there apart from us
3) Very friendly host - drove a Volvo!
4) Incredibly quiet - at first, see cons
Cons
1) Tricky road through village
2) The mooing cow kept us awake all night!




Camping Au Bord de L’Aisne (nr Reims):

Pros
1) Easy walk by the river into the wee town
2) Plenty of room - no neighbouring vans
3) Close to the motorway - less than 5 mins
Cons
1) Muddy /wet pitch
2) No toilet paper in toilets
3) Toilets and washing facilities just OK





Camping de Lyon (nr Lyon):

Pros
1) Close to the motorway - less than 2 mins
2) Close to huge shopping centre - over the road
Cons
1) Muddy / wet pitch
2) Noisy - let out a lot of mobile homes to “workers” who were having a fun evening!
3) A lot of works going on
4) Toilets and washing facilities just OK
5) Fairly long trek to washing facilities
6) No where “nice” to walk to

Camping Huttopia Royat (nr Clermont-Ferrand):

Pros 
1) Off the scale friendly and helpful lady - so so nice
2) Within walking distance of village / suburb
3) Very pretty - lots of trees shrubs
4) Fantastic pool and tennis courts - both unfortunately shut!
5) Nice generous / private pitches
6) Clean / new toilet and washroom facilities
Cons
1) Hard to get to from motorway- the wrong side of the city

Riva Bella (nr Caen):
Pros
1) Perfect position near port and restaurants
2) Good facilities, including an Ok toilet / washing block
Cons
1) The migrants camping outside the campsite
2) Noisy - a strange bang / explosion every hour or so all evening / night
3) Wet and muddy pitch - although not as bad as Reims and Lyon

Littlehampton Caravan Club Site:

Pros
1) Incredibly neat, tidy and well run
2) Immaculate toilet / washroom facilities
3) Pitch very close to all amenities
Cons
1) Rule dominated - told how to park!
2) Shut toilets for cleaning at 10.30 - punishing late risers like us!
3) No real boundaries between pitches - fine when not busy but ...



Burford Caravan Club Site:

Pros 
1) Very friendly and laid back wardens / greeters
2) Immaculate toilet / washroom facilities
3) Pitch very close to all amenities
4) Easy walk over to Cotswold Wildlife Park
5) Toilets / shut cleaned at 3 - perfect time to suit the guests not the wardens!
Cons
1) Too far out to walk anywhere (apart from the Wildlife Park)
2) Bloody hard to get the awning pegs into the hard standing!

MacArthurs head home and Stow on the Wold - 2nd Nov ‘19

Another rather grim weather day predicted so the MacArthurs decided to head home as soon as ready. They were always going home in time for the West Haddon evening firework display but the lack of good weather and data meant there was less holding them back.

Lottie slept until until 7 again this morning. Kim bought a very effective awning heater before we went away and having it on overnight right next to her crate ironically meant she was very nice and cozy. I suspect it was this, and the full on day viewing the wildlife, that meant she forsook her 5 am start for a couple of mornings.

We decided on a breakfast courtesy of Mr MacDonald this morning so Kim, Lottie and I set off for Witney. The drive through was incredibly busy with lots of folks getting breakfast before the Rugby World Cup Final kicked off at 9. A lack of internet and interest meant that we didn’t get to watch another England “disappointment”. No great loss by the sounds of it?

By the time everyone was dressed, abluted and packed it was midday. Laura, Lottie and the boys piled into the car for the 90 minute journey home - fingers crossed that the rain would eventually stop long enough for them to enjoy the fireworks tonight?

Kim and I headed off to Stow on the Wold for the afternoon. We had a very pleasant few hours wandering around the quant centre with all its interesting wee shops. The brolly was needed for the latter part of the wandering. We went by a lot of nice but busy and expensive coffee shops. Eventually we stumbled across a craft fair in the amazingly impressive town hall. We went in for a mooch round and found a wonderful place (run by RNLI charity volunteers) where we got cake, baked potato and 2 rounds of tea for the cost of a baked potato at one of the other places we walked by - what a result!

After all our car damage free travels around Europe and adventures up Italian mountains I managed to have 2 hiccups with the car today - in Stow on the bloody Wold! Firstly we got back to the very busy car park and some kind person had scraped my front bumper while getting out and then I scrapped the wheel over the kerb trying to avoid going up the kerb to squeeze by a police car!

Even though the rain had really set in now, we decided to go home via Bourton on the Water. We huddled under the brolly and walked around with a coach load of Chinese tourists - all seeming to be enjoying their very English experience. As you would expect, in fact be disappointed if we hadn’t, we ended up at a coffee shop - The Cornish Bakery. We took some goodies home to Brunnehilda for tea.

By the time we had had a cup of tea and watched 2 episodes of The Wire box set it felt like bedtime. We ignored the fact it was only 8.30 and headed for bed - a big improvement on the camper beds in Isabella!

Cotswold Wildlife Park and Witney - 1st Nov ‘19

Not the usual relaxing Brunnehilda morning... but then with a puppy, Twinnies and Laura it wasn’t expected. Charlie’s in the mix as well but he’s so laid back you hardly know he’s there!!

Up by 7 walking the dog so we were out fairly early -before midday anyway. It rained pretty much all night and it kept at it up until 11am. Sleeping in Isabella in November is just about possible if you wrap up well. We noticed the main cold was coming up from the floor - which I guess means a sleeping bag may work better than just a sheet and duvet(s)?

Believe it or not we started this trip with a distressed cow and we got it again last night. So all in all, not a fabulous nights sleep.

We purchased discount tickets for the Wildlife Park at the campsite. A nice leisurely walk (well to be fair no walk is completely leisurely with Twinnies and Lottie), down the long drive and we were in. No rain for the rest of the day but it was chilly, overcast and very damp underfoot!

Penguins, meerkats, monkeys, wolves, zebras, giraffes, snakes, camals and a slightly stressed lion... we saw them all. The boys enjoyed themselves so much so that after the second round of playing in the huge playground, it was past 4 and starting to get dark. Interesting Lottie seemed to be as much of an attraction as the wildlife. So many people wanted to talk to her and pet her - she didn’t seem to mind the attention!

We walked back to Brunnehilda and relaxed a bit. Relaxing consisted of a knackered Lottie crashed out on Kim and me managing a 10 minute rota for the boys to share the use of one Nintendo Switch! There is a very intermittent 4G signal here so data for internet is as scarce as a BJ kept promise. (Oh blimey, just re-read that - BJ stands for Boris Johnson right? Just to be clear!!)

We needed a supermarket and somewhere “easy” to eat so we decided Witney (about 10 miles away) would probably do the trick. Laura remembered a nice Chinese she and G had gone to the night the found out she was pregnant with the Twinnies - so nice memories. Eventually we found it (The Water Margin) and it was indeed very nice. The lady server was fabulous including letting the boys sit at a separate table to watch the stress relieving fish until dinner was served. Apart from Harry being fixated on trying to find a shark in the tank, the ploy worked well!

We popped into a big Sainos on the way home. Amongst other things we needed a DVD for the boys to watch tonight. Ended up with Nemo. Probably not something that 12 year old Charlie had top of his viewing list but he was very good and tolerant- as always!

So get all the beds up, watch Nemo and sleep was about all we had the time, energy and space for tonight.

S’funny today I saw and said “hi” to two ex-Volvo colleagues. Amy round by the wolves in the park and Paul down by the cheese aisle in Sainsburys! Kim made the point that these meetings seemed to be the high points of my day! Not true we all had a super day but I guess my face hadn’t got the memo??!

Just proof read this (yes, I know the many grammatical and spelling mistakes makes this hard to believe!) and noticed the amount of times I mentioned “stress” in the blog - maybe the current Mrs Pitts had a point?!

Travel to Burford - 31st Oct ‘19

The Littlehampton site has really thrown me a curved ball. The facilities were great with everything clean and to hand. The wardens were nice enough and very efficient - they even gave me a free adapter to go with the TV aerial cable I purchased from them but .... they also epitomised everything I dislike and despise about Caravaners and Caravan Club site. Their need for rules and everything to be the same! I also think the lack of pitch borders / shrubs might also be a problem in the busy summer months. As if to sum up exactly what I mean, we owed them £16 for the TV wire and I promised to let them have it before we left. I found this on the door this morning ...

More boarding school than campsite?
We got packed up, showered and another nourishing mushroom omelette. The mushroom omelette is fast becoming the “go to” food of Brunnehilda trips - well for me anyway!

It was a nice easy journey up to Burford although once again that A27 corridor going along the south coast proves to be one of the busiest non-urban parts of the UK! We stopped at our usual haunt on the way up - Tott Hill Services just outside Newbury.

We arrived at about 3.00pm. What a difference ... the lady in reception was great fun and just said park wherever and however we like as long as we stay within our allocated space. My sort of gal ... my sort of site!

The Burford Caravan Club site is right at the gate of the Cotswold Wildlife Park. About 5 miles from Lechlade and 2 miles from Burford. Laura and the boys are due to be with us after trick and treating at home - about 9.30.

So at 3.30 we started putting Isabella up / the first time since Lowestoft in late August! It took us 2 full hours - mainly because the pegs were so hard to get into the hard standing - my theory is that, as we have a door on the “wrong side”, the part of the pitch we were putting Isabella up has had few pegs in before.

We decided to pop into Burford for tea and found a wonderful pub on the Main Street - The Mermaid. Thursday night was pie and pint night for £10. Perfect - so I had 2 pints and a fish pie and Kim had a vegetable pie. They were both really nice - and all for 20 quid!!

Laura and the boys eventually arrived at 11pm. When they got here we realised that all the 230v appliances had gone off. When I checked I noticed the electrics had tripped and the leisure battery was only 20% full! So a mad scramble to find where the trip switches were. Found them eventually under a false floor in the wardrobe. Kim and I are sleeping in Isabella tonight with Lottie - should be an experience ?!