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!

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!!