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!