Travel to West Devon and a Trip to Totnes - 20th August ‘20

Moving day and the weather has perked up a bit. Still very windy but sunny spells today.

We stripped down Brunnehilda and said good bye to The Old Orchard at about 11am. Pros and cons of the site listed below.

The 3 hour trip down the M5 was fairly incident free except for .... I left the bloody skylight open again! Luckily a nice couple flagged us down just before we got onto the motorway to let us know.

A quick stop at Taunton Dene services and we were pulling onto the Smallcombe Farm CL site at West Brent, just outside Totnes. Being Devon, we had the obligatory final couple of miles of single track road with sparse passing spaces!

We have a fabulous view looking over Dartmoor but the owner has already asked us if we mind moving tomorrow to another pitch. Not ever so thrilled but said yes. Seems a nice site - even has a shower and wc, which is unusual for a CL.

After a quick cup of tea soaking up the view, we headed across the country lanes to Totnes. It’s only 5 miles away but takes nearly 30 minutes - a Devon mile is worth about 5 normal miles!

I like Totnes. It’s very “hippy” and “new age”, which makes it quite laid back and different. We ate at the Riverside Bistro. I had a smashing fish pie and, unsurprisingly, COVID restrictions were modest and not OTT and bordering on paranoia like some places.

We had a walk through the town before filling up with fuel and returning to Brunnehilda as it was getting dark.

We’re both tired tonight. We were up at 2am last night putting down Izzy. The wind really picked up and Izzy was tugging away all evening - by 2am, we thought it best to take her down. Problem is, after that, we were wide awake! So  some chocolate and a read before back to sleep. 

However, we did manage a cup of tea and a rendezvous with the Baltimore PD before turning in. The wind is getting up again but tonight, no Izzy and we are pitched front on against the wind, so we are fairly stable and should be in for a restful night!?

The Old Orchard, Ombersley:

Pros:

1) Great views across the fields

2) Close to Ombersley which is great for eating out

3) The pitches are huge / lots of space between you and your neighbour

4) Very clean 

5) All pitches have private water supply - ironically, except ours

6) Very “hands off” and laid back owner - Dawn

7) At £14 a night, great VFM

8) Close to main road but very quiet and peaceful 

9) Fabulous for dog walking 

Cons:

1) No toilet and shower 

2) Quite exposed to wind at top of a hill

It remains one of our favourites, if not our most favourite CL site. We’ll be back!

The 5 Rules for Rainy Days in Caravans - 19th August ‘20

It started at 5 am and it stopped at 5pm. At that stage the rain gave way to the cold and grey ... welcome to Worcestershire in the middle of August. To cap it all, the forecasters are now saying we have another transatlantic storm due to hit the South West in the next few days, so the wet is gone  to be joined by the wind.

I genuinely do believe that Brunnehilda is jinxed! At least the boys are not on board so a day of rain can at least be salvaged - and that’s what we tried to do. 

 

Ok, so today’s blog is going to be educational - now there’s a first! There are 5 rules for surviving a rainy day in a caravan and I’m going to tell you what they are. Listen up ...

The first and most important rule of dealing with rainy summer days in a caravan is - don’t get up to early! That was an easy rule to follow - tea in bed saw us stretching get out of bed time until nearly 11! A bit of breakfast - inside obviously - and ablutions and you’re already well into the afternoon!

The second rule is go somewhere in the car. You can’t get wet in a car and who knows, the rain may stop by the time you get somewhere? It didn’t! In fact, by the time we got to Waitrose car park at Great Malvern it was coming down in bucket loads! A bit of shopping and a bit of a mouch around. Found out that HSBC shuts at 2pm still everyday because of COVID - scandalous! Found a nice little cafe (Lyttleton Well) - a little over zealous on the COVID stuff but unlike many it didn’t get in the way of a good coffee and agreeable egg roll - and all at EatOutToHelpOut prices as well. Found a nice shop to browse, Rhubarb Home, and spent some money on a desk mirror and beer can opener!

This brings me onto the third rule of surviving a day of constant rain - go spend some money. After Malvern we headed for a local caravan accessory shop. We just needed some toilet fluid but we just knew, given the weather and the size of Caravan Stuff For You’s showroom, it wouldn’t end there! 2 Isabella chairs, an awning cupboard and £120 later we were cleansed!

The fourth rule isn’t really weather dependent - eat!

So we headed back to The Crown and Handys at Ombersley to get Kim her pannacotta. As yesterday, the rest of the meal was excellent as well and all with the £10 off per person as well! Result.

We got back to Brunnehilda determined to get a bit of outside air before bedtime. In the end the moths forced us back in. To be fair they were only a few minutes ahead of the rain returning!

And so to the fifth rule - TV and appliances can’t change the weather but they certainly can take your mind off it! So we transported ourself to 2005 Baltimore drug gang violence of The Wire - oddly feeling jealous of their violent and painful lives because at least the sun was shining on them!!

Lying in bed writing the blog and guess what - it’s raining again? I’ve decided, not only do I want every Brexit voting person to personally apologise to me, I now also want anyone who wished for rain during the recent short heatwave to stand outside Brunnehilda this evening and give themselves a good soaking! Enjoying the rain now eh??

Onto Worcester (and back again) - 16th & 18th Aug ‘20

Gloucs & Worcs (June '19) - Day 9

3 sunny / hot days in a row - aka, Summer! Up to 30 degrees today - the hottest of the year!

Today was what I think might turn out to be a  "typical" touring day - doing very little but enjoying every moment of it.

It started with a cup of tea in bed looking out the window at the morning Worcestershire sunshine. Followed by a fry up and a long reading session in the heat of the midday sun. Tilly has made friends with the old couple at the van next door and bolts over there at every opportunity.

View from the bedroom window

Big news - we tried out Brunnehilda's shower for the first time today - separately obviously!! She works really well - although a couple of lessons learnt ... the plug hole is so small it doesn't take much hair to block it up and ... 2 showers just about used up a whole tank of water! Luckily this wonderful site has taps at every pitch so Brunnehilda could be quickly and easily re-filled.

Squeaky clean we headed off for an afternoon trip out. Firstly to a caravan accessory shop near Leominster. Its website suggested it had a showroom the size of a small field with every conceivable item under the sun you might need for your caravanning pleasure -we wanted a chair. In reality it was a room the size of a suburban new build lounge- the power of marketing?

Ah well, undeterred we went onto Ludlow. The countryside in this part of the world is beautiful. Although we concluded that when it came to "poshness", we suspected the good folk of Worcestershire probably looked down their noses a bit at the Herefordians.

Ludlow is a wonderful little town - lots of history, a castle, a river, quant streets and shops. Mind you try getting a cup of tea / coffee after 4.30 on a Saturday afternoon!? Thankfully Costa came to our rescue and we enjoyed our iced coffee watching the world go by just outside the castle gates.

View from our seat outside Ludlow Castle main entrance

As the day was so hot we couldn't leave the dogs (aka Dumb and Dumber) in the car and had to bring them with us. So we had 2 pulling, wheezing, snarling, whining dogs to negotiate around Ludlow. Now here's a confession ... whenever I saw other people's kids I always thought ours were a credit to us and better behaved. The opposite is true when it comes to dogs - everyone else's dogs seem to be walking peacefully to heal while ours are like a couple of leashed Direwolfs.

Dumb and Dumber aka The Direwolfs

Home to the Old Orchard via Tescos at Stourport to buy tea and get rid of breakfast!! We ate outside, We weren't treated to a gorgeous sunset but it was a beautiful evening, the temperature now much more comfortable - even cool enough to take the dogs for a walk around the fields - although they hardly deserved it!

A smashing day was rounded off by live streaming the Killers set from Glastonbury on my i-phone and my Harmen Karden speakers (part of my leaving present from work).

Brandon being live streamed into Brunnehilda

And so to bed .. the last day of our first real trip with Brunnehilda and Isabella. Hopefully this first of many more to come.

In the words of Brandon ... "I got soul but I'm not a soldier!"

Gloucs & Worcs (June ‘19) - Day 8

The Old Orchard site sits on top of a hill. Not only does this give it the great views but it also provides a gentle cooling breeze which, given the heat of the sun today, was as appreciated as the vista.

The discipline of writing this blog has become my new “work e-mail”. What I mean by that is I don’t look forward to it, know if I don’t do it I’ll regret it and feel very virtuous when it is complete. I suppose that is no bad thing as it helps “wean” me off work and into a non-work life?!

When the weather is good you do spend virtually every second of the day outdoors. Just in 2 days of sun my skin is resembling a cricket ball towards the end of its active life.

The late night last night meant a bit of lie in. A leisurely coffee enjoying the morning sun and then off to Tesco’s at Stourport on Severn. For the purpose of this blog it was to stock up with a few provisions (beer and things) but if you refer back to yesterdays blog and this site’s lack of certain facilities, you may work out for yourselves the main reason for the 5 mile trip. 

Stourport is a weird (but interesting) place. Lots of water activity with the river and the canal but it reminded me of a sea side resort with its big fair, crazy golf, amusements and slightly tired high street. Definitely worth a proper visit at some stage.

The heavy traffic in Stourport (I think the river crossing makes it a bit of a bottle neck) meant we didn’t get back to the site until 12.45. Bobby and I got Isabella up and pegged out in under 90 minutes. She glided on fairly easily (the silicon spray definitely helping), the wind didn’t help the pole erection but overall this was the best yet and a B+ score for speed and elegance of final finish!

Tilly even chipped in!

Time for a very quick lunch of Heinz beans, sourdough toast and Oxford sauce http://oxfordfinefood.com/baron-pouget%E2%80%99s-oxford-sauce.html/. I am specific about the ingredients of this seemingly simple lunch because you may want to replicate it? It’s a wonderful spin on a basic meal. OMG, now I’m giving culinary advice ... whatever next?

We walked the 45 minute walk into Ombersley village. The route through tiny back roads and bridleways was great. I think we only met one car and no other dog walkers - which was a bit strange really given the loveliness of the weather?

We planned to meet Kim at Ombersley but she had a horrendous journey (partly caused by heavy traffic and partly caused by ... oh well, let’s just leave it at that!). We waited for about an hour. Firstly at a splendid little local coffee shop / butchers called Checketts https://www.checketts.co.uk/ and then, to avoid the heat of the sun, under the shade of the trees in the park opposite.

Back to Brunnehilda for Kim to tag Bobby and send him home. He did the journey in half the time - the traffic was clearly better?

We went into Worcester for an evening stroll by the river and a very nice Chinese / Malay meal at the Singapore Restaurant http://www.singaporerestaurant.co.uk/  The food was very tasty and very generous helpings. Highly recommend the satay sticks! I think our enjoyment of the food was further enhanced by how bloody hungry we both were by this time (about 8.30).

When we returned, we planned to have a cup of tea and a game of backgammon - in the spirit of the rock and roll lifestyle we were now leading - but Brunnehilda’s big bed was more tempting to our tired limbs so, that’s where we went.

Gloucs & Worcs (June ‘19) - Day 7

Another moving day and another blazing hot day with cloudless skies. It’s just all the pooey weather in between!

The strip down went well. Isabella came off her rails without a hitch and Bobby and I got everything packed up and ready to go fairly effortlessly. We even had time for a shower and a very pleasant cafetière of Tewksbury coffee. On the road by midday and this time with some pre-planning! We dropped down to pick up the M5 so we could breakfast at Trensham Services https://www.roadchef.com/motorway-service-area-strensham - which by the way is fabulous for us caravaners!

We arrived at The Old Orchard, Ombersby (just north of Worcester) at about 1.30  https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/certificated-locations/england/worcestershire/worcester/the-old-orchard/https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/certificated-locations/england/worcestershire/worcester/the-old-orchard/. And what a site this is? Huge flat pitches with views to die for. No shower and toilet but hey personal hygiene is a small price to pay for a location like this. We met a really nice old couple from the Lake District who were in their 48th year of caravanning!! They couldn’t have been nicer though. Caravan couples do seem to like to talk but, to be fair, the ones we have come across so far have been extremely friendly and helpful.

I set up and, as Bobby had a strong 4G signal, he did his work from the van. I took Tilly for a walk around the farmers fields- a real treat for us both. The views across to the Malverns were great and the weather / temperature was about perfect. We headed off to Worcester at about 4pm.

How have I got to being 60 (next week) without visiting Worcester? What a great place - lots of history and so pretty. We walked along the river, by the Cathedral and then down the main pedestrianised shopping street. We bought a coffee at Patt Val and drank it in the sun by the river watching the workers rushing home from work- gee, it’s a tough life!?

When we got back to Brunnehilda we both decided it was too nice an evening to mess about with Isabella - the awning would have to wait to the morning! I read and Bobby did some more work. We then had a 45 minute walk around the farmers crop fields. Building up quite an appetite in the evening sunshine.

We feasted on “posh” tinned soup - not this cheap Heinz stuff for us - while we watched the sun setting over the Malverns - a totally idyllic end to a good day.

When the sun went in and Bobby had finished his work we managed 4 games of backgammon and a round or 2 of cards. Modesty won’t allow me to tell you who won (convincingly!) the backgammon but let’s just say beginners luck clearly doesn’t last forever!!

Bobby has been a perfect travel companion - always tolerant, always positive and always fun - but I’m looking forward to Kim joining Brunnehilda, Isabella and I tomorrow.