On the road again - 2014

It seems a long time since the last real trip in Theodora in October last year, although she has had a couple of outings since our last post in January, for the habitation service and to have a water leak investigated. This turned out to be as a result of a loose bolt on the track for the sliding door and was not too eye-wateringly expensive to have fixed. It will be reassuring to other IH owners to know that IH had not come across this problem before – why us?

We have been a touch envious of other motor-caravanners whose trips have continued throughout the winter.   However, as we are unable to keep Theodora at home and are still working, it is not as easy to up sticks at a moment's notice to take advantage of some reasonable weather. Additionally John and I used some annual leave recently to celebrate our 60^th birthdays on a cruise. Anyway, here we are in the Cotswolds on our first trip of 2014. We are likely to spend quite a bit of time in this general area in the near future as our son and daughter-in-law, who live on the south side of Birmingham, have just had a baby boy, our first grandchild.

Easter Sunday, 20 April. 

First stop – Burford. With hindsight, we could have visited Blenheim Palace on our way here, but at £21 per person, it seems a tad expensive, although we understand that the ticket is valid for twelve months. I quote from the Caravan Club Site book: “Burford is a beautiful, unspoilt Cotswold village with the warm, honey-coloured stone buildings of the region”. We would certainly agree with that. 

The businesses in the main street are all individual, and pubs, tea rooms etc abound. We chose to have some refreshment at Huffkins, which has branches in other towns in the area, including Stow on the Wold. The church is very pretty and exuded the feeling of being in good use. 

The tourist office offers the usual plethora of leaflets relating to local attractions. Guided walks are available on most days. Parking (free everywhere!): quite by chance we came across five coach bays in Priory Lane, next to which was a shorter bay, which was ideal for Theodora. There is also the Riverside car park, which is accessible to motorhomes, although there are no designated spaces. Street parking is also possible if you are lucky. At the caravan site we learned that another car park can be accessed from the roundabout on the A40, taking the exit towards Cheltenham, then turning right into Tanners Lane. The car park is on the right.

The Caravan Club Site, which is of the usual high standard and particularly spacious, is situated about 2.5 miles from the town but the road is friendly to neither walkers nor cyclists. The only attraction which is truly “local” is Cotswold Wildlife Park, which is immediately opposite the site. Discounted tickets (£1.50 to £2.00 off, depending on age) are available from the site. So although it is a lovely site, we felt that its location would not entice us back.

Other attractions which we noted for a future visit include:

World of Mechanical Music, Northleach; Birdland Park and Gardens, Bourton on the Water;

Batsford Arboretum and Wild Garden; Cotswold Falconry Centre, Batsford

Easter Monday – 21 April

After a cold night we woke to a beautiful, cloudless blue sky so got our skates on and decided to pay Burford another brief visit to take a few photographs. We were going to try out the Tanners Lane car park, but it appeared to have been taken over by a car boot sale, so we went on to the Riverside car park, where we were able to park in one of the perimeter spaces, overhanging the grass verge.

From Burford we drove on to Stow on the Wold, all of 12 miles. From the web we had established that motorhomes are allowed to park in coach bays in the Maugersbury Road pay and display car park (GL54 1AQ). The Tourist Office is combined with a small cafe downstairs and a Cricket Museum upstairs, which John found very interesting (£3.50 charge, part of which goes to charity). We picked up a leaflet outlining a short walk around the town, which highlighted buildings of interest. 

The most difficult decision you will probably face in Stow on the Wold is which pub or tea room to go to. There are MANY. From Stow we made our way to the Caravan Club Site at Broadway (12 miles) and as it was warm and sunny, decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing outside. That is, until John decided to put on his shorts, which was a signal for the sky to darken, hail stones to fall, followed by thunder, lightning and torrential rain. What a change in a matter of minutes!

Tuesday 22 April

A wet and dreary day and the forecast promised little improvement. So we decided to abandon our plans to ride on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway and first of all investigated the site more carefully, which has been established on some former railway land. The GWR is currently fundraising to rebuild 5 bridges so that the line can be extended from Laverton to Broadway. On the upper level of the site in the old goods shed there is an exhibit of the unique horse-drawn caravan built in 1884-5 by Bristol Wagon Works Company for the celerated author and retired Royal Naval Surgeon, Dr William Gordon Stables. The Wanderer took its first major tour in the summer of 1885, travelling from Gordon Stables' home at Twyford in Berks to Inverness. What an acheivement. We then walked into Broadway (10 minutes) which seemed to us to be less touristy than Burford or Stow on the Wold, but is a very pleasant place, again with individual shops, such as the colourful Broadway Deli below,

and plenty of refreshment opportunities. We can recommend the Market Pantry.  For reference, motorhomes can be parked in the long stay coach and car park on the north side of the town. After a quick lunch in the 'van we visited our grandson (and his parents!) before heading home.

Looking back over my shoulder

Reflections on 2013

This is the end of our first full year of motorcaravanning with Theodora.  We’ve had six trips away, totalling 36 nights, in various parts of the UK and France, using the ‘van both “to get away from it all” and to meet up with family and friends.

So what have we learned?

• The motorcaravanning community is a great source of information and inspiration.  Whether on places to go or the intricacies of reverse polarity, we’ve found plenty of advice, guidance and information via blogs, fora and magazines
• There is a fine line between being prepared and over-planning – we had a tendency to over-plan!
• For a long trip within a limited time period you cannot travel a long distance AND pootle about between places on the way.  And sometimes it makes sense to use the tolled motorways
• Don’t overestimate how far you are prepared to travel for just a long weekend; there are plenty of lovely places to visit close to home
• Be flexible; change your itinerary when possible if the weather does not play ball
• Outside the UK you do not need to book campsites out of high season
• The Aires due Camping Car in France really are a great alternative to camp sites
• With the choice of the right site you can use public transport, bikes and Shanks’ pony to get about, which gives a different perspective
• Even the Fiat dealer can jump to the wrong (and expensive!) conclusion when trying to trace an electrical fault
• We would highly recommend IH as a manufacturer and for their after-sales service

And finally …

• Be alert for mice!  They managed to chew through our fuel return pipe (very costly!) and Theodora is now booby trapped!  So beware you little beasties!

Happy New Year!

A Canterbury Tale

NEC (18 October 2013) and Kent (25th to 27th October 2013)

Although we had originally intended to have a weekend away in Theodora in conjunction with visiting the Motorcaravan Show, for reasons we won't go into here, plans were changed and we had two weekends away instead!

Despite arriving at the NEC before the exhibition had opened and not leaving until late afternoon, opportunites were not exhausted, even if we were!  Having now had Theodora for a year, we were interested in looking at layouts we had previously rejected, in the light of our (limited) experience.  We also called in at the IH stand, to say a quick hello to Nigel and Nicola and to see the innovative features on their latest van conversions.  The caravan-style door certainly makes a van conversion look less like  ….. a van conversion and gives more scope inside the van.  The slide out section on the top of the range 630SL gives a more spacious feel, but the price tag is on the “ouch” side. Then there were the gadget stands (impressed by the cleaning gadget – hope it lives up to our expectations), and the site and travel stands, and the clothing stands.  Not looking forward to the Visa bill next month!

So where should we go for our weekend away?  Not too far as we only had 3 nights (actually turned out to be only 2).  I recalled that our one attempt to visit Canterbury many years ago in our caravan had ended in disaster when a wheel came off the van.  Why not try again and combine with a visit to family in Ashford?

We fancied stopping off somewhere en route to photograph the autumn colours and Hucking Estate near Maidstone was one of the places which came up on the www. The wet and gloomy weather when we set off from home was replaced by brighter skies and sunny intervals north of the Thames but once we had crossed the QE2 bridge, it became distinctly grey again.  At the Hucking Estate there were supposedly walks from either a designated car park or from a pub car park a bit further on.  Thinking of Mervyn and Sheila (IH owners, who will understand the reference to them), the pub seemed a good option, especially when the Woodland Trust car park had a height barrier.  Doomed!  Admittedly we were a long way off the beaten track along a single track road but the pub looked long closed and we had to provide our own lunch in the 'van before having a very muddy walk in the woods.  Not particularly colourful either, unfortunately, due to the mild weather apparently.  But we did come across a very interesting carved tree trunk.  

Must get the Woodland Trust to update their website to indicate the height barrier on the car park and the lack of pub!

Then on to the Canterbury Camping and Caravanning Club site, which we used as our base, and which was well up to the usual high standard.  There was a choice of pitch – the one we chose was nice and level – and if you are lucky enough to be there on a Tuesday, the fish and chip van calls between 4:30 and 6:00.  The bus stop to go into Canterbury is only a five minute walk away, so we opted to leave Theodora on site and use public transport.  However, there is also a motorhome friendly park and ride (Dover Road) and parking for motorcaravans in the coach park (signposted), so there are plenty of different ways of getting into the city.

We found Canterbury very appealing, with its medieval buildings, walks along the River Stour

 and along a small section of the city walls to Dane John Gardens 

where there is an historic mound providing views of the city.

Do  not confuse the City Walls with the Cathedral Walls, which you are very definitely not allowed access to.  Talking of the Cathedral, it looked grand from the outside 

and we would have liked to see the inside too, and although we are always happy to make a contribution to the maintenance of these grand edifices, we felt that a ticket price of £9.50 per person was going too far.  The Beany Centre, which houses the Tourist Information Centre, a cafe and exhibitions is a good starting point.  There is a huge array of places to eat and we can particularly recommend the Veg Box Cafe, tucked up a sidestreet above Canterbury Wholefoods – www.thevegboxcafe.co.uk.  It is quite small, so don't go at peak times.  Quite by chance the two week Canterbury Festival was underway (19 Oct – 2 Nov 2013) and although none of the Saturday events appealed to us, we managed to get tickets at the impressive Marlowe Theatre to see Alan Bennett's play “People”, which was very funny, at the expense of the National Trust.  Just over the road from the theatre is The Pilgrims' Hotel, where we had a very good and reasonably priced meal beforehand.  It was a stroke of luck that the play finished in time for us to catch the last bus back to the site – it's a very dark walk from the bus stop – take a torch!

On Sunday we met up with my sister and watched our nephew play football as part of the Headcorn Under 16s team.  Unfortunately they were up against the team who are currently top of the league, so the result was not good and we did not feel we had been lucky charms for them.  We had been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast as storm St Jude was brewing and as the worst was expected on Monday morning, when we planned to travel home, we decided it would be prudent to dash back home on Sunday evening.  And very glad we did too!

And that will probably be the last of Theodora's adventures for this year.  But we are looking forward to making plans for 2014 over the winter months. 

River Deep, Mountain High

Snowdon, Welsh Highland Railway and Llangollen Canal, 4 to 8 September

On Wednesday 4th September we decided to celebrate our 37^th wedding anniversary

by ascending Snowdon.  Motorcaravanners note: there is good parking right in front of the station (£7 per day).  The plan was to go up by train and walk down.  However, “the best laid plans of mice and men....” - despite arriving before 10 am, the earliest available train was 3 pm, and, if you walk up, there is no guarantee of a seat on the train to come back down.  So instead we decided to see how far we could get under our own steam (!) and managed two thirds of the 4.5 mile / 1085 metres ascent.  The weather was glorious, the views spectacular and we passed people of all ages on the path (from a baby just a few months old in a sling to a sprightly lady who must have been nudging 70!)

The next day we moved on to our final site, stopping off at the small town of Beddgelert.  We had parked close to the station for the Welsh Highland Railway and noted on the timetable that we could get an 11:30 train down to Porthmadog.  It didn't seem right to leave North Wales without travelling on at least one of the railways, so I twisted John's arm (not difficult) to make the trip.  But there was still time for a cup of coffee and we would recommend Beddgelert Antiques and Tea Rooms (also a B&B and a licensed evening bistro).  Beware! Beddgelert also has a tempting fudge shop! 

The train journey to Porthmadog was very picturesque.  Interesting manoeuvres are necessary at Porthmadog station, as the Festiniog Railway also uses the station, the line coming in from a different direction.  The guard warned us that the train would go beyond the station to the spit of land called The Cob to enable the train to be hauled back into the station by a diesel engine.  On departure, this process had to be reversed.  All very interesting to “my other half”! 

On the return journey,  as it was not too cold, we opted to sit in one of the open carriages and unsurprisingly got covered in flecks of soot!  On passing through one long tunnel the air became hot and thick with smoke, causing spectacles to steam up.  

On arrival back at Beddgelert we had a snack lunch in the 'van we continued our journey to the Caravan Club Site, Lady Margaret’s Park, at Chirk.

This site is highly recommended, although many of the pitches are in shady dells.   It has all the excellent facilities you would expect and is only a 10 to 15 minute walk into the small town, where there is everything else you might need.  The mainline railway station, with trains to Chester and Wrexham, for example, is even closer.  The site is located next to the National Trust property, Chirk Castle, with wonderfully ornate gates, although it is a 1.5 mile walk to the entrance. 

On Friday 6^th we paid a quick visit into Chirk before joining the path by the Llangollen Canal (5 minutes from the site) for a most enjoyable walk to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, built between 1795 and 1805 by Thomas Telford.  It is an amazing structure, which we even summoned up courage to walk across, looking down on the valley 126 feet below!

  http://www.pontcysyllte-aqueduct.co.uk/en-gb/discover-world-heritage/pontcysyllte-aqueduct/

Having had quite an energetic eight days, Saturday 7^th was designated a “day of rest” but it was also lovely to see Chris and Marie, who stopped by to visit during the morning, as they were in the area. 

To sum up, we found some excellent sites and wonderful places and will do our best to make a follow-up visit.

Castle(s) in the Air

The Great Orme and Caernarfon, 1 to 2 September

The next day (Sunday 1^st) we planned to drive to the western side of Llandudno and climb the Great Orme.    As John was a bit concerned about where we would park Theodora (the UK is not the most friendly place for motorcaravans) we made an early start, but needn't have worried.  There was loads of free parking along the promenade.  We took the “steep, zig-zag route” to the top (and indeed it was just that on both counts!) but reached the top in about an hour and a quarter, contrary to the signpost's allowance of two hours.  At the summit there is an interesting visitor centre and a large cafe / restaurant where we had lunch.  Feeling refreshed, we then walked around the edge of the headland to view the limestone pavement, which is one of the largest examples in the world. 

We descended via the Great Orme Tramway, now in its 111^th year, which is the only cable-hauled tramway operating in Britain and still using the original tramcars.  It was certainly a very interesting place; full details at  http://www.greatorme.org.uk/ 

We then travelled on to the next stop on our itinerary south of Caernarfon, Bryn Gloch Caravan and Camping Park, nestled in the heart of Snowdonia, with splendid views. 

This is a lovely site and although it is rather large including some statics and seasonal caravan pitches, it is broken up into separate fields so each area feels quite separate.   The facilities are excellent and very clean.  One point to note is that although it advertises free WiFi, this was so slow it was useless.  The site does not appear to have its own website but is included in many other links.  The Welsh Highland Railway passes through the site (guess who chose this one then!) and the next afternoon we got on the bikes and cycled to the nearest station (Rhyd Ddu) to take some photographs as two steam trains passed through.  This will sound boring to non-enthusiasts, but even I will admit there is something rather special about steam trains!

There is a bus stop right outside the site so on Tuesday 3^rd Theodora had another rest day while we travelled in to Caernarfon.  We found a lovely little tea room run by a Dutch lady (can't remember the name but look for the sign advertising Dutch pancakes!) and enjoyed our coffee in the tiny garden.  Then on to the well-maintained castle, one of Edward I's chain of castles built to maintain control over Wales, which we thought was good value at £6 per person.  http://www.caernarfon-castle.co.uk/ The 25 minute audio visual presentation giving the history of the castle was very informative, as was the exhibition about Prince Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969.  Before returning to base we wandered across the river to view the castle from the other side.

North by Northwest

Chester and Bodnant Gardens, 29 to 31 August

Children are now on their way back to school so it must be time to have another break in Theodora.  We had a fairly unremarkable journey up to Chester Fairoaks Caravan Club Site, ignoring the inevitable delay on the A14 and the half-price trip on the M6 toll (courtesy of membership to the Caravan Club).

Despite the site being only minutes walk away from Cheshire Oaks Retail Outlet, we managed to steer clear and head for Chester on the bus; the nearest stop is about 15 minutes walk.  Our last visit was probably about 40 years ago!  To refresh our memories, we walked around the city walls, starting at Eastgate, recognisable by its famous clock.

There was racing at the Roodee Racecourse and you get a good (free!) view from the walls.  A few people were installed with folding chairs and picnics.  You will be intrigued to learn that its curious name comes from the old English words, rood, or cross, and eye, or island – meaning literally 'the island of the cross' – and that in the middle of the circuit there is the stump of a medieval cross.  You never know, could be useful in a quiz sometime!  It was also interesting to learn from our leaflet how Chester was, at one time, the second largest port on the west of England and its decline was largely due to the silting up of the River Dee.  A brief walk by the river and a peek into the cathedral filled the rest of our time.

After a second night at Chester, we moved on to a Camping and Caravanning Club Certified Site close to Llandudno, calling at the National Trust Bodnant Gardens on the way.  The house is not open to the public but the gardens (80 acres with spectacular views across Snowdonia) are stunning, “with expansive lawns and intimate corners, grand ponds and impressive terraces, a steep wooded valley and stream”.

Walk on the Wild Side

West Sussex, 18 to 21 July

We have just returned from a long weekend in West Sussex, which was centred around a photography shoot at the British Wildlife Centre at Lingfield, organised by Experience Seminars (Canon specialists).

http://www.britishwildlifecentre.co.uk/

Our journey south was uneventful, but we did pity the thousands of poor souls who were trapped in a huge jam on the M25 in the opposite direction in the blazing heat. The National Trust conveniently provided a lunch stop at Ightam Mote. “A picture-perfect, timber-framed house, sitting on its own little island surrounded by water.” Another property requiring a second, longer visit, perhaps to see the ancient bluebell woodland.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ightham-mote/things-to-see-and-do/

We stayed at the Camping and Caravanning Club Site in Crowborough, which we had visited before, albeit twenty odd years ago in a trailer tent! The site was up to the usual CCC standard, although the shop was only open for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon, which was a source of disappointment at the time I wanted to buy an ice cream!

On arriving at the British Wildlife Centre on Friday it was a nice surprise to find that the venue was closed to the public, so the twelve photographers in our group plus Brian from Experience Seminars had the place to ourselves, apart from a few staff. As we moved around the various enclosures, the assistant who was accompanying us would provide appropriate titbits for the animals to tempt them out to be photographed. It was a scorching hot day and they were somewhat reluctant at times, preferring to hide in the cooler shade. Nonetheless we saw red squirrels, foxes, barn and tawny owls, stoats, weasels, otters, badgers, marsh frogs, Scottish wildcats, a polecat and deer, all at very close quarters as we were allowed inside many of the enclosures. John did not get off to a good start when his telephoto lens suddenly “died”; the advantage of being part of the Experience Seminars group was that Brian had a selection of lenses which could be tried out, so John was able to borrow one of these (a professional lens) and is currently trying to

convince me that he needs one of his own! It was an enjoyable experience and we have hundreds of photographs to wade through, but we both came away feeling that wildlife photography is probably not our forte, lacking the patience and dedicated lenses to get the really good shots you dream of.  

The weekend also gave us the opportunity to see our friends Richard and Marion from Battle. Another National Trust property, Sheffield Park Gardens, provided a meeting point and restaurant, and it was lovely to catch up with all their news in such pleasant surroundings, even if the good weather did a nose-dive.

Sheffield Park Gardens is a "magnificent informal landscape garden which was laid out in the 18th century by 'Capability' Brown".  Four lakes form the centrepiece.  As we walked around, it was interesting to read about the regeneration work which was taking place.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sheffield-park-and-garden/

We departed early on Sunday morning to avoid the heat of the day and holiday traffic.