Royal International Air Tattoo, Fairford.9th to 14th of July

This our first real test of using the caravan without the benifit of an electric hook up. Before leaving home I made sure that the battery was properly charged up. Then it was off to Kempsford,about 30 miles north of us. When we got to Cirencester wefaced a major diversion due to a road being closed,and this added about 20 minutes to the journey.
We got to the site at Kempsford just before 1.00pm. Robert had already arrived and had set up, so we pitched up next to him.We were roughly in the same position as last year, so we new that provided a motorhome or a caravan did not set up in front of us we would have a good view.

The weather was very good so we settled down to watch the planes and helicopters arrive.

During Thursday we watched the various display teams practising their routines. Mark arrived in his MR2 at lunch time. Each evening we went up to the bar, where many real ales were on sale, and there was a field resteraunt. This was the Hog roast!

On Friday we went into the Air Show.  Only two thirds of the show ground was open, and it was not over crowded at all. We were able to get right up close to the Red Arrows.  I must admit that the planes are much smaller than I imagined them to be.

This was the Breitling team that were parked next to them.

We wandered the stalls and various displays, thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

On Saturday, which again was very hot we spent the day sat outside the caravan enjoying the acrobatic displays.

There were a few light showers on Sunday morning but they did not really affect us. We covered the part of the show that had not been open on Friday.  There was not really anything of interest there, so we had a zoom round the rest of the show.

When we got back to the caravan, Mark had cleared up and left as he had work on Monday morning.

We cleared up in the sun on Monday morning, in between watching the planes depart!

Straight home and put the caravan into its storeage.

The Solar panel had worked brilliantly, with the battery never dropping below 13 volts.

A good trip!

Our French Adventure 2014. 15th May to 27th June

Well all packed up and ready to go so we left at 5.30pm on the Wednesday evening for Poole Ferry terminal.  Good run down and we were on the Quay by 8:15. One other motor home there who's owner looked relieved to see us. Turns out she was an 85 year old lady,taking her motor home to France.
Then up at 6.30, round to the right lane for the ferry, which we boarded at 7.45.
Crossed the 'oggin' on a sea that was flatter than the proverbial mill pond.


Straight run down from Cherbourg to Villedieu-les-Poeles.  This is a favourite site of ours, in the middle of a  beautiful town. We arrived to find that Julliet and her husband had left, the managers, and new people were in charge. The site was rather unkempt. It turns out that the new managers had never camped, motorhomed or caravanned!  However we were made welcome.

After two days, with cracking weather, we moved south to Camping de la Motte in the Vendee. Good little site with a very large pitch.

After one night there we moved on th Camping de Montreal, at St Germain Les Belles.Hans and his wife welcomed us as friends and we shared a meal with them in the bar that night. We love this site as it is on the edge of a lake, and we had a lakeside pitch.

Our View from our Pitch

After two nights we moved on again, this time to Millau where we stayed at Camping des Deux Rivieres. This was a busy site in the actual town.

We left there and climed to over 900m on our way to La Floride, which is in Le Barcares, which is on the Mediterranean coast about 12 miles north of Perpignan. We had been allocated pitch M34.This was our home for the next 28 nights. The pitch was large, with our own private toilet, wash basin, shower and store room.

When we arrived I showed our ASCI card, and the receptionist lady, who spoke four languages fluently worked it out that the camp site offer for 4 weeks was better than using the ASCI card.  We spent time setting up properly.

The pitch is about 25yards from the beach, and half a mile from the local village! Lizzie siad I should say that it works out as less than 14 euros a night for a 28 day stay!

We soon fell into the routine of me wandering up to the village for croissants and bread, then breakfast, followed by Coffee in the local village, then the rest of the day sat in the sun reading or sleeping!  Please note the temperatures were, in the shade in the high 30's.

I will not bore you with details of daily living so just a few highlights!

A meal in Le Barcares of Whelks, clams, Razor clams, whelks etc.

Another night it was a grilled Lobster for only 19 euros

The market, which happens on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.  The chickens done on the Rottissiere were yummy.

One day we went to Perpignon, which is a lovely city, but was rather spoilt by the itinerant people from eastern europe who were wandering around. Still enjoyed our visit though.

On the 14th of June we set off for a day trip to Andorra! as we climbed to over 3000m the Freelander2 started to overheat, so cutting our losses we turned for home! On the Monday I rang Red Pennant and explained we did not fancy driving home with an overheating Freelander.  They quickly sorted a garage for the following morning.  We turned up at the garageat the due time. He took a quick look and then, aided by translation from the ladies at Red Pennant directed me to another garage.  This turned out to be Land Rover Perpignon!  We presented ourselves at the service managers desk.  He explained, in English, thet the computer was busy until 2.00pm, so come back then. We duly were back at 1.45.  The Freelander was plugged into the computer, and a faulty fan module was diagnosed.They did not have one, so one was taken off a brand new Freelander2 in the show room.  We were back on then road, albeit 761 euros down.

We stayed on at Le Barcares for an extra couple of days to make sure all was well.  Then, after booking a pitch for next June we turned for home.

We set of towards Toulouse, and stopped at a site called camping 3 Cantons!  A really beautiful site just off the Motorway.

From there we headed north to Camping De Montreal, just for two. nights.

After that we headed to camping de la Motte for one night.

Then we returned to  Villedieu-les Poeles for our final two nights in France.

WW2 display in the street!

We left VdP at 2.00pm on the Thursday,driving with heavy hearts to Cherbourg, for the 6.30pm ferry to Poole.

We landed in Poole at 9.45pm, and were home just after midnight.
2232 miles covered at 26.1 mpg
An amazing trip,that I have tried to condense.

Roll on next May!

To date we have done 73 nights in the caravan this year!

A final picture. This is the local taxi in V de P

Not bad, a Discovery 4!Class!!!!

Bayardo Farm CL 9th/10th of May

A short run to this CL,just south of Marlborough,  for just two nights as our final shakedown before we set off for France.
The site was easilly accessed. Longish grass and a bit soft underfoot. As very strong winds were forecast we pitched with the off side of the caravan facing SW. That worked as we had gales from the South West and the awning rocked a bit but was Ok.
On the Saturday we met Kim, Graham, Matt and Abi for lunch in Marlborough.
Whilst on site we heard a Cuckoo and saw a Hare.

Pleasant weekend. Another Bailey Pursuit, a 530/4 turned upon the Sunday.

Nice site,which we may use again!

Tredegar House CC site. 22nd April 2014

Well we looked round for somewhere else to go and spotted Tredegar House just between Newport and Cardiff.We had been looking for a CL, 5 caravan site, but this was about the same price, so I popped up and collected the Caravan from storeage and brought it home to pack. Maragret, our char lady was at our home doing her thing so she inspected the new caravan and gave it her seal of approval.

We then set off along the M4 over to Welsh Wales. As we were going along Lizzie said that thesideof her face ached, but that it would be ok. 

We were on site by 1.10, pitch 38. This is a really nice tidy site with good size hardstandings. We quickly set up in the sun and relaxed for the afternoon.

Our Pitch

The National Trust Park next to the Caravan Site was invaded by travellers at 3.30pm, so the whole of the site went iinto lock down! Plenty of Police and security men around. We cooked dinner and turned in. 

The site stayed in lockdown mode until Wednesday morning, although the travellers had been evicted the previous night!  Good work by the National Trust.

We went to Tredegar house for Coffee, and then as Lizzies face was rather swollen we got an emergency appointment at the local health centre.  Lizzies face went down during the day, and we were toldit would probably go away, if not we needed a dentist.

Bit of a damp day, so I got to the bottom of the Cool bathroom!  It was a pipe that had come adrift in the wardrobe, so that was soon sorted. I do have to say this heating seems excellent. Just set the temperature and forget it.

Thursday started really well. Lizzies face had returned to normal, so after breakfast we set off for St Fagans. This is the Welsh National Folk Museum.  Lots of oldbuildings have been collected from all over Wales and rebuilt there. Many have people working in them showing traditional crafts.  It is at least 25 years since I was last there.  We spent several hours just wandering the site.

A good use for an old Tram

How shops used to be!

The China department

The Village Institute. Library, reading rooms and a concert hall

A Showmans Tractor

Roundabout

The whole fair

The stove in the School. I hadoneof these in my classroom when I first started teaching!

On Friday Lizzie woke with a really swollen face, so wephoned her dentist at home.  No chance of an emergency appointment.  So we rang the Welsh Health service emergency dental line in Cardiff.  They put us through to Newport, and then we were given an appointment at a dentist in Cadicott for two hours time.  Off we went, and Lizzie saw this nice dentist who removed a rather angry tooth.  Lizzie soon began to return to normal!  It only cost £13.00 as well. Excellent service.

Saturday morning saw Lizzie virtually back to normal so after breakfast it was Coffee at Tredegar House followed by a tour of the house.  When we got there we were told the disabled lift was not working, so were given free tea and coffee to compensate.

The house was very good so I will let the pictures tell the story.

The dining room

Bed in the day room!

Many outstanding portraits

Part of the outside

On Sunday we had a leisurely clear up before driving home and putting the caravan back in to storeage.

Whilst we were on the Tredegar House site were aware of people going past and looking at our Caravan.  It is such a new model that we have not yet seen another one, either being towed or on site!

Our Brand Spanking New Caravan and Green Acres CL! 10th April

Well.on Wedneday 9th of April, after much cleaning and polishing of our 2006 Bailey Ranger 470/4 we traded it her ( caravans are like ships, always female) in for a brand spanking new Bailey Pursuit 430/4, Platinum edition.
This a new model being built by Bailey, so we have one of the first.This is a fixed bed caravan, with a rear wash room, Solare panel on the roof, Alko ATC traction control,Alko wheel lock, microwave and computer controlled heating and hot water systems.
We spent the afternoon fitting her out, ready for departure the following day to Greenacres CL, which is not to far in case of any problems!
Set off at 11.00am onThursday for Bibury. She towed very well,although felt a bit nose heavy, sowhen we arrived I checked the nose weight and it was high!  Guess who forgot to empty the on-board water tank which is at the front! Whoops!
Set up and put our brand new matching awning up. All went well. Had a go at programming the Computer controlled heating. All ok, except for the bathroom which was a tad chilly. New oven worked really well!

Slept really well in the fixed bed!  Ahh, the sheer bliss of not having to make the bed up each night and pack it away in the morning. Breakfast on the Cadac.
then off to Gloucester to find Dunelm mill to get new matching bedding for the caravan.

On Saturday it was colder so we went to Cirencester, which is a lovely little town and purchased new wine glasses as our previous ones had got broken whilst travelling. They were left on the shelf and neither of us noticed.

Lots of Hares in Cirencester!

Do not know why the hares, probably a charity thing!  Will find some more next time we go there!

Back to the caravan where Lizzie started rearranging cupboards in a more logical way!

Sunday was a really cracking day, so after a hearty breakfast it was off to the Swindon and Criclade railway.Travelled the line on an ex Southern region DMU.  This railway may be short but it is really lovely. Great fun.

A seat for me?

Back to the caravan and I cooked a full Sunday roast, complete with Yorkshire pudding.  The new oven is very good.

Better photos will appear in due course!

On Monday we cleared up and took the caravan back to storeage as the dreaded travellers were on the common!

I have to say that our first trip away in the new caravan was absolutely brilliant!   A real step up from our previous one!

Cheddar CC Site. 19th to 23rd of March

Only home for a couple of days then off again, this time to Cheddar Caravan club site!  This is a typical Caravan Club site with lots of 'elf and safety' warnings The first is that the access road is difficult as it is narrow and you must not arrive before 1pm.  For goodness sake the entrance road is only 120 paces long, and if you cannot reverse a caravan you should not be towing one.

Anyway I digress.  We drove down, via our favourite Burger van. Rolled on to the site and set up on pitch 8.         One rule during the winter months is always find a south facing pitch. That way you benefit from any sun that may be around.
This really is a very small site, only 65 pitches for which they charge you £18.00 per night.  The only facilities are the ablutions block, dish washing and laundry area.  In fact the facilities were nowhere near as good as Northam Farm,where the charge was £13.00 per night.
Next door was a commercial site that looked very good and only charged £13.00 a night.There is even a CL across the road that is probaly cheaper.

The site is very close to the centre of Cheddar, and the walk into town is via the Strawberry line, (one of Dr Beechings casualties), which is now a Cycle/footpath.  The other way is out of the gate, turn left and wall up the road, that has no footpath into town. Elf an safety rears its head again with CC signs warning you not to go that way!  Guess which way I went?

On my first trip into town for papers I could only find Tesco's!  Got a third degree grilling from the assistant over why I refuse to have a Club Card.  She did not like it when I expressed my opinion of Tesco's.  Soon found a Budgens so that got our support!

Next door to us was a motorhome using an Aus Tent as a Dog kennel!  That sure is a pampered pooch!

On the Thursday we went into Wells, and had coffee at the Bishops Palace Coffee shop. This really is an excellent setting.

 Then it was on to the Cook shop where a new kitchen timer and various other bits and pieces were purchased. This is a lovely little shop which is not overly expensive.  www.kitchenmonger.co.uk

Street was the destination for Friday. We wandered around the retail outlet centre, spending money at Marks and Spencers, and the  Procook shop, knives and things for me. Drove across some of the levels and saw many sandbags piled up still.

Saturday was a lovely day, nearly as good as the previous week.  We went to the market, overpriced and not particularly interesting.  More coffee in the Bishops Palace!  We then drove over the top of the Mendips,and down Cheddar gorge back to camp. Can you spot the mountaineering goat in the photo?

Langostines with salad, followed by Duck pancakes for dinner!  Yum Yum!

Cleared up on Sunday morning and left the site by 12.15.  Probably got a black mark from the CC for leaving late.  Home via our Burger Van again,

Neat site, but not in a hurry to visit it again!