Finally Setting Out on the Big Adventure

We spent over a week at Ridge Farm caravan site, in Steep near Petersfield which included the Diamond Jubilee holiday weekend. We had a very busy time catching up with family and friends, some not seen for quite a number of years. We had a really good time and thank everyone one we saw for making it all so enjoyable.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Bradford on Avon

After Petersfield Harvey had to have a service and a couple of jobs done so was booked into Gold RV at Alton. We spent a couple of nights over at Poole with our friends, Kay and Kevin while this was happening and picked Harvey up again on the Wednesday lunchtime. It was then off to Marsh Farm near Trowbridge for a couple of weeks. The site was just a short distance from the Kennet & Avon canal so we cycled down the towpath into Bradford on Avon, which was about four miles away, a couple of times and had some walks along it also.

Knowing we were going to be in Trowbridge for a while we had arranged to meet up with an old colleague of mine and his wife in the local pub. Pub was a bit of a dive but it was great to see Norman and Carole again.

When we left Marsh Farm it was to go to an RAF reunion in Weston-super-Mare for ex-members (and one serving member) of 12 Signals Unit in Cyprus. This was celebrated by having a Meze in a Greek restaurant. It was good to meet up with people I had known well and not seen for years and I'm looking forward to next years bash. Hope it will be in Cyprus.

From Weston it was back to Alton to get a job done that had had to be postponed and an overnight stop in the car park of Gold RV, then on to Deal in Kent. The day of the ferry was fast approaching.

In the queue at Dover

A few nights were spent at Deal, about forty minutes from Dover, to say cheerio to Emma, Charlie and Jon and also Dave and Debbie. Then on Monday at 10:00 it was off to join the queues waiting to board the ferry. Watching the artic's going up the ramp and dragging their rear ends gave us a bit of trepidation but when our turn came we were directed to the lowest deck so it was a fairly flat run in. The crossing was very uneventful as was the disembarkation and I remembered to drive on the left leaving the docks. Tricia managed not to be seasick!

Tricia on the Ferry

Aire de Service - Le Crotoy

The next step was a short run down the coast to an Aire at Le Crotoy which was right on the estuary and very spacious. As we were out of LPG we decided to stay two nights here and spend Tuesday searching for a service station. One was found quite quickly on the A28 just south of Abbeville which would do the job. so we returned to Le Crotoy and spent the afternoon looking round the town. It has a nice beach and a quaint steam railway link to Noyelles sur Mer and Ault.

Steam Train at Le Crotoy

We liked Le Crotoy even though it was a bit touristy.

Relaxing with a beer at Le Crotoy

Thankfully our LPG adapter worked and we managed to fill the gas tanks and then make good time down the A28 as far as Rouen. Circumnavigating Rouen had been thought to be a bit of a nightmare but, despite not heeding Tricia's instructions, we managed to get onto the A13 and turn onto the N138 without any bother. The Aire for the night was at St Pierre-Des-Nids, south west of Alencon, and it was full of road mending materials and plant. However, we managed to unhitch the trailer and park the van, and headed into the town for a beer/wine. After chatting to one of the elderly locals, who recounted her war experiences and told us how happy everyone had been to see the English liberators, we popped into a little bar for a drink. Tricia managed to practice her French on the lady tending the bar and another of the locals.

Aire de Service - Saint-Pierre Des Nids

The following morning, awakened by the road crew arriving, the car was hitched up and we headed for Poitiers via Le Mans and Tours, arriving at where the Aire should have been at Jaunay Clan only to find it blocked off. A place to park was found in an out-of-town shopping centre's unused overspill car park. Luckily the 2.2m height barrier had been left open, and we walked over to the bar in the centre to get directions. The young chap tending bar explained how to get to the Aire de Futurscope, which would have been our next choice and we found this with no problem. The Aire was inside the Furturscope theme park and the ticket barrier was a bit of a tight squeeze both in width and height but once inside there was plenty of space for us to turn round and park with the trailer still hitched up. The tariff was only 2 Euros but the down side was that we had to be out by 08:00.We returned to the bar and thanked the bartender for his help.

The port from the Aire de Service - Mortagne-sur-Gironde

Up at 06:30 and ready to roll by 07:30, back onto the N10 and onwards to Angouleme, Cognac and Pons before striking out on the D6, a yellow road, for Mortagne-sur-Gironde. I had decided to approach the port from the east to avoid having to negotiate the town and the steep winding road down to the harbour so we turned onto the D730 for a short way and then onto the D245, which turned out to be a single track road. Luckily we only met one other vehicle coming the other way and managed to pass without any trouble. Unfortunately, after following the winding road for some two or three kilometers I took a wrong turn in Mageloup and ended up heading into Mortagne from possibly an even worse direction than the one I was trying to avoid. There were a few heart stopping moments as we drove up a very narrow street with cars parked partly on the pavement and partly on the road. Having negotiated that, though, it was a fairly easy run down the hill to the port.

The Bastille Day Brocante (Car Boot Sale) - Mortagne-sur-Gironde

One of our neighbours, the Storks

Saturday was Bastille Day and there is a fair on the approach to the Aire and there were stalls all along the road where we are parked so it was fortunate we arrived when we did and won't be leaving for a while.

Gosford Park

Harvey is currently on the Gosford Park CL site just outside Ottery St Mary in Devon. We arrived here last Thursday after a short and uneventful journey from Dorchester. On turning off the A30, though, the road narrowed considerably which made us a bit apprehensive  but when we reached the lane down which we had to go we gasped as it was barely wider than Harvey. Nothing daunted, however, I turned in and set off down it yanking a large amount of foliage out of the hedgerow on either side. On arriving at the entrance to the site the layout had changed from what we had seen on Streetview and I wasn't able to make the turn in without unhitching the trailer and reversing up a bit. Once on the site, though we set up camp in the sunshine.
 




The reason for being here was Jan and Ian's wedding in Exeter on Saturday, which went off very well with glorious sunshine for the photo's in the grounds of Larkbeare House. Later there was food and drink at Mazzard Farm near Ottery St Mary and this involved the imbibing of a small quantity of Otter beer (which was pretty good).






 Yesterday we travelled to Barnstaple to spend a couple of hours with Dave and Debbie, our friends from Bexhill, and returning via Tiverton we stopped at Bickliegh Mill for a cream tea.

Tomorrow it is off to Petersfield for about ten days so that Tricia can attend a work reunion and to catch up with friends and relatives in the Hampshire area. The distance is about 130 miles and it will take us around 3 hours.

Wallowing in the mire at Peterborough

By eleven o'clock on Wednesday 25th the waste tanks had been emptied and all was in readiness to move onto the car park, hitch up the trailer, drive the car onto it and strap it down. The best laid plans and all that, when the van started to move off the pitch it was quickly bogged down and no amount of to-ing and fro-ing was going to budge it. In the end a local farmer helped out with a tractor but the grass of the pitch was pretty ripped up by the time Harvey was off of it. By the time the trailer was hitched and the car was on it it was about 15:00 but we set off regardless.

Our arrival at Greetham in Rutland was going to be a bit later than intended so they were rung to explain and we were told that there was no entry after 20:00. Needless to say we were only as far as St Neots by that time so couldn't get into the camp site. Stopping for gas at Wyboston, the attendant said that if we were stuck we could stop the night on the forecourt but we decided to carry on and look for lay-bys to stop in on the way. At the time we didn't know that some sites had been flooded out so we weren't the only motor-home looking for a parking place. On the road between Wyboston and Peterborough the lay-bys were full of them in both directions so we turned round and headed back to the petrol station forecourt. It being 22:00 by this time we had a MacDonald's for dinner and went to bed.

In the morning it was up at 07:30, a cup of tea from the garage and then on the road to find a lay-by to hang around in until the show-ground opened it's gates at 10:00. One was quickly found with a snack van so we breakfasted on bacon rolls and passed a couple of hours reading. Then it was off to the show-ground, arriving at about 10:30 and joining a fairly short and moving queue we were soon allocated a huge pitch on firm ground near the metalled road. Our friends with the Four Winds Five Thousand weren't so lucky and ended up on a very soggy general area. After sorting the van out and having some lunch we headed into the show in the pouring rain. The exhibitors were still setting up and already it was starting to get muddy. Straw was being spread around in the tents but it did little to stop the conditions worsening. We had a shopping list so it was a case of tracking down the items and comparing prices from one stand to the next. In the main arena there was a display of static caravans and a van selling teas and coffees so we managed to grab a couple of seats at a table occupied by another couple and have a cuppa. Getting talking to the couple that we were sat beside we explained that, because we missed getting into our camp site the previous night we hadn't been able to fill up the fresh water tank. The chap, Malcolm, offered me the use of their 30l water carrier and a 12V submersible pump which I accepted gladly and after four trips to the tap we had a full tank of water. In the evening we headed to the entertainment venue and had a few drinks whilst listening to Keep It Cash, a Johnny Cash tribute band.

On Friday morning it was up with the Lark (09:00 for us) and then into the show to see properly what was on offer. It was a bit disappointing that, although there were more exhibitors than in previous years, there was very little in the way of motor-home parts so our list was not going to be reduced by much and in fact we saw some other things that we decided were bargains and should be purchased. Such things as two new 120Ah leisure batteries at £85 each. We bumped into Malcolm and June, the couple we had met yesterday, and arranged to meet them in the evening at the entertainment venue, which we did at 19:30. The entertainment was the Joe Loss Orchestra with Todd Millar performing hits from the '40's through to the '90's which was very good. Again a few drinks were had and we eventually got to bed about midnight. On Saturday a quick belt round the show in the morning was followed by a run to North Luffenham in the afternoon to visit friends. We went to the pub with them for dinner and had a very nice time, good company, lovely steaks and great beer. Thanks guys, see you again soon.

On Sunday, after days of continual rain, many of the exhibitors and several of the campers, including our friends with the Four Winds 5000, decided they had had enough and were heading home. Our friends had to wait an hour for a tractor to tow them out of the mud and there were hazard lights flashing all over the site indicating that people were stuck and needed a tow. In the afternoon the rain stopped and the sun came out for a while. We decided to stay on until Monday as did Malcolm and June so we met them again at the entertainment venue for another night of revelry this time accompanied by tributes to Gene Pitney (rubbish), Engelbert Humperdink (very good), Elvis Presley (quite good) and finally Buddy Holly (The Counterfeit Crickets, excellent!) Monday morning dawned nice and sunny and we brought in the slide-out, raised the legs and gingerly moved off the grass and onto the road. Once the trailer was hooked up and the car put on it we were off back to sunny Dorset.

Another Motorhome Show

Tricia and I are off to Peterborough in Harvey tomorrow, spending one night at the Rutland Camping and Caravanning Park near Greetham, then four nights at the Motorhome Show at the East of England Show-ground. It is about 223 miles so will take about five hours altogether (I only do between 50 and 60 mph). It will be the first time we have towed the car on the trailer so that will be interesting. I just hope I don't have to do any reversing. The couple that we are friendly with, who own the B & B near Dorchester, have headed up there already in their Fourwinds 5000 and we will meet up with them tomorrow. We have a shopping list as long as my arm and will be hunting down some bargains ready for our departure in July. We are also planning to meet up with some friends who live in the area and we haven't seen for a couple of years. There is no electric on the site so we will be relying on batteries and genny which will be good practice for wild camping in France. It will be back to Dorset next Monday.

Passed my driving test again!

On the 7th of March I took the C1+E driving test for vehicles over 3.5tonnes towing a trailer and passed it with only two minors. As you can imagine I am pretty pleased with myself not least because this now means we can head for France with our car in tow. We have a couple of engagements before we can leave however. A friend of ours is getting married in May, and we have been invited to the wedding, then there is a reunion of Tricia's old work colleagues in early June followed by a reunion of my ex-RAF colleagues at the end of June. We have been making plans about the route we will take and will probably stay in France for a while. I have recently discovered that my ancestors came from Belpech near Toulouse, so I intend to do some searching of the church yards to see if any can be found. Then we will move further east and south to try and rendezvous with friends from Germany who have a holiday home on the Mediterranean coast. After that it will be south into Spain and a leisurely tour around the coast. If we get bored there then it will be back through France and on into Italy as we still have a date with a 10km zip wire (). We intend being back in the UK in March 2013 to get the vehicles MOT'd and serviced and after a few weeks of visiting friends and relatives will be off again for another trip. That is the tentative plan. It will be interesting to look back and see if we we achieved any of it.

A quick update.

A quick update.

Drove Harvey up to Knaresborough, Yorkshire to pick up a trailer for transporting the car and spent a couple of nights in the Caravan Club Site up there. We had broken the journey on the way up with a night in the Caravan Club Site at Wythall, near Birmingham, and had liked the area so we stopped for an extra couple of nights on the way back. On the Saturday we walked about four miles around the local countryside, stopping for a pub lunch in Weatheroak en route. Harvey performed impeccably up and back and I barely noticed that there was a fairly large trailer following us.

So now we are back at Grimstone for a bit longer. I am still trying to organise a driving course to upgrade my C1+E licence but it is proving more difficult than originally thought. Tricia is trying to keep busy but going quietly nuts with boredom.

This may yet be the year we cross the channel but perhaps not until after the summer.

Kicking our heels in Dorchester

Well we are still living in Harvey in Grimstone, Dorchester. Despite advertising on Ebay and several motorhome selling sites there were no takers for our motorhome so there is a new plan. I am now going to take another driving test to enable me to tow the car on a trailer behind Harvey but the earliest I can get a test is December.

At the moment we are living in chaos with no gas or water because the kitchen worktop needed to be replaced. The new worktop is fitted and a separate water filter tap is currently being installed while the water is turned off.

It looks like we will be in Dorchester for the next few weeks but we still plan to head across the channel as soon as we can.