With the van packed ready for a long trip, we
drove down to Swindon to stay on a friend’s drive before heading for
Marlborough and the Savernake Forest tomorrow. Packing for this trip was not as
easy as packing for Greece as we were staying at sites in England first and
it’s been cold…..so in went walking boots, waterproofs and hats plus shorts and
swim suit, jumpers and strappy tops, flip flops and warm boots…..what a
combination. It was good to see friends Ian and Karen and we went for a meal at
a local restaurant.
Sunday
15th April Savernake Camping in the Forest site near Marlborough.
We drove to a very muddy Camping in the Forest
site about 15 miles away from our friend’s house. Usually you can park anywhere
but today we were ushered on to a spot where the warden lent us lots of wooden
planks to make a deck outside the door because it was so muddy. When Andy and
Carol arrived, they were put on the only hard standing spot on the site. The
warden wasn’t worried about where he had put us as he said he could tow us off
the grass if we got stuck. We had a walk around the forest nearest the site and
then Ian came to pick us up to take us to Marlborough where the six of us had
an Italian meal.
Monday
16th April Savernake
There are no showers on this site but the toilets
are as clean as could be in this muddy weather. Today was warm and sunny and we
went for a really good bike ride around the forest, stopping on a handy log for
a picnic lunch listening to the mewing of buzzards. We got to see them really
close up as they manoeuvred through the trees- I’ve never realised that they
flew through trees like that. Pete and Andy had to climb up to a viewing
platform …as boys will do…as Carol and I watched them from below. Carol cooked
a lamb tagine in the slow cooker for our evening meal and it was delicious.
Tuesday
16th April Savernake
After breakfast we walked down the fairly steep
track through the trees and into Marlborough. We had lunch outside the
Wellington Inn in the beer garden in beautiful sunshine surrounded by flowers.
Carol and I hit the shops and there are great charity shops! I saw a Prada top
..a bargain at £59 but not for me, ( wrong size) though I did get a top and a dress in another
shop while the guys checked out the Royal Oak and the Lamb Inn. I cooked pork
fillet in mushroom sauce and we planned our Greek summer trip as we are all
going together. Pete and Andy tried out the walkie talkies – an essential boy’s
toy for the holiday though last time we used them, they were very useful.
Wednesday
17th April Black Knowl Caravan Club site New Forest.
We drove through Andover. Romsey etc into
Brockenhurst where we saw loose donkeys in the street…and the sat nav locked
up. This is a super site and so nice after the mud of Savernake Forest. Carol
did some work while Andy, me and Pete cycled into Brockenhurst. We called for
Carol on the way back and cycled to a bridge where one of the ‘boys’ tried to
cross the river on a fallen tree – he
succeeded but there were anxious moments! I made a salad and smoked haddock
chowder then I had a lovely long shower in the dated but very nice wet rooms
where you can put your towel on a radiator and have room to get dried on dry
floor, not a little cubicle.
Thursday
18th April Black Knowl
We cycled into Brockenhurst for coffee and
internet at the Watersplash café. We saw the most enormous chocolate éclairs in
a bakery window so Andy needed one….he cycled back with the cakes while we
waited at a bridge for him. We watched new Forest ponies grazing then cycled to
Bank and the Oak pub for crab sandwiches for lunch- very nice! We saw a field
with deer in and had a ride through the forest, getting wet three times but we
had all the right clothes in our bike bags so we didn’t get soaked. We did
about 18 miles then had good hot showers before Carol did chicken then we (
some of us!) had the cakes we bought earlier. We looked at Andy and Carol’s
photos of their USA trip which looked wonderful and reminded us of our trips to
California.
Friday
19th April Black Knowl
Andy dry cleaned his van and we cleaned the bikes
and sat in the sunshine. We walked into Brockenhurst following a route that the
wardens gave us and sat having a ‘slushie’- frozen cider- fantastic- in the
sunshine outside the pub. We then went to another pub and had a good evening
meal before walking back. It perhaps wasn’t a great idea to take a shortcut as
it proved a boggy route! I had to put my walking boots under a tap to rinse
them clean.
Saturday
20th April Black Knowl
It was a beautiful sunny morning so we cycled to
Bank then turned right and cycled to Lyndhurst. We left the bikes in the car
park and walked into the village where
we sat in the garden of the Mailman’s Arms in the sun. We got pasties, chips
and sandwiches before the cycle back. As it was so nice, the guys did a
barbecue though we ate inside as the temperature dropped.
Sunday
21st April Broad Park Caravan site Modbury Devon
We set off for Devon at 10am. We stopped for
shopping at Ferndown Lidl and got diesel at Sainsburys on the next roundabout.
We parked on pitch 92 near the toilet block. We wrapped up warmly and cycled to
Pete’s mum’s house in Modbury. It was cold and wet. We spent time with Pete’s
mum who is getting frail. We had a very wet cycle back but a hot meal of prawns
and noodles cheered us up a little.
Monday
22nd April Broad Park Modbury.
I woke up very early with a blackbird singing
loudly outside the van. Pete cycled in the wet to see his mum. I waited till
later to cycle down the hill but every time I put my coat on ready to go, it
rained heavily. Pete took his mum out for lunch and I went down later when it
wasn’t raining so hard. We listened in the evening to the Manchester United v
Aston Villa game and were delighted that United became league champions again
for the 20th time.
Tuesday
23rd April Slapton Caravanning and Camping Club site Devon
A sunny morning. We stopped in Kingsbridge for
shopping and got bargain sea bream fish for £2 each. The narrow road to Slapton
is tricky to drive along and we were glad to meet the double decker bus in
Torcross where we could get past it easily. The caravan site is small but
beautiful and we had a super pitch at the edge with a seaview. The warden
agreed a pitch nearby for Andy and Carol so when they arrived we had pasties
and we sat in the sun. Later, we had a cream tea ( scones, jam and clotted
cream on top). We went for a walk around the lovely village of Slapton where
there is a wonderful large magnolia tree in full flower. We sat in two pub gardens-
the first one at the Queen’s was warm in the sun and we had a nice pint, then
we went in the other one, the Tower, where the wonderful back garden had big
fat chuckling hens in a pen and gorgeous flowers. We watched the rooks going in and out of the tall tower. I
learnt that the collective noun for a group of rooks is a ‘clattering’! What a
great way to describe them. When we got back to the site, Pete cooked the bream
outside while I did salad inside.
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| view from the van over Slapton |
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| Tower Inn. Slapton |
Wednesday
24th April Slapton C and CC site
We slept with the front blinds open so we could
wake up and see the sea. We walked down to Slapton Bridge and caight the 11.35
am bus into Dartmouth. We went upstairs on the bus and it was really like a
fairground ride as the lanes are so narrow and the bends are so tight, it felt
like we might hit something or fall over. We had great views of the coastline.
It was £6.20 each for a day return. We had coffee overlooking the estuary then
walked round the town. We went into a pub but they didn’t do pasties so as Andy
and Pete needed a pasty ‘fix’ they bought some in a shop while I got sharing
chips and we sat on a bench watched by a mother and baby seagull. The baby
looked mournful and wailed at us to feed it but I only share my chips with
humans.( That’s because many years ago, on holiday in Cornwall, I bought a
wonderful ice cream with clotted cream on top. I walked out of the shop holding
aloft my lovely ice cream when a seagull flew over and went to the toilet on my
ice cream! I was not happy) We went for another walk and into another pub
before getting the bus back again. It seemed even more like a roller coaster
upstairs going back. Carol had made beef stew and dumplings in the slow cooker
so we had a nice meal to go back to.
Thursday
25th April Slapton C and CC site
It was sunny again with a cool wind. We walked
down through fields to Slapton Ley- a fresh water lake near the sea. We saw
swans, wrens and nesting coots and a slow worm which Andy picked up- it was
very wriggly! Then he put it back in the place where it was sunning itself. We
walked along to Torcross where the Americans lost over 600 soldiers when U
boats got in among their boats as they were practicing for the D Day landings
in the Second World War. The sun stayed out but so did the midges- lots of them
were hovering around so we went inside the thatch roofed pub instead of sitting outside and getting
bitten. We watched the preparations for a memorial service for the Americans as
it was almost the 70th anniversary. We drank cider then walked back
and went to the Tower for an evening meal of scallops, squid, Catalan fish stew
and fillet steak for Andy. We got back before the wind and rain started.
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| bus trip to Dartmouth |
Friday
26th April Salisbury C and CC site.
We said goodbye to Andy and Carol and headed
towards Dover for the ferry the France. We couldn’t decide where to stay but we
decided on Salisbury. We stayed on a pitch at the top of the sloping site . We
had a mobile chip van parked in front of us for two hours and I didn’t go to
get any! That’s restraint. We walked into Salisbury and found a windproof gilet
for Pete in a sale. I bought a notebook for our Austria trip.
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| Salisbury |
