Category: 2023 Trips

Seeing in the New Year in the Peak District

Posted in 2023 Trips, Peak District3 Comments

It’s always nice to see the New Year in in the Campervan, we’ve done it many times now and enjoy the change of scenery as the year ends.

This year’s escape was similar to last year in the our wheels turned north towards the Peak District. last year, we stayed at Upper Hurst farm, which we loved, and were tempted to return to, but we settled in the end on returning to Beech Croft Farm, in between Bakewell and Buxton. We set off via my Dad and stepmum’s house in Notts on Thursday and made our way to the campsite on Friday, arriving just before dusk.

We had a quick set up and as we’d gone without some walks during Xmas we got our walking boots straight on and made our way up to the nearest pub that didn’t involve a hill walk- The Queens Arms in Teddington. It’s always a pleasure arriving in the Peak District, the rolling green hills always make my heart swell in contrast to the lack of hill in Norfolk, where we live.

The walk is about 1.4 miles on quiet roads – the last half mile being with a pavement- so was ideal for dusk wandering.

The pub was lovely and had we not have had some pies already defrosted for our dinner, we’d have been tempted to enjoy the 2 fish and chips for £20 offer. The local lager slipped down well, especially when we realised there was the option of a bus back to the campsite (well within .2 miles!)

We enjoyed our pre homemade pies for dinner and settled in for a chill in front of Netflix!

Saturday dawned with better weather than forecasted, so after a sausage cob , with the help of our air fryer, we got our walking boots on and wandered down the Pennine Bridleway to the Monsal trail, an off road disused railway line, with exceptional surface and tunnels too.

We walked to Millers Dale, where we broke off the trail to investigate the other local pub, the Anglers Arms. Again this was a nice pub, with lovely thick stone walls and overlooking the river. From here we made our way back up the hill to the campsite, satisfied that we’d walked 6 miles and thoroughly enjoying every step.

Sunday

New Year’s Eve

Today started well. As the weather was changeable, we decided to make use of the fantastic local bus service and took ourselves to nearby Ashford in the Water which is a very pretty village.

After an explore of the village we nipped in for a pint, before catching the bus to Bakewell. We had a wander around Bakewell, which is the end of the monsal trail and enjoyed a few drinks in the town. Of course, no visit to Bakewell is complete without an original Bakewell pudding!

We made our way back to Gandalf, and impressed with it not raining, we enjoyed a drink outside which was lovely.

Sadly, our good fortune wasn’t to last! Deciding it was time to settle in for our NYE in the van, we made our way inside. And when Keith closed the sliding door- the passenger back quarter window smashed! Honestly! 5.30pm on NYE- in the pitch black. You couldn’t have made it up.

After a consultation with my dad over the phone – we were dumbfounded at what had happened – the decision was taken that we’d attempt to tape the window up to allow us to remain in the van overnight and so Dad and Jenny didn’t have to make a 3hr round trip (on NYE) to retrieve us and the van – we’d both had a couple of beers so couldn’t drive! Luckily unibond duct tape is one of our staple items we keep in the van’s maintenance kit – and will continue to be a priority too! And whilst we couldn’t drive, we could it seemed, make a rather good job at gaffa taping the smashed window up! Dad and Jenny stood down, and we attempted to continue our evening – watching a film and having some party food. The mood however lay in tatters, not dissimilar to the smashed glass on the floor.

NYD

Happy new year!

Well despite our unfortunate ending to the previous year. It was a happy new year, as along with having our health and happiness, we’d also survived a night of gale force winds and driving rain, remaining dry. The unibond duct tape had excelled itself.

We made the decision to, despite the GLORIOUS blue skies and sunshine, to cut our trip short and travel home today. We far rather fancied our chances of getting home without further incident whilst travelling in the dry rather than more wind and rain which was forecasted for Tuesday, the day we were supposed to journey home.

So we reinforced the gaffa as much as we could, and limped back home. Via a sandwich and coffee stop and get more gaffa tape stop at Dad and Jen’s. Happily we did make it back in one piece. And just before the winds and rain came.

So although we were fed up at the way our NY had planned put there was lots to be thankful for. Our insurers were on the list of things not to be thankful for though. They were next to useless. They wouldn’t allow anything other than a VW original window in, and that of course meant ordering from Germany and a potential wait time of 6+ weeks. Clearly we couldn’t wait that long – Gandalf is our only vehicle and the insurers said ‘we’ll send someone to cling film it so you can still use the van’. I reckon that would have been an interesting stance on the insurance had we parked in the city, or anywhere else for that matter, and someone broken in through the cling film, and nicked the van. Needless to say, we didn’t bother and got the repair done privately.

We ordered our window from Veedubtransporters who allowed me to click and collect and pick the window up from Leicester ( bit of a drive in Mum’s car! But worth it) and the cracking (see what I did there!) team at ‘the windscreen company group’ for fitting it for us at a good price and in a great timescale.

Hope your NYE’s went smoother than ours. Looking forward to hopefully a hassle free year of fun ahead … let’s see what 2024 brings us!

We’ve got a big Campervan trip lined up for May/June- and lots in between, so looking forward to the warmer weather and getting on out there!

Until next time Lx

Christmas market fun in Winchester

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This year we decided to point Gandalf’s wheels south for a Christmas market in the small city of Winchester.

On the outskirts of Winchester is the Caravan and Motorhome Club site, Morn Hill, which is conveniently located on the outskirts of the city.

We had a good journey south and arrived just after 5pm on Friday. We had a very quick set up, quick dinner, and a shower,

before catching the bus (which stops very close to the site entrance) to a dog friendly pub called the Golden Lion (which also has a bus stop outside!). This very popular pub has a great menu, however is very busy and so if you want to dine here you’d need to make a reservation. We’d already eaten so enjoyed a couple of beers before getting the bus back for a very quiet nights sleep. But if we returned, we’d book to eat here.

Saturday dawned fresh and sunny and full of Christmas cheer, we donned our Christmas jumpers, and made our way into Winchester on the bus for the Christmas market.

The Christmas market in Winchester is held within the cathedral grounds. There was a queue to get in, which moved fast, but we decided to explore Winchester first and go into the market when it was closer to dusk.

We found lots of very lovely dog friendly historic pubs to enjoy, and did a bit of a historic walking tour, details of which we picked up from the tourist info office.

The ordinary Saturday market was bustling with sellers, and there were street musicians playing Christmas music.

We have a passion for historic pubs and we were not disappointed in Winchester- in fact, we were blown away!

Our favourites:

The Royal Oak. This had a downstairs small seating area with wooden beams and panelling. It was the residence of Emma, the first Queen of England. It professes to be the Oldest Pub in England (there are a few that lay claim to this title). This one is the Earliest building in England to house a bar, with parts of the pub dating back to 1002, when it was residence to Queen Emma. Happily it was also dog friendly and we enjoyed a couple of drinks in here!

The Eclipse. A 16th century half timbered building with a tiny bar area. The pie menu looked great here and one to return to for pies if we’re back! Again it was dog friendly.

There are some interesting tunnels in Winchester to explore and we’d have loved to have seen the Great Hall, but sadly it was closed for a function. So a reason to return!

As the afternoon ticked on by, we made our way to the Christmas market. Suspecting it would be busy, we transferred Jazz into his doggy rucksack, which he loves.

The market wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, but was enjoyable nonetheless. It’s picture perfect with the imposing Winchester cathedral as its backdrop.

We had a few hours wandering, eating, drinking and just generally soaking up the atmosphere which we really enjoyed.

The campsite, Morn Hill, was a great base for Xmas shenanigans and perhaps we’ll return another year.

Do you have a go to place to travel in your campervan to for Christmas markets? If so, please share below!

Until next time

Lx

Adventures in North Devon, Oct Half Term 2023

Posted in 2023 Trips, North DevonTagged 2 Comments

From Exmoor we made our way the short distance to Illfracombe in North Devon. Our campsite, Warcombe Farm, £34, was near to Mortehoe, about 3 miles from Illfracombe. we stopped for some supplies from Tesco in Illfracombe and made our way to the campsite. Check in was easy – we settled into our sea view pitch.

The site has been landscaped to offer some protection of winds blowing off the coast, and as such only a handful of pitches on the large site have a sea view, and those that did had hedges which we found to be a bit intrusive into our view from chairs on the ground- ie it blocked the sea view out! (It was fine if you were admiring it from the height of the van though). Also the facilities block, whilst large, clean and offering huge cubicles complete with shelving, was a good 5-10 min walk away from the sea view pitches. But we liked the location of the site- it had a bus stop right outside and so the following day, my birthday!, we utilised this for a day trip into Illfracombe.

Our first stop was The Royal Britannia which offers an unsurpassed view of the small pretty harbour from its terrace. Since it was sunny and it was my birthday, we enjoyed a couple of beers there, and honestly we could have been in Greece. We enjoyed people and dog watching on the small harbour beach, and enjoyed the sun rays on our face!

From here we made our way to The Pier Brewery and Tap House, which had another amazing roof terrace with sea views.

We had lunch here before boarding the Illfracombe Princess boat trip for its smugglers coves 1 hour coastal trip. Dogs were allowed and we had a great time on board.

It was a lovely way to spend the day, we really liked Illfracombe. And even better we could enjoy some drinks and use the bus.

The next day, as the weather was better on the coast, we decided to hang around the same area for the next two nights. But we’d spotted another campsite with even better views just down the road. We made the less than a mile trip down the road to the Damage Barton campsite, and due to it being out of season, were allowed to check in early.

The views from this site were lovely. Unlike the previous site, the campsite was terraced to enable every single pitch to get a cracking sea view. We of course chose the most extreme we could find, at the bottom of the site, but like on the previous site this did mean a trek to the showers, chemical loo point and dishwashing. We did however had a tap on our and at £28pn low season, we thought this was excellent value.

We prepared a sausage casserole in the slow cooker and wasted no time getting our walking boots on. We enjoyed a coastal path down to Morthoe and then Woolacombe, – down being the important word here- it’s a steep descent into Woolacombe- but we weren’t bothered as we knew we could get a bus from here back to our campsite!

Woolacombe is lovely, has a vast beach, with lots of surfers and body boarders, eateries (including a nice fish and chip shop). There are attractions here for the family, including crazy golf etc. it was a nice place to spend a few hours.

Our final day in the area was spent taking a walk in the opposite direction, to Lee village, a tiny Devonshire coastal village.

It’s very small and quant and has an exceptional pub, The Grampus Inn, also a microbrewery and distillery. It’s old and exceptionally cosy. The menu looked fab although we didn’t eat as we’d taken a soup flask and had beef stew waiting for us back in the slow cooker at Gandalf. But there will definitely be a next time!

Sadly no return bus to get us back up the hill from here, but we took it slowly and returned back in one piece in no time.

We’d had a really lovely time here and absolutely will return. Possibly at this time of year again as it wasn’t as busy as I expect it is in the summer months.

We really enjoyed slowing down and focusing on a small area for a change and had a very good and well needed re charge after a helluva half term!

Looking forward to more winter camping trips ahead!

Until next time

Lx

Adventures in Exmoor- Oct Half Term 2023

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Gandalf the Campervan is enjoying views of Exmoor this weekend, we are staying at Halse Farm on the outskirts of Winsford and about 8 miles from Dulverton.

We arrived after a relatively smooth journey south on Saturday morning, following horrendous flooding in our area the day before. To be honest I couldn’t believe we’d made it!

Our arrival at Halse Farm was interesting let’s say. Unfortunately as we came off the motorway we totally lost phone signal for almost an hour at the precise moment that Keith got a notification on his phone from his online banking that he’d had a fraudulent transaction occur. Also for some reason we’d envisaged a hard standing pitch for our weekend at Halse Farm, however on arrival it was all grass and soggy grass at that.

We decided to pull off site immediately in an effort to drive until we could use a phone to sort out the banking, which actually turned out only to be 5 minutes down the road. We then decided to go and check out the facility block at Halse Farm before we made a decision as to whether to stay or not. In hindsight I think we were absolutely knackered and probably not dealing with anything too well!

Thankfully though the showers were outstanding and we got on with our arrival set up swiftly followed by a very welcome beer.

We decided to walk off our stress and try a pint at the local pub, the Royal Oak in Winsford, which turned out to be a beautiful old pub with roaring hot fire and a food menu that was irresistible. Local venison and lamb jumped off the menu and out at us and we made the decision to enjoy our dinner there.

The Exmoor ale and Exmoor cider slipped down beautifully and the food was simply outstanding.

Nothing could dampen our spirits as we made the journey back up the hill to Gandalf for an early night!

The next morning we were treated to a phenomenal sunrise. Keefy wasted no time in sending his drone up and we were thrilled to see the scenery that surrounded us.

We offloaded the bikes after breakfast and cycled down to Dulverton, which is dubbed one of Somerset’s prettiest villages. It is lovely but we also really adored the smaller village of Winsford which is where our campsite was.

Keith got a good phone signal so got back onto the bank, whilst we enjoyed a couple of drinks before making our way 4 miles up hill- thank goodness for our electric bikes which were AMAZING!

Our afternoon and remainder of the evening was spent chilling.

Halse Farm was a nice base for us, although the pitches were a little rough around the edges and the welcome was a little bit chaotic. The showers were excellent with great pressure and hand held hoses. There is no phone signal and the WiFi was shocking. It didn’t bother us (once we sorted the banking problem out)

Before we left the area on Monday morning, we made the short journey in the van to Tarr Steps. This isn’t possible for anything too much bigger than a LWB Crafter van despite there being a fairly large car park nearby.

Tarr Steps is a medieval river crossing that dates from at least 1000BC. It’s known as a clapper bridge and crosses the River Barle at a particularly scenic point. There are lots of good paths around the area and a delightful pub which also served food and cream teas too. We really enjoyed our walk here, and indeed our time on Exmoor.

We’ll definitely return!

The Great Northern Roadtrip, Part 4; a Beach break in Banff

Posted in 2023 Trips, Scotland1 Comment


We had slow pack up at Dufftown as our check out wasn’t until 11am, and our check in at the next site wasn’t until 1pm – but was only 50  mins drive away.  We made the short journey to Banff, stopped to top up our fridge and made our way to our final campsite of the trip, Banff Links Caravan Park in time for 1pm. 
Keith spent hours researching this, he felt sure we’d appreciate a good sea view (he was correct!), and spent ages trying to find one where we had a great view. His hours of research paid off and we were chuffed to bits when they said we could park side on the pitch as we were small.

So here’s a top tip. If you are booking this site and are in a VW, go for the ‘Seafront grass pitch with electric’. We stayed on pitch 29 and it was wonderful. At £35 pn we felt it was good value for the view alone. The toilets and showers were dated but that view. Money couldn’t buy it! 


Keith made a haggis pizza to go in the remoska for lunch whilst we set up, and I’m not lying when I say we literally sat and watch the sea view. The WHOLE afternoon, evening, the whole of the next day and night and then some more the following day. It did not get old. I had brought my paddlebaord in the hope that i could use it here but the wind was high and as such a surf board would have been better! 
We napped, ate, drank and marvelled at the view. The weather could have been better but could have been worse. 

On Tuesday we began to feel guilty that we’d been VERY lazy, so decided to take a short walk up the beach to nearby Whitehall’s, where there is a very well stocked shop and a lovely cosy pub- we had a pint, well it would have been rude not too! AND a fishmongers. We could have spent a small fortune there but decided to get some Cullen skink tubs which had won awards. There was also a ceramic craft studio opposite the pub where I brought a lovely pair of earrings.


We passed the Roman well here, who knew the Romans got this far north, before making our way back to the van, satisfied that we’d had an adventure and an explore. Lol.


In actual fact, there is loads to do here. We’ve just visited this coast SO many times and we really need to stop and unwind this time.
If you are new to this area, firstly, what are you waiting for- please go and explore the Aberdeenshire coast line. Places of interest with easy access from this site

  • Portsoy, an easy cycle way. Historic Harbour, filming location of Peaky Blinders. Great Ice cream!
  • Cullen Skink. Nice little town, good beach, home to CULLEN SKINK, the most delicious fish chowder. A great old railway line to cycle here. 
  • Fraserburgh- fabulous lighthouse with a great lighthouse which you can visit. 
  • Macduff. Walkable. Filming location of the most recent series of The Crown. In fact last time we were here we saw Emelda Staunton filming! 
  • Gardenstown. Very cute little fishing village
  • Crovie. Absolutely tiny but utterly delightful hamlet. No cars allowed on the main strip. Just charming. 
  • Pennan- one of the filing locations of the hit film Local Hero. 
  • Bow Fiddle  Rock- a terrific rock formation. No prizes for what it resembles. 

I’m sure I’ve missed stuff off here, but these are in the immediate area and most can be cycled too. There is a good bus service running along the coast and a fairly decent off road bike track covers a large portion of it.
Our campsite, Banff Links was a definite return to for us. We loved being able to go side on and although the weather wasn’t great, we lost hours just staring at the view.


We’ve had a great time up north, once again our hearts have been captured by Scotland- it’s the one place in the world that we consistently return to!
We look forward to returning again next year!
We’re off on our long haul adventure next week, which i’ll be blogging about on our sister site wanderleefy.com. It’s a very exciting one, and although we aren’t RVing, we ARE roadrripping and this tour particularly would work well in a camper. So if you’re interested… head on over and click subscribe.
We’ll be back out in the van in September!
Until next time Lx


(previous Aberdeenshire posts)

Adventures on the Moray Firth, Scotland
Adventures on the Moray Firth
Adventures on the coast of Aberdeenshire

The Great Northern Roadtrip, Part 2; Dundee

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From our hideaway at North Berwick, we headed north, passing Edinburgh in absolutely torrential rain. We weren’t too fussed about the weather though as our activity for today was a definite indoor activity. We were making a stop at a top secret location; labelled Scotland’s Secret Bunker, an underground nuclear command station, built 100 m underneath an unsuspecting farmhouse not farm from St Andrews in 1953.

Today the bunker houses all sorts of historical displays and you can wander the very interesting corridors and rooms. Of particular interest was the fully functional BBC recording studio set up for communications in event of nuclear attack. It certainly was a sobering visit and well worth the stop especially if you’ve not been in one before

. If we were being picky we both agreed that we preferred our visit to Kelvden Hatch in Essex, the English equivalent, but if you’ve not been to one before then I’m sure you’d be blown away with this one.

From here, we did a small detour through St Andrews to see the historic gold course, before making our way the last few miles to our campsite in Tayport. We were staying at the Larick Campsite, a community run campsite about 2 miles south of Dundee.

The campsite was busy and had a modern facility block. It was well situated for the main off road bike route into Dundee and also to Tentsmuir Forest.

We had the evening enjoying the sunshine after the rain that we’d travelled through, and wandered into the village for a couple of drinks too. There isn’t much at Tayport, a couple of pubs, a pretty harbour, and a Coop, but it served us well for our stay.

The next day we cycled a little through Tentsmuir forest; the tracks here were more suitable for mountain biking than our road bikes really, but we enjoyed the variety of scenery nonetheless before turning round and heading to Dundee.

The route was all off road and largely tarmac hugging the coast. We crossed the Tay bridge and made our way to V and A museum practically next door to the loft (which by the way had a special bike lift to get off the bridge!) At the V&A there was plenty of secure bike parking.

Here we met our friends Norrie and Caroln- Ann. They whizzed us off in their car for a whistle stop tour of Dundee! We saw maritime history, dandy and Beano history, we went up to the peak-Dundee Law.

We then travelled a short way up to Broughty Ferry to look at the castle and beyond to Arbroath, for some world famous Arbroath smokies for lunch. The smokies were absolutely incredible, so very tasty, our hosts instructed us to eat them out of their paper with our fingers as that was the local way.

From here we made our way to the V&A to retrieve our bikes and we bid them farewell and headed back to Gandalf. Dinner was a beef casserole which had been cooking in the slow cooker, but we were still rather full so, only had half of it, saving the rest for lunch tomorrow.

The next day dawned sunny and we had a fairly lazy morning. Just before lunchtime we loaded our food flasks with warmed up casserole and cycled back into Dundee, leaving our bikes once more at the V&A. We’d learn that the HMS Unicorn was dog friendly so decided to give it a visit.

It turned out to be a very fascinating visit. The Unicorn is the oldest original ship in the world- 200 years old next year and absolutely no restoration work done to it (yet). Set over 4 floors, the lowest being only 4.5 feet high as you are right in the shops hold, it’s not an easy visit for someone of height – Keefy is 6 foot 4 and managed but spent at least half of the visit bent over.

We really enjoyed the visit and it’s highly worth visiting if you’re in Dundee.

Next up we had our casserole lunch whilst having a drink outside the V&A, before Keefy went for a quick look around the RSS Discovery. This wasn’t dog friendly so I sat outside and read my book.

The Discovery was Captain Cook’s ship, and was built here in Dundee, before of course taking him and Shackleton onto their exploration of Antarctica and the South Pole back in the early 1900s. Of course back then that area was totally undiscovered. Keefy really enjoyed the visit and I’d have liked to have had a quick look myself but sadly we had run out of time and needed to head back to the campsite.

Although we had booked a third night here, we’d been invited to go to our friends so we left the campsite mid afternoon and made our way to the other side of Dundee for an evening with our friends. We went for a Friday night out out in Broughty Ferry, which was lovely. There are plenty of historic pubs and we ate at The Ship, which had great views over the sea back towards Tayport where our campsite was. The food was delicious and the Cullen sink there absolutely tremendous! We had a great night- thanks Norrie and Carol- Anne.

We liked the location of Larick campsite but it was unfortunately let down by very noisy campers (although overnight was quiet) and the showers, whilst being modern weren’t really hot enough for our liking. There were a lot of rules on site, along with live on wardens but unfortunately we didn’t see the wardens implementing any rules! Having said all of that, we enjoyed our trip to Dundee, especially catching up with our friends and actually we’d really recommend Dundee as a place to visit. Especially if you like cycling, as I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else in the UK so bike friendly, with an excellent networks of off road paths which were well signed, and ample bike parking all over.

Thanks for a great time Dundee – we’ll be back someday I’m sure!

The Great Northern Roadtrip; Part 1. Norfolk – North Berwick

Posted in 2023 Trips, Disused railways, Drone Photography, Scotland, Yorkshire4 Comments

We had an early start on Sunday as we were keen to get to York by late morning. We had booked onto the Leeds DA THS (Temporary Holiday Site); this is a benefit of being a C&CC member, each region hosts its own THS and club meets and these tend to be on large rally fields in interesting locations at a fraction of the cost of mainstream campsites. They tend to have chemical loo disposal, bins and a water tap and can cost between £5-£15 pn.

We stayed on the Bishopsthorpe THS for one night at a cost of £15 which compared to the prices of the club site in York £40pn+ we felt was a bargain.

Bishopsthorpe is just a couple of miles south of York and linked via a very good traffic free but tarmac cycle path. It’s also got a couple of pubs and is within easy access of the solar system. Yes, you read that correctly! York University installed a few years ago, a reduced, but still accurate scale solar system trail along a disused railway path now cycle trail.

You start at the sun, which is about a mile towards York from Bishopsthorpe and then cycle through the solar system for 6 miles! It’s wonderful. Each planet has some interesting info to read and there is even a replica of Voyager 2 along the way. (Click on individual pics to make larger)

We really enjoyed our cycle along here and would totally recommend it. More info here

Having cycled the solar system, we retraced our steps so to speak back into York- which was 10 miles from Pluto 😜 all off road and the last bit took us right through the Racecourse.

We’ve been to York many times so the usual tourist places were skipped this time, our evening was spent catching up with a friend of ours over some beers in some lovely dog friendly historical establishments. We particularly enjoyed a beer in the roof garden of The Habit- which had amazing views over the Cathedral. We also had a delicious toad in the hole dinner at the Guy Fawkes inn. (Where Guy Fawkes was born)

Our York time was short and sweet this time, but it’s one of our favourite cities in the UK and if you’ve not been we’d highly recommend it.

It’s worth keeping an eye out for the THSs as it’s a much cheaper way of visiting. But there are plenty of campsites to choose from for York adventures and it is a very cycle friendly and dog friendly city.

Moving on from York, we hit the A1 north for 4 hours across the border into Scotland and arrived at North Berwick. We have passed by many times but never stopped. We had intended on staying at the THS here but bad planning on my part hadn’t appreciated how far out of N Berwick it actually was and as the weather was rainy we wanted to be closer to town so we cold enjoy some pub action.

“Wild camping” is much more tolerated in Scotland than England so we decided to bypass the THS and find ourselves a spot closer to town instead. We found a great spot on Tantallon terrace just on the outskirts of N Berwick via Park4night app and couldn’t believe our luck when we managed to get a spot which would work only for a side on small van like ours.

Jackpot!

We settled in, and had a walk into town for a few drinks. Our parking spot was free so we were keen to spend some pennies in town. We had a couple of drinks and chatted to locals in the Auld Hoose and then more drinks at the Ship, before going back to the van and drinking in the magnificent views.

Next day and we decided to stay for an additional night- the sun was shining so we offloaded our bikes and had a cycle around the local area. We looked at Tantallon castle and enjoyed the coastal views. We then made our way back into town for a delicious lunch at the Lobster shack. My north Berwick lobster and crab rolls were just Devine!

From here we made our way back to the van for a bit fat chill. It was great and we’d really enjoyed our time here. There were many vans parked up, but everyone seemed to be behaving themselves and locals didn’t seem bothered either.

After our second night we moved on further north, taking nothing but photos and leaving nothing but footprints. A perfect start to our roadtrip and great to be back in Scotland, our spiritual home

Birthday Celebrations in Clare, Suffolk

Posted in 2023 Trips, suffolk1 Comment

The was shining and it was Keefy’s birthday, so we of course decided to head out for an adventure. We decided to attend a Camping and Caravan club ‘club meet’, held at Clare Priory in Suffolk and Hosted by the West Essex district.

Club meets are similar to Temporary holiday sites, they tend to pop up for a few days and offer a place to pitch with just basic facilities, usually just a tap and elsan point. They are hosted by different regions and usually are very cheap. Club meets tend to be less than 5 days and therefore don’t require a special license whereas THS tend to be up to 28 days.

We had a very very stressful end of the week so when we arrived at Clare we were like tight coils, stress literally steaming from our (well mine – Lydia’s) ears. I’d unfortunately found a very poorly abandoned dog on my way home from work and of course couldn’t just leave it so spent a large amount of time trying to do the right thing. It was utterly distressing and of course delayed our departure even more.

We were welcomed onto the club meet with open arms. We were a bit worried there would be more of an expectation to be social on this kind of site, and whilst we usually are, today I wanted to sit, drink my cider and be quiet. We needn’t have worried, we were left to our own space and I soon started to feel that stress ooze away.

Dinner was delicious. As it was Keefy’s birthday on Sunday I’d told him I would take charge of catering. I utilised a simply cook box I’d had and on the cadac prepared kerala fish curry which was absolutely amazing, even if I do say so myself. The simply cooks are ideal as they usually are quick and easy to prepare and often only use one or two pans.

After dinner and polishing the wine off, we went for a thigh light walk around Clare country park, which is a stones throw from the priory grounds. We also nipped for a cheeky beer or two.

By the time we went to bed, we were both tipsy but much more relaxed than we’d been on arrival.

Going to bed tipsy means only one thing. The mother of all hangovers the next morning! We both felt it. So had a lay in, until it got so hot we had to evacuate out of the van, we then nursed our heads over a bacon butty – even the tea wouldn’t fix it, before offloading the bikes and going for a ride.

Our route took us past the Rough Acre brewery, so we decided to try a hair of the dog.

We also passed through Cavendish which is so pretty and has a great pub, time for another refreshment stop.

We then went on to Long Melford, home to Melford Hall NT (not dog friendly) and the lovely large green. We had a fabulous lunch at the Black Lion – (dog friendly) and then only Nethergate brewery, where we could have stayed for ages. Their lager and cider was gorgeous, but as we’d had a couple already we couldn’t have more than one there.

Our route took us back through Borley, which was once home to Borley Rectory, once the most haunted place in England apparently before it burnt down.

So we did a spot of ghost hunting in the church yard ( we didn’t see anything but I felt a bit on edge) before making our way back to Clare. It was around 25 miles and the electric bikes were great. Thankfully we started to feel more human too and really enjoyed the cycle.

Dinner that night was a simple hot dog as we were quite full from lunch still. Before a relatively early night.

Sunday morning (Keith’s birthday) dawned sunny and hot.

We were invited to a coffee morning but we were in middle of cooking breakfast, so politely declined. We’d enjoyed the location of the club meet, but probably would have to think hard about if it we were to attend one again. There were a few characters that didn’t quite respect our space and we felt a bit like we were being watched and judged a couple of times. As it was a meet, most people knew each other and whilst they were friendly, we just weren’t in the mood to be socialising this weekend and we felt a bit awquad about that. It just wasn’t our cup of tea, but that’s not to say following a less stressful time we’d probably feel differently, as we do enjoy being social… sometimes lol!

Having said that, if you are looking for a social camp out, these would be ideal. As I said the people couldn’t have been more friendly. We just needed a bit of space this time. To find the THS and Club meet pop ups, you need to be a member of Camping and Caravanning club, and search on the Out and About app.

The site cost £10pn and had a tap and elson point and was within the grounds of the 12th century priory. Clare is a great village to visit with over 100 listed buildings, ruins of a castle, motte and Bailey, disued railway walk (not bridleway) a converted railway station, country park and town heritage walk. It had a coop, butchers and a handful of pubs too. Plus a brewery on its outskirts. So a perfect location for Keith’s birthday celebrations. History and beer ✔️

Until next time

Lx

Adventures in Wonderful Wales, Part 3; Porthmadog to Dolgellau

Posted in 2023 Trips, Wales3 Comments

We were desperately sad to leave Pant Gwynn Farm and our sea view paradise, however we had much more to see and so on Wednesday we arose fairly early and were on the road by 9am. Our first port of call was Pwhelli, to stock up on provisions. We made a bee line for the fresh fishmongers there and easily could have purchased one of everything, but instead settled on some fresh dressed crab. We poked our nose into the butchers across the road in the search for Lamb and mint burgers, to no avail sadly, however we managed to get some from the Spar next door to the fish mongers. We nipped in for a dash around Lidl to get some water and beer etc, before continuing onwards towards Porthmadog.

Just before Porthmadog, we pulled off the main road at Criccieth, which was to be our home for that evening- at the C&CC THS (Camping and Caravanning Club Temporary Holiday Site). A THS is like a pop up very basic site, run by a local group – in this case the North Wales District committee- and usually they occupy a large rally field, or field, have a tap, bin and loo disposal point for sometimes a week, sometimes longer, at a very low cost – in this case £12.50 pn. You don’t tend to need to book, but you absolutely do need to be a member. Once a member of the C&CC upcoming THSs can be found here.

So our destination for the evening was the THS at Criccieth, in a large field surrounded by in bloom rhodedendrums.

We checked in quickly and set up even quicker – we wanted to catch the 12.07 bus to Porthmadog, the bus stop was practically outside the entrance to the THS. Once in Porthmadog (£3.90 return pp, dogs go free) we hunted out some fish and chips for lunch and ate them overlooking the pretty harbour area.

At 2pm we bordered the historic Mountain Spirit rail route from Porthmadog Harbour to Bleaneau Ffestiniog, operated by Welsh Highland Railway.

This route is one of the oldest heritage lines in the world, being founded in the late 1800s to carry slate from the quarry town of Bleaneau Ffstiniog to the harbour at Porthmadog. The line is now operated twice daily with a short layover at B F and the engines used are Steam engines. The journey took a bit over an hour each way with time for a quick mooch at BF as the train re hydrates and turns before the decent back to Porthmadog. The journey was really enjoyable – we do like a heritage train journey, and the scenery was lovely, even better with our picture perfect blue skies.

On our return to Porthmadog we had a quick turn around to catch our bus back to the campsite, but we managed it, and once showered (our HOTtap Hot water system is working like a DREAM!) we enjoyed lamb and mint burgers for dinner.

Thursday brought with it more glorious weather, so after a little lie in we packed up Gandalf, waved goodbye to the stewards here and made our short way to have a quick look at Criccieth Castle. If we hadn’t have had extended our stay at Pant Gwynn we would have had a day to do this on foot (its a very short walk from the campsite) but we needed to move fast so drove down, then took a walk around the exceptionally pretty Criccieth. The castle ruin here sits high above the sea and town on its own mound and it towers above. There are some beautiful colourful sea front houses, a coffee shop and ice cream parlour and a fish and chip shop. A late 1800s Lifeboat station and creative post box topper (not so old but just as impressive) sat side by side.And there was a lovely beach sprawled out. The sun made the sea shimmer like a Greek Island, we couldnt believe we were in North Wales!

From here we drive on to our lunch stop, at the very unique Black Rock Sands beach. Why is it unique? Well because it’s one of the few beaches in the UK that you can drive your vehicle onto legally and safely and have the ultimate lunch view.

The webpage for the entrance is here: and what three words (I’m including this as we got lost!) is

///blatantly.stickler.bracelet
https://w3w.co/blatantly.stickler.bracelet

We had a marvellous couple of hours enjoying some beach time, the novelty of having Gandalf with us didn’t wear off. We enjoyed leftover chilli in burritos cooked in the ridge monkey served with salad. The joy of Black rock sands is that it is huge- so no probs finding space. The tide does come in and go out though so it’s not advisable to park and leave your vehicle unattended there without checking where you are parking and the times of high tide. The water was lovely and warm and rather shallow too. I was cursing myself at forgetting to pack swim wear. Many were enjoying their paddlebaords – again we didn’t bring ours – but we will return one day and remember them!

From Black Rock Sands we again waved a reluctant goodbye and drove on to Harlech for a visit to the Castle. Unlike Caernfernon, dogs are allowed inside lower levels so we could both go in together. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is another great place to spend an hour, the walls are impressive to say the least, as is the distance in which the sea has retreated back from the castle over the years (although impressive is the wrong word there I think). We took it in turns to go on the wall walk and enjoy views of the castle from higher up. It was impossible not to be singing Men of Harlech as we spent time there.

From here we continued along the coast road south to and then through Barmouth, around the estuary to Dolgleui and back round the estuary on the other side to Artog, our home for the next two nights being Fegla Fach Farm a C&MC CL site (off grid). We’d crammed a lot of exploring into our day and probably arrived a bit more tired than we needed to be, so on arrival I was a bit grumpy that the site didn’t resemble how I was expecting it to, in terms of beautiful estuary views. There was also no signal – a running theme for the last 4 nights- and the loo point seemed like a million miles away.

Of course, Keefy calmed me down, found a viewpoint just above our pitch on this private mound with glorious views over snowdonia National Park and Barmouth Bridge. I soon lightened up and after our showers enjoyed a delicious Crab linguine. Recipe here.

Friday dawned bright and sunny, so after a bit of a lazy morning, and a walk to the loo point which was no where near as far as I’d thought last night, we donned our walking boots and joined the Mawddach Trail which crossed the entrance to Fegla Fach Farm.

The Mawddach trail is a disused railway route which has been turned into a leisure route. It runs for 9.5 miles between Dolgellau and Barmouth. The majority of the track runs beside the estuary and it really is stunning. The foot mountains of Snowdonia National Park descend into the estuary and the whole area is a site is SSSI so there is lots of birdlife and such to look out for.

Another great feature is that there are bus connections on either side of the estuary. As our campsite was almost at Artog, we walked the stretch from Artog to Dolgellau – around 7.5 miles, then caught a bus from the hourly bus timetable to Barmouth. At Barmouth we then walked back to Artog on the setion of the trail which precedes where we joined it.

On our way to Dolgellau we enjoyed a beer overlooking the estuary at The George 3rd pub. The menu here looked good but we had brought a picnic lunch.

Both Dolgellau and Barmouth were cute little places to mooch. Dolgellau was a picturesque market town with some nice little shops and Barmouth being a traditional sea side resort also had some interesting shops and a nice harbour and beach. Also a fascinating Railway bridge over the estuary which has a toll footpath running alongside it.

The walk was absolutely lovely- very easy terrain and a nice path which could easily be cycled on rather than walked. We can see why it’s labelled one of the most picturesque railway walks in the UK.

Our final supper was sweet and sour chicken cooked and enjoyed on our “secret” viewpoint. Just as we put our knife and fork down though the midges arrived. We hadn’t thought about midges and therefore were totally unprepared! So that’s something to consider, as much as we’ve adored this area we’ll probably avoid coming any later than this as we are both magnets for them and they make us miserable!

On our way home on Saturday we called in at Bodnant Gardens near Conwy – somewhere that has been on my list for years to see to the laburnum arch in its full glory.

This has required avoiding a pandemic and matching our availability with the limited bloom time but I’m so happy we finally made it.

The laburnum tunnel is 55metres long, so over 200 years old and is absolutely spectacular.

The rest of the gardens also blew us away- it was a perfect way to round up our week in Wales.

The weather had been brilliant and we’d thoroughly enjoyed the sites which we’d stayed on. I’ll do a round up post shortly detailing our new battery which enabled us to do 6 nights off grid with no ehu.

Until next time

Lx

Adventures in Wonderful Wales; Part 2, The Lynn Peninsula

Posted in 2023 Trips, Wales, Waterside Pitches3 Comments

Gandalf the VW has hit jackpot. We’re enjoying the most sensational sea views over the Irish Sea, perched on the Welsh Coast Path between Tudweiliog and Morfa Nefyn on the Lynn Peninsula.

I’ve got to be honest, neither of us are familiar with this area at all, but my friend recommended this area when she heard we were going to Conwy and then Porthmadog. We didn’t need much persuasion, we just love a sea view! And sea views we’ve got!

Our departure from Trwn was smooth and we took a leisurely drive to caerfenon (30 mins) where we made a stop to admire the fantastic UNESCO world heritage site castle and town walls. We parked in the castle/train station car park which is huge and can take campervans – even on a Sunny bank holiday Monday- and is right next to the castle.

As we had Jazz and the castle is not dog friendly we opted to enjoy the view from the outside, admiring these huge imposing castle walls which are in terrific condition, as we circumnavigated the castle on foot.

We then decided to move the van to a different spot to enjoy a different view of the castle and town walls. We knocked up a quick lunch of left over fajitas from last night, enjoying the views, before stopping at Morrisons to top up our supplies and moving on 30 mins to our next campsite.

The scenery changed as we entered the peninsula and the lush green hills rolled into the bright blue sea, with a coastline that rivalled parts of Devon and Cornwall and before we knew it we were turning down the track into Pant Gwyn farm, a C&MC CL. This isn’t a CL like we’ve known before, it seems to have 4 separate camping areas- 3 more traditional CL sites with hookup, hard standing and a definitive pitch area. Then, where we were booked (he’d “squeeze us on” he said when we booked a week or so ago). The site with the view. Gareth the owner led us through the farm yard and into this HUGE field with a slight slope that lead to the headland and the edge of the field / cliff where land meets the water. We were both a bit worried that we’d get here and it be jam packed being May bank holiday, but thankfully it wasn’t and we found a space right on the very front row.

Make no mistake- where this site excels in views, it lacks in facilities. There are no hook ups, facilities level pitches etc in the this bottom field. There is 1 tap, a bin, a loo point all of which is a long walk away if you’re on the sea edge.

If you’re on the proper hook up pitches you’re much closer but the view is hugely compromised. There are two basic shower/ loo rooms (shower is on a insert £1/£2 coin meter) and again a good 10 min walk from the edge of the field where we were. These points are not a criticism- in fact (other than the view) it’s what drew us here. We adore being off grid. Free to park up in exactly the position we wish, not having to conform to rules about wheel to marker posts- etc etc. We love that these sites tend to be peaceful and often have terrific views. This site is £20 pn- which considering its lack of facilities is perhaps a touch expensive- however our option is that money can’t buy these views. So this site wouldn’t perhaps suit everyone- but for us- it was brilliant.

For some reason when we arrived we had a terrible set up. Usually we’re pros and can be set up and sipping a beer within 10 mins. Not today! The pressure of finding the PERFECT spot for the view, combined with the rather strong headwind made for actually a really stressful set up. A sign that we are both approaching burnt-out- ness, we bickered about which way the sliding door should go, which way the roof needed to open for the optimum solar charge, battles with the wind break, the awning, the list went on. Once practically set up, we both decided we were the wrong way round, Gandalf needed to be our wind break rather than shading the previous welsh sunshine so we ended up dissembling and turning round. By the time we were happy, we were frazzled 😂 however we’d achieved our perfect view and as soon as we cracked that beer and exhaled, all stresses evaporated.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the view. Keith cooked a fabulous fish bbq and we enjoyed a splendid sunset.

This really was a special place.

Next morning and we had a lazy start. We eventually donned our walking boots and walked North 4 miles on the coastal path to Porth Dinnllaen- a very pretty little bay with a pub, the Ty Coch, right on the beach. We passed a family of seals basking on the rocks. Pics taken on super zoom camera

Accessed only by foot it’s a quaint little place – a traditional fishing village but now extremely popular destination for day trippers and the like- especially when the sun shines on a bank holiday Monday like it was today.

We enjoyed a couple of drinks at the pub soaking up the atmosphere before getting a cab back (my foot still isn’t right so I’m trying to be cautious on the miles and terrain).

After sorting our errands out at the van- filling with water, emptying loo etc, all of which took time with the distance to the tap and loo point- we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the views, reading and having a big chill.

Dinner was a chicken curry followed by another spectacular sunset.

Tuesday dawned another corker of a day. We were due to be moving to Porthmadog but we just couldn’t tear ourselves away. Seeing as our next destination was a THS (temporary holiday site through C&CC) and therefore not bookable, we decided to declare a stop day, a very rare for us Day of rest. Recognising we were close to burn out we felt this was an important move- so we literally sat and enjoyed the sea views- ALL DAY. Other than an expedition to the services, we just sat, reading and watching the ever changing view. It was perfect!

Sadly we can’t draw our time out here any longer, our provisions are depleted and we’ve got train tickets booked on the Welsh highland railway too.

But we will 100% return.

Campsite details

Pant Gwyn Farm Caravan and Motorhome club CL

Also viewed on Search for sites here

Note: For the best views ask to be in the non electric field “with the view”

H