Our strap line was always Our Grey Gap Year & Beyond. Well, it seems we are now in the “& Beyond” stage, having had an epic 380-day adventure around the world. We’ve been home for about two months now, sorting out the house, visiting friends and family, and joining in with some 90th birthday celebrations! However, settling back down has not been easy (certainly not for one of us anyway), and so we’re looking at what to do next – enter Lizzie II. Yes, we’ve only gone and bought a campervan again – different style and layout to the first Lizzie.

We’ve just returned from a couple of nights in Bishops Lydeard, testing her out to get used to her – couple of items to be checked out under warranty but mostly good so we’re looking forward to taking her further afield soon.

Bishops Lydeard was a good base, we took a trip to Watchet on the West Somerset Steam Railway,

even though the weather wasn’t brilliant. Sadly, we couldn’t go as far as Minehead as they were using the line for filming the next Agatha Christie film!  So we explored the tiny streets around Watchet harbour instead, admiring the stunning mural depicting their history, from the ice age, through the medieval mint, the mineral line where ore was shipped over to Newport and Ebbw Vale for smelting, the steam railway and on into the future,

enjoying the local market stalls and tiny gift shops before returning on the train for a taste of some craft beer at the Quantock Brewery.

So in preparation for our Grey Gap Year this spring, we have made the sad decision to sell Lizzie – it would not have been good for her to be standing for 12 months so she has gone off to new owners. We wish them happy travels with her.

We thoroughly enjoyed exploring areas of the UK we hadn’t previously visited in the last 18 months. Motorhoming has been fun in all weathers and hopefully we will continue when we return with a Lizzie 2! We’ve got two motorhomes booked on our travels so we can keep our hands in!

After what seemed liked weeks of rain we had a dry but bitterly cold spell so we took a chance and took Lizzie to historic Henley on Thames. Our first trip in 2023. We stayed at the Four Oaks Henley club site (caravan and motorhome club) – a good clean site and a 10-15 minute walk into town or hop on a bus to Marlow, High Wycombe or Reading.

After setting up we discovered that our water pump wasn’t working but luckily we travel with an electric heater as well. After a blast from that for a couple of hours the pump worked so we had hot water – phew!!

Henley is of course famous for its Royal Regatta but is also home to Friar Park where George Harrison (of Beatles fame) set up Friar Park studios and Dusty Springfield lived here and her gravestone can be seen in St Mary’s Churchyard. The area has been used for filming locations in the TV series Midsomer Murders as well. Henley is an easy town to explore and has lots of history to investigate and a town trail to help you along the way. You certainly won’t go hungry, there are many many coffee shops and eateries – we particularly liked the cafe Spoon, the Hart Street Tavern and the Three Tuns.

After exploring Henley for a couple of days we then went slightly further out and jumped on the bus to Hambleden Mill, Lock and weir and started our walk. (You could walk from the site but we’d been advised that the first part was not passable due to flooding). First stop Hambleden, a small hamlet that has also been the film location for a few Midsomer Murders episodes – a lovely quintessential English hamlet with an impressive church (where WH Smith, the newsagent, used to be a churchwarden), a very well stocked shop (delicious toffee apple pies!) and a pub. Next we retraced our steps to the weir and struck out along the Thames River path back towards Henley and passed the starting point of the Henley Regatta and the Temple Islands along the way. It was a bit soggy and icy in places up as far as Remenham where we were defeated by the floods and resorted to walking the rest of the way to Henley on the road. All in all a lovely walk.

On our final day in Henley with another beautiful blue sky, we set off up Gravel Hill and along the pack and prime bridleway to the village of Rotherfied Greys – heading west out of Henley.
It was a lovely albeit muddy walk through woodland tracks and fields. The tiny village has a fascinating church – St Nicholas, dating back to Norman times, with a couple of war graves, a world war one grave marker, a very old brass dedicated to Sir Robert de Grey who died in 1387 and an amazing monument to the Knollys family in the Knollys chapel. Opposite the church is an ornate Victorian “bus shelter”!
We stopped at the pub for a pint before heading back to Henley and once there had a late lunch in the Three Tuns.

We loved our trip to Henley on Thames, despite the bitter cold. It was supposed to be our penultimate trip in Lizzie but now, as things have suddenly moved quickly, it may have been our last as we have a potential buyer for her.

We couldn’t decide where to go in December and as it turned out to be the coldest week so far this year we opted to return to Canterbury – the site is good, fair price and its easy to either walk or hop on the bus into Canterbury.

Over our cold and frosty stay we revisited Canterbury, headed to our favourite coffee shop with yummy canolis and generally wandered about. The Christmas Market was on and had some lovely locally made products and the food chalets smelt divine! We caught up with friends for lunch in the Parrot (one of Canterbury’s oldest pubs), which was rather pleasant.
The sun even appeared one afternoon which gave us a stunning albeit short sunset.

We also did the walk over the common to the village of Fordwich again.
The sun was shining on golden gorse flowers, red rosehips and bizarrely even a patch of red blackberries! Andy saw a fox dart across the path (of course I was looking in the opposite direction!!).
We had lunch in the George and Dragon and very yummy dessert of warm gingerbread, roasted winter fruits and amaretti ice cream before heading back to batten down the hatches for the nights cold temperatures and deep frost.

We were surprised how busy the site was over our day – some folks were staying over Christmas and others simply passing through on their way to warmer climates via Dover. We enjoyed our short cold trip away and Lizzie certainly kept us toasty warm!

Over half term we took Lizzie back to the Cotswolds – this time to Broadway, sometimes known as the jewel of the Cotswolds. We stayed at the local caravan and motorhome site, a short 10 minute walk into town and right on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire steam railway (GWSR) which was running steam trains on 3 days of our visit which was fun to watch.

There are plenty of walks in the area including the lovely circular walk up to Broadway Tower (a tower built in 1798 on Beacon Hill, the 2nd highest point in the Cotswolds). From the hill you are supposed to be able to see 13 counties on a good day. We also enjoyed stunning views along the way over the Malvern Hills.
We stopped off to explore the ancient St Eadburgha Church and Commonwealth War Graves in the graveyard. The church was beautiful in its simplicity and parts date back to the 12th century.
Our walk was slightly longer than we’d originally planned due to a detour (!) along the Cotswold Way going in the wrong direction!!!!!!

In the camp site is one of the old railway sheds and it now houses the “Wanderer” the first caravan built for touring in the 1800s and there was also a caravan once owned by the late Duke of Edinburgh. He used it during carriage driving events and was the President of the caravan and motorhome club.
We enjoyed watching the steam train come through on its way to Cheltenham so walked up to Broadway station for a look around. So hard to believe this had been completely torn down in the 60s and the rails overgrown. With a lot of hard work it has been rebuilt and now is part of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire steam railway (GWSR). They have 2 steam engines rescued from the old Barry scrapyard in South Wales and 1 diesel engine.

During our stay we explored Broadway and its myriad of footpaths. We walked the backs of some stunning gardens, had a chat with a gentleman who grows monster veg for shows andBewl came across the Broadway flood prevention area with interesting boards about the archaeological finds they came across whilst excavating the field, including a couple of ancient skeletons.
Broadway has some beautiful old buildings all in lovely golden Cotswold stone and several individual shops and cafes. We enjoyed ginger scones at the Leaf and Bean and yummy dirty fries at the Horse and Hound pub.

We took Lizzie out for a short local getaway to the Black Knowl caravan and motorhome site in the New Forest.

It was lovely to hear the bellows of various stags in the distance (it’s rutting season so care needs to be taken whilst out walking not to disturb them) and to be serenaded by hooting owls in the evenings. The weather was reasonable and on one of the sunny days we did the 10 mile circular walk to Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst. We were entertained by grey squirrels gathering nuts, foals chasing around the heathland and fungi spotting – lots around but all those we spotted were not edible so just as we we only took photos!

The next day we took a gentle stroll across Black Knowl into Brockenhurst village – we had visited several times before but always manage to learn something new on each visit. We walked up to St Nicholas Church (the oldest church in the New Forest) as we’d seen that there were Commonwealth War Graves there. Well what a surprise – there are 110 graves here, mostly First World War and mostly New Zealanders. The church has an incredible amount of information about the role of Brockenhurst as a First World War Hospital village – due to its close proximity to Southampton where the wounded were brought into from France. 1914 to 1916 there was a hospital for the Indian troops and then later it became the No 1 New Zealand General Hospital. There are information boards of stories of the staff and patients and folders full of individual accounts – an amazing amount of research that we had never come across before in earlier visits to the village. You could easily spend several hours reading it all.

We loved our short trip back to the New Forest – it just goes to show that you don’t need to travel far or for a long time to enjoy nature and learn something new.

We had business to attend to in Scotland in July/August and with no accommodation we decided to take Lizzie. We didn’t fancy driving her for hours on end so broke the trip up.

Starting out on the hottest day of the year we headed to Malvern for 2 days; too hot to do much but we managed to explore the village of Hanley Swan, weeded and tidied up a war memorial in the local Catholic Church and enjoyed the old drovers path with views over the Malvern hills.

With the weather cooling down our next stop was Kendal and a lovely site tucked into National Trust woodland, alongside the river Kent and on the site of the old Sedgewick Gunpowder works. Instead of walking along the river to Kendal we took the opportunity to walk to Sizergh Castle via Low Park wood (loads of wild raspberries here) instead. The gardens were looking gorgeous, even in the rain. We lunched in the Strickland Arms and snuck in a cream tea at Sizergh Farm shop too (really tasty raspberry jam).

Then it was up into Scotland and Moffat for a couple of nights – sadly the rain came with us. We did manage a quick tour around the town, stopping to buy tablet in Moffat Toffee shop and a pint of Lowlands Brewery Twa Dogs. The next morning was dry so we explored the Annan Water walk (one of many trails in this area).
It seems that Moffat has a few claims to fame:
First dark sky town in Europe,
Oldest pharmacy in Scotland
Narrowest Hotel (The Star) in Scotland
Shortest street in Scotland.

And finally after an interesting few days we arrived in Cupar, Fife where we needed to attend to some business.
We checked out our old stomping ground and found that very little had changed and, of course, had to have a pint in our old local The Boudingait.
We managed to catch up with friends and old neighbours which was lovely.

We did escape for a day and hopped on a bus to Dundee. On the waterfront, in addition to the Discovery and V&A museum, there is now a rather lovely whale sculpture (designed by Lee Simmons). We popped into the St Andrews Brewing Co (of course) for a brew and lunch – reminiscing with staff of when we first found this ale at the local farmers market in Cupar many years ago – they still sell at the market as they want to remember where they started.
Then we went on to St Andrews which was still busy after the Open and lots of stands etc were still around the 18th hole.

We started our trip back down south with a couple of days in Berwick upon Tweed. This town has some lovely walks and very impressive Elizabethan city walls. We visited the oldest barracks in Britain, once home of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, and now kept up by English Heritage.
We were lucky enough to spot the small pod of dolpins that are around the area and also a seal who hangs around the local fishermen!

Berwick upon Tweed is a good stop off for a couple of days – the town is a little tired but has some gems – one being the Atelier where we had a delightful lunch of the seasonal sharing platter of charcuterie and cheeses and a couple of craft beers.
Berwick is also close to Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island further down the coast (we missed them out this time having explored these a few years ago).

Next stop York – 2 different sites here, 1 in the city and 1 outside. We walked the city walls, speed through the Shambles (way too commercialised these days), wandered around the exterior of York Minster, watched a wedding couple emerge from their service at the St Michael-le Belfry church next door, stroked a European owl (part of a display by the York bird of prey centre in Dean’s garden) and then got caught in a downpour so popped into the nearest pub for a very expensive pint!!! (£2.40 dearer than the same round in Berwick upon Tweed!!). York was super busy but it was school holidays and we found it to be quite expensive all round but it was nice to revisit it after nearly 30 years. We did enjoy our walk from Naburn Lock into York and a river cruise back!

Onwards down the A1 to Sherwood Pines, part of the famous Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood fame) which is now in 2 halves (Sherwood Forest near Clumber and Sherwood Pines).
Lovely to pitch in the forest especially as the temperature was climbing again so the shade is very welcome. We explored the Trench trail here which has a mock up of a world war 1 trench – the reason being that this area trained 30,000 soldiers for the Great War. Very interesting information boards all the way around too.

Next day we walked the 5 mile Rangers Walk through lovely forests of pine, sweet chestnut, oak and silver birch trees. The scent of pine was all around as the day heated up and in places was very reminiscent of our rambling days in Cyprus.

Our final stop on this trip was Moreton in Marsh in the Cotswolds. The temperature was soaring again so we didn’t do a lot here.
We enjoyed the late afternoon sun on the golden cotswold stones. We managed to get some yummy cheese from the Cotswold Cheese Company (love their bumper sticker) but sadly the Wellington Aviation museum was closed (opens Sundays only). This area had an airforce base in the second world war which was an operational training unit for Wellington bombers.

Sites we used:

Blackmore Caravan & Camping club (ccc) site – Malvern.

Kendal Caravan & Motorhome Club Site (cmc).

The Green Frog – independent site Moffat.

Berwick upon Tweed CMC club site.

Rowntree CMC York club site.

Naburn Locks – York. A Tranquil Parks site.

Sherwood Pines – Camping in the Forest site.

Moreton in Marsh CMC club site

Before the recent heatwave we spent a week at the camping and caravan club site at Slapton Sands, South Devon – bit of a hairy trip as the road from Kingsbridge to the site is somewhat narrow in a motorhome but apparently is the best route!
We broke our journey with a quick stop at Totnes – a lovely town on the river Dart with lots of quirky buildings and tasty cream teas (!). Sadly we didn’t have time to visit the castle this time though.

During our time in this area we explored the village of Slapton. Tiny streets, 2 pubs, a lovely church and 1 odd tower – apparently all that’s left of the collegiate of St Mary.
Whilst there we had a very surreal experience – we started talking to a couple of cyclists and after a short while discovered Andy was talking with a guy from his old school in the same year as he was!!!!!
We also walked up Slapton Sands to Torcross along part of the South West coast path (yep, that one again!!) and took in the second world war history of the bay. The inhabitants were given 6 weeks to evacuate so that the area could be used for training for the D Day landings (Operation Tiger) and didn’t return for nearly 12 months. Sadly many Americans lost their lives here being hit by German e-boats and today you can see the memorial to them.

We stopped for a cream tea (oops, yes another one) at the Billy Can cafe – delightful scones and the cafe decor was commemorating the history of the area.

We also jumped on the bus to Dartmouth. A delightful town with lots of history, particularly seafaring – from being one of the ports the Mayflower stopped at before going on to America to being the home of the Britannia Naval College. After exploring the town we set off along “that” path again, past the Tudor built Bayards Cove Fort and up to Dartmouth Castle (both English Heritage). After a brief stop at the castle we struck out over the hills where we met up with a lovely couple, Steve & Emily and their dog Lyra and proceeded to have an entertaining couple of hours at the Green Dragon at Stoke Fleming!! Fuelled with some Otter Amber ale we continued onto Slapton.
A long and hard walk in places but lovely views along the way.

On some of the greyer days we meandered the trails of Slapton and Slapton Ley (the largest body of fresh water in South West England apparently and the body of water behind Slapton Sands) and watched the various wildlife.

On 4th July the wind was blowing the flags above the memorial and we caught the bus to explore Kingsbridge, a small town at the top of the estuary that runs down to Salcombe. Lovely walk along the promenade, although the tide was out! Lots of odd little alleys in the town but couldn’t resist the wonderfully named Squeezebelly Lane!!