Well, we were recommended a campsite within an hour of home and as it had the word “brewery” in it Andy jumped at the chance for a quick trip away!
Ansty, Dorset was actually the home of the original Hall & Woodhouse brewery before it was moved to Blandford Forum. Now the village has a lovely pub – The Fox, a farm shop with a post office, the brewery farm campsite and luxury lodges and some beautiful old houses.
A lovely rural spot for a couple of days away. Oh, and they have a great little brochure, ” The Ansty Ambler,” with about 6 circular walks from the pub and campsite ranging from 1.5 to 6.5 miles.
It was quite an eventful couple of days – we arrived to find the small site taken over by the “Haunch of Venison Hash Harriers” and we were royally entertained by their post hash antics, next our first evening amble found us being escorted out of the field by some lovely (friendly) curious calves,
Just making sure we leave!!
only then to find 4 lambs escaping under a gate into the lane – we got 2 back but had to find someone local to tell about the other 2 houdinis, who thought life was better on the wrong side of the hedge!
Next day our next walk got caught up with the hashers and we got ourselves turned around onto a different route in error, then got my boot sucked off my foot in a quagmire (thankfully Andy managed to rescue it) but it was worth it – the views were beautiful.
Oh, and we finished with a delicious Sunday lunch at The Fox. Our final walk was supposed to be 6.5 miles, but we got a bit lost, so we ended up doing much more than that!! But we did get to the lovely village of Milton Abbas, with its cob and thatched houses
Milton Abbas
and stunning Milton Abbey School. The village was “new” in the 1770s, built because the nearby town of Middleton had to be removed as it was upsetting the owner of Milton Abbeys view of rural peace!!
Milton Abbey School
We walked through masses of wild garlic in woodlands (reminding me of my childhood when Mum would tell my brother and I off for playing in the wild garlic and coming home stinking of it!!),
Wild garlic all around the woodland floor.
clambered over some huge stiles (not built for my short legs at all), then got charged by an over enthusiastic calf (good to have a walking stick at this time of year) before getting back to our campsite for well deserved ice-cream, beer and a BBQ.
No owls or moles here, but we were lulled to sleep by a pair of geese – not terribly tuneful!
You’ll be glad to know we survived the steep hills of North Somerset once again (well, anything is steep when you live in a flat area of the UK!). This time we chose a 5 night stay near the village of Porlock, famous for its hill – it has the steepest gradient of any A road in the UK and has been used for motor and cycle racing over the years. Luckily, we didn’t have to take Lizzie II along this route!
Firstly, we explored the village of Porlock via a steep 30-minute walk, so the lovely coffee in the Old Library was definitely appreciated! Then we went down towards the sea
and the Saltmarsh to find the WWII memorial for the american Liberator and its crew that crashed after clipping Bossington Hill in bad weather.
Memorial
The next day, we did the same, stopping at Bake me Crazy for some delicious cakes, and then walked further around the Saltmarsh (part of the South West Coast Path)
and on to the tiny harbour of Porlock Weir for a well-deserved beer and fish & chips in the Bottom Ship. We returned back along the woods, along the edge of Greencombe Gardens (sadly closed the day we were there, but the rhododendrons looked fabulous through the fence) and back up the hill to our campsite.
Next day was an easier walk to Allerford, with its double arched packhorse bridge,
Packhorse bridge at Allerford
coffee and cake (we tried the famous exmoor whortleberry jam) at the village shop and then up towards Selworthy through lovely wild flower lined tracks and over the fields back to camp, admiring the new born lambs along the way.
Our final walk was through the ancient oak and temperate rainforest of Horner Woods – with interesting track names like Granny’s Ride and Cats Scramble (glad we came down that one rather than up – it was very steep in places!) – oh and goats.
It was more of a hike than we’d anticipated but enjoyable, and we slept well that night. Â
We really enjoyed the peace and quiet of this little part of Exmoor, especially at this time of year with the spring flowers blooming and we even got to listen to the owls hooting in the trees just behind our van.
We spent an enjoyable few days in Wolverley, just outside Kidderminster, although it started with a very long trip up via the Cotswolds, due to numerous road closures on the way. But the sun came out, and we quickly relaxed back into van life! The site was just off the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, so we spent our 1st day walking the canal to Kidderminster, known as Kiddie by the locals, and famous for carpet making. We even visited the Museum of Carpet!
Museum of Carpet
Sadly, we missed the steam train at the Severn Valley Railway, but we enjoyed the museum before heading back. The trains aren’t running all the way to Bridgenorth at present due to a landslip earlier this year, but they hope to reopen that end later in 2025.
Diesel Engines at the Severn Valley Railway.
The next couple of days found us walking in the opposite direction to Cookley, where we enjoyed a coffee stop at the Riverbank Rest
Fairy House at the Riverbank Rest
and later much further to Kinver, where we enjoyed a pint and sandwich at the Vine Inn. This part of the canal is gorgeous,
quiet and full of birds enjoying the spring sunshine.
This canal is not as wide as some we’ve walked and only the narrowest of narrow boats can get through the deep, narrow locks (1 at a time)!
Wolverley Lock
We walked miles, soaking up the spring warmth, and generally just enjoyed a relaxing break away. The site was good, with 2 pubs close by – we found The Queens Head in the village very friendly, with good food. Oh, and no moles!!
So Lizzie II has been cleaned and put away again for a few weeks after a short trip to Canterbury. It was lovely to go back after a 2 year gap and find little has changed, even our favourite coffee shop has survived – Cafe Turqoise with superb canoli.
It was good to see more independent shops appearing, including The Refillery, which came to the rescue with a small amount of risotto rice for us (yep, I forgot the key ingredient for our tea!!!). The weather wasn’t with us, but what do you expect in the UK in February, but we managed a bus trip to Whitstable. The tide was still out (never seen it in!) so we could see the oyster farms
Oyster Farms
and had a lovely walk, ending in the Old Neptune (the outside of which features in the TV series Whitstable Pearl) and a welcome hot bowl of seafood chowder.
The Old Neptune
We’d hoped to catch up with friends, but unfortunately, illness put paid to that, so hopefully, next time. So instead of 4 of us, 2 of us enjoyed a lovely meal beside a roaring log burner in the White Hart.
Lemon Curd Sundae at the White Hart
As the heavens opened, our last 2 days were spent doing jigsaw puzzles and planning future trips. All part of motorhome life!
We managed to grab a break in the weather and as the temperature rose above freezing, we packed Lizzie II up to take her on her first winter trip –Â a few days in Wells, at the lovely Wells Touring Park, followed by a couple more in Devizes. We enjoyed walking the Strawberry line into Wells – lots more houses along the way since we were there last, but the robins are still out and about following you along.
We even got up to Wookey Hole village this time, but the footpath up the Ebbor Gorge was more like a river, so we cancelled that leg of the hike. Wookey Hole is famous for its caves but also had an important paper mill, dating back to the 1800’s that only closed production in the 1970’s. It’s now a tourist attraction. The caves are closed until February, so we didn’t get to meet the legendary witch either! We did a couple of canal walks whilst in Devizes,
despite the rather overcast weather and enjoyed a couple of meals in the warmth of The Brewery Inn at Seend Cleeve and The Three Magpies at Sells Green – very welcome after a cold walk! All in all, Lizzie II passed muster for her first winter trip out and was quite warm and cosy, so we’re back now to plan the next trip.
New Years Eve is often a time for reflecting on what happened in the last year. We started ours on the other side of the world, in Australia – it seems like a world away now as we sit at home in the UK!
Since then we have completed our Grey Gap Year of amazing travel, settled (sort of) back home, bought another campervan and explored Wales and a bit more of the UK, been on our first Christmas cruise and visited the Canary Islands for the first time. We’ve caught up with family and friends, where possible, to find most of them fit and well. We are thankful for it all and continue to be in good health ourselves.
We wish all of you – family, friends, and followers wherever you are in this crazy world we live in – a very happy, healthy new year.
As we didn’t get to travel in November and were getting itchy feet again, we managed to find a late saver Christmas cruise with the help of Andy Sharples of Cruise and Travel Holidays. A couple of firsts for us this time – first Christmas cruise and first time with the Cunard line. We started with an overnight stay at the quirky Moxy hotel in Southampton,
The Light Ship at the Moxy, Southampton, complete with flashing light!
enjoying a pint of Dancingmanbrewery’s Vagrant Pale Ale (lovely brewery in the old medieval Wool House), followed by a delicious Thai meal at Thaikhuan and a wander around the Christmas Market. Then, the next day, we boarded the Queen Victoria for our christmas adventure!
Queen Victoria, docked in Lisbon
After a relatively calm crossing over the Bay of Biscay, we arrived at our first port of call – Lisbon – and the sun was shining to welcome us. Having visited the sites, including Sintra, and riding the famous trams through the narrow streets of old town back in 1999, we elected to just have a wander.
Lisbon tram
We found the Hard Rock Cafe, so we had to buy a keyring, then explored the christmas market, with its lovely food and drink stalls and some unusual craft sellers (lots of cork and porcelain tile related items which Portugal is famous for), enjoyed a delicious Portuguese custard tart
and simply soaked up the atmosphere in the sunshine.
Augusta Street Arch, Lisbon
We left Lisbon just as the light was fading and the city lights came on, twinkling in the distance and dressed for the first of our 3 Gala Nights!.
Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon
Our next stop was Funchal, Madeira, the garden islands. Again, we have visited before and ridden the cable car and toboggan, walked the beautiful botanical gardens and admired the agapanthus growing in the wild along the levados. So this time, we simply walked into Funchal, passing the “Hawk man” who uses a hawk to scare away the seagulls from the port and walked to the old town,
Old Town doorways, Funchal
with its tiny streets and colourful painted doors, enjoyed the local Christmas market, admired the beautiful gardens and well stocked market – so many chillis
– and wandered back to the ship.
The third stop was Tenerife. We just explored Santa Cruz where we docked as the weather was very variable! We still managed to walk miles, had coffee at the beautiful theatre (looks like one of the Sydney Opera house domes),
Iconic Tenerife AuditoriumMonarch butterfly in the Botanica Palmetum
enjoyed the views from the Botanica Palmetum (a transformed municipal dump now containing the largest collection of palms in Europe apparently), meandered through the old town and another Christmas market – lovely artisan goods here, all the while dodging downpours!!!
Our 4th port of call was Las Palmas, Gran Canaria where, of course, we walked miles and explored the old town area,
with its tiny off roads (main street is rather commercial), containing fabulous tapas bars and beautiful shops and the amazing Santa Ana Cathedral. For a Catholic cathedral, it is surprisingly simple but elegant, with simple coloured glass windows that spread beautiful highlights of colour when the sun strikes them.
Santa Ana Cathedral
We found another Christmas market, and again, there were some beautiful artisan items for sale – it seems my earring collection is growing!!! Then it was off to Puerto Rosario, Feurteventura. A small capital with lovely open air art, murals and sculptures dotted around.
Shells on sea front walk.This mural just made me smile!Lovely book swap statue
We visited on Christmas Eve and it seemed very quiet, but we are not sure that is the case normally. We spent the rest of the trip at sea and the ship put on some lovely Christmas shows, officers carol service
Officers Carol service, complete with snow.
and Father Christmas even managed to drop down the funnel to visit.🤣 And we even had Christmas dinner with a couple who are called Mr & Mrs Christmas!!!
So what were our impressions of the Queen Victoria? She was beautifully decorated for Christmas,
Queens RoomOutside the Golden Lion pubThe Grand Lobby
but generally, we found her quite dark – wooden panelling and quite low ceilings in places. She is certainly not the most steady of ships (and we had a smooth sailing) and certain areas were quite uncomfortable due to the constant shaking (Britannia restaurant and the Commodore Club). The lectures and entertainment were generally good quality and interesting, although we thought there was far too much emphasis on ballroom dancing for our liking. The food was rather bland for our taste but lots of guests said they enjoyed it. All in all it was a good trip away, just what was needed, a bit of sunshine and warmth, lovely staff, great people, new places visited, even the Bay of Biscay was good and we managed to avoid the outbreak of gastroenteritis on board!! Not sure that Christmas cruising will be our new tradition but it was fun.
After a couple of weeks under the weather, we decided a trip in Lizzie II was in order, so off we went to Cambridge. We arrived in torrential rain and wondered what on earth we’d done! Still, the next 2 days were dry, so we reacquainted ourselves with the lovely city, walking the Backs,
enjoying the market stalls, admiring the historical colleges
but had forgotten how busy it gets – students or tourists or both! So we headed off to Norwich for a couple of days – a lovely old city, with lovely walks along the river past the old Cow Tower (an old ammunition store)
Cow TowerPulls Ferry Crossing
and the Pulls Ferry crossing area, into the peaceful Cathedral Quarter (doesn’t look as if this area has changed in centuries), we visited the stunning cathedral with its beautiful ceilings
and unusual copper font (2 huge bowls used for making toffee gifted in 1994 when the Rowntree Mackintosh factory closed)
Copper Font
and enjoyed delicious cake in the refractory before heading to one of the oldest streets, Elm Hill (often used in films), sadly the Medieval Halls were being renovated along with the castle so missed those out. We enjoyed Norwich but decided it was time for some countryside, so we then went to the Royal Parkland at Sandringham for a short stay. Beautifully quiet with lots of wildlife to spot on our walks.
We did manage to visit the medieval parish church (St Mary Magdalene) on the estate with its stunning ceilings, silver alter and pulpit
and beautiful stained glass windows and enjoyed a cream tea in the garden restaurant. Then it was time for a quick stop at the Woodhall Spa campsite and a catch up with friends, who we’ve not seen in far too long before heading back home to plan November’s trip out! We’ll definitely go back to the Woodhall Spa site to explore the area further – lots of second world war history here to look into.
As Lizzie II needed to go for some warranty work, we took the opportunity to turn it into a short trip away. Firstly, whilst waiting, we explored the county town of Somerset, Taunton. There are some lovely old buildings here, a beautiful Minster, with angels in the ceiling
and a castle housing the interesting museum of Somerset (complete with a Dr Who exhibition!).
With repairs complete, we headed off to Dawlish (would have been Dartmouth, but the site was full) for 3 nights. Our first day was glorious, and we did the circular 10 mile walk from site to Dawlish Warren
Dawlish Warren beachLangstone Rock
and along the sea wall to Dawlish, home of the black Swan,
Rather shy black Swan!
and back to site. Sadly, the 2nd day was not so friendly weatherwise – in fact, it chucked it down! We attempted a bus trip to Teignmouth, but we didn’t stay long as it was miserable.
What a difference a day makes – Teignmouth Recycled art on Teignmouth beachfront
Next, we packed up and headed to Bridport under grey skies. We arrived in time for the Hat Festival! It’s a festival of hats and raises money for head-related charities – all you need is – a hat! There were some stunning hats (sadly no photos), some great music and the sun shone for the morning at least – then it chucked it down again for our walk back to site – we were quickly learning how to dry out in our van!! We even met a Travelling Troubadour at our site – Tony, who is cycling and busking his way around Britain! Our final site was in a vineyard in the New Forest! Lovely site within walking distance of Brockenhurst.
This trip, we learnt about Brusher Mills – a snake catcher. His tombstone is at St Nicholas Church and he has a pub named after him – he supposedly caught around 40,000 snakes in the New Forest in his time to send to London for medical research or to feed the animals at Regent Zoo! We enjoyed a wonderful walk through the forest
finishing with a delicious lunch in The Filly Inn and a pint in the Pig Beer Brewery.
We had a lovely few days away, despite the weather.
Meanderingmumfords took Lizzie II out for a 3 week road trip around Wales, starting off with a very wet 1 night stay at Wenvoe to catch up with old friends Roger & Jan Irving – lovely to catch up with them again after a few years.
We then moved on to a lovely small site at Manorbier (an historic village with interesting castle, 12th C Norman church, great pub and good bus service).
Manorbier castle, looking our from the tower to the beach
From here, we took the bus and reacquainted ourselves with the lovely town of Tenby
Tenby
and then went off in the other direction to explore Pembroke, with its great castle.
Pembroke Castle
Then we moved on around the coast to St Davids, the smallest city in Britain, and a lovely cathedral with beautiful wooden ceilings
St Davids Cathedral ceilings
and where you walk up the aisle – literally as the building is sinking!). We didn’t visit the Bishops Palace this time, but the ruins look amazing. We had a fantastic clear day to walk the coast path from our site to Abereiddy and on to Porthgain, via the blue lagoon (old slate quarry, now a popular coasteering spot).
Porthgain harbour
Next stop, a small site just outside of New Quay, so more coast path walks and some dolphin spotting from the harbour wall (yes, we saw some!).
New Quay
Then, on up to Llanstumdwy (where David Lloyd George is buried), near Criccieth.
David Lloyd George’s gravesite
Yet more coast path walks into the lovely town, with its castle on the hill and some good independent shops (excellent butcher and bakery).
Criccieth Castle
We even picked our blackberries of the year here! Then, it was on up into Anglesey for a short stop for a great catch up with friends Keith & Marion, not seen for 10 years of so. We even managed to tour the island in beautiful sunshine (our last trip there 40 years ago was in thick fog!). Then it was time to work our way home, via Cefn Coch (we didn’t get to see any jets flying the Mach Loop but the scenary was stunning), and then Malvern to see Liz & Sue for another catch up, before arriving home.
We had a good trip, even if the weather wasn’t at its best but it gave us chance to test out Lizzie and get used to living in a different layout to our previous van.
