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.
Frosty!Canterbury scenes
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!
Cheeky squirrel and some of the inedible fungi we came across.
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.
Commonwealth War Graves and one of the stained glass windows in St Nicholas Church.
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.
Well, as we decided that 40 years together was a milestone worth celebrating, we treated ourselves to our first overseas trip since the pandemic!
We joined the Celebrity Silhouette at Southampton for a 12 day cruise, stopping at Guernsey, Cobh and Dunmore East (Ireland), Akureyri and Reykjavik (Iceland) and Greenock before returning to Southampton. That was the plan but sadly we were unable to visit Guernsey (a tendering port) due to bad weather so we ended up in Portland instead – ironic really as we first met in Weymouth many years ago!!
We took the opportunity to visit Nothe Fort whilst there as we’d not done that before – well worth a visit, it’s been well restored with interesting exhibits ranging from Victorian times through to the Cold War.
2012 Olympic Statue, Queen Victoria Reighton clock, Nothe Fort, One of the Nothe Fort guns, old Fort on the walls leaving Portland.
Our next stop was our first in Ireland, Cobh (pronounced Cove) which is the port for Cork (you can get a train to Cork from here). We explored this lovely colourful town (including the famous deck of cards – a street of houses that the locals say if the bottom one goes the rest will tumble like a pack of cards!), visited the Titanic memorial garden (the last sighting of the Titanic as she left Cobh in 1912), the glorious St Colman’s Cathedral (had to leave due to a funeral) and learnt about the history at the very informative Cobh Heritage Centre (potato famine, emigration, sinking of the Lusitania, last journey of the Titanic and the plight of the convicts on Spike Island before being transported to Australia). Oh and of course we had to have a Guinness at Kelly’s bar. We had an interesting meal experience at Le Petit Chef on board which is an animated meal! And finally we were entertained by the fabulous Celtic Nights and Irish dancers.
Cobh, Ireland
Our second port of call in Ireland was Dunmore East – the port for Waterford. We got the tender into the harbour, had a chat with the local RNLI coxswain, was met by a guide from the local information office and picked up some tips. You can get a bus into Waterford (famous for the Waterford Crystal) but feeling the need to walk off all the great food we’ve been eating we decided to walk the Dunmore East Coast path to Portally Cove and back. We met a few locals on the way, all wanting to chat and one asked if we’d just got off the ferry (not sure Captain Jorge would appreciate his ship being called a ferry)!!!!! Then we wandered back into town for locally caught fish and chips and of course found a pub for another Irish Guinness before returning.
Dunmore East, Ireland
After a rather grey and wet day at sea, passing St Kilda along the way, we arrived in the port of Akureyri, Iceland’s second largest city in Northern Iceland bathed in glorious sunshine and blue skies. We could see steam rising from waterfalls in the distance (signs of the geothermal heat of this amazing island). We took an excursion from the ship around the city (all the red traffic lights are heart shaped – to cheer people up after the financial crash a few years ago), visited the botanical gardens and were surprised to see many of the plants we grow at home, then went up over the mountains to vist the stunning Gadofoss Falls. We were lucky enough to spot 2 whales as we were leaving the fjord to continue our trip to Reykjavik.
Steaming waterfalls, Gadofoss Falls Eryngium, Leaving the fjord.
The night we sailed around Iceland to Reykjavik was clear and cold but if we’d stayed up till about 2am we’d have seen the Northern Lights – we were sound asleep by then but had seen a slight hint of them earlier in the evening! We spent 24 hours in Reykjavik over two days which allowed us to explore on the Hop On Hop Off bus on our own the first afternoon. We had a pint in the Hard Rock Cafe and bought the obligatory keyring before heading off to visit the stunning Hallsgrimskirkja cathedral. The next day was an early start (but caught a stunning sunrise) to do the Golden Circle tour, taking in the Geyser area, Gullfoss Falls and the National Park where the American and European tectonic plates are pulling apart (so Iceland is growing). It has formed a huge wall and canyon that was used in the Game of Thrones as the North Wall.
We enjoyed our small taste of Iceland very much and Celebrity had invited Orly Orlyson to be the guest speaker – he gave 3 very different entertaining talks on board about his homeland – ranging from how astronauts were trained in Iceland to how his home town nearly won an Oscar!
View from our balcony, Hallsgrimskirkja cathedral, Geyser, Gullfoss, Techtonic plates canyon, National Park lake.
Our final stop before returning to Southampton was Greenock, Scotland. You can visit Glasgow by train from here but once again we opted to explore the port ourselves. We did the town trail and learnt about the history of ship building, sugar refining and James Watt. We also visited the largest cemetery in Scotland.
Statues around Greenock’s Town Trail.
Our thanks go to all the amazing staff of Celebrity Silhouette for making our trip so amazing and to Andy Sharples of Cruise Holidays for trying to keep it all a big secret from me!!
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.
Old Drovers Path
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).
Ruins of Sedgewick Gunpowder WorksSizergh Castle GardensGunpowder works leat.
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.
Chainsaw art on Annan Water trail, Moffat.
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).
Berwick upon Tweed – city walls, Barracks Lighthouse, railway bridge, local fisherman, old bridge.
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!
York
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.
Sherwood Pines Trails and trenches
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.
Sitesweused:
Blackmore Caravan & Camping club (ccc) site – Malvern.
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.
Tank memorial at Torcross.
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.
Some of the lovely views on the South West Coast path between Dartmouth and Slapton.
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.
Slapton Sands and Slapton Ley views (oh and a cheeky pint of Otter at the pub in Slapton!)
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!!
We managed to get away for 2 weeks in May and went to explore part of the North Devon/Somerset coast. Our first stay was at the Mill Park Touring Park – a lovely premier parks site in a valley near Berrynarbor and between Combe Martin and Ilfracombe.
Fishing Lake at Mill Park site
We used this as a 7 day base to explore the area – easy to do as the South West Coast Path is nearby as is a very handy bus stop! During the week we walked stretches of the South West Coast Path from Berrynarbour to Ilfracombe, Berrynarbour to Little Hangman (Combe Martin and beyond) and Ilfracombe towards Lee (didn’t finish that leg as we turned back after the Tor Park area as the heavens opened!) Stopping off for coffee and cake at the lovely Storm in a Teacup cafe in Watermouth harbour and cream tea at Sandy Cove Hotel along parts of the path to keep us going! This part of the coastline is very hilly and beautifully dramatic with stunning scenary and gorgeous wild flowers.
Sections of the South West Coast Path between Combe Martin and out past Ilfracombe towards Lee.
Next was 4 nights at the camping & caravan club site at Minehead up on North Hill (beautiful stop but up some tight narrow lanes!). On the way we visited Dunster Castle and village (National Trust) which was lovely; includes a working double watermill still milling their own flour, beautiful gardens and interesting Castle.
Dunster Castle, Gardens and Watermill.
Minehead is the start of the South West Coast Path, a 630mile path all the way around to Poole. The town is dominated by its main employer Butlins Holiday Camp but also has a delightful old Quay area and a steam railway. Many shops and businesses have curious “metalhead” characters outside, made by a local man during the pandemic – a rather novel trail to follow around the town.
During our time here we walked from Minehead to Selworthy Beacon and incorporated the “rugged path” which is very hilly and very close to the edge of steep cliffs in places – we even had clear views across the Bristol Channel to South Wales. Being right on the doorstep of Exmoor we also saw some Exmoor ponies and heard cuckoos again.
Our final stop was the Lynton camping & caravan club site, another lovely site on yet another hill with views across to the sea. Here we walked more of the coast path and ventured into the Valley of Rocks with some amazing formations and lots of feral goats! Lynton (down a 1:4 lane!) is a lovely little village on the cliffs looking down to Lynmouth harbour. The Greenhouse cafe has good coffee and yummy scones.
You can walk down to Lynmouth or use the cliff railway – a Victorian tram system powered by water. Lynmouth was nearly swept away in 1952 after a huge deluge of 9 inches of rain in 24 hours on Exmoor – several properties were swept into the sea and sadly 34 people lost their lives. The village was rebuilt and the river diverted.
Lynton and Lynmouth
We loved exploring this coastline, with its dramatic cliffs and lovely towns/villages and would recommend it with the warning that there are a lot of hills!!!
We only managed a 3 night trip away in April, this time to Sway in the New Forest. Great to explore an area very close to us. We stayed at the delightful Rushcroft Farm which, in addition to the campsite, also has a couple of cottages, a shepherd’s hut and a romany caravan to glamp in, aswell as caring for rarebreed goats, 2 horses and 2 donkeys. There were deer grazing in a field over the stream at the bottom of the farm and we heard a stag calling to his hinds a couple of times during our stay.
The stream at the bottom of Rushcroft Farm.
Sway is a good place to base yourself as you have the New Forest within walking distance as well as having a good train and bus service to Bournemouth and Lymington, a couple of pubs, supermarkets, a deli cafe and great butcher (we had 2 days of BBQ meat from here). It also didn’t seem as busy as places like Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst.
We spent our time walking and exploring the New Forest landscape; traversing through inclosures (yes spelling is correct!) which are areas that are fenced off from commonors’ animals so that timber can be grown, through to the heathlands looking lovely with the gorse in full yellow flower. We spotted ponies and cattle and lots of deer grazing, heard our first cuckoo of the year and spied our first swallow of the season.
Landscapes of the New Forest.
We walked from Sway to Brockenhurst one day and stopped off at the Commoners Wine Bar for a drink. Chatting with the bar staff we learnt more about the New Forest commoners way of life and their livestock – with the annual “drifts” of rounding up their ponies for worming, trimming of manes and tails and general health checks by the agisters to ensure they are still fit enough to continue grazing on the New Forest lands.
We loved our short break away and learnt a lot about a beautiful area of the UK not that far away from where we live – it just shows that you don’t have to travel far to have good holidays.
