Thursday day spent in Dartmouth

Can't keep Barbara off the buses since she got her new bus pass..."Like getting your monies worth"? Spent the day in Dartmouth, a walk around and a nice lunch.

Wednesday arrived Torcross

First swim of the year, cold but fabulous.

From Torcross looking down Slapton Sands. 

21st July on route to Devon overnight Tewkesbury

Great site easy walk into town where there is a beautiful Abbey, some good pubs, shops and cafés.

Post Lockdown trip to the Lake District. July 5th - 16th

As we expected the lockdown measures were eased so in anticipation of this we had booked some Caravan and Motorhome club sites in the lakes. Our first stop was Coniston Park where we arrived on Sunday5th July , leaving on Friday 10^th. This was a lovely wooded site situated about 500 metres from the lake shore. Coniston was about a 20 minute walk away where there were about 3 pubs that weren’t that busy. We walked south to a little pub in Torver and on one of the days we did a long walk up to Tarn Hows a manicured NT area that has always been one of my favourite uk locations. The Coniston Park site had introduced a number of measures to protect from the virus, the main one being the provision of armbands which you used when you went to the toilets. Outside the toilets/showers there were 5 hooks where you placed your armband before entering. Only 5 people were allowed in at a time so when all five hooks were full you had to wait until someone came out and took their band away. Great idea apart from the fact that most of us ageing campers are ‘memory challenged’ so consequently most who exited the toilets forgot to take there bands off the hook. So as our pitch faced the toilets it was entertaining to watch on numerous occasions a handful of men queuing up outside when there were 5 bands on the hooks but nobody inside the toilets!

Coniston Water from southern end.

Lake Coniston

Coniston Park Coppice site.

Dockray Meadow did not have this issue as it didn’t have a toilet/shower block so for the first time in 33 yrs we had to use all of our onboard equipment , and this wasn’t a problem. Again a beautiful area of the lakes but a bit remote with the nearest pub about 4 miles away. We arrived here on Friday 10^th and left Sunday 12^th.

Nearby Cogra Moss

Dockray Meadow site.

Dockray Meadow .

Our next stop was the Caravan Club site at Borrowdale where we stayed until Thursday 16^th. An exceptionally beautiful area at the southern end of Lake Derwentwater. The pub/hotel along with the bus stop was a 20 minute walk away. Again the site had no toilet/shower block and again this wasn’t an issue. Although the weather for this trip was dominated by dull overcast weather, on one day the sun shone and as we walked along the river we discovered a few families swimming in the river. On another day we took the bus down to Searoller and walked the full length of the valley back along a gorgeous trail. On another day we walked up Cat Bells , a tough walk with a fair amount of scrambling. We had two lovely evenings in the Mary Mount hotel where the food was excellent. On one of these visits we sat outside in the evening sun just gazing over the lake. Our last full day was a bit showery so we got the bus to Keswick went for a nice pub lunch and bought some reduced shoes and clothes. Another good trip.

All above of Borrowdale

Looking down on lake Derwentwater

12th March visit to York

Well we had tickets for a Michael Kiwanuka gig at Leeds on 12th so we booked the York Caravan Club site and planned our trip in detail with a meet up with Owen early evening and then a train ride to Leeds for the gig. The gig was cancelled and the coronavirus shutdown was on the horizon. This didn't prevent us from having a pre-shutdown piss up and great time. Owen was introduced to the electric dropdown bed, shown to the ladder and given a reasonable warning/instruction guidance. However as soon as we dozed off we heard a terrific bang and heard the accompanying "Sorry" , the door was opened, and left open to provide Jonesy with his freedom. Fortunately he was too tired to move out of his bed and obviously had better bladder control than Owen.
The following day Laura and Norma came down from Newcastle and we had an excellent day just walking pub to pub, with a nice evening meal before they headed home. Saturday morning we returned and Owen and I then headed to Liverpool for a meet up with Alex and our old mate John Kincart. How glad we were that we got all of this in before the lockdown.

The famous York Sneeze.

Bridge at York

Great night in Liverpool. We survived to get our bus passes. Kincart, Blundell, Wiseman and Carroll.

18th and 19th December 2019. Two nights in Castleton.

Decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary by having a couple of nights on The Caravan and Motorhoming club site in Castleton. Weather dry but damp but 2 pleasant relaxing nights in the pubs. Walked the ridge that runs around the town and up Mam Tor. Lovely xmas lights in the town although it was rather quiet in the pubs.

The one and only posing.

The two 'one and only's' posing.

Barb walking down from Mam Tor on the old Chapel on the Frith road that was hit by subsidence many years ago.

Keswick weekend. 30th November - 2nd December

All of the political parties were now occupying all of our screens. Brexit was being pushed down our throats. Even though it was only the end of November xmas trees and lights were popping up in peoples windows and already people were coming out with that most ridiculous of questions …"Are you ready for xmas"? Time to get out of here! There was a 3 day window of dry and sunny weather about to arrive on our shores at the weekend, so the van was quickly cleaned and off we went to the C&CC site in Keswick.
It was a glorious time, cloudless blue skies with all day sunshine. We walked all around lake Derwentwater, went up Walla Crag and recovered from these fabulous walks of an evening in the Pheasant Inn with pints of Cumberland and a food from a fantastic wide ranged menu. We even took advantage of the dubious Black Friday offers and both got new walking boots in a genuine offer that saved us £50 on a pair of boots. What a weekend.