The Rest of Our Week at Warp Speed.

Without too much ado, this is a very quick overview of the rest of this week - with not much rest in between!  

We drove to chunnel via Belgium and France at midday and caught our chunnel train (er... also called Eurotunnel) without any hassles.  Usually the Eurotunnel terminal is heaving, more so during term time but fortunately it was somewhat quieter when children are back at school.

We arrive in England and stayed at Meon Valley Hotel, Golf & Country Club.  On the way to the hotel we were hungry so we stopped to pick up a salad which we were able to eat in our hotel room.

Paul had business to attend to in Southampton on Thursday and left me in the hotel to continue catching up on my blogs.  I could have gone for a swim in the hotel swimming pool but decided not to.  

That evening we had dinner at Samuel's Rest, a pub/restaurant.  The meal was delicious - fish pie.  It was very filling though!

On Friday we drove up to Wales to pick up our post and stayed with our friends:  Sue, Ian and their daughter Lindsay.  It was really good to see them again - more so because they are an extension of our family by marriage.  

Unfortunately we couldn't stay any longer in the UK because Paul has a course to attend on Monday so we headed back to Rijsbergen via the chunnel on Saturday.  We arrived back at Paul's mum's place quite late in the evening but it was good to be back.  

A drive to the Peak District & a farm campsite.

Today's route, more or less - per Google rather than our satnav!

Yesterday we left Pencelli Castle campsite and took a nice winding route through Wales and up to the Peak District.  We got the satnav to take us via the shortest route to make it a bit more scenic although on google maps (for this blog's purpose) it is not quite exact but it gives you an idea.  With the shortest routes we had to be careful that the roads weren't too narrow for our caravan but we did have one or two hair raising experiences when we came across a local who would be tearing down the country lanes at a great rate of knots and find us taking up the road.  Needless to say, they either had to inch past us or reverse back to a wider bit in the road.  We nearly got clobbered going around one hairpin bend in the road with high hedges when a vehicle coming towards us came around the bend at quite a speed.  We were fortunate our brakes and his brakes worked very well!

The drive through Wales and the Peak District was lovely and brought back some memories of when I used to go walking in the the Peak District.

Our campsite is on a farm not far from Bakewell and Buxton:  Dale Farm (http://www.dale.farm/).  By the time we arrived both the car and caravan looked as if they had been in a mud-slinging session.  They were so dirty they were almost unrecognisable.  We managed to get the caravan parked up on one of the hardcore sites without churning up the site or the driveway too much.  It was all very muddy because of recent snow-melt and rain, and more mud on the car and caravan didn't matter. 

Photograph off the internet to give you an idea of the Dale Farm campsite

We discovered that we would have to cross a muddy farmyard to get to the toilet/shower facilities.  Fortunately I had brought my gumboots with me for some reason or another so they came in handy but they had to remain outside when stepping into the caravan.  I hoped that it wouldn't rain overnight otherwise I would step into water-filled gumboots.  Paul didn't fare very well - he didn't bring his boots.  He wore Crocs clogs and his feet sank into the mud a couple of times...

Well, it is a farm!

We noticed that a woman was camping in a tent on a terraced pitch near us.  The tent was sizeable but camping during mid winter???!!!  And there was still snow lying around ...  I hope there is some form of heating in the tent or that it is well insulated.  Brrrrr....

We went down to the local pub for a nice enough pub meal.  We found a table next to a roaring fire and soon felt cosy.  The pub-owner's cat soon joined us but spent much time on Paul's lap.  Apparently Paul was sitting in the cat's usual spot!  It was nice to have kitty company.

When we got back to the campsite got into our dressing gowns and picked our way across the mud, in the dark, to get to the shower.  It is a paid meter shower.  So Paul had to traipse back to the caravan to get some coins to operate the shower.  And it had started to rain outside...  I think it was about £1 for 5 minutes but we BOTH managed to shower within those 5 minutes - we didn't have many coins!  I'm small so I don't take long in the shower, fortunately.

Back in England & camping hiccups.

We had an early start to catch the ferry, driving through Belgium to get to the ferry at Calais, France.  There were roadworks along the way so it was just as well that we had given ourselves plenty of time.

We arrived in Dover around 1pm, giving us an hour to make our way to Folkstone for the car's MOT/roadworthy appointment.  The technicians didn't mind us setting down the caravan in the parking lot temporarily until the car had been MOT'd.  I was tired so I had a nap in the caravan and Paul did a bit of reading. 

Today's route, more or less.

The car finally passed its MOT.  Whew!

Back on the road again, we took a scenic drive via small roads along the southeast coastline towards Hastings.  The day was drawing to a close and nightfall was just around the corner when we tried to find an all year round campsite.  One place was closed (different to what was said on the website), another one didn't take caravans, two we couldn't find so we had to go onto the internet to look for other campsites and ring them to see if they were open.  We were in luck - one place that we rang was open but not really to caravans at this moment in time because the ground is very soggy from so much snow melt and rain.  When they heard that our caravan was very small they agreed to allow us to stay in their car park rather than lose a bit of business by turning us away because of boggy fields.

Getting to Dogwood Cottage Campsite (http://www.dogwoodcamping.co.uk/) wasn't a problem.  It was the little lane that they were down that was the problem.  We followed the instructions to the village but missed the lane because it was in a darkish corner and not lit up by a road lamp.  I thought I had seen the sign but by then we had 'sailed' past it.  All Paul could do was try and find a place to turn around.  We did so in the car park of a care home for the elderly was sited (from what we could see in the dim light) in spacious grounds.  Back we went but again we passed the small lane.  There wasn't a suitable place to turn around for a good mile or two and eventually Paul decided to turn into a road and then back out onto the main road. I had to guide him as he couldn't see the road properly.  Back in the village Paul drove at a snail's pace so we wouldn't miss the turn-off into the lane.  He was dubious because the lane was very narrow and it was not lit up with street lights. 

We finally got the campsite and met the owners.  They advised us on the best way to put the caravan in the tiny car park and after that we could set up 'home', unhook the caravan and go to a pub for dinner.  We didn't get very far with anything.  The electric hookup didn't work.  And it was pouring with rain.

Paul spoke to the campsite owner who had a fiddle with the plugs but they were working fine.  The campsite owner had a brainwave:  re-wire the our European camping socket because he'd known people from Europe staying at the campsite and having the same problem.  So Paul re-configured the hookup plug and it worked. 

We were starving by the time we headed out to look for a pub that served evening meals.  One pub wasn't serving meals because the owner was away (I guess he/she does the cooking).  We found another pub and they were open.  You could tell we weren't locals.  The minute we entered the pub door the chit-chatter from the locals ground to a halt as they twisted their necks around to check us out.  We were told that the pub was due to be holding a quiz session at 8 so were shown to the dining room area of the pub rather than sitting at a table near the bar.  We bagged ourselves a seat near a heater, and wined and dined alone; listening to the banter coming from near the bar. 

Fortunately getting back to the campsite wasn't a problem.  Time for a shower now - and it is raining outside.  Maybe we should stand out in the rain instead, with some soap and towel handy ....