On Friday 21st June we dropped Ruby off and headed to Thetford forest for one of our favourite weekends of the year… the concerts in Thetford forest. For the first time we had booked two concerts…Paul Weller on the Friday and Jess Glynne on the Saturday. PW was fabulous…a great show which began with a set by a new band The Stone Foundation. ..def an act to watch out for. Jess Glynne sounded fab but the show felt a bit disjointed ( think she was a bit stressed after dropping out of Isle Of Wight festival the week before) but still a brilliant night. The weather was amazing and we did a lovely circular walk during Saturday when we bumped into one of Michaels old school chums.. it’s a small world. Another great weekend at Thetford at Little Lodge Farm.
Suffolk 🌞&⛈
So off we went to meet up with Sandra& Adrian and the Williamson family for our annual camping weekend. This year it was 19-22 July at http://www.hawwoodfarm.co.uk/.. a fabulous little site that we will use again. The three meadows at the far side of the campsite are ideal for wee groups as they only have eight pitches each. Apart from snow we had all available variations of weather…wind, hot and sunny and storms, but it didn’t stop the barbies and, thanks to Debbie’s gazebo, we ate out each night. Saturday brought a bit of retail therapy in the shape of Snape Maltings and a lovely girlie lunch with the Addams brewery tour in Southwold in the afternoon for the chaps. On Sunday we all headed back to Snape for a lovely riverside walk and then a pub lunch in Aldeburgh ( although Sue and Adrian could have done without the seagulls dropping ‘one’ on them…even if it is meant to be lucky!!!) A lovely final evening on Sunday with a sit round the fire pit after a nice barbie. A few of us stopped at Sutton Hoo on the way home , having a wee picnic overlooking the river to Woodbridge…a fantastic view. A lovely weekend…where will we venture next year I wonder?🤔
Diving in Wales
Or at least trying to!
On 26th May we drove both the van , and the Up, over to Pembrokeshire to join a small group from the dive club. Peter had planned to dive Monday through to Friday, Sue was going to explore the local area ( a couple of days on her own and a couple of days with Wendy ( Tims wife who is also not a diver). We stayed at a fab little CL Woody Kiln CL @ Herbranston near Milford Haven.
On the Monday Peter went out with the dive group but due to the strength of the wind they weren’t able to get out of the sound, but did manage a couple of dives – ‘lots of crabs seen’. Sue & Wendy went to Colby Woodland Gardens (N.T) and have a fabulous day culminating in a walk to the beach in the sunshine.
On Tuesday the dive group were restricted again to the sound but managed to ‘just about see a wreck’. Sue drove over to St Davids and spent a happy couple of hours visiting the cathedral and Royal Palace and stopping on the way back in Solva to sit by the sea eating ice-cream.
Due to bad weather the diving was cancelled on Wednesday so We both went to Tenby fur a walk around and visited the Tudor Merchants House N.T. – probably the smallest NT house we have ever seen, interesting though.
Diving was cancelled again on Thursday so, along with a few others, we headed to Stackpole Park NT. again… we certainly got our money’s worth from our membership this trip!! Stackpole is a haven for flora/ fauna and nature located on the Pembrokeshire coastline. We moved around the estate a couple of times to take in all the different habitats – beach, lily ponds, woodland – even bumping into the rare ‘Paul West ‘ mammal in one of the car parks. Everyone got together this evening for a meal in Milford Haven, which was fun.
Although diving resumed on Friday the weather was still quite stormy so Peter decided not to go ( along with a couple of others) and have a rest day and Sue spent the day with Wendy at Carew Castle and Tidal Mill. A brilliant place to visit and very interesting. We had a pot luck dinner at a Tim and Wendy’s ‘the bunkhouse’ along with Paul and Wendy before everyone headed for home on the Saturday ( 1st June).
This was the first time we had taken a car along to use as a run around- it was a big success, especially on the small Welsh roads. We will definitely do it again when we are planning to be based in one place for quite a while.
Time with friends.
On a cool damp Bank Holiday (3 May 2019) we headed off to one of our favourite nearby campsites, Houghton Mill in Cambridgeshire. Despite the drizzle and cold wind we had a great time exploring the local area with Ali, Alan and Helen and found a few gorgeous villages on the edge of the river that we’d all happily move to. Great break with fab friends.
April showers in Chatsworth
On April fools day we headed of to the Peak District to stay at the Caravan and Motorhome Site on the Chatsworth Estate to start our adventures for 2019. We had a lovely walk into the nearby village of Baslow where the daffodils put on a beautiful show. On a very chilly Wednesday we set off to the Crich Tramway Museum. They had an amazing collection of trams from over the globe ( although Ruby wasn’t awfully keen on the tram ride!) stopping later at the recommended Chatsworth farm shop to replenish supplies whilst it snowed!! Our last full day was spent at Chatsworth. We spent the morning walking around the beautiful grounds and after the most expensive sandwich and cup of tea we can remember Peter went to visit the house whilst Ruby and Sue settled down in the van for a nice rest. ( Sue had been to the house before.) After a detour via Hull ( where Sue attended the funeral of a close friends mum) we headed off to the Lincolnshire Wolds where we stayed at a very bizarre Britstop pub but had the best fish and chips ever! We drove home via the Lincolnshire coast..to which I don’t think we will be returning in a hurry!
Brighton – Cinema on the Beach
We spent a long weekend staying for 3 nights at the Brighton CMC site just outside the town. You can walk from the site to the Marina at the eastern end of Brighton beach. From there you can either walk along the beach or take the bus to the town centre or take the historic Volks Railway – the oldest operational electric railway in the world (built in 1883).
We were visiting the Luna Cinema on the Beach and had bought tickets for one of their beach hut which included seats for 4 people (and some beer and cocktails rolled in!). Mike and Vicky were taking the train down to join us to see ‘The Greatest Showman’ – very entertaining, especially when you are sitting in a deckchair on a warm evening with the sun setting behind the pier!
The four of us spent the rest of the weekend wandering around the Pier, the interesting shops in The Lanes and taking a trip on the i360, a big doughnut shaped observation platform that rises 138 metres up above the town at the seafront. We ended the weekend with a walk around the impressive Brighton Pavilion.
Heading Home
On Monday morning we started the long journey north but took a slight diversion to a vantage point above the Dordogne River at Trémolat:
We then drove back up through Perigueux (and a seemingly huge number of road works!) to a another beautiful little town – Brantôme. The core of the town is set on a small island in the River Dronne so there are excellent views with water and bridges whichever way you look. The main attraction is the old Benedictine abbey and the caves immediately behind it dug out by the monks.
After one night in the town’s aire we spent the morning heading further north, reaching the Loire and stopping at the campsite at Amboise.
Attentive readers may spot the view above from a blog post almost exactly a year ago (but with different cocktails!). We stayed here last year and liked it so much we decided to stop off again for two nights before heading for home. Due to an overdose of Chateaus last year we missed out on the one in the town so on Wednesday morning we paid it a visit. Set on the rocks above the town it has impressive views over the Loire and surrounding countryside.
It also contains a small chapel housing the grave of Leonardo da Vinci.
A Tale of Two Rivers
On Friday, after two nights at Montignac we drove further south east, finally crossing the Dordogne river but continuing on to the very popular location of Rocamadour. The town has a spectacular but quite bizarre setting – set into the northern cliff face over the river Alzou are three distinct levels. At the bottom is a medieval town; set in the cliffs above is the the Cité Religieuse, a collection of seven chapels which was once a very busy pilgrimage destination. These two part are connected by a huge stone staircase known as the Grand Escalier, for the non-pilgrim tourists a lift has also been installed! On the cliff top is a large château now connected to the Cité Religieuse by a funicular railway. There was free overnight parking for the van in the car park behind the van so we took the easy funicular/lift route to visit the chapels and town. Although the setting was very impressive we thought the Main Street of the town was a little too crowded with souvenir shops.
On Saturday we drove west to a village on the banks of Dordogne river called Limeuil and booked into a campsite on the opposite side of the river for two nights rest. The location is one of France’s designated ‘most beautiful villages’. It is built on steep hill overlooking where the La Vézère river meets the Dordogne. We climbed to the top of the village to find a recommended restaurant (Garden-Party) and were not disappointed with the delightful meal. On the walk back we passed the Village Fete in full swing on the riverside with the band playing past midnight.
This is the view from the campsite across to Limeuil with some bloke floating past spoiling the picture!
History and Prehistory
On Tuesday we walked to the other side of Périgueux were there are many remenants of the Roman civilisation that thrived here 2000 year ago.Sitting next to the railway line here’s a tower which was the central part of a Roman temple:
Behind the tower the remains of a large Gallo-Roman dwelling was discovered in 1958. Very recently a huge glass structure has been placed over restored ruins to preserve them, creating a unique museum which also contains many amazing artefacts from the period. The museum is called Vesunna after the name of the Roman town the dwelling was part of:
We returned to the town centre for a very pleasant meal that evening, crossing the river Isle and catching the early evening sun on the cathedral. The rather odd ‘house on the wall’ turned out to be a 14th century lookout on the city walls.
The following morning was market day so we spent a few hours wandering the streets looking for some tasty items for future lunches and dinners.
Around midday we packed up the van and headed east. After an hour’s drive we stopped at a very nice campsite in Montignac. The site had some very welcome facilities including a bar and a swimming pool – very useful for cooling down as the temperature had now reached 30C!
Within walking distance of Montignac and the campsite was the Lascaux Centre International home of the most impressive prehistoric art in Europe. In 1940 three boys & their dog discovered a small opening the hillside caused by a tree collapsing in storm. The opening lead into caves housing the most incredible prehistoric art dating from approx. 20000 years ago. In 1948 after the war the caves were opened to the public but within 15 years the pollution caused by over 1 million visitors was causing significant damage to the artwork. The French government closed the caves to the public in 1963 and since then they have been building increasingly accurate replicas of the caves so that the public can appreciate the fantastic art for themselves. The latest replica was opened 18 months ago at huge expense after years had been spent on the latest digital 3D imaging techniques. You are guided through exact replicas of the caves (just a few hundred metres from the originals) and the latest AV tools are used to explain what you are seeing including a touch of Virtual Reality!
More wine for one
Yesterday we were both due to return to the wine festival to use our remaining wine sampling allocations. Unfortunately Sue had a nasty stomach bug overnight and decided to rest up and recover. So off I went with the challenging task of using up two lots of allocations (i.e. another 12 wines to taste!).At the end I even attended a short ‘unusual pairings’ session at the wine school stand – it was all in French but the wine and food were excellent!
Today we drove east into the Dordogne and stopped at an aire in Périgueux, the district’s capital. It’s a delightful town, full of narrow cobbled streets and very attractive old buildings. Note their solution below to a lack of building space – balance your house on a wall! After walking around the area surrounding the Cathédrale St-Front which dates back to the 13th century we are going back tomorrow to check out the Roman remains (and maybe a nice restaurant).
