It seems that this summer is all about music festivals for us. No sooner had we recovered from Glastonbury than we were making our way to Ludlow Castle for one of their summer concerts. We decided to make this trip a mini break and travelled just north of Ludlow to Halfpenny Green Wine Estate. Set in 30 acres of wonderful vines, this winery has established itself as a popular venue in Staffordshire. It had added a shop, cafe and a lovely craft village on site to complement the winery.
We had wanted to go to Glastonbury for a few years since we began campervan life and didn’t spend all of our summers in the Med. This year we finally managed to get there and book a space for Dora as well. We really couldn’t be doing with sleeping in a tent cheek by jowl with 200,000 others.
In order to get to Worthy Farm as the gates opened for campervans on the Tuesday morning (yes, three days before the main event!), we left home on the Monday (June 23) afternoon to drive to Cheddar Bridge Park campsite near Cheddar so we could meet up with our fellow festival goers, Caron and Yvonne, in their hired VW California van. We arrived around 17.30 and had a great spot opposite them but near the loos and the fresh water point. We had a lovely BBQ and catch up that night, sitting out until well after dark.
Having spent over 5 weeks recovering from knee surgery, we agreed that Jo needed a short break away. We decided to visit Mersea Island and have lunch in one of the seafood shacks on the seafront. Although it was the Friday of school half term, we managed to book a table at The Company Shed for 14.00 to give us plenty of time to get there. We also needed to factor in when high tide was as the causeway over to the island can flood. We were fine as we crossed a good two hours before but then it took us another half an hour to find somewhere to park. We managed to find a spot in the car park by the high street (just as well we don’t have a longer van!) but it meant a 20 min walk back to the sea front which was quite a way for Jo with her new knee!
Now that we are home, we thought it would be nice to see where we went in our recent trip to Scotland and the North Coast 500.
As you can see, we don’t make it to the very top but we will get there in the not too distant future.
Enjoy our travel boast video:
Total miles for the trip: 1,842
We had a leisurely early morning with Helen before leaving Pitlochry on the final proper day of our Scottish holiday. We made our way down to the Scottish Borders via Perth and Edinburgh. Just as we were approaching Edinburgh we got a message to say that another Helen (old school friend of Liz’s), who was supposed to be meeting us later in her motorhome, had a flat battery and did we have any jump leads? Of course we did so we made our way to Gorebridge, just south of Edinburgh where we eventually jump started her Moho in the rain. Hot cross buns and coffee were a welcome recompense.
We left Fortrose on Wednesday morning (April 16) to continue our way south. We took the scenic route to Loch Ness via Beauly Priory. The priory was built in the 13th century and partially destroyed during the Reformation. Beauly was a pretty little town half way between Fortrose and Loch Ness.
From our overnight stop at Glenmorangie House, we made our way to The Black Isle. It’s not actually an island but a peninsula and it’s not black but local folklore says the name comes from the fact that it has its own microclimate so when everywhere around is covered in snow it doesn’t settle on the peninsula.
It was a delightful day driving and cycling around the area including Clootie Well, a sacred healing natural spring where people now leave clothing in the hope of being cured. Frankly, it looked a bit scruffy!
After saying farewell to Jo’s cousin and family on Monday morning (April 14), we continued our way and rejoined the North Coast 500 (known as the NC500). It’s a circular tour of the highlands that’s just over 500 miles long. We had already done some of it on the west coast but time prevented us from going right to the top of Scotland so we were happy to rejoin the route on the east coast. Our first stop was Dunrobin Castle, home of the Duke of Sutherland. It was a pretty big stately home with manicured gardens but the piece de resistance was the falconry display. 30 mins of watching these magnificent a Gyr Falcon and a Harris Hawk go through their paces as well as learning how different their attacking styles were.
After that, onwards south via the lovely town of Dornoch with a great cathedral.
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We awoke on Sunday morning to a wonderful view across the beach but sadly we needed to be on our way. So, after a lazy start, our first port of call was Gruinard Beach which was nice enough but not as spectacular as our overnight stop at Mellon Udrigle.
Then onto the Falls of Measach at Corrieshalloch Gorge, which was a lovely woodland walk to a suspension bridge over the gorge highlighting the falls.
Continue readingWe had a lazy morning yesterday as we wanted to visit the Talisker Distillery shop but that didn’t open until 10.00 so we were there as they opened the doors! On our way off the island, we stopped at Sligachan Old Bridge and picked up some scrummy seafood for lunch from a shack by the road.
We couldn’t quite understand why everyone was leaving our lovely stopover at Neist Point until two things happened. One, the sea fog rolled in so you couldn’t see in front of you and two, they closed the road down to the village!
Calmac Ferries had very kindly told us on Tuesday that they had cancelled our booking from Mallaig on the Scottish mainland to Armadale on Skye. When we looked to rebook, we found that there wasn’t a ferry running that actually took campervans! Very helpful. So, our plans needed to change as we would now be going over the road bridge to Skye. We still wanted to do the ‘Harry Potter’ things so we needed to go to the Glenfinnan Viaduct (steam train) and Loch Eilt (Dumbledore’s Grave). This meant we would now be doubling back on ourselves but we thought it was worth the effort and in some ways gave us more flexibility than adhering to ferry sailing times.
We knew we needed to get to the Glenfinnan Viaduct at least an hour before the train was due to cross over at 10.45 to get a parking spot such is the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise. However, there were several places we wanted to stop off at on the way from Loch Lomond so we were up and away by 06.45 on Wednesday morning. We had a glorious scenic drive along Loch Lomond and through Glencoe, scene of the famous MacLeod massacre by the Campbells.
We finally set off on our Scotland adventure on Monday, April 7th just after lunch some 5 days later than originally planned due to Jo’s pre-op hospital appointments in preparation for her knee replacement surgery at the end of April. We got as far as Lancaster and stopped at a pub, the Greyhound at Halton, for a delicious dinner and overnight stop in their car park (S4S-S476745).
When we got back from our recent travels, we found that our engine battery was very low but to be fair our tracker company had been letting us know it was low. Anyway, we plugged it in (not easy given where it’s parked) for 24 hours to charge up but thought a run would be beneficial.
Friends of ours, Maria and Jane, wanted to visit the WW2 code breaking centre at Bletchley Park, which is less than an hour from us so we decided to join them. We got the campsite, Old Dairy Farm Camping at Stoke Hammond, around 13.30 on Wednesday afternoon. It was a pretty cold and miserable February day but we were cosy in their Adria van catching up over a cup of tea whilst Liz was on an environmental training course. We cooked in both vans that evening but ate together. As it was so cold, we made sure the heating was on low overnight, especially as Liz was coming down with a cold.
We realised that we hadn’t been out in Dora for a while. This was mainly due to family commitments and Jo having knee surgery in late September. A while ago we had signed up for a rally with the Adria Owners Club down in Dorset. We hadn’t been on a rally with this lot before but thought we should give it a go. It also included a brewery tour so what’s not to like?
We left late on Thursday afternoon thinking that we would get caught up in all sorts of traffic but the run down was uneventful and in good time. We thought we wouldn’t arrive until around 21.30 but we were on our pitch at South Lytchett Manor Campsite (S4S#224625) well before 21.00. Dinner in the oven and bottle of wine opened. All very civilised.
We love going away for short (or long) breaks in Dora. We aren’t proud! So, when an ex-neighbour was celebrating his 60th birthday in Tintagel at the weekend, we thought why not? Jo had volunteering on the Thursday afternoon and we also had tickets for the recording of the BBC Podcast, The Kitchen Cabinet, in the evening so that meant a Friday morning start. However, everything took a bit longer than anticipated which meant that we didn’t leave home until after 11.00. We were also driving via our friends in Hampshire to pick up some artwork they had kindly brought back from Denmark for us. We turned down lunch as we had already had biblical rain on our way down and suspected more was to come, slowing our journey down.
Continue readingWe needed to leave the Edinburgh campsite by midday on Tuesday (August 20th) but we only had a 90 minute drive to our next site at St Andrews. So, we decided to take a detour to Falkirk to see the Wheel and the Kelpies. Luckily, they weren’t too far apart and both had fantastic parking for campervans with just a short walk to the attractions.
After a slight delay due to seeing a consultant about Jo’s knee and her subsequent steroid injection, we set off to Edinburgh late Tuesday morning (August 13). We needed to be at the site just north of Edinburgh by 20.00 so we only stopped for coffee refills and the toilet during our 400 mile drive north. A quick stop at Keele and Tebay services meant we arrived with 45 minutes to spare. We had taken the scenic route along the A702 from the A74 and it was gorgeous in between the rain showers! Onto our pitch and we were soon heating up the lovely pies we bought at Tebay Services Farmshop. We were shocked how cold it was in comparison to down south. There must have been at least a 10°C difference in temperature and it had started raining from Stafford onwards. Relatively early to bed as it had been a long day.
A long weekend was in store for us to celebrate Brighton Pride in early August so we left home around 19.00 on the Thursday evening. We arrived at the Caravan Club site just north of the marina two hours later having driven through horrendous thunderstorms and parked up in the Late Night Arrivals Area with another van and caravan. The site were very kind and checked we were ok despite being outside of their working hours. A quiet night and as soon as the office opened at 09.00 we were booked in and settled on the pitch but not before we ensured that the appropriate bunting was hung out!
In early July we had a few days away in Henley on Thames whilst the Royal Regatta Rowing week was on. We had booked a couple of nights at the Four Oaks Campsite just a mile outside of Henley town centre. We had taken our bikes to make it easier to explore the best vantage points to watch the races. We didn’t have tickets to any of the enclosures so we were mixing with the common people.
Dora The Explorer 