Friday 31st August and Saturday 1st September

Friday

What a lovely, restful day today 🙂

Decided to take it a bit easy today and didn’t rush to get out for the day. Cooked myself a bacon sandwich and a nice cup of tea and sat outside in the sunshine.

Started reading a new book today given to me by Mum and ended up finishing it!

Amazing read – made me laugh and cry and had some really good messages within its stories. Definitely a book to make you think but also a hugely enjoyable read.

Sat reading outside for a couple of hours until I decided it would be nice to go and take a look at a smaller National Trust house close by. I like large mansions and palaces, but sometimes it’s lovely to go and see something a little smaller.

Sunnycroft was originally built by a brewer on three acres of land and on a modest scale in 1879. The house was extended in 1899 to its present layout by Mary Jane Slaney, the widow of a wine and spirit merchant. In 1910 it was bought by JVT Lander and stayed within the family until it was given to the National Trust in 1997. You really feel like you are stepping back in time as you walk in and really at home.

This house was built to entertain! As soon as you entered the house, there was a huge billiard room and towards the back was a pretty sitting room – separate areas for men and women. It’s thought that the men’s room was made so impressive, to encourage them to visit. In a certain time, women didn’t generally go out alone and as the owner liked to entertain her friends, she had to entertain their husbands too!

The final owner, Joan Lander was a Nurse during the Second World War and a huge medicine cupboard is shown in the house alongside her uniform. She was also well known for her embroidery. Not only did she have her own business, designing patterns and selling embroidery sets, as well as teaching, she was also one of the Embroiderers from the Royal School of Needlework who was part of creating Queen Elizabeth the Seconds coronation gown.

I had a great tour by a Gentleman called John, who took us through the house pointing out interesting furniture and telling some great stories.

Do you know what this is?

It’s called a ‘modesty lamp’. It was a gas lamp that was far enough into the room so that if anyone there was undressing by gaslight, you wouldn’t be able to see the silhouette in the curtains from the outside.

Enjoyed an hour reading my book in the beautiful garden (after buying another one in their second hand book shop) with a cup of tea and a slice of cake – in blazing sunshine – bliss!

I headed back to the van for dinner (thanks Mum) and early to bed. I think my relaxing day made all of my tiredness come out and I was in bed for 9.30pm. Probably a good thing as I have a long drive tomorrow. Trying not to think about it until then….

Saturday

It was all going so well 😦

Yes, I’ve had a few panicky moments on my journeys and reasons to be anxious about my movement from one site to another, but now I’m going to worry about leaving the actual campsite.

It was time to leave Shropshire today and head towards South Wales. I knew the journey would take about 4 hours in all, so prepared well with a packed lunch, drink and wrote down all the roads I should take, after checking them online and on a map. Sat Nav was for once agreeing with me and I was packed up and ready to go.

Drove up to the electric gates to start my journey and had to suddenly move to the side slightly to let another camper back into the site (electric gates remember?). Because of this small distraction, I forgot to move back over before moving off, which meant I was actually now too close to a lamppost they have right by the exit button and the corner on the end of my van hit one of the lantern lights and knocked it off.

How embarrassing – the owner walked over (I didn’t just drive off, I stopped to admit it!) and was really lovely about it, but it was not a good way to start the journey. Felt like a fool and the silly ‘woman driver’ who can’t tow a caravan properly. Dented my confidence again, which isn’t what I needed before a very long journey.

Also mistakenly took the advice of one of the men there, who told me an ‘easier’ way to get to the main road, as I was worried about meeting one of the many tractors that had passed the campsite during my stay, on the narrow roads. To be fair, he may have been right, but in my heightened state of anxiousness, I went totally wrong and ended up on back roads again and adding 30 minutes to my journey.

This meant my directions were now wrong and the sat nav was trying to send me on ‘B’ roads all the way. Luckily found a lay by big enough to stop my car and caravan in and took a look at the map and found my way back to the right ‘A’ roads. Added more to time to an already long journey, but the rest of the journey went ok.

Until I got to Tenby, my next stop. The campsite I have chosen is in the centre of the town, so I can walk, which really appealed to me. I followed the directions and came to a narrow road that looked like it might lead to a field, but I wasn’t sure. I was too scared to turn up it so went past it and ended up in a bloody cul-de-sac! Luckily I was wide enough for me to turn around in without taking the van off the back. I stopped to calm down and called the campsite for directions. Once again I’d created a problem for myself I didn’t need too. Lane was too tight to get round on the way back, so I had to go about 20 mins out of my way to find a roundabout and head back again.

Encountered a car on the way up the narrow road, who tried to pull over, but I swear I squeezed past with about 2mm to spare – didn’t help the nerves. The sign to reception wasn’t clear, so I stopped, got out my car and walked up to try and find it, rather than cause another issue for myself if I went the wrong way. Drove up eventually to be met by the guy I’d spoken to on the phone who couldn’t find my name on the whiteboard so I didn’t have a pitch!

I pointed out that my name was in front of him in the booking diary, so I should have one and he then discovered it was an admin error and someone else who worked at the site had allowed someone else to stay an extra night – on the pitch destined for me…..

I decided not to get involved in the debate/discussions and walked back to my car so they could sort it out. Eventually they directed me to another pitch, apparently empty because the people in it had left early. Lucky for me, otherwise I wouldn’t have had a pitch!

Not a great start, but the view started to make up for it.

Time to set up and try to calm down – easier said than done when the pitch is on a very steep hill and I can’t get the caravan to level up. Calls to Dad followed who tried to help, but I am just going to have to deal with a wonky caravan and legs on bricks (Slightly scary).

Cut my hand setting up and there is no room for my awning (not the end of the world) so they better not try to charge me for it! I haven’t paid yet and they haven’t chased – will go into reception tomorrow. Also found that a tub of cream had fallen over in my fridge and had leaked all over the content of my fridge, plus the carpet in front of it. Tried to clean it, but I now have a very bad smelling caravan.

All in all, I feel like I shouldn’t have got out of bed today and I’m feeling rather sorry for myself so I am going to write this, have a large G&T while enjoying the view and go to bed. I hope tomorrow is a better day.