One (wo)man and her (cara)van

As you may have read in my last post, I got back from Lisbon on the Wednesday evening and my lovely friends, who I started the holiday with, both came to get me and took me to Starbucks to enjoy a refreshing drink and cake to welcome me back!

My original plan had been to fly back from Lisbon on the previous Saturday and have four days to prepare for my next holiday – caravanning in Cornwall. That was until the Lisbon thief, stole those plans as well as my passport from me.

Plan was to;
• Get slow puncture fixed on my car before I towed for 400 miles – obviously
• Get some washing done – clothes, not me, I was already clean
• Catch up on Love Island – probably shouldn’t admit to that one!
• Pack my caravan at a leisurely place
• Go food shopping for lovely stuff
• Plan my journey with an overnight stop on the way – avoid petrol stations while towing at all costs

Instead I arrived back on the day I should have been halfway to Cornwall and stopping off at a campsite near Stonehenge! I’d cancelled this while still in Lisbon, having a feeling I wouldn’t make it and its good job I did and that they hadn’t asked for a deposit.

First job – slow puncture. My first choice (e-tyres – they come to you) couldn’t get to me until (no specific time) on Friday, so on the off chance I called the usually very busy local garage to see when they could fit me in. I called at 09:00am and they asked me (sitting on my stairs in my pajamas) can I be there in the next 30 minutes? Otherwise we’d struggle until after the weekend. My answer? Yes. BUT – as I couldn’t find my locking wheel nut (a nut that removes alloy wheels or something and is needed for this sort of job and no, I have no idea how I lost it as I have never even seen it), they may not be able to help and I may be directed to somewhere else.

30 minutes later I was at the garage (10 mins drive and I even had time to shower) they took a look and gave me some much needed good news – they had got the alloy off without the wheel nut, but I would need to buy one in case I got a flat at the side of the road, a nail had gone straight through the centre of my rear tyre, almost as if someone had put it there (hmmmm…) and they could fix it if I left my car with them for an hour. Yes again, so I took myself off to a local park to take a walk and plan what I should do next.

I was anxious about doing such a long drive, while towing, alone (staying awake for it all anyway!) and filling up with diesel with the caravan on the back as I haven’t done that before and had visions of hitting a petrol pump and exploding it or getting stuck and not being able to reverse…yes, that’s how my brain works sometimes, always the positive thinker! So, my master plan was to stop halfway to Cornwall at a campsite, so I could un-hook, fill up and the hook up again the next morning. I started to look for such campsites and found a few just off the M5 that would fit the bill. I also googled ‘How to fill up with petrol when towing a caravan’ and read some really helpful tips from other people who were also worried about this. The main being – if you go to a service station on a motorway, you’ll be fine – articulated lorries do it, though it will be a bit more expensive.

My little sister called at this point and I explained that my car was at the garage and what I was doing and she pointed out that it would save me money on an overnight site and I could go into a services petrol station relatively easily if I did what they do and drove at night. She and her husband (and my Nephew) had done this the week before and were waiting for me to arrive at the campsite and I think she was keen to see me to make sure I was ok after my Lisbon ‘ordeal’ as the rest of my family were all on holiday!
She was right and managed to convince me it was a good idea, so I suggested that I would come down the following day (Friday) after sorting everything out. Her answer….nope, I should come tonight – its only 10am and all I need to do is pack and everything else can be sorted once I get there…

She was right again (enjoy this Linds) and pointed out that I could arrive at anytime and park up in their holding field until the next morning. I would also be able to check in straight away as I had a booking for that day (Thursday) so wouldn’t have to wait until the usual check-in time of 2pm. I didn’t really have any more excuses, other than feeling anxious about life after Lisbon, so said I’d do some jobs and let her know.

I picked up my car, went home to put some washing on, went food shopping and started to put clothes and shoes into Ikea bags to take to the van. About 4 hours and two lots of washing later, I was pretty much ready to go. Contacted my sister to say that I should be on the road about 7pm and I’d keep her updated. Went for a nap at 4pm as I thought I should get 20 mins, what with the long drive ahead of me, and fell asleep for an hour and a half! Needless to say, I was a bit flustered when I woke up and rushed around doing last minute things (which did result in me forgetting a few things!) and then made my way to the storage place to pack, hook up and go.

I got there about 6.30pm and started to unpack the Ikea bags into the van, did all my checks and went to move my caravan onto my car using the motor mover….and the battery for the remote was dead. As you can probably imagine, in my heightened sense of the unfairness of life in recent days, this didn’t go down very well. I messaged my sister that I was going to be more delayed as I needed to go and get a battery from somewhere, which would take another hour, and I wasn’t happy.

Time for a pep talk from my BIL Simon, who assured me that I could get the caravan out without using the motor mover. I hadn’t wanted to try because its quite a tight turning circle for a car and caravan and my fear was that I’d have to reverse, and I’d get stuck and there would be no one around to come and help me. He reminded me that I had dealt with worse when caravanning and been stranded in a foreign country on my own – what’s the worst that could happen?! I agreed to hang up and try…and I did it!! Luckily the caravan next to mine at the storage place is my parents and they were on holiday in it, so it gave me just enough room with it not being there to make the turn – hurrah! At about 8.15pm, I was on my way. Call to my sister to confirm ETA of about 1.30am and that I’d see them on the morning.

The journey down was a dream! Hardly any traffic and great weather. I had M&S treats to eat, music to listen to and the open road. When I got really close to Cornwall, it was pitch black too, so I couldn’t be scared by narrow roads or tight corners as I could hardly see them! My only challenge was stopping to fill my tank up a bit as towing uses a lot more fuel than usual, but I chose one towards the end of the last bit of motorway, took a deep breath and pulled up…and the pumps were all closed! Drove straight out and luckily there was another about 15 miles away. Success this time and an empty forecourt. I pulled up between two pumps and kept to the centre to stop anyone coming up next to me to make the turn difficult – selfish if it had been busy but it really wasn’t! Stretched my legs, got back in and off I went again.

I reached the holding field at about 1.30am, so made great time (only 2 toilet stops in lay-bys, the beauty of caravans, you have a travelling bathroom!) and set up in the pitch black of a field with no lighting! Used my headlights to help with putting the legs down and spent a night, slightly ‘on the wonk’, ready to move the next morning.

All in all, I felt pretty pleased with myself 😊 I was very tired when I arrived and glad I’d bought a big bottle of water at the service station, as I realized that I had no electricity or water until the next day, so I was able to wash my teeth and face before hitting the sack.
I would recommend this way of travelling with a caravan to everyone. It was pretty much stress free as I didn’t have any idiots making dangerous maneuvers to get past me on small roads, and what you can’t see, you can’t be scared of!

At last, I was in Cornwall and ready for another holiday with a little less drama! My next post will be all about my Cornwall recommendations and some lovely photos to make you all jealous!

Thanks for reading!

Ahhhh Lisbon. Blue sea, marble white pavements, stories of intrepid explorers leaving the port to explore the unseen lands across the sea, the custard tarts, the port wine…..the thieves…..

I’m not going to dwell on this part of the holiday as the rest was fabulous, but yes. I was pick pocketed and unfortunately my theory that my passport would be safer on me than in a Airbnb apartment with no safe, was an incorrect one. More of that later…

But first…Lisbon! A beautiful city with what I can only describe as English weather when we arrived! For the first three days it rained on me and my two lovely friends, but we made the most of it and rode the tourist bus! The rest of the week (and the 5 days when I was still there after that week) the weather was glorious. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment (with roof terrace in anticipation of fine weather) just outside of the main city, in the older part and it was lovely to feel away from the tourist trails when we went home. We could also self-cater which meant lots of wine and lovely food, in the comfort of our own home, so we could safely get our tipsy selves to bed!

So my top tips for Lisbon…..

Hop on, Hop off bus tours – We opted for a 48 hour tour (valid for 48 hrs from the moment you buy) as we knew it was going to rain for at least two days and this would be a good way of getting our bearings and at least seeing everything we wanted to. Worked out in our favour as it really did rain and it taught us that we didn’t want to visit the ‘modern’ part of Lisbon again as its all office blocks and new buildings! Also, handy to find friendly Starbucks when you are wet and freezing cold and in need of a coffee with no language barriers. The tour we chose also got us on Trams for free (which Lisbon is famous for) and the ‘Santa Justa Lift’, which is a lift in the middle of the city that takes you up a few storeys and avoids steep hills to take you to the church I mention below. Its worth getting on the tram that takes you around the old part of the city, as it takes you through areas the bus tours don’t and you are at street level so see even more than from the top of a double decker bus.

We visited a few museums, all reasonably priced. My favourite’s were;

• The ‘Story of Lisbon’, easily found on the main square, that tell you the history of Lisbon through an audio guide that you follow around the room full of artifacts and re-creations of the city and its stories. This includes the 1755 earthquake (that I found out the following week was felt in Cornwall) which led us to visit the ‘Igreja do Convento do Carmo’ (Church of the Carmo convent) via the lift I mentioned above. This was a ruin of a church that ‘survived’ the earthquake and also houses a room full of historical artifacts, including two mummified children (not for the faint-hearted)

• Coach museum – loved this place. We did go to specifically see the coach in which on the 1st February 1908, King Dom Carlos I and his heir, Prince Royal Dom Luis Filipe were assassinated (the tour bus told us you could still see the bullet holes), but it wasn’t there! But, definitely worth a visit to see the absolutely amazing and sometimes ludicrous coaches the royal family and religious leaders used to travel around in!

• If you visit Portugal, you have to go and find out about tiles! The tile museum was actually really interesting, especially the map of the city before the 1755 earthquake, all painted onto tiles (surprise!). The museum was in an old monastery, with its church still part of the building – very golden and worth taking a look at. It also had a great coffee shop, with what we thought were the best custard tarts we found! You will also have a bit of a laugh at the English translations in the museum. Very nice they do it, but the words they use require an English person to carry an English dictionary!
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• I need to take a moment to acknowledge the famous custard tarts (Pasteis de Nata) and the discovery of the best cinnamon rolls EVER! Take a look at these photos and do NOT leave Lisbon without trying at least six of each (I didn’t!) The Cinnamon rolls can be found in ‘A Padaria Portuguesa’ which can be found all over the City.
  

  
• The Basilica do Sagrado Coracao de Jesus. The bible tells us that Jesus walked on water….well, in Lisbon, you can walk on a church roof! For just 4 EUROs each, we were taken through a small, locked door and shown to a spiral staircase that led to the roof and Portico. I was a little terrified in the Portico (DON’T LOOK DOWN!) but it was quite a view outside and an experience to remember! By the way, you can get in the church for free!
  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• The Belém Tower (Torre de Belém) was built between 1514 and 1520 by the Portuguese architect and sculptor Francisco de Arruda. It was classified as a World Heritage Site in 1983 by UNESCO. Constructed on the northern bank of the Tagus River, this tower was used to defend the city. Years later, it was transformed into a lighthouse and customs house. It is situated very close to the Jerónimos Monastery, which is a gorgeous white building – perfect for those holiday snaps with blue skies behind a beautiful building. That is if it is not raining when you visit it, like it was the first time we did! The second time, we were lucky with the weather and its worth the climb up the tower for the views of Lisbon at the top. From here you can see the massive red bridge that looks like the Golden Gate bridge and the statue on the other side of the river that looks like the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janerio!
  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• We took a day-trip to Sintra, which you can organize through the tourist info centres, but we used the main train line and did it all ourselves, Very simple to navigate, cheaper than an organized tour and you get to spend more time at Sintra. Take the local bus up to the palace once you get there otherwise walk up a lot of steep hills! It reminded us a little of Disney World as the palace was multi-coloured and had lots of ornate windows and doors, but it was interesting to go inside and soak up some history.
  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• We also visited ‘Quinta da Regaleria’ on the way, a short walk up a hill from the train station (before you hop on the local bus to the palace). I’d seen this place on Instagram and needed to see it for myself. It’s a garden (more hills) of what we would call folly’s and tunnels and inverted towers, like the ones in these photos. Gorgeous to walk around and we could have spent a whole day there if we had time.
  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• Make sure you take the time to just wander around the various streets of Lisbon, not just the main roads, but up the hills, close to the castle, out to the older part and wherever your feet take you. Its lovely to see what you can find on your way around and explore a little further.

• Moscatel wine – just try it. Sweet wine – heaven. (PHOTO OF GLASS). I enjoyed this particular glass of ‘Calice de Moscatel de Setubal’ in Sintra, sitting outside a hotel that Lord Byron stayed in when visiting and writing some of his famous works. The hotel was called ‘Lawrence Hotel’ who do a lovely light lunch that we enjoyed sitting in the sun, on our walk down from the gardens, before we made our way to the palace.

And finally…..do not take anything of personal value out in your handbag! I had an ‘over the body’ handbag that I was constantly checking was in front of me, zipped up and secure, like everyone tells you to, and I still got pickpocketed.

It was on a local bus (using them after a long day of walking to get back to the centre) which was very busy and cramped. I was pushed up against a few other passengers and remember saying to one of my friends ‘Would you mind moving back a bit as I feel a little claustrophobic’ (which she did) and it must have happened in the few minutes I was in a crush. I hadn’t even got off the bus before I realized my purse was gone. So careful am I, that I was checking my (totally zipped up) bag for my phone (thank god they didn’t take my phone!) and purse as I was getting off the bus, and realized it was gone. And with it my passport. Two days before we were due to fly home….

Initial panic settled into – called my insurance company, who told me what to do – which turned into a trip to the tourist police station (who told me this happens a lot) and then to the British Embassy the next morning. Application filled in on-line (wrong info given to me by the Police who said I had to go to the Embassy in person) and paid for (£100 paid for by my friend as my credit and debit card had been stolen along with my money and passport – cancelled online immediately) and then a long – FIVE DAY – wait for my emergency papers to come through.

I wasn’t worried about the extra time in Lisbon – bonus holiday in the sun – I wasn’t worried about being there alone when my friends left on the original flight on Saturday – travel alone all the time – but it was horrible having no ID and no bank cards (I transferred money to my friends accounts so they could withdraw EUROs for me before they left and hoped I had enough to see me through) and the fact I had BEEN ROBBED made me a little unsure of my surroundings – BUT I didn’t know when I would get my emergency papers and just had to wait until I heard. Of course, I kept calling the Embassy every day who ensured me it was all going through, but because I was robbed on a Thursday, it would take longer as the Embassy in Lisbon didn’t work over the weekend, and it would take a minimum of two working days, more likely three. In the end, I heard on Tuesday around Midday, went straight to the Embassy to get my papers, booked a flight and left the next afternoon (Wednesday). It was the not knowing that was horrible and unnerving (and the fact I had been robbed – did I mention that!) but the sunshine and extra time in a new city was rather nice – especially as I didn’t have a job to go back for or to call and apologise for my absence!

I stayed in a lovely hotel for my extra days in the centre of the city called ‘My Story Augusta’ which I would really recommend. I paid about £102 per night (so not that cheap) but right in the centre of things, near a Metro station to get to the embassy and airport and close to a lot of the sights. The staff were all very friendly and concerned when they heard what had happened and I was lucky enough to get a room with a small balcony overlooking one of the busiest streets in Lisbon, so I could people watch, but was also sound proofed when I wanted to go to bed!

While I was enjoying my bonus holiday days, I did witness two other bag snatches and met someone else at the Embassy who had the same thing happen to them. So, I wouldn’t say, don’t to go to Lisbon, but please go aware that it has a reputation for pickpockets and bag snatches and prepare yourself.

To get over all the drama, I need another holiday…..on to Cornwall 😊

Another lovely day out somewhere local this week. I’m trying to make the most of my time not working (just volunteering, which is work, but I am doing it for free!) and when I find somewhere interesting or special, I need to blog about it! As always, I hope it helps someone if they are ever in the areas I visit and need somewhere to go!

So, this time I went to the Panacea Museum in Bedford town centre. I had picked up a leaflet for this place when I revisited another local museum recently (The Cowper & Newton Museum in Olney, that you can read about in a previous blog post) and finally found a date that was good for me and one of my favourite museum-visit companions, my Mum!

We only live about 30 minutes from Bedford, but never even knew this place existed until I saw the leaflet! We parked in a multi-storey on Lurke Stret (NOT FREE!) as it was only a short walk to the museum from here and the place I had researched we could eat at.

First stop, lunch at the Higgins Pantry, which is inside another museum that I will go back to visit soon. Nice, modern café/restaurant with well-spaced tables and a friendly atmosphere. We ordered a chicken caesar salad each and a soft drink. It was delicious! Plenty of dressing (probably why it tasted so good!) and two pieces of thick bread, smothered in butter. Really was lovely and would recommend this place to anyone visiting. Staff were attentive ad friendly and pricing not to bad either. We walked outside and read a couple of boards on the history of Bedford (there used to be a castle there!) and then crossed the road and we had arrived at our destination.

We were welcomed by Adrian, who gave us a great introduction to the museum, and who had recently self-published a book on the stories that surround the museum, that you can buy in the gift shop. He was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly and clearly explained how the museum worked and the best way to navigate our way around.
We started with an introductory video and then walked through a series of bright and airy rooms, full of information. There were stairs to navigate, but a lift was available, so easy access to all.

(Source of below information: The museum info boards!)

The Panacea Society had its origins among a group of women interested in prophecy and the coming millennium. In 1919, one of these women became their leader and messiah – Mabel Barltrop. Originally calling themselves ‘The Community of the Holy Ghost’, they changed the name in 1926 when they believed they had discovered a cure – a ‘panacea’ – for all illnesses.

The society began after a revival of interest in Joanna Southcott, who, within her lifetime, had thousands of people believe in her prophesies of a coming messiah called Shiloh. When she died in 1814, she left an unopened box of prophesies and said that it should only be opened in a time of National danger by 24 bishops of the Church of England. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Mabel Barltrop was one of many people who tried to convince the bishops to open the box.

Some of this group of people became the first members of the society, who found that they all shared an interest and belief in the coming messiah and several also reported being part of religious experiences, where they thought God was communicating with them. Mabel began receiving messages and visions from God between 1914-1916 and shared this with other similar minded women. One of these was Ellen Oliver, a former Suffragette, who became convinced that Mabel herself was the new Messiah – Shiloh, and announced this to the group, who after looking at the evidence, all agreed with her. It was at this point that Mabel became known as ‘Octavia’ the 8th prophet (seven had come before her and the museum told their stories too).

Octavia’s community in Bedford was then formed. During 1919, she had written to other members of the society about her dream that their circle of believers could live in communal houses, have common meals and conversation, but keep to their own rooms. As she already lived in Bedford, many other women and eventually men and married couples moved to the area and began to buy houses in the same street, which resulted in the museum we were visiting that day. A group of buildings that had all been bought and used as the ‘centre’ of the society.

One of the buildings was a house that they kept in constant expectation of the 24 bishops visiting at any point to open the box, which also held the official room where the box would be opened, following strict instructions created by Joanna Southcott.

The Panacea they believed they’d discovered to cure all ills was healing water. Mabel (Or Octavia) had a history of mental and physical suffering, having twice been committed to an asylum, but believed that her trust in God would relieve her ailments. In 1921, while she was at home in Albany Street (where the museum stands now) she was about to take her medication and had said a prayer over the water she was about to use, when the pill jumped out of her hand. Octavia understood this to mean that she should not take the medicine, but drink only the prayed over water. After this, she felt better – the society’s idea about healing water slowly took shape.

The idea was that the healing power of Octavia’s breath (as Shiloh) could be transmitted to water using small squares of linen that, during a ceremony, she first prayed over and then breathed over. These squares would then be sent to anyone who asked for them (hundreds of thousands once people began to know about the society) to add to water, which they needed to pray over, then drink, as well as following some strict instructions that were sent along with the linen square.

They sent the linen to anyone who asks, completely free of charge, so no money was made, and just asked that they keep them up to date with their progress and success.

During 1925, a special work of protection for Bedford took place where a circle was drawn with a radius twelve miles from the Panacea Society chapel (which you can visit at the museum). At eight points of the circle, these linen squares were ceremoniously buried. This created an ‘ark of protection’ called the Royal Domain, which members believed now belonged to God’s Daughter – Shiloh Octavia. My hometown is within the circle – is anyone else’s?!

It was quite a museum! Lots to read and learn – I haven’t covered everything here, there is so much more to the story of the Society, so really worth going along yourself if you can. AND ITS FREE TO VISIT! We left a donation as it was so well laid out and informative and spent a good three hours there and could have stayed for longer.

And dear readers, the box still remains unopened….

Sadly, the tea shop wasn’t open when we visited, so we instead walked about five minutes to The Mill Yard Coffee Lounge. The owner served us, who used to work as a Patisserie chef and was so warm and welcoming. The lounge itself is decorated nicely and is quite quirky. If the weather had been kinder to us, we could have sat outside too. We each had a skinny latte and shared a chocolate twist. This is an independent business and I strongly recommend you go here for your lunch or a coffee/tea stop – reasonable prices and lots of choice. I want to go back for lunch to try their open cheese scones and cake as its all made on-site.

I hope you’ve learnt something and enjoyed reading about all these new places to visit! By the way – the title of this blog post asked if Bedford was the Garden of Eden – you’ll need to visit the museum to find out why I asked…..

I am off on holiday again!

I will be flying off to Lisbon with two of my lovely friends soon, staying in an AirBnB house, so I will blog about the highlights when I get back, but the big news is…..I am off in my caravan again in July! I’ve booked two weeks in Cornwall, staying on two campsites and will be blogging as I go along like I did last year. I am also looking at somewhere to stay halfway down so that I can have a more relaxed and broken up seven hour journey down there on my own! More details soon….

If you are interested in why I started this blog in July 2018 – you can read about it at the top of this page/blog – enjoy! For those of you who just want a brief intro and an update as you’ve been following me (thank you!) here it is…

It’s been about ten month since I set off in my caravan, for the first time, with about 3 hours of tuition on how to connect, tow, drive, set up, get ready to move and generally be able to operate and live in a caravan, all on my own. It was quite an experience (as you can read in the blog posts) and one that will stay with me forever and taught me many things.

Looking back on my first post and the bullet points I included on what I wanted to achieve, I can conclude…

AIM:  Navigate my way around a few places in the UK I not been to, all alone, with a caravan attached to my car that I have to detach, set up, make safe, have fully functioning, fix any issues in, re attach, reverse, get around corners, keep upright, keep safe etc (not anxious at all…)

RESULT: I did it! Big tick in the achieved column! As you will see or know from my blog, it wasn’t without its eventful moments, some worry and upset and a few minor disasters, but I did it, on my own and made it back safe too!

AIM:  Enjoy myself, learn things, keep myself safe and healthy (as well as my car and caravan) and do something many people wouldn’t even consider doing.

RESULT: Again, fully achieved this and would do it all again in a heartbeat.

AIM:  Keep this blog up and running throughout my travels (therefore keep finding access to WiFi)

RESULT: Tick again…this is going very well so far….Go me 🙂

AIM:  Stop worrying so much about what people think of me. I spend way too much time thinking I’m not good enough and listening to other people (all well-meaning) tell me what I should be doing with/in my life and really taking it to heart and getting upset and doubting myself and the decisions I make. Well, I’m doing this my way and doing it alone. If I can do this –I’m on my way to knowing in my heart I can do anything – without others people’s opinions mattering.

RESULT: Hmmmm…… I would say I am 87% on this. The impact I have on others through what I say and do will always be part of me, because I care about other people! But I now know that in the past I have often put other people’s feelings before mine in order to make sure I don’t upset them and keep them happy.

Over the last 10 months I have begun to change my mind-set on this a lot. I still want to make the people in my life happy, but not to the detriment of my own feelings and health. In short, I’ve begun to focus more on me and how I want to feel, and have come to the understanding that I am the only person who can make myself feel a certain way. If I want to be happy, I do something that will make me happy. If I want to be alone and quiet, I find a place I can do this. If I want to be out and about with a friend, I arrange it. If someone says something to upset me (if they do this on purpose or not) I am the only person who can decide how I react to that. I can choose to obsess over it or I can choose to ignore them and focus on more positive things.

One of the biggest results of this is that I have lost 2.5 stone! I had a ‘euphoria’ moment at the beginning of 2019 and realised that I wanted to feel good about myself and one of the best ways to do this was to get healthier. I’ve always been pretty active, but stepped this up by working with Rachel Benton, an amazing Personal Trainer, who not only helped me with diet and exercise but also with my mental health. I call the first 15 minutes of each of my sessions with Rachel ‘Treadmill Therapy’ as she really made me look at how I thought about myself, my relationship with food and helped me address a lot of the problems I’ve had in the past that I tried to solve with eating my feelings!

I believe the process started when I decided to do something totally out of my comfort zone (and lots of other peoples by some of the comments I get when I talk about it!) and just take myself off in my caravan and has gone on from then. I’m not cured, I will always have ‘issues’ with food and how I perceive myself, but I am SO much happier than I was a year ago.

So what next? Well, it’s about time I got a job and this is all in progress – watch this space! But never fear, I will still be going on and documenting my travel experiences, in or out of my lovely caravan, so please keep reading!

The month is April, the Bank Holiday is coming up and the sun is shining (at last!) so that can only mean one thing…. it’s time for me (along with many hundreds across the UK) to bring my caravan out of storage!

I’m going to admit, it was with a certain amount of nervousness that I made my way to the storage space. After having about six months off of towing and the last memory of it being getting my van into storage (bit stressful with stone walls and some tight corners – or at least that’s how I remembered it) I was anxious about remembering everything and getting it back out again!

Luckily my Brother-in-Law was at hand to give me some calm advice as he has their caravan at the same place and reassured me that after dealing with nearly seven weeks towing and living in my caravan all on my own last year, it was going to be fine! I also still had my checklists from last year to jog my memory – very handy.

And he was right – I had no problem! It’s always trickier manoeuvring the caravan on my own without a second pair of eyes to keep an eye on corners etc, but as someone pointed out to me recently (hello to David, who contacted me through my blog!) he believes it’s easier on your own, rather than having someone who thinks they know better with you!

Luckily my Dad (who also stores their caravan there – we’ve taken over the space!) had checked my tyre pressure and put the battery back in (had been taken out over the winter) so all I needed to do was give the surfaces a bit of a dust, clean the fridge and check I still had everything I needed, pack a few bits and get it to the campsite we had booked for the BH weekend.

We were all heading to Woodhall Country Park in Lincolnshire. I was in my caravan, my parents in theirs, my sister, her husband and 3 year old in their van and my other sister and her other half were in a wooden Pod on the site. Sadly, my older Nephew was away, so couldn’t make it.

I had some company on the drive, my younger sister and Nephew came along with me as my BIL was at work, so wouldn’t be arriving until later on the Thursday evening. It was actually really nice to have another pair of eyes for my first journey back – especially when you may remember I had a number of issues with my sat nav last year, so have trust issues! I’d written out the journey too (I’ve learnt) but it’s hard to drive, tow, look at the sat nav, plus check the written notes all at the same time! It’s about 2.5 hours drive from home, so not too bad and all along A roads until you get very close.

No issues on the drive! Lots of sunshine, my Nephews ‘music’ on the stereo and easy roads to drive. No angry drivers expecting me to speed to accommodate their journeys and everything went smoothly. Phew!

Arrived at the site and there was a lovely big entrance and clear directions to the reception. Was greeted by a friendly welcome and directed to my pitch, which was next to my parents and sisters, plus right next to the Pods. Lovely clean site, with woods all around, a play area, small shop and great fishing for my BIL. Plus it was walking distance to the beautiful village of Woodhall Spa and a pub!

 

We were all on hard standing (I prefer this) and had electricity, water and waste disposal on each of our pitches. Unfortunately, my parents are the only ones of us with all the kit to accommodate this, but at least the water was close by for me!

Toilets are accessed with a special ‘key’ that you pay a deposit for, which is excellent as it means kids don’t go in there alone and make a mess. Which meant the toilets and showers were very clean and tidy – big positive for me! Showers were also free, very hot and warm.

Set-up was straight forward…..until I turned on the water pump. Instead of filling up my hot water tank, I instead filled up my under seat storage space with water! I had a leak. Turns out (thanks Dad!) that one of the connectors had failed. Luckily there was a nearby campsite with an accessories shop that had what we needed. So all was fixed by my Dad pretty quickly. The fantastic weather meant that it dried out over the four days too and normal service resumed.

I still love my caravan! It was so lovely (especially in the sun) to be outside, with my family, in lovely surroundings and enjoy the fresh air and surroundings. We shared the cooking and washing-up and ate out too, but really just chilled out. A lovely weekend with my lovely family J

Looking forward to lots of weekends away this year, with friends, family and some on my own too. Maybe I will see some of you on my travels! Please send me your recommendations for campsites and places to visit – thank you!

My recommendations:

Woodhall Country Park – www.woodhallcountrypark.co.uk

Brilliant location, easy to find and access, clean facilities and lovely wooded areas to stay in. Highly- recommended. Plus you can stay with friends and family who don’t have a caravan or tent as they have Pods, hideaways and very posh chalets too! It is so quiet at night you can hear the owls in the trees and the smell of pine in the sunshine – wonderful.

Also, if you are crazy like me and like to go for a run every day, there are lots of lovely places to go. I left the campsite, turning left along a small section of road, onto the path into Woodhall Spa (everyone is very friendly that you pass!). From the village I turned right down the high street and turned into a residential street that looked like it would loop round to the high street and luckily it did! Then ran back the way I came. Another option is the footpath that takes you past the Kinema in the Woods (see below) which also goes past the local golf course and through some lovely woods – just look out for the tree roots! These runs also get you to the village if you walk!

Walk into Woodhall Spa and visit the museum:

Woodhall Community website – www.woodhallspa.org

As explained above, it’s really easy to get to the village from the campsite on foot. When there, you can look at the lovely shops, visit the Cottage Museum (I didn’t have time sadly, but will be going back) and take a look at the war memorial and information boards around the village to get an insight into their history, especially during the Second World War, where the village housed a lot of servicemen and women and played a part in quite a few major breakthroughs and emergencies.

Bakery in village – Artisan Boulanger, Ronde Des Pains

You HAVE to visit this place! It’s on the high street and called ‘Artisan Boulanger, Ronde Des Pains’. It’s an artisan bakery and deli. The bread is amazing and the cakes are huge! I didn’t get to taste any of the delights on offer, but my family did and highly recommend – just look at the photos!!

 

Marblethorpe beach:

Though I wouldn’t recommend the place itself (unless you like arcades, kiss me quick, greasy burgers and fairgrounds) the beach was spotless and about 50 mins from the campsite.There were also toilets for 20p very close by. We had fabulous weather and spent all day there with my small Nephew.

Belton House – www.nationaltrust.org.uk/belton-house

I have to visit a NT property when possible when I am away and this was a lovely one. Easter egg hunt for the Nephew, nice (if a little expensive) Pavilion to buy food from and then eat on the lawn, plus lovely ground and an interesting building to look around. PLUS an AMAZING adventure playground, mini train line, water features and sandpits! It’s worth the money to get in just for that if you have kids. I was also happy to find a second-hand bookshop, where I bought two books. As I am a volunteer at a local NT house, I get a small discount on the tea rooms and gift shops – lucky me!

 

The Village Limits Pub and B&B – http://villagelimits.co.uk/

We ate here on the Sunday evening and the food was excellent and the Ladies who run it and work there were lovely – really welcoming and friendly. Was very busy, so need to book, but would highly recommend this place, plus you can walk from the campsite to get there. You can even order dessert to take away if you’re too full after your meal J

Kinema in the woods –www.thekinemainthewoods.co.uk

Tea House in the Woods – https://www.teahouseinthewoods.co.uk/

Disclaimer: I didn’t visit either of these, just took a look. The Tea Room was shut on Bank Holiday Monday (!!) but I will return!

A day in Olney.

When I wanted to spend a day catching up with one of my favourite people, where better to do it but the town where we both grew-up?

Olney is a lovely market town in Buckinghamshire and as is often the case, if you live somewhere, it’s hard to think of it as anywhere but your home town, rather than a tourist attraction or a place to go for the day. Well people, we are wrong! After spending a lovely day in Olney last week, I can honestly say that I am very lucky to have such a lovely place to visit within easy distance, and I bet if you all take a look at your local area, you’ll find the same.

Olney is a lovely place to stroll around, taking in the old buildings, many with a history of their own, plus admiring the widest high street in England. There are plenty of shops to browse (more about these later) and places to eat, so you really can make a good afternoon of it.

Before I forget, I should mention that parking in Olney is FREE and there are plenty of spaces on the high street, in the market place and at the Rugby Club (follow the signs on the high street).

FACT ALERT!

Olney (the locals say this with a silent L) is famous for a couple of things throughout the world!

The Pancake Race – Olney is where the original pancake race was first run hundreds of years ago. This race is now copied throughout the UK on Shrove Tuesday and in 1950 the race became an International event when the town of Liberal in Kansas, USA, after seeing some photos of the event, set-up a similar custom.  The two towns now compete annually and prizes are exchanged. You can find out more on the link above.

Amazing Grace – John Newton, a resident of Olney, is said to have written the words to the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ after his conversion to Christianity. This song is famous world-wide and still sung to this day.

John Newton was very good friends with William Cowper after meeting at a funeral and moving to Olney on his recommendation, and William himself was and still is a renown poet and letter writer.

Where better to start our day out than at the Cowper and Newton Museum in the centre of town? What made this idea even better is that my friend’s Dad volunteers at the museum, so we got our own private tour!

Orchard Rise (the name of the house) is where William Cowper and Mary Unwin lived from 1768 to 1786, and the museum was founded in 1900. It’s easy to find, being on the corner of the market place (not square – ask a local why!) and the entrance leads straight into their small shop selling items relevant to the museum and town. After paying our entrance fee of £6.00 (the museum is privately funded by Friends and people who visit) we were each given an annual pass so that we could visit as many times as we liked over the next 12 months.

Roger (our trusty guide) showed us through to the courtyard that separates the two buildings that make up the museum. The whole time I lived in Olney (about 20 years) I have never noticed that it is two buildings! From the front it looks like one, but it is actually two buildings – one side where William Cowper (pronounced Cooper) lived and the other side was for his servants.

We first took a look around the gardens and learnt that the land behind the museum was bought so that there was an easy way for John and William to get to each other’s houses, without having to go into the busy high street and market place.

The stone work you can see in one of the photos above used to be above a building in Olney, but is now placed at the museum. Another piece of Olney history is the local lace trade that flourished in the 1900s and before, and still continues today in small lace making groups and in the beautiful examples you can find in private houses and at the museum.

(Interesting personal fact – I used to go to lace making classes in Olney that actually took place at the museum in what is now where you pay to get in! Shows how much kids don’t pay attention to their surroundings!)

If you look closely at the image, you’ll see that it depicts the equipment needed to be able to make lace. The left-hand side shows how the cotton was spun for the thread, the right-hand side shows the bobbins that were needed to make the lace and the centre shows how the ladies used to light their room effectively to be able to continue to make lace in the dark evenings, before electricity was available. They would place a candle is the centre of the stand and then surround this by glass balls of water to reflect the light more effectively. You can also see at the bottom the small bags that would have been filled with warm ashes from the fire to keep their feet warm.

You can find more about the art of lace-making here or visit the museum where you can find out more about the history and see some of the beautiful work created by the residents of Olney past and present. There is also a lovely walk you can do around the town, seeing all of the important buildings used within the industry. You can find this here on the Olney and District Historical website.

What do you think this is?

You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a coffin or the bottom of a boat, but it’s actually a template for grave diggers to use when preparing the ground for a coffin.

Making our way further into the gardens (all looked after by the volunteers) we came across the famous Summer House. Originally a smoking retreat as smoking indoors wasn’t allowed, the house also became a writing retreat for William and friends. When you visit and take a look inside, you’ll be surprised to see lots of graffiti inside and will probably think the same as me ‘Bloody kids’! But actually, the graffiti was written around 1800 when the summer house was first opened to visitors after William’s death and was seen as a literary shrine.  There are a few funny stories attached to the graffiti, so well worth a visit to see what it’s all about!

Making our way inside, we entered the servant’s side of the house and we were in the kitchen area and could see where it was believed William’s pet hares ran between the rooms!

Looking at the huge family tree on the wall, you can see that William is distantly related to Anne Boleyn and walking through the rooms, you get to see many personal items owned and used by William, including his writing desk, which is also seen in this portrait of him.

You can also see the ‘Sofa’ that William Cowper wrote about in his poem ‘The Task’ and can find out more about this and his other works here.

Making our way upstairs we came to a room dedicated to the horrifying history of Slavery in the UK. Over a period of 300 years, starting in  the early 1500s, more than 12 MILLION Africans were captured and transported across the Atlantic to work as slaves in the Americas. By 1700, Britain was the largest slave trading nation.

Take a moment to take that in. 12 MILLION people were taken from their homes and families to be sold as produce to other humans who bought them, put them to work and in the large majority mis-treated them and made their lives a misery. Mothers were separated from their children, men from their wives and all because of the colour of their skin. Unbelievable.

The room only covers the history very briefly but is relevant as John Newton was the Captain of a slave ship in 1750. He led three voyages and was responsible for the forced relocation of 511 Africans. There was an example of a slave ship and the way the humans were treated, as well as an example of the space they were provided for voyages that lasted weeks. To see the conditions they were forced to live in was sobering.

John Newton changed his ways after being caught in a bad storm at sea during a crossing and praying that if he survived it, he would change his ways. In later life he reflected, ‘It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was, once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.’

The tour took us through some more rooms that had some lovely examples of how people dressed and how William and Mrs Unwin lived, as well as a room dedicated to lace making.

Here’s a photo of Roger outside the museum after his brilliant tour. Roger and his family (therefore my friend) have a long and fascinating connection with Olney and the surrounding villages and many of his relatives have lived and worked around here. Hopefully my friend is going to write a little bit about this for my blog…..

Thank you Roger and the museum for a brilliant couple of hours. I learnt a lot and enjoyed hearing about the history of my hometown.

We spent the next couple of hours happily looking around the wonderful shops around the market place and along the high street. Lots of antiques to look at in the Olney Antiques Centre and My Little Vintage, as well as lovely homewares in The Nest at No9 and a brilliant Oxfam book shop where I bought a book on the Underground Railroad, inspired by what I had begun to learn about slavery at the museum. You can read more about the shops on the Olney website.

Here are some photos of Olney for you to enjoy and be inspired to visit by!

Our final stop was to Teapots of Olney, for a simple afternoon tea. Friendly staff and delicious food, plus lots of photos of Olney through the years and a lovely cuckoo clock to enjoy – well worth a visit.

I really enjoyed being a tourist in my home town and recommend, not only a visit to beautiful Olney, but for you all to take a look at what’s around you and enjoy a day out closer to home and really see what is right on your doorstep.

Visit Olney – https://www.visitolney.com/

I would love to hear from anyone who visits!

I’ve had a lovely day with my fabulous friend today in my hometown of Olney. We decided to be tourists while we were there and it was so much fun! It’s amazing how much more you see when you are really looking!

I will updating this blog with our tales soon!

Thursday 11th October

Today we went to visit Lynton and Lynmouth, even though the weather wasn’t on our side for the first time this week.

 

Walking along the lovely streets we came across an artist’s workshop and where he still paints today. His name is Maurice Bishop and you can see his work here.

The pictures really were amazing, especially the sunsets on the beaches, so I bought a greeting card of one of his designs to perhaps hang up at home.

The flood of Lynmouth

We visited the local museum to learn more about a flood that practically destroyed Lynmouth.

On the night of the 15^th – 16^th August 1952, after extremely high rainfall and storms in the area, the rivers of the East Lyn, joined by Hooroak Water at Watersmeet, and the West Lyn, burst their banks. The flood water raced down the river valleys destroying bridges and houses along the way until it reached the sea at Lynmouth.

More than 100 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged (55 lost in Lynmouth approx. 25% of the rateable properties in the village) along with 28 of the 31 bridges, 95 cars were damaged with 38 cars being washed out to sea. In total, 34 people died (17 in Lynmouth) with a further 420 made homeless. Eleven of the dead were people on holiday, with four of these being children. This disaster is the single largest loss of life in Britain from a river flood event.

There were some harrowing stories and photos in the museum and also the progress the village has made since, including the re-building of the village with better flood protection.

We enjoyed a lovely pasty each for lunch – we walked past the shop, smelt them cooking and the packed lunch we’d prepared was left in the car!

To make our way up to Lynton we took the Cliff Railway.

When the railway was first built it was the steepest railway in the world. The two carriages are mounted over 700 gallon water tanks and linked together via a cable and pulley.  The tank in the top carriage is filled with water and water is released from the carriage at the bottom so the heavier top carriage pulls the lighter one up.

It only lasted about 4 minutes, but it was good fun going up and down!

We had a quick walk around Lynton, but there was more to see at the bottom of the hill in Lynmouth so made our way back down via the cliff railway again.

Feeling in need of some refreshment we headed towards a National Trust tea shop called Watersmeet. The house there (down a rather steep hill) was originally built by a local Rector as a fishing retreat and it must have been a beautiful place to stay – away from it all. You had to cross bridges to get to it and there was some fantastic scenery to enjoy.

We enjoyed a lovely cream tea (yep, another one. We’re on holiday!) and were joined by some very inquisitive and friendly birds.

Leaving Watersmeet full of scone, cream, jam and tea (jam on first) we started our journey back to the cottage. Unfortunately we couldn’t go the way we’d planned (the most direct route) as a Lady flagged us down to tell us that the coach she had been on  had got stuck going around the corner of a 16% incline hill. Whoops! We instead took the route across Exmoor and got some lovely photos.

Back at the cottage, Dad lit the fire and I went on my second power walk/hill climb of the week. I ended up on the beach again and was lucky enough to catch another beautiful sunset.

Friday 12^th October

It was another wet and rainy day today, the perfect excuse to stay in and watch the Royal Wedding!

Enjoyed the coverage and seeing the happy couple get married and loved the dress! Really classic, and they genuinely looked happy and in love.

After lunch, Mum and Dad chose to go to Darlington Glass to watch the glass makers while I stayed at the cottage to have a quiet afternoon of reading and writing. It’s always been a dream of mine to be a writer and though my job has always had a big element of writing in it, it’s not a novel or creative writing experience!

I’m taking an online creative writing course and have also signed up for a ‘proper’ one that starts in November, so for now I am just practicing.

As I was in quite an atmospheric environment I started writing this short story….

I missed the turning the first time I drove along the road.

‘Clearly marked by a signpost on your left, the road is to your right’ the instructions read. That’s fine if you aren’t driving alone, down a road you’ve never driven before, to a place you’ve never visited before, on the darkest road you’ve ever driven along before.

It was 8.00pm on an October evening and making my way slowly back the way I came, I saw what I assumed what the back of the sign and indicated left.

My headlights cast an eerie glow down a narrow, unlit country road, beckoning me into complete darkness. I started to wind my way down, the trees on either side of the valley road enveloping me in their branches and scratching their probing, wooden fingers along the side of my car.  I really hope I’m heading in the right direction. Noticing a small sign welcoming careful drivers to Bucks Mills I sighed with relief that I was nearly there.

Over six hours in my car, with only one short comfort break, my eyes were a reflection on the moon above me. Gallantly trying to shine through, but being covered with thick tufts of clouds, determined to dim the glow.

Tarmac gave way to mud, the car suddenly losing grip for a moment as tyres tried to make contact with the slimy, fallen leaves on the ground, desperately trying to re-gain purpose as they continued on down the hill and towards the cottage waiting for me. Rented for a week, I was sure this place would be just what I needed, giving me sometime away alone, to reflect on the past few weeks.

Feeling lonely and lost, I realised just how isolated I had made myself, as the darkness creeped towards me and I noticed less and less signs of life as I edged gingerly down the hill in the lowest gear possible.

Watching out for the gatepost that would be clearly sign posted towards the cottage, I caught the luminous eyes of an animal as I turned what should be the last corner, only for it to leap to the side and flee in disgust at my appearance. No one happy to see me here either it would seem.

Parking the car I gratefully unrolled myself from my sitting position and stretched my arms high above my head, and let out a big sigh.

My breath was carried away by the sound of heavy wind blowing through the trees that surrounded me, rattling leaves and screeching through the valley. I could hear, but not see water cascading further down the hill, rushing to find its escape somewhere further along.

Turning towards the only light I could see in the blanketing darkness I pulled my bags out of the boot and made my way towards the door. Retrieving the key from the key safe with the help of the light from my phone screen, I notice I have no signal down here. A small shiver of worry snakes down my back before I shake it off and make my way inside.

Not sure where it will end up, what the story will be or the actual ending, but it’s always good to practise and take notice of your surroundings and the stories you can create from them.

Mum and Dad had a perilous journey back to the cottage as this had happened just up the road! (photo) Luckily the car could get under it, but it shows how powerful the wind had been down here. The weather forecasts were right!

Dinner at a restaurant in Instow this evening where we all enjoyed three courses (ok, Dad didn’t have a pudding) and I enjoyed a rather lovely glass of wine too. The only photos I took here were of Mums rather humorously shaped dessert….

Saturday 13^th October

Today we leave Devon and head home after a lovely week. I always love being by the sea and the cottage was lovely, if not in need of a good deep-clean and some home comforts. Would recommend this part of Devon if you want a quiet week and don’t have kids! Bucks Mills especially was out of the way and remote but close enough to be able to enjoy the surrounding area.

Where will I go next…?

Tuesday 9^th October

So today my Dad and I are completed a 5.5 mile walk along the coastal path, that could, if we had taken a wrong turn,  seen us all the way to Cornwall. Needless to say, we made sure that this wasn’t the case.

We started off in Bucks Mills, where we are staying and were heading for Peppercombe Valley, to come back on a separate in-land route to complete the round-trip walk.

Full details of the walk can be found here.

Off we set at about 10.00am, leaving Mum behind to enjoy some peace and quiet in the sun for a few hours. And the sun was shining! It was a glorious day for a walk along the cliff paths and we were looking forward to lots of pretty views.

Our first challenge was that to get to a coastal path, you need to go up and this involved a set of very steep steps all the way up. They were pretty rocky and un-even steps and though we didn’t count them, by the time we had got to the top, I had 500ish steps registered on my fitbit and they didn’t start that far from the cottage!

Luckily we met this chap on the way to make us smile

After catching our breath we continued upwards, though this time it was just an uphill scramble through woodlands and fields on an un-even path. It was at this point I think we realised that this isn’t the ‘Moderate’ walk we were expecting from the description!

Catching our breath again, we found a signpost confirming we were on the right track and there was 2 miles to our central destination.

Look at this view! We weren’t quite at our highest point, but this is how good it looked half way up! We found bench to take a break on (had been walking about an hour at this point) and sent Mum these photos to show her what she was missing (I don’t think she minded!)

 

More views along the way made me double-check we were still in the UK – the sunshine was beating down on us and it was hard to believe we were in October in the UK too!

 

More woodland walking ahead and we reached our highest point, which gave us another view towards the Northern part of Devon and its beautiful cliff faces.

 

We began to go downhill here (hurrah!) and came to a lovely bridge and National Trust rest area. We didn’t stop here (I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get going again if we sat down!) and carried along, following the directions and also finding a handy NT map to confirm our way.

Now, if you are squeamish, skip over the next photo. It’s the injury I’d sustained by this part of the walk – half-way. I was wearing walking boots I have had for years, but not walking socks. Big mistake. I folded these down to try to create more of a cushion and hobbled on in pain.

We started to go upwards again…..this time past some National Trust volunteers who were burning wood to clear pathways and I got this lovely smoky photo.

I also got 2 plasters! By this point, as we were walking uphill again I didn’t want to tell Dad, as we had 2.5 miles to go yet, that my foot was REALLY sore and I was struggling to walk uphill as it rubbed more when walking that way. Just as I was on the cusp of asking Dad if he could think of any natural remedies, we walked past the volunteers van and there was a FIRST AID BOX! Now readers, please don’t judge me. I took 2 plasters without walking down the hill to ask them. I left them plenty, but as a NT member for over 20 years, I figured they wouldn’t mind right!

BLISS! Plaster on and we were off again, for more walking up hill, this time up a mini waterfall! You can’t see from the photo very well, but it was basically ghyll scrambling!

We were on country roads now so a little easier to walk on and after encountering a big tractor blocking our way (we had to scramble past it) we continued into some beautiful green fields and a downhill walk to our finish point. Just enough time for a quick selfie and we were back at the cottage.

 

Mum had been sunning herself in the garden and we joined her for a spot of lunch. Quick showers and we were off out to take a look at Barnstaple. No photos to share here because it was basically a town and we visited a few shops and came home. Dad and I were pretty tired! Bake off watched, we retired to bed.

Step count today: 19,585, 118 floors and 14,6km

Wednesday 10^th October

Slightly less energetic day today for us today and we headed off to a National Trust property, Arlington Court.

The house and all its content were given to the NT by its last owner, Miss Rosalie Chichester, on her death in 1949 at the age of 85 years old. It had been in her family for over 500 years and as everything was handed over, there are lots to see.

Rosalie Caroline Chichester was born in 1865, the daughter of Sir Bruce Chichester and Rosalie Chamberlayne. Her father died in 1881 leaving the sixteen-year-old Rosalie and her widowed mother with substantial debts which took until 1928 to pay off.

The house wasn’t particularly attractive from the outside, but the room sin side were lovely.

 

The first room we went into was the formal dining room, where unusually there were 2 dumb-waiters either side of the main window. We heard that this was to bring the food up from the kitchen below (as usual) and the other was to send the dirty dishes down again!

This room spread across the whole width of the house and also held a drawing room and informal dining area and had partitions so that certain sections of the room could be closed up for more intimate events. The ceilings in these rooms were beautiful and I could see how this house could feel grand enough to entertain, but cozy enough to live in.

 

The staircase was one of my favourite things! I have always dreamt of owning a symmetrical house (same number of windows either side of the front door for example) and a central staircase, so this really impressed me!

 

There were some lovely old costumes on show and you could walk through bedrooms and dressing rooms. In Rosalie’s bedroom I was looking closely at a photo (see below) and the room guide came to tell me about it.

 

He told me  that the wedding party didn’t look happy as this was taken in 1901, Victorian times, when it took ages to take one shot. So, they would have been stood there for ages and in no mood to smile! The lady to the back, to the right of the man, was Rosalie, and she was being Bridesmaids for one of her friends. You may also notice that they older bridesmaids are wearing rather austere and dark hats, unusual for a wedding. This is because in 1901 when the wedding took place, the whole of Great Britain was in mourning for Queen Victoria, so this was the right thing to do and expected of their class

The final rooms in the house were the Estate rooms, where they first opened the house up to the public and a museum. One of the boards told us that in the early 20^th century, regardless of their age, single ladies were expected to be accompanied when she went out and there were no exceptions to this rule. Miss Chichester had to advertise for a paid companion after her mother passed away and 47 year old Londoner Clara Elizabeth Peters got the job. They travelled extensively together, including post-war Europe in 1919 and two round-the-world trips between 1920 and 1922. Amazing women! Can you imagine having to stick to this rule today – this blog wouldn’t exist or it would be a very different read! What would they have thought of me going off for weeks on my own in a caravan!?

There was also an interesting carriage museum there and beautiful gardens.

 

After a spot of lunch we drove to Ilfracombe and The Tunnels.

The Tunnels were a popular seaside resort, established in 1823. Around 1918 miners carved a tunnel 40m long through the hillside, and this is what eventually became the tunnels, which house three tidal bathing pools, two allocated to Ladies and one for the Gentlemen.

 

There were some interesting facts along the tunnels as we made our way though, including some rules for girls and boys.

 

Once you got out of the tunnels, a beautiful view was ahead of you and a lovely beach. Only one of the ladies bathing pools still exist as the others have been swept away, and you can still swim in this today – if you are a man or a woman!

 

For the rest of the afternoon we drove around a few small villages and towns to take a look and stopped off in Wollacombe to have a cream tea (mum and dad) or a choc chip milkshake (me). We also took in some stunning scenery as you can see from the photos below.

 

Back home to the cottage, fire lit and dinner on. I’m not sure we will be quite so lucky with the weather tomorrow if the weather reports are correct…

 

 

Full disclosure – I’m not away in my caravan. Reason being, I am away with my parents and a decision was made to find a cottage rather than use our caravans for the week when we weren’t sure of the weather. A cop out you may say? Well, yes probably, but I’ve still not had all the bits sorted in my van that were wrong when I picked it up in August, one being squeaky brakes, so forgive me. Let’s just say I may no longer recommend White Arches in Rushden, their after-care customer service is appalling.

Anyway, so where am I this week……Devon. Specifically, North Devon in Bucks Mills, which is to the left of Lynton. There is an arrow on the image below, in the rough area.

We are staying in the most gorgeous cottage caked George’s cottage. Its picture postcard gorgeous as you will see below.

It’s thatched, so the ceilings are low, as are the windows, and so pretty! There’s one room downstairs, for the living room, dining table and kitchen and upstairs are two bedrooms and a bathroom. One thing I’ve learnt from carvanning (amongst many lessons!) is that you don’t need too much space to live comfortable and have a nice time.

Directly to the right of the cottage as you leave the front door is a hill down to the sea. Only a short, but very steep, walk down, which we plan to do tomorrow morning.

Our first evening was spent enjoying a lovely cold chicken with vegetable dinner and an early night after Dad has perfected the art of fire building – let’s hope his success lasts as there are only night storage heaters here!

Day One – exploring our village and off to Clovelly

We started our day with a relaxing walk down to the seafront. We were sure of the way to go from the handy sign in our cottage garden!

A majority of the houses in Bucks Mills are holiday homes so it was very quiet as we walked down, just the sunshine and bird song, plus the sound of rushing water along the gulley’s either side of the single-track road.

On the way down to the beach, we passed a small house to the left, which we found was a National Trust property. Between the 1920s and 70s, the ‘Cabin’ was the summer home of two talented artists, Mary Stella Edwards and Judith Ackland.

Though well-travelled ladies, the first love was this North Devon bolt-hole, where they painted outside with a great eye for beauty and detail. You can see some of their work here and there’s more detail on the National Trust website here.

Sadly, it was all shut-up, but I got some photos through the windows! I would love to have stayed here, look at the view!

We continued down the hill and came to the ruins of the old lime kiln that used to stand on this spot. Further along the pebble beach was a waterfall, sourced from the woodlands above.

We spent some time walking along, but eventually the pebbles go too much, so time for a selfie and back up the hill.

On the way up the hill, we met with a man doing a treasure hunt (I was jealous) who had the question, ‘Who was evacuated to Bucks Mills during WW2’? The answer is Prunella Scales!

We chose to have lunch at the cottage after a lovely coffee sat in the sun in our garden and then headed to Clovelly.

Clovelly estate is home to the Rous family and has been for over 400 years. From Elizabethan times until today, it has remained in private ownership. Consequently this has helped preserve its originality and atmosphere. The village remains a fully functioning working fishing village, clinging to a 400 foot cliff, overlooking Bideford bay. It has no vehicular traffic on its steeply cobbled street, just donkeys and sledges. The man-powered sledges transport all goods to and from the village, from groceries to furniture – you can see the modern sledges they use within the photos below.

It was quite a walk up and down (everywhere seems to be on a hill in North Devon!) but this meant some very pretty views on the way.

The quay dates back some 600 years and has long provided the only safe harbour along the coastline from Appledore in Devon to Boscastle in Cornwall (that’s a long way!). Like most coastal villages, Clovelly had its own fishing fleet and was renowned for its herrings and cod, but also had its fair share of disasters, one being in October 1821 where 40 boats were smashed on the rocks and 35 men died.

The area was also known for its smuggling and you may have heard of the book ‘Westward Ho! (Book club Ladies – idea?!) and this book helped Clovelly’s popularity grow in 1855 and throughout the 1920s and 30s, paddle steamers bought crowds of tourists to the village.

You pay to enter the village, but this covers your car parking and all fares inside. There’s lots of places to explore, sit and enjoy the view and eat and drink. It was a lovely afternoon out.

I am now dedicated to finding viewpoints and different places to go to in the UK and found another today! We knew we wanted to try a specific pub for dinner that had received good reviews online, but were a little early so we headed towards Hartland Quay to see what we could find. We found this!

On to our pub of choice, the Kings Arms in Hartland. As the reviews state, the staff were incredibly friendly and I was very impressed with their choice of gin! I decided on a Rhubarb and Raspberry gin with tonic and it was delicious. I also enjoyed a pizza which nearly beat me! They were playing the football on the TV at the time we were there, but I’ve never seen such well-behaved and polite supporters!

Back to our cottage for dessert after our pizzas had gone down of my Mums delicious cake and a cup of tea and then bed.

Day Two – Off to the left – Westward Ho! and Appledore

We spent the morning deciding on our trips over the next few days to make the most of any good weather. That meant that today (forecast, Fair) we would drive around to discover some of the local towns and villages.

First stop was a viewpoint called Kipling Torrs, or what was supposed to be, but we ended up near a holiday camp on top of a hill! Luckily enough, this meant that we discovered a dilapidated house on the hill that may well inspire me for a short story submission. My brain was going crazy while I was there, so I took lots of photos and will try to get my ideas on paper soon. It was such a shame to see what must have been a magnificent house at some point in such a bad shape. We walked along the cliff top for a bit before turning back and heading towards Westward Ho! (Which we drove straight through) and on to Appledore.

 

We had found a leaflet on a Maritime museum here, so parked in the car park opposite and made our way inside. It was a very interesting place to see and the volunteers were all so friendly and helpful. We spent a good hour looking around and finding out about the history of ship building in Appledore and all of the boats that had left the port over the years. We also heard about how they used this area during WW2 to test waterproof uniforms, armoured vehicles and all the other Hobarts Funnies.

We had bought our own lunch, so sat in the car to eat before deciding to have a stroll through Appledore.

As we had been in Devon for two days now, it was about time we had a cream tea right? Look at this!!

Mum found a few good reviews of this place on line and they were so right!

We needed a walk after this and luckily the car was up a hill. It also helped that we walked up one street, only to discover there was no way out of it, so walked back and found the street was actually called……

On to Bideford for a stop at Tesco to stock up on providsions and back to the cottage where my parents relaxed in front of the fire while I went for a run/uphill walk to try to recver from my pizza and cream tea treats!

It was all up hill to start with, but what goes up….. I ended up at the seafront again, that looked very different with the tide in.

Back to the cottage for a shower and then we managed to fit in a late dinner of homemade chilli and rice. My Dad and I are very lucky mum is such a good cook/baker. Dad is in control  of the fire now, so lovely and warm and I’m writing this blog from the kitchen table. Soon to bed – the walk/run has worn me out!