Home Again

We are home again now!

We had had difficulty finding a site that suited us to use on the journey back to Devon from Suffolk  so decided to do the entire journey in one day.

Leaving the campsite we topped up the fuel tank at a garage handily situated just as we turned onto the A12 where we headed South West for the M25. This was in a rather benign mood fortunately and we kept moving virtually the entire stretch of this notorious road. This was followed by the M3 then onto the A303 where we decided to stop.

We were ideally looking for a lay-by with a hedge or at least an island between the traffic and us. All the ones that fitted the description were on the far side of the road (I think there is a well known law that applied here) so we gave up in the end and pulled into a normal lay-by for a break.

More Time was swaying as lorries and buses roared past a few feet away and even cars caused her to rock. Although I had turned on the gas on arrival because it is on the offside of the vehicle I was glad to get back to safety after doing it so did not turn it off as we left. One holdup further down the road saw us home by mid afternoon ready for a coffee while we opened our post.

Saturday saw us cleaning and emptying More Time and winterising her ready for storage.

Next trip – Spain in January, I can’t wait.

Thursday 20th October

After visiting Southwold we had another night at the Kessingland site as we had arranged to meet the editor of our sailing association quarterly newsletter who lives at Beccles, not far away. Although we had communicated by emails for some years we had never met so thought we would take the opportunity to do so.

Richard spent a couple of hours with us and it was a really pleasurable time chatting away as if we had known each other for years. He had to go to a meeting in Wymondham so after he had left Sue and I took a walk through the village and down to the beach. Oh dear, a pub overlooked it so we stopped for lunch as well. I am sure there are lovely beaches along this coast but at high water only the shingle bank at the top was visible.

Wednesday saw us heading for Wickham Market where Ian Clays (a good friend of ours) sister lives. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours with Sheila before heading on to our site for the night at Polstead. This was another lovely site and after a walk around the village / area we headed for the pub about two hundred yards away from the site to take advantage of their steak night offer, it was delicious.

Kersey main street with More Time 

Thursday (after a quite frosty start) we left site and headed for Kersey (just outside Hadleigh) which was described as ‘a postcard English village’, it didn’t disappoint. It even had a ford in the middle of the main street. From here we headed for Lavenham which has an abundance of medieval timbered buildings, some more upright than others. It was lovely walking around the town in the warm sunshine exploring the various turnings and side roads before heading on again.

Lavenham house

 Flatford Mill & Sue

This time we were heading for East Bergholt which is where the artist John Constable lived. It is on the edge of ‘Constable Country’ and after parking in the free car park (yes, they do still exist) behind The Red Lion pub we walked to Flatford Mill and explored a little around there. Coffee and a scone in the National Trust café there saw us ready to head back to More Time via a little artisan bakers we had spotted on the way out of the village. Arriving about 15 minutes before closing our choice was limited but the cakes we got were delicious. As we passed the church we were remarking about how odd it was for a church not to have a tower or steeple. It suddenly occurred to me why this was. In the churchyard we found the Bell cage, a strong timber house for the bells built on the ground. It was built as a ‘temporary’ construction in 1531 and remains in use today. What with this and the sundial on the side of the church instead of the usual clock it is altogether rather unusual.

Bell Cage at East Bergholt Church

We only had a short drive from there to our site for the night at Ardleigh, just across the border in Essex.

Monday 17th October

After Sandringham we headed for West Runton where there is another Camping and Caravan site. We travelled via Wells Next the Sea and hoped to stop there but it seems most Motorhome unfriendly and even had a car boot sale in the main car park so we kept on moving. We were very surprised at the large numbers of ‘twitchers’ that we passed along the roads, especially as we passed the numerous marshland sites.

Our site at West Runton was about a twenty minute walk out of the village, across open hillsides and the local golf course. We found a pub that did a Sunday roast which pleased Sue no end. We made sure that the walk we did on Sunday morning was such that we arrived back at the pub in time for lunch. Two roast beefs and pint of the local beer and a white wine ensured a relaxing and not too energetic afternoon back at More Time. We were entertained later in the day by some deer rutting in the woods surrounding the site, it seemed to go on for a long, long time but not something you hear every day.

At West Runton site

We left the site on Monday morning and drove towards our next destination at Kessingland, just south of Lowestoft. We stopped at Great Yarmouth on the – we were not impressed. It is not a town I would choose to return to.

Where we are now is right next to a zoo (Africa Alive) so you can imagine the sounds that come through the hedge from time to time. We also have the sounds of two huge wind turbines close by. I’m just glad we are not here when the wind is really strong. Norfolk and Suffolk seem into alternative energies in a big way, from a couple of offshore wind farms to a field or two of the biggest solar panels I have ever seen. All we need is a wave hub and we will have the set.

This afternoon we visited Southwold by bus. I had wanted to visit this coastal town as I had visited it about fifty years ago with my Grandparents (in their Austin 16). I found the house that their friend lived in at the time, it helped that it was right at the foot of the lighthouse which is situated in amongst the houses of the town. Despite the keen breeze we really enjoyed our visit there.

 Southwold Lighthouse - just as I remember it, end of house I went to just visible left of white garage doors

Lunch with The Queen

Well, not quite but we did dine at Sandringham today. What a delightful visit it was. Bathed in sunshine we had a lovely walk from our site through the woods and arrived at Sandringham House soon after it opened.

Sandringham from across the lawns 

It is a house that although large (110 bedrooms when originally built in 1870) it was quite homely and the guides were excellent. Sue can now place exactly where the main Christmas tree is placed (one of 12 around the house at Christmas) and everywhere you looked there were personal items on display. Apparently Sandringham is one of the few places actually owned by The Queen and not the State so it is very special to her. A walk through the grounds took us to a museum where a lot of carriages and cars are on display, even the half scale Aston Martin presented to the two Princes (sons of Charles and Diana) in 1988. They even had the very first car bought by a King in 1900 (Reg No. A7). On exiting we walked through the grounds and visited the Sandringham Church where the Royal Family walk to on Christmas Day. Apparently nowadays the Queen usually goes by car but Prince Phillip walks and strides out waiting for the others to catch him up. I just hope I am the same at 90+.

Sandringham Church 

All in all a lovely day, helped by the sunshine we had until it went dark tonight.

 Sue at the main entrance to Sandringham

Moving on to West Runton tomorrow so we’ll see what that is like.

Start of our East Anglia trip

Well we stayed a night at Pershore before heading on to the NEC at Birmingahm for the Motorhome and Caravan Show. Despite many, many new motorhomes on display we did not see one that we preferred the design of so fortunately we are happy to stay with More Time. We bought a few little goodies (you can’t go to a show like that and buy nothing) and headed off to a site just outside Market Harborough for the night.

Our new TomTom satnav took us right to the farm, even telling us to turn left into the farm driveway. Once we had negotiated our way through the chickens and cockerel we found the site that has room for just five units, we were the only one there. All we could hear was the cows and sheep and the occasional whinny of a horse in the fields around us.

04.30 saw us awakened by the cockerel (a bit like being at Fowey) but he didn’t continue for long so we went back to sleep. Our facility block at this site was novel, it was a large green room, originally built as a septic tank and more often that not sunk into the ground. This one was above ground and had a double glazed UPVc door fitted to the side. On entering you found yourself inside an 8ft diameter, green walled and ceilinged wet room with heated towel rail, toilet, handbasin and shower, all of which worked perfectly. No problems with condensation here as it just ran off the walls and out of the floor drain.

Facilities block at Arthington Lodge Farm.

Inside facilities block

After a call on the way at a B&Q to get some cable for a table lamp we headed off to Sandringham in Norfolk where we are now. A lovely Camping and Caravan Club site on the Sandringham Estate. We are hoping to visit the house (Royal Familys holiday home) tomorrow (Friday) so it had better be good weather.

Off Again at last !

The Star at Ashton under Hill, good food!

Tomorrow (Tuesday 11th Oct) we are off to spend a night at our favourite little site just outside of Pershore, Worcestershire. Early on Wednesday we will continue to the NEC at Birmingham to visit a Motorhome and Caravan show there. Sue and I are both hoping to sign up for a brief motorhome manouvering lesson that is being offered there, should be fun.

Pershore Bridge

After the show (hopefully it won't cost us too much) we are aiming to visit Sandringham in Norfolk where there is a campsite actually on the Estate. A day or two to explore the area and visit the Royal home should be good.

After there, who knows?

Early October 2011

Have been a bit slack recently with updating this blog as we have been rather busy. Our son has split with his partner and it has been quite messy. Sorting out somewhere for him to live and the arrangements to achieve it have taken some time. We have also sold our boat Half Time and now hope to spend more time on board More Time our motorhome, visiting places not so easy to get to on a yacht..

We did manage to get a couple of trips on the boat in before we sold her but only as far as the River Dart.

A motorhome trip this weekend to the western edge of Dartmoor for a couple of nights provided a more than needed break which just happened to coincide with the splendid late Summer (or is it early Autumn) heat wave. Long walks and a pub about 100yds from our pitch suited us fine.

We are hoping to head off to East Anglia for a few weeks soon and we are just waiting to get our sons furniture delivered then we intend to head off for the rest of October. At least that is the plan.