Ending Up Anywhere

Sunday morning view One of my favourite things is unzipping the side windows in the top bunk bed first thing in the morning and lying in bed with whatever view we can see from our overnight pitch. This morning's view was the best yet and will be hard to beat. We could have been in Switzerland but were, in fact, only in the Lake District. Unzipping the window today revealed snow-capped mountains and piercing blue skies. It was stunning. I ventured downstairs to grab a mug of coffee before returning to bed to absorb such beautiful surroundings - all other thoughts becoming a distant memory. This is what campervan living is all about. Patterdale's pub and Post Office We were about five miles north of Lake Windermere on a Caravan Club certified site of just five pitches, a little way down the hill from the Brotherswater Inn . The nearest village, Patterdale was a pleasant two hour walk away. We walked along slate-walled fields and meandering streams to reach the White ...

2899 miles on the clock For Mother's Day weekend we picked Yarwell Mill caravan site and invited family to join us for a picnic on the Saturday. My parents had a caravan on this site throughout my childhood and we spent every weekend and school holiday here. I have great memories of canoeing, fishing, swimming in the river and so many other things. The site is mainly dedicated to seasonal pitches which spread along the river banks or lake. Our touring pitch was on the mill pond and for the Friday evening we had the pond all to ourselves. The pond is adjacent to a river lock and weir and rather noisy from the water, but didn't it didn't prove problematic to sleeping. We walked to the Queen's Head pub in Nassington on Friday night and enjoyed a couple of pints of real ale before walking back in the dark. We walked along the road and we'd learn on Saturday that there's a more pleasant route through fields. We cooked corned beef hash for dinner and were ...

Cleopatra and bikes at sunset I had no idea anywhere near Luton could be nice. What a pleasant surprise this weekend has been! The criteria for choosing this weekend's campsite was that it should be near to great cycleways and, since we're still out of season, open all year. Town Farm Camping & Caravanning caught my eye because of the stunning views in the photos on its website. On further investigation I also found the Chilterns Cycleway passes right by Ivinghoe, the village above which Town Farm nestles. Town Farm campsite I didn't realise the Chilterns were located here. It's one of 38 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales, covering 324 square miles of countryside and boasting a 170 mile circular cycle route. Town Farm's website promised that the chalk ground under its grass pitches would be fine for tents and motorhomes so we decided to trust that fact and booked a grass pitch for Cleopatra. We arrived a little aft...

Grange Farm We've spent the weekend in the Lincolnshire Wolds, a range of hills not far from the east coast. It's actually the highest area of land between Yorkshire and Kent. We arrived at our campsite, Grange Farm in Salmonby just before 6pm and were welcomed by a blackboard that showed our pitch number, and that of the one other caravan we shared the site with. They'd made a few assumptions when they wrote our names on the board. It's very possible the other couple were indeed Mr and Mrs X, but we certainly weren't. That aside, the site is lovely. It has just five pitches, all hard standing, atop one of the highest hills around with views over nothing more than even more hills. It was windy up there though! Haddock and chips After getting Cleopatra fit to sleep in we went to the White Hart Inn across the other side of the village. We enjoyed a couple of pints of Reverend James ale and were tempted into ordering fresh Grimsby haddock and chi...

You can still sightsee We spent seven nights living in Cleopatra in the middle of a cold and sometimes rainy February in the middle of France. Of course I'd have liked it to be sunnier and warmer, but I definitely enjoyed it. One of the biggest challenges when spending longer than just a weekend is that you need to take more stuff. I mean more clothes really - there was no need to pack more of anything else as we could shop for food and wine as necessary. Not only do you need more clothes for a longer trip, but in winter they have to be warm clothes and you need to over pack in case you get wet. Cleopatra is a VW T5 California Beach and she can fit plenty in the back. I'm just concious of leaving anything on show. I may know it's a bag full of dirty laundry but to an opportunist it might seem worth a punt. So paring down what we carry to the absolute minimum has been necessary. Everything in its place When you spend time in a campervan you also have to stay o...

Walking in Gizeux We woke up on our penultimate morning in France to a miserable rainy day. I came up with the idea of leaving our campsite and heading for the Loire Valley where we would try to find an aire de camping cars for the night. We'd be an hour closer to Calais for the next day, plus we'd get to explore a different part of the country. I found an aire in the village of Gizeux on Tony's phone with a patchy signal. From the two photos on the website it looked like a quiet and safe place to stay the night. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see it lived up to all expectations. Gizeux is a lovely quiet village and the aire consists of gravelled hardstandings for ten vehicles. Privacy hedges separate the plots. There are trees on three sides and the quiet village road on the other. There are public toilets next door. There's no charge to stay overnight, but you need tokens if you want drinking water. We enjoyed a lunch of fresh bread wi...

Gizzards à l'orange Thursday was market day in the village of Pouzauges and so we decided we'd have a day mooching around the town and a walk to find the waterfalls the campsite owner had told us about. We were up and about at 9am and cooked breakfast of sausages and beans which we enjoyed with cups of coffee. Beans, by the way, are not something the French seems to regard in the same way as the British. There was just one variety on the shelf of Super U, in what must have been about 80 feet of tinned vegetables. We set off from camp at 11am and were in the centre of the village before it shut for lunch. We weren't particularly impressed by the market. Stalls were selling dated-looking coats, tea towels and napkins. A food market did look promising but trying to ask a market stall owner for meat and vegetables in French was too difficult a prospect, especially with a giant supermarket within walking distance. Notre Dame in Pouzauges We failed aga...