Farewell to the white cliffs of Dover

It was another early morning, packing and loading the car. I can?t tell you much about the journey as soon after leaving the caravan site, I fell asleep and woke to find we were parked on the ferry having arrived early and managed to get on a boat an hour before our scheduled departure. The customs are obviously pretty relaxed as apparently they saw Mum?s British passport and waved us on, not bothering to look at those of the rest of ours!!! Fortuitously, there was a pizza van parked at the front of the site, Mum, Tieve and I ordered and collected them while the guys set up the awning.

The boat trip was pretty quick, we made our way to the front of the boat, took a few photos of the white cliffs of Dover, bought some lunch and then the girls had a play with some bead toys on the boat.

And suddenly we were in France, a concept that Tieve couldn?t quite get her head around. She kept saying ?where?s France?? looking around. I am not sure she really understands what a country is!!! Our first campsite is at Mille de Foret, in the middle of the forest. The site is very shady with lots of trees, a great looking pool but their facilities leave a bit to be desired after the wonderful sites in England.

A Rest Day in Kent

As a day between long travelling days, today was quite quiet. The girls had a lovely time playing on the large grassy area surrounding our caravan (quite a relief after the pebbles that our previous site was on, quite a temptation for Seren who felt she needed to permanently have one in her mouth) while I took photos of them. Glen and I then headed into town to find a few bits and pieces. Late afternoon we went down to Peasmarsh to catch up with friends of Mum and Dad, Carole and Les as well as their daughter, Jo, her husband Iain and their children, Caitlyn, 2 1/2 and Morgan, 3 months. We had a lovely time, sitting in their garden and touring Carole's new studio (can you see how green I am?) and then it was down to the local for a meal. As time with friends always does, it flew by and soon it was time to make our way home again for our last night in England.

A Private Tour of Eton

Today brought one of the busiest days we were to have on the trip. Dad woke us at the crack of dawn with coffees and we all mucked in to pack everything up and head off to Eton. Our estimated packing time was quite accurate and we made it to Eton within minutes of our planned arrival time. Carolyn had put on the most wonderful spread for lunch which we all gladly tucked into. Her apartment in Walpole house, where she was Dame, was lovely and rather up market compared to her room at Edgehill!!!

Carolyn had then arranged for her friend, Paul, to show us around some of the older parts of the school. It was fascinating hearing about the origins of the school with its original scholars who were invited from all walks of life to come and be educated for free. Life back in the 15th Century was quite different from that of today but the focus was still the same, to give the boys the highest level of education possible. Originally, the boys where allowed to carve their name into part of the school when they pass their final exams but now, due to the huge number that pass through the school, only a select few such as the King's Scholars and Wills and Harry. The whole school is filled with the most wonderful variety of buildings, many of which were boarding houses each holding, give or take a couple, 50 boys as well as a Master, Dame and several support staff.

It was fabulous to see my dear friend again, catch up and see that she had obviously landed on her feet and was thoroughly enjoying her job even with the ridiculous hours. Unfortunately, we had to leave to head on to our next destination, even though I would have loved to have had a bit of a look around her boarding house. The trip to the caravan site in Kent was rather eventful as the Sat Nav took us down some rather narrow lanes with were quite tricky with a large car and even larger caravan. It didn?t help that on the way we came across a man who was rather reluctant to back up for us and was completely lacking in ability when it came to reversing. Eventually, we arrived and Dad talked his way on to the site even though we were very late. We then set up the basic awning, dumped everything in side and headed off to try and find something for dinner at 10pm. The pub down the road was just shutting but they directed us on into town where we decided on Indian over Chinese and took takeaway back to the caravan.

A day to relax

I had hoped to head down to Exeter today to see my friend Lynn, however, she was being kept ridiculously busy at school, working all hours so we were not able to catch up. We will have to make sure next time she is in Australia visiting her sister that we do manage to get together. This resulted in us having a free day and it was quite nice to have a leisurely start and have no major plans for the day. The one thing we did do was to head in to Tiverton to go to the supermarket and McDonalds to use their Wi-Fi. Other than that, nothing very eventful happened and we did some prepacking including taking down the two awning extensions and moving the inner tents inside to save time in the morning.

Home to Bideford

Today we headed back to Bideford, this time to catch up with Angela and Bernard. It was lovely to be back at Melville Cottage and to see my dear friends again. They put on a wonderful spread for lunch and then we sat around for several hours chatting and catching up on news while Tieve handed out chocolates. One of my old scouts, James had hoped to catch up with us but was off picking up a new car so was going to be back too late unfortunately. I will have to see if I can find him on Facebook.

I then took everyone of a little trip around Bideford to see my old haunts and show Glen where I used to live. We headed down to Northam (via Appledore as I stuffed up the directions!) to see my little house on Sandymere Rd and then back into Bideford to take a drive through Edgehill College, now Kingsley School. It didn?t appear to have changed much, except that the main building looked to have had a new coat of paint, no doubt due to the two major fires that it had in the past decade. After driving down through Belvoir woods we headed through town, past the Bideford Amateur Rowing Club (AKA The Bideford Reds), over the old bridge and back to our caravan.

Not long after we left Bideford, Dad pulled the car over and told me to get in the driver?s seat. Apparently, he had decided that I should get over my fear of driving in a left had drive car and that on the link road was probably the best place to do it. My right hand had a little trouble trying to figure out the gears but we all managed to get back in one piece and after much debate, I even decided to take the one lane road rather than go through Tiverton.

Unload, load and off to Devon

Glen and Dad had another early morning, getting up and going while Mum and I slept. We arrived at Devizes before too long and finished packing, unloaded everything and reloaded them to the caravan and car. We then all packed into the car to head down to our first caravan site which was on the border of Devon and Somerset.

The trip took a lot longer than I thought it would looking at the kms due to the pace we have to go with the caravan and the difficulty navigating the narrower roads with such a large load. The fun then started when we all set up the awning for the first time (second time for Dad). We eventually got the awning, two extensions and inner tents up and everything out of the car. Glen, the girls and I then had to race off as we had arranged to meet my friend, Helen and her husband, Garth in Westward Ho!.

I was going to drive so that Glen could have a couple of drinks but chickened out at the last minute. The Sat Nav lady took us on a very narrow, one lane road and gave me a bit of a fright as we came around a corner to find someone else heading in the other direction. We were then back on a two lane road and fine again and made it to Helen and Garth's house without too much trouble. The Pig on the Hill beckoned so we walked across the road for a meal. It was lovely to catch up with Helen and hear all the news and find out what Lucy is up to. After dinner we went back to their house for coffee and Tieve discovered some old toys of Lucy and Cathy's including an old boot house like my old one that she had been playing with at home and had a lovely time playing. Too soon it was time to head off for the hour journey back to the site.

On the way home we decided to ignore the lady and head all the way down to Tiverton and up to avoid the narrow roads. It was just as well as by this time it was quite dark and a thick fog had set in so it could have been quite dangerous on the one lane roads.

Back to Bradford on Avon

Sunday was mostly spent in Bradford and Avon as we only had about 10 miles to return the boat. We then had our first pub meal for the trip just opposite our mooring at a lovely pub that had recently been refurbished.

After a leisurely start we wandered via the canal society shop to get some mementos and headed down to the Tithe barn where we had a look around, took lots of photos and played on the grass (the girls enjoyed having the room to roam without fear of falling in the canal).

Our plan had been to make it all the way to Foxhangers that night as we had to be packed and unloaded by 9am but on the way we saw a lovely pub just not far from our destination so decided to moor up there, have a sausage and drink at the pub and settle in there for the night.

And back again

As we were now heading back the way we had come we didn?t have any particular plan except that we had to do in 2 days what we had previously done in 5. Mum was also keen to see the Tithe barn in Bradford on Avon which we had run out of time to see previously. I also managed to take a couple of photos on the way back that I had seen on the way through but not had my camera with me at the time.

One of these things was a very cool boat that looked rather like it belonged to a hobbit.

We had also had a rather cryptic phone call from Martin telling us to stop at Bathampton as there was something in the church that we would be interested in. So, as instructed, we dutifully found a mooring, took the opportunity to have some lunch and wandered into the church. It turns out it is where Captain Arthur Philip was buried so definitely worth the stop.

We then stopped at a pumping station and Mum, Dad and Glen ran over to have a look 15 minutes before it shut and Tieve and I stayed at the boat while Seren slept. Unfortunately, while we killed time on the bank, Tieve fell over grazing several parts of her body including her nose.

We arrived at Bradford on Avon in the evening, found a mooring, had some tea and headed to Sainsbury's for a few necessities before they closed.

To Bristol and back again.

This morning we had an early start to try and make it into Bristol and out again. Glen and Dad got up and started while Mum and I caught a few more zzzzz’s. Once we arrived, Glen, Mum and I went to see the SS Great Britain while Dad and the girls had a nap. It was the first large ship to be built out of iron. It also had a new type of propeller which was more efficient. It had been returned to the original dry dock where it was build and restored and fitted out as it would have been in the days when it was a liner that took passengers to New York and later to Australia. It also had a fabulous museum that you went through first, if fact, it took us ages before we were even in the boat its self!!!

We then walked up the big hill above Bristol to see the Clifton Suspension bridge, which having walked so far we also had to cross and re cross for the experience. We then had to hot foot it back to the boat where we instantly headed back out of Bristol before we got locked in for the night and kept putting until it was well and truly dark.