Susie's Emails No 22

Hello to All,

 

We are still on the Cornish Coast, rugged,, beautiful and sometimes remote. 

 

We stopped at a campsite and parking H.H. on a hill/cliff face with 180 deg views and making triply sure the chocks and handbrake were fully secure, we headed off for King Arthur’s Camelot Castle.  This is a 1 hr plus walk along a well warn track that you have to be sure footed to do.  It is up hill, down hill, crossing little streams, up rugged stairs and down again across farmers fields and making sure the stock gates were closed, and then skirting the costal cliffs again O.M.G. you skid a bit on the rocks and rough surface, you couldn’t really take in the view as you were to busy putting one foot in front of the other - we made it. !!!! Yeah.

 

 

 

It was decided reluctantly, that we would not be returning the same way, just thinking about doing that all again in reverse was not on T. Lee’s agenda, he wanted to catch a Taxi back, so I went in search of a Bus stop instead.  TINTAGEL  is a very pretty town, and by the way the Castle of course was very old. Ha Ha !! 

 

 

Anyway, I found a bus stop with 3 people and 2 dogs awaiting, as it turned out they had also done the walk and also decided the bus was the better option, even the dogs looked tired out, 2 minutes wait and the 5 of us and the dogs hopped on. In England dogs are permitted in Cafe’s, Restaurants, Shops, Bars, Public Transport  etc, as long as they are on leads.  Unbelievable, imagine this in OZ,  O.H & S would have apoplexy, I wouldn’t like to see what happens when a dog decides to do what comes naturally in a small space.

The sunset was extra gorgeous shimmering across the water from our excellent view point.

 

A couple of days later and we are on a C.L. site at Glasson Dock, we rode along a windy foreshore  and thru the back of the village and came upon a Canal.  We ended up helping 2 vessels thru the lock, these were fully manual and extremely hard for 2 people to manage,1 steering & 1 working the lock, she had to jump off, undo the old mechanism with a key, then unwind the wheel, then physically pushing and pulling with all your might, the big arms (gates) then the other till they open/close , then re do what you undid, re lock with the key, and then jump back on board and then onto the next one, she had done 21 locks that day, talk about needing a stiff drink at the end of the day !!!!  and some Dencorub…….also swanning down the canal looking cute and gorgeous were 2 lots of Mrs Swan, and their grey babies they both had 8 each, nice to see. On our bikes again and back to H.H. Honestly you never know what we are going to find on our rides, there’s always something around the next corner.

Mrs. Swan and her “babies” trying to get a free ride through the lock.

 

Next day onto the LAKES DISTRICT, These skinny roads and blind corners will always have me holding my breath, no wonder we have a few stiff drinks at night!!!!! Being left hand drive, I call out to Terry what I can see coming, Car, Vans, Trucks & Caravans  etc, and now even animals = sheep. It’s very harrowing, stopping and letting someone pass, with an inch to spare, God Help Me  I’m  due for a heart attack, I don’t know how Terry does it, a lot of the skinny roads are very old (ancient) crumbling stone walls or drop offs.  The ride around the lake & village is very relaxing, just what we need to get some air back into the LUNGS!!!!! Whew…….I can breathe again.

 

Anyway, we are off to SCOTLAND in a couple of days to a lovely town called MOFFAT, we’ll be just in time for their annual Vintage and Classic Car rally, should be good, We’ll keep you posted, bye for now.

 

Love to all, Susie, Terry = H.H. x x x

 

 

 

 

Susie's Emails No 21

Susie’s email No. 21

 

Hello & Greetings to All from the U.K.

 

Sometime in June, 2014.

 

Before I forget, I must tell you all that my fabulous check list, failed again,!!!!!!!! Nothing to serious, but MR. FIX  IT, stepped up to the challenge, and all was soon better after borrowing a drill, and finding some screws.  We were trundling down the motorway in Belgium and had to brake quickly as a car pulled in front of us, next heard was a terrible bang ( we’re used to this sound now!!!!!!! ) expletives -and ? WHAT WAS THAT !!!!! I turned around to find the CUTLERY DRAW  had shot forward and was hanging in a most peculiar position with the front of the draw dangling and its contents waiting to spread everywhere  (its a rather large heavy draw) so I took my life in my hands, flipped my seat belt, carefully found the DUCT tape and very quickly plastered the draw back into shape while balancing H.H.’s movements on the road underway!!!!!! We couldn’t stop, so back to square one with the list again, more revising !!!!!

 

Anyway, here we are in England, and so far we have been really lucky with our Farm stays, we’ve met some wonderful people and their animals.  

 

 

These are called C.L. sites = Certified Locations, vetted by the Caravan & Camping Club  (this would be fabulous back in Australia), you camp in a Farmers field, they are only allowed to have 5 pitches,  they must provide water (a tap) and chemical toilet disposal and for extra, power if available.

 

 

 One we recently stayed on H. H. got himself bogged (it had nothing to do with, WE PICKED THE WRONG SPOT - WE DID’NT KNOW THAT? -THAT GRASS !!!!!!! WAS CALLED BOG GRASS,) and the water table was very high etc.  poor H.H. tried his hardest to get us out but failed ! The wheels were spinning, we had to get the Farmer,  they had already bogged 3 tractors themselves the week before, a little old 4 wheel drive Land Rover pulled us out, and off we went, adding  getting bogged to the long list of misdemeanours. 

 Where we were camped, was an Estate called “Trigon”, its on 3,000 acres - unbelievably old money, and the owners very proper.  These C.L. sites are economical for us as its High Season in the camping world and crazy prices for Summer.

 

Unfortunately we could only stop very quickly at Brighton Pier, parking is always a problem for motorhomes, there just aren’t any, so on we go.  We stopped at a Park & Ride in Portsmouth and went to see the D-Day re-enactment on the foreshore and watch the RED ARROWS, The RAF aerobatics team, like our ROULETTES an amazing show of flying skills, their routine is spectacular, you didn’t now where to look first, 9 planes in the show, incredible, hopefully we will get to see some Air Shows while in the U.K. 

 

 

I’m jumping the gun here, as we are moving on every day or two, I can’t bore you with everywhere we are,  or you’ll scream !!! and delete me, let me tell you - there is no such  thing as a bad/uglyl coastline, but I do laugh (to myself ) that they say they have award winning beaches, best in the world - it makes you very proud of ours!!!!! Sandy, white and clean.

 

Portland is where they had the Sailing for the 2012 Olympics and Plymouth Harbour is wonderful,   Falmouth is home to the worlds 3rd largest natural deep water harbour, we parked H.H. on a hill and decided to walk down to the docks, we could hear music wafting up from far below and decided to follow the sound, we came upon the International Sea Shanty Festival in full swing and also the Falmouth Classic Yacht race, in August they will be hosting the Tall Ships Regatta with over 40 vessels from around the world, the magnificent & mighty square rigged ships. Actually every town that ends with a “mouth” has been stunning. 

 

 

We travelled to The Lizard, the most southerly part of the UK, not Land’s End as we thought!