Cambridge Cherry Hinton

 Oh look - back here again for a weekend. We've just had nice new tyres fitted on the van and we needed to give them a test run (in all, rather a poor excuse for a couple of nights away in the Van).

We drove onto the site at 1300hrs sharp (of course, being the Cackyvan Club they wont open their doors until EXACTLY 1300hrs) and negotiated our way across the mud onto a hard standing in the circle. The Cackyvan club spends a fortune on glamping pods, serviced pitches and useless IT systems, but wont spend anything on the one thing that campers need - decent pitches. Crazy and short-sighted, but that's the Cackyvan club for you. Roll on the opening of the Camping Club Site on 25 Mar. We caught the bus into Cambridge, had a good bimble around and had fish and chips in the Cambridge Brew House in Kings Street. It was OK-ish.

Saturday it was up early for an excellent breakfast in the Robin Hood, then a dash to the Fitzwilliam Museum for a look as we hadn't been for a while. Unfortunately, a number of the galleries were closed and we couldn't see what we wanted to see, so we opted for a quick wander around Cambridge. It was a glorious sunny spring day and we enjoyed being tourists before heading to Grantchester Road for the Cambridge v Bedford match, which we lost. From there we retired to the Red Bull in Newnham to watch England beat Ireland. It was a great evening.

The Robin Hood

Just one Canaletto

Fitzbilly

The better Fitzbillies

Corpus Christi at night

On Sunday morning it pee'd it down. The ground was churning up nicely and, although impressed with our new 4 season grip anything tyres, we didn't want to sink so we left the site and arrived home in time for lunch and a replay of the England game.

Cheltenham, Gloucester and the Cotswolds 13- 21 Feb 24

Tuesday 13 February and off to the Cotswolds via Cheltenham for a short break. We drove to Cheltenham in torrential rain, stopping at Corley services for lunch, eventually arriving at Briarfield's Touring Park in the early afternoon. We lazed around for the rest of the day, celebrating St Pancake's Day in traditional style in the evening.

Briarfields

Valentines Day and we had a romantic hike into Cheltenham. It rained. We had a couple of romantic pints in the wonderful Sandford Park Alehouse then visited  Mowgli's for a romantic mega-lunch. The romantic rain was chucking it down even harder when we got out of the restaurant so we caught a romantic bus back to the site. 

Sunbathing? In February?

Cheltenham Pump Rooms and Pittville Park

Mowgli's Street Food - Yum!

Thursday 15 February and we caught the lovely No 94 bus into Gloucester. Bus and Train stations are never the nicest places in big cities and Gloucester is no exception, so we visited the delightful Beatrix Potter shop, then headed for the docks. It wasn't bad weather so we sat outside a café for a very average coffee and cake, then wandered around the outlet and didn't buy anything. From there it was back to the wonderful cathedral for a mooch about, paying our respects to King Edward II, then caught the bus back into Cheltenham for a pint in the amazing Old Courthouse followed by dinner in Beefy Boys.

Rainbow Square, Gloucester

Waistcoat - The Tailor of Gloucester

Gloucester Cathedral

Tomb of King Edward II

Ye Olde Chippy

Friday 16th February - Travelled to Cotswold farm Park via Stow on the Wold, where we stopped for a Sausage baguette in Huffington's and purchased some lardy cakes to take away. It was a short run to the farm, where we pitched on a very sloping site which the levelling ramps were unable to compete with. We ate our lardy cakes then wandered into the farm near closing time to watch some lambs being born. Retiring back to the van we enjoyed the absolute silence of this beautiful location.

Stow on the Wold

Stow on the Wold

On Saturday we wandered around a bit more, did more relaxing, then went into the bar for pizza, beers and listened to the excellent live music.

Sunday 18th - We had booked Sunday lunch at the Halfway Inn in Kineton, a place we visited last year and liked the look of. It had rained torrentially all night and we were worried in that the walk to the pub involved crossing the River Windrush, which could be flooded. Luckily we had waterproof boots on and we could wade through the shallow bit of the flood to get to the footbridge to cross the river. Lunch was fantastic! We waddled back up the hill and collapsed in the van.

River Windrush

Kineton

The Halfway Inn, Kineton

Monday was a lot quieter as the weekend visitors had gone home and many of the kids were back at school. We watched Adam Henson theatrically deliver a couple of lambs, then went for a 2 mile walk around the farm, which included being chased by 3 dogs and a horse. We returned, muddy and tired, had a beer and relaxed. There was a lot of relaxing on this trip!

Tuesday 20th and we did more mooching about and, by now, we were becoming experts at relaxing, so we practised a bit more.

Wed 21st and it was atrocious weather. It was blowing a gale and raining cats and dogs. We had no choice but to get soaked packing up and then heading for home, stopping for LPG at Morrisons in Coventry en-route.

Cotswold Farm Park is a wonderful place provided that you get a good deal on the price. Briarfields  is ideally located, a lovely site, but bloody noisy!

 

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Cambridge Cherry Hinton 26-28 Jan 24

The journey from Brighton to Cambridge was fine until we crossed the Thames and found out that, once again, the M11 was blocked and there was a 50 minute delay. Why is it that whenever we try to travel South of where we live we hit traffic problems! We detoured along the A10 and eventually arrived at the Cherry Hinton CAMC site. This is another CAMC site that they appear reluctant to invest in and we much prefer the Cambridge Camping Club site, but that is closed during the winter. The site was full, albeit there were a number of pitches unavailable as you had to cross mud to get to the hardstanding (why?) and the ground had churned up.

We decided to wander across the road to the Robin Hood Pub for lunch. It was nice, but there were some bloody awful screaming brats in there, which made it uncomfortable on the ears. After swallowing a bottle of bubbles we decided rest and relaxation was on order for the rest of the day, which was ruined by watching a dire Harlequins performance on the TV

On Saturday it was up, breakfast and then off to catch the number 3 bus into Cambridge to get her eternity ring checked at the jewellers, then on to Cambridge Rugby Club for a great afternoon watching Cambridge beat Caldy 33-14. After a few pints at the ground we finished the day with a nice meal in the Anchor before heading back to the site.

Sunday it was a leisurely morning then home via Morrisons to fill up with LPG.

Brighton 21 - 26 Jan 24

We arrived at the Brighton CAMC 15 minutes before the stipulated check in time of 1300hrs but the very friendly staff let us check in, even with the crap IT system still down. The site was quite empty and we had a good choice of pitch, so we tried to find one where we could ride out the oncoming storm without too much buffeting. Once we set up we wandered down to the marina for a mooch about before finding some food. We went into the Harvester. It was truly awful. Full of screaming brats, grubby tables and a very limited menu, so we walked out and found a delightful Café Rouge instead.

Brighton Marina

The Sunday night was rough apparently (I slept through it). After breakfast on Monday we wandered into Brighton for a look around and had a delicious lunch in Mowgli before heading back along the coast. We walked over 10 miles!

North Lanes

Brighton Pavilion

The Lanes

Tuesday was awful weather. It rained all day. We stopped in, only emerging to go down to Lidl for some provisions. Once again the wind picked up for yet another storm with a silly name.

Wednesday and the crap CAMC IT system was still down, but the weather was significantly better. Time for some exercise after a lazy day, so after breakfast we set out to walk east along the coast towards Rottingdean/Saltdean. It was a long walk. A very long walk! We stopped for a quick lunch in a delightful café in Rottingdean before continuing east. Up and down steep cliff tops and through some very slippery mud near Newhaven fort. Eventually, knackered, we took the bus back from Newhaven to the Marina where we descended the cliff path for a couple of pints in the Master Mariner pub and then dinner in Café Rouge before heading back to the site, absolutely exhausted. We walked nearly 32,000 steps. The cliffs are very nice along here but the houses look very tired and tatty. Don't think we'd fancy living here.

Beacon Hill Windmill

Newhaven

Newhaven Fort

Brighton Marina

Thursday and we deserved a rest after the long walk yesterday, especially as we were a little bit stiff. However, this was not to be. We walked the two miles into Brighton to get the bus to Lewes. It wasn't a comfortable journey as the bus stank of dog! Lewes is a lovely place, but bumpy. we walked up and down the steep hill and around the castle then searched unsuccessfully for somewhere to get some tea and cake. Hungry and tired, we got the bus back to Brighton and found a really nice little ice cream/cake shop in the lanes called Brass Monkey. The owner is a charming chap and let us taste his selection of absolutely delicious ice creams. From there we walked back to the site hoping that Phillipe, who runs a little café on site, would produce his advertised  Beef Bourguignon. We turned up, but he didn't, so we settled for a M&S curry in the van. Phillipe - you can stick your Beef Bourguignon up your...... Anyway, once again we walked for miles (18000 steps) and enjoyed our visit to Lewes, which is a very interesting and pleasant place.

Lewes Castle

Fifteenth Century Bookshop

Friday, bright sunshine and, reluctantly, time to move on, heading for Cambridge Cherry Hinton site.