Warwick 20-23 Mar 24

Cambridge were playing Coventry on Saturday 22 March and we thought that perhaps we could take the van for a few days out to Warwick Racecourse Cackyvan Club site, somewhere we haven't been before, and an easy(ish) bus ride into Coventry to watch the game.

We had a leisurely journey across to Warwick and, once again, encountered long delays in the roadworks on the A14 where we witnessed the sum total of  zero people working flat out to minimise disruption. Warwick Racecourse site is a small site, in the middle of the racecourse opposite the main grandstand and only a short walk into the town. As with Cheltenham racecourse, a lot of parking is on tarmac and thus it is like stopping on a car park, only with Cackyvan club extortionate prices. Unlike Cheltenham though the toilets and showers were on the lower end of reasonable, again demonstrating the Cackyvan Club's ability to charge 5 star prices for a 2 star campsite.  In glorious warm weather, we had a wander into town, ate a very uninspiring lunch in the 'Spoons and then headed back for an early night.

The Warwickshire Bear and ragged staff

Fascinating beehive in the museum

Oken Tearooms

On Friday we exchanged Tesco Clubcard points for a visit to Warwick Castle, stopping for an excellent breakfast in the delightful Oken tearooms before heading into the Castle. We have been to the Castle before back in 2006, but we had a bit more time to explore this time. It is OK. A bit Disneyesque but quite interesting. The birds of prey show was very good albeit short (the season hasn't really started yet) and we managed to avoid the overpriced food and  drink in the cafe. After a good few hours climbing around the castle (the battlements and towers are knackering) we retired back to the tearooms for some lovely cake, albeit the experience was somewhat ruined by two orange "ladies" and their ill mannered breed of feral kids that managed to trash the place and drown out all conversation from the other guests. The staff deserve medals for their patience. From there we called into the marvellously quirky Old Post Office pub for a couple. What a great place

 

A letterbox with a slot too small for letters! 

The Old Post Office

On Saturday we caught the lovely X18 bus into Coventry where we met our friends ion the Cosy Cafe for breakfast before having a quick look around the cathedral. We then walked the mile or so to the Rugby ground and watched a great game, even though we lost. That area of Coventry did not really generate any desire to revisit though. We caught the X18 back into Warwick and had fish and chips in the chip shop and whilst we were in there it started chucking it down with rain. It had forecast rain all afternoon so we couldn't really complain as we had managed to stay dry throughout the match. We retired to the van with the rain hammering on the roof.

Lady Godiva

Ruins of Coventry Cathedral

On Sunday it was up early and, on a misty, wet and dank morning, we completed our journey home. 

Warwick Racecourse is an OK site. Overpriced and basic, but ideally located with a short walk into town and good bus and train services. We may be back.

  

Cotswolds 5-10 March 25

The first trip away in the van in 2025 and it's been far too long. In January we were  too busy with family commitments and a trip away to watch Harlequins play in Toulon. In February we were due to go to Norfolk for a week but disaster struck! The van had been in storage at the farm for some weeks and the weather during this period had been incredibly bad with constant rain and grey, gloomy days. When we came to recover the van on a very cold morning it didn't want to play. There had been no solar to top up the batteries. We tried jump starting the van and managed to fry the Electroblok, the smart box of electrickery that does all sorts of things on the charging, 230v and 12v systems. We had to remove the box and sent it off for repair and, at the same time, replace the leisure batteries because we had a mix of AGM and normal batteries fitted which are not ideal. This meant some major stripping and assembly in the cab - nothing is ever easy. Eventually it was all back together with a day to spare before a booked trip to Cotswold Farm Park, albeit the 12v system was still a bit dodgy.

Mess of wiring

The new leisure batteries fitted under the seat

The rogue Electroblock, newly repaired

Anyway, after that long preamble - we had an easy drive down to Cotswold Farm Park and set up on pitch 1. It was very quiet on the farm with not many visitors so we had a quick bimble around, bought  bottles of Rhubarb cider which we enjoyed sitting in the van before deciding that we liked them so much we would sprint back to the shop just before it closed to buy two more.

On Thursday it was time to exercise. We went for a very long walk to Guiting Power and then on to Naunton for a delicious pub lunch in the Black Horse, before hauling our full bellies up the steep hill back to the farm. 7.5 miles up and down hills and cross-country in lovely sunshine. The first real exercise we'd done for ages.

On Friday we had a well deserved rest with just a little bimble around the farm and back in the evening for a pizza and a few beers.

On Saturday we didn't do a lot. We wandered around the farm, watched a bit of Rugby (very happy that France beat Ireland in the 6 Nations and Cambridge beat the other place in the Varsity match), went to the bar, had a meal and a few pints listening to the singer and then went to bed.

Sunday we did the delightful 2 mile wildlife walk, wandered around the farm again, watched England beat Italy, had dinner and relaxed outside in the warm sunshine having almost the entire site to ourselves.

Monday dawned misty, cold and with showers of rain. We packed up and left and with only a few miles into our journey we encountered a hideous tailback through Moreton-in-the-Marsh due to some ridiculous roadworks that hardly necessitated the 3 way traffic lights and the consequent mayhem. Why do these numpties insist on doing this? Health and Safety I assume. Anyway, we made reasonable progress once we cleared Moreton and stopped at the excellent Rugby services for a spot of lunch before encountering more roadworks on the A14 with 1 lane closed and absolutely nobody working on the road. It was a long journey home.

In all, it was great to get away. We left the control panel on so we had 12v all the way through. This week will be time to test it thoroughly before our next jaunt.