Abbey Wood, London 10-15 Dec 24

Well, who would have thought it? The Cackyvan and Motorhome Club giving something away to offset the hideous cost of their sites. A free night! Mind you, it wasn't easy getting it with the rubbish C&MC IT system causing us all sorts of problems. We decided that London would be a good place to spend a few days - visit Mother, catch up with some old friends and watch Cambridge v Ealing Moneygrabbers on the Saturday, so Abbey Wood it was. We haven't been here for some years and we remembered it was a bit of a pain to get to, but what part of London isn't? Anyway, we packed the minimal required for a few nights away and braved the M11, M25 and the back roads of South East London to arrive at 1300hrs and pitch up.

On the Tuesday afternoon we thought we would try the new Super Loop buses that run from Abbey Wood to Bromley. We've tried them now, and have no desire to try them again. We spent a couple of hours sorting Mother-in Law's flat then had dinner in 'Spoons before catching the Pooperscoop bus back to Abbey Wood.

On Wednesday we tried the brand new Elizabeth Line to go to Chiswick. Of course, it was delayed so it was a long journey across town. Debs went on to meet her friends for lunch in Waterloo whilst I spent the day with my dear mother before we met up again in the evening and negotiated the Lizzy Line back to Scabby Wood.

The following day we had arranged to meet up with some old Rugby friends in Ashford, thinking that the new Lizzy Line would take us straight there. We got that one wrong! It is a hideously convoluted journey. We set out early-ish to take in Oxford Street. It is not as we remembered it. It is absolutely ghastly and we couldn't wait to leave. We walked down Regent Street, through a very packed Fortnum and Mason and down to find a spot of lunch at a delightful little cafe in Pall Mall, Wrights of London. This made us late and we sprinted across the river to catch a train at Waterloo, then realised that Ashford is outside the Oyster zone, so we had to buy a ticket between Feltham and Ashford, get off the train at Feltham, touch out, then back on the next train to Ashford. Phew! Eventually we made it and had a great afternoon and an equally convoluted journey back.

Meeting up with the Beardy Boys in Ashford

On Friday we took the train to London Bridge, walked through Borough Market, along the South Bank, up to Trafalgar Square and into the National Gallery then on to Leicester Square, then tube to Canary Wharf for a look around and some dinner, then the Lizzy line back to Scabby Wood. A very busy day with lots of walking.

Borough Market

A gift from Norway in Trafalgar Square

The fighting Temeraire - my favourite

The Haywain

Bean and Bear Leicester Square

Leicester Square

Canary Wharf

Funny little boat things at Canary Wharf

Saturday was rugby at Ealing Trailfinders (money grabbing gits). Luckily the train took us to West Ealing where we had a lovely breakfast in the Cafe Leemoo around the corner from the station. From there it was a mile walk to Ealing Moneyfinders to watch our very brave semi-pro players lose out to multi-billionaire overpaid professionals, an unfair contest that didn't put us in the best of moods. We stuck two fingers up at Moneyfinders and got the Lizzy line back.

On Sunday it was up early and home by 1100hrs.

Newark 2-4 November 2024

 We have to lose the van for a few weeks whilst a warranty repair is carried out at Camper UK in Lincoln (2nd time they've done this repair!) and we decided that we would break our journey at the Milestone Caravan Club site, just off the A1 in Newark. The best laid plans and all that... Our plans changed when we sold our motorbike trailer on eBay and, as the buyer lived in Doncaster, we thought that we could hand the trailer over to him in Cromwell to save him a long journey. Accordingly we changed our 1 night stopover for Lincoln into a 2 night break to make the most of our last couple of nights in the van before it goes into the workshop. After we dropped the van off our plans were to take the car up to Northumberland and then back down to Elland for a party before returning home a week later. With Van, trailer and car we set off in convoy to the site in Cromwell.

Milestone Caravan Site

The journey up to Cromwell was uneventful, albeit it rained and our nice clean trailer got a bit mucky. We stopped at Boundary Mills for a very average and quite expensive lunch before checking in and wheeling the trailer outside for the handover to it's new owner. The exchange took place smoothly and we retired to the excellent Milestone brewery to watch England lose to Australia and for some decent beer and some fairly yucky tacos.

On Sunday we drove across to Southwell to visit the National Trust Workhouse followed by a quick wander around the charming town and the impressive Minster. The workhouse was very interesting and the tour guide gave an excellent lesson on the Poor Laws, why workhouses were built and life inside these establishments. In the evening in  was back into the brewery for more fine beer and some very nice pasta. We ended up chatting to a couple of fellow campers and probably drank more than we intended to.

Southwell Workhouse

Southwell Minster

Remarkable stained glass window in the Minster

On Monday we braved the hideous traffic around Lincoln, dropped the van off and took to the car to head of for an adventure on Hadrian's Wall. Hopefully Camper UK will do a proper job this time.

Camper UK

South Staffordshire and The Wirral 23 Sep - 4 Oct 24

Grape Harvest time again and a different venue this time - Halfpenny Green Vineyard in South Staffordshire. This is a much bigger concern than Chilford Hall and we were looking forward to seeing how it all worked. On Monday lunchtime we set out all was fine until we hit the dreadful M6 through Birmingham and the ridiculous speed cameras that change from 60mph to 40mph to 50mph to 60mph on successive gantries just to catch you out. It really is an awful road and the ill-designed roads through Wolverhampton are not much better. We were pleased to arrive at the very peaceful vineyard and check in.

View over the vines

On Tuesday the we joined the other pickers at 0900hrs on the car park and set out to harvest. We picked until 1200, had an hour for lunch (with tea, coffee and wine) and then picked again until 1600hrs followed by more tea, coffee and wine.

 

Wednesday followed the same programme, albeit we were a bit stiff from the previous day's exertions. The weather started to deteriorate in the afternoon so we had an early finish, but it was still good fun.

Fair days pay for a fair day's work

Madeline Angevine grapes

Thursday started off fine but by mid afternoon there were rumbles of thunder and a storm started brewing. There were cries of "stay away from the wires" as we picked in the thunder, finally giving up at at about 1500hrs just as we finish picking the rows of Madeleine Angevine. 

The day started well....

Storms a'comin'

The following day we had a leisurely breakfast in the café then set out to drive to the Wirral Country Park Cackyvan Club site. The Satnag took us through Wolverhampton again, then up the dreaded M6, then M56 and the M53. It was a bit of a slog, but we arrived spot on 1300hrs and got a pitch overlooking the estuary.  We had a bit of a tidy up in the van and stowed all the wine we had acquired (you can fit 17 bottles under one of the floor hatches, albeit they were packed securely with dirty socks!). We plugged in and started charging everything we could before heading off for dinner at Flissy's.

Dee Estuary

Wine cellar in the van

 

Wirral Country Park CAMC Site

Caldy RUFC

On Sunday we switched our planned nights stay from the Wirral to Chester Fairoaks CAMC site for two reasons: to reduce the journey time on Monday and to be nearer the shops for reprovisioning. We did the short run in pouring rain and stopped at the outlet mall, parking in the coach park (once we had found it). The mal was horrible! It was packed and not a nice experience so we had lunch in Harry Ramsdens and spent the afternoon on the caravan site watching the pouring rain.

Coach park at Chester Fairoaks

On Monday it was still chucking it down. We refuelled and reprovisioned in Costco and went back to Halfpenny Green via a much better, and more direct, route. We parked up by the very pretty fishing lakes and checked in.

lunch in Costco

Mucky from the awful weather

Fishing lakes at Halfpenny Green

On Tuesday we were due to pick and reported in for work as usual. The weather, however, had other ideas. Rain stopped play. It didn't stop raining all day.

It actually stopped raining on Wednesday. The Met Office could have actually got a forecast right, but I suppose by the law of averages they are going to get it right once in a while. We started on the long, long rows of Rondo grapes, which grow quite low so it was tiring, but satisfying work. We ached by the end of the day.

On Thursday there was a lovely, misty, autumnal sunrise after a very cold night. The leaves on the vines were starting to turn and the grapes don't like the cold too much so it was important to get them in. Another hard day's work.

Lost amongst the Rondos

On Friday we were up early, packed and on our way home after a very enjoyable, but very tiring, trip away.

Halfpenny Green is a wonderful place run by a lovely family. Our only regret was that we didn't get to meet Martin, who was responsible for laying out this vineyard, as he very sadly died suddenly the day before we arrived. Whilst picking, our thoughts were constantly with the family who had to organise and run an incredibly stressful harvest whilst suffering this horrible loss. They were absolutely brilliant.