Cambridgeshire 3 - 17 Oct 19

Work? Work! Yes, two weeks of sort of work, grape picking in Cambridgeshire, something we've always wanted to do and to be able to stay in the vineyard in the Motorhome was a great experience. We learned a lot about vines, grapes and winemaking and, despite the weather being somewhat indifferent, we had a great time with some lovely people working in the open air in beautiful surroundings. A tiring, but very rewarding, experience. 

Lincoln Motorhome Show/Flamborough Head 19-26 Sep 19

We've only visited the Lincoln Motorhome Show once as day visitors many years ago so we thought we would round off the "show" season with what is marketed as the "season finale". On Thursday we completed the journey without mishap and were duly marshalled and parked up in our allocated space with the Motorhome Fun crowd in the showground. Once settled we opened the beers and relaxed. I must admit, it did have a bit of an "end of term" feel about it, albeit the weather was pretty good and we managed to sit outside in the warm sunshine. 

Friday we wandered around the show, which was actually quite good, but the only thing we bought was a case of excellent cider and, once again, some toilet fluid, which is significantly cheaper at the show than it is elsewhere. Everything else seems to be marked up for the show to cover costs. Our favourite Thai fast food stall was also present. Luvverly!

On Saturday we took the coach into Lincoln and enjoyed a bimble around this pretty city, although it was very crowded. Lunch was a pork roll and we could tell we were up north by the invitation by the stallholder to cover it in gravy. Gravy? What is that all about? In the evening we had tickets to watch the Manfreds and the Hollies and had the chance to meet Mike D'Abo. An excellent show - really enjoyed it.

Steep Hill - a steep hill

Lincoln Castle

Mike D'Abo's autograph

Sunday we mooched about after watching England's first game in the World Cup against Tonga. In the evening, some stupid prat decided that he would squeeze his mega 4x4 through the gap between us and the van next door, rubbing his wing mirrors along the van. Barefoot I chased him across the field to make him stop, nearly giving the silly old fart a heart attack when I thumped his roof with a lot of force.  Luckily there was no damage to our van, but what was disappointing was that the git had no intention of stopping or admitting that he had thumped the van. Bloody cackyvanners.

Monday it was up and off across the Humber bridge to a cheap night's stay at a Haven mobile home eyesore park at Thornwick Bay near Flamborough head. This is a strange site. A huge mass of those awful, ugly, static caravans with a sloping touring field in the far corner. The bar, shop and restaurant, however, were very nice and for a short, cheap stay it makes for an ideal spot, but we were not sure that we would want to spend too much time there. On Monday afternoon we walked along the cliffs towards Flamborough Head.

The Humber Bridge

On Tuesday the weather was appalling, so we caught the rather expensive bus into Bridlington. The seaside part is not really our cup or tea, but the old town is quite pleasant, and we had a nice lunch in the Georgian tea rooms before heading back home. We were due to continue our tour north, but had a call to go and assist with the grape harvest at Chilford Hall, so we decided to stay another night and then head home.

Bridlington Sea Front

Old Bridlington

The following day was cloudy but dry, so we walked along the cliffs to the very impressive RSPB site at Bempton cliffs, where we spent ages watching the gannets. The area does whiff a bit of guano though.

Bempton Cliffs

On Thursday it was the long drive home ready for grape picking, stopping at the Boundary Mills car park to watch the England v USA rugby game. This trip highlighted that we are due some new front tyres and the leisure batteries could do with replacing.

Cambridgeshire 11-14 Sep 19

The title of this post is Cambridgeshire, but we did tip a toe into Essex, but we wont tell anybody will we? Basically, we had a voucher for a vineyard tour at Chilford Hall Vineyard, a place we had visited previously but it is always nice to go back and see how they are getting on. The vineyard is 33 miles from home, but involves negotiating the awful A14 and we had to be there by 0945hrs, so we decided to stay the night at the Cambridge Camping and Caravanning Site. What a nice little site this is! We walked to the park and ride, took the hideously overpriced bus into Cambridge, did a couple of chores, had lunch in a pub and then caught the bus back to the site.

Cambridge C&CC site

On Thursday it was up and out early to get to Chilford Hall, parking up and then joining the excellent wine tour, lunch and tasting, supervised by a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide, Graham. We had permission to stop the night, so we then downed another bottle of their very good wine before heading back to the van for a relaxing evening and a very quiet night's kip. There is something special about drinking wine made and bottled in the premises.

We didn't want to overstay our welcome, so on Friday morning we packed up early and cleared off before that morning's tour came in, heading for Audley End House and holding at Tescos in Saffron Walden until it opened. The gate at Audley End House was not designed for big motorhomes, so we had to enter through the exit. Of course, we hadn't passed through the ticket office so we had to walk back to the entrance, pretend we were a car and sort out our authority to visit. Who'd have thought that it was possible to sneak into a Country House in a 7m x 2.2m Motorhome! We are obviously very stealthy.

Audley End House

Some of Capability's work

We had a great time wandering around the house and gardens and enjoyed a splendid lunch in the café before heading back to Cambridge Camp Site, where, on the spur of the moment, we had decided to spend another night as the weather was so good. We sat around in the warm sunshine, drank a bottle of wine, and picked some blackberries, which were growing in abundance in the hedge behind our pitch.

Blackberries

On Saturday we completed the very short journey home. We hadn't gone very far but it was a splendid, restful and interesting trip. Just goes to show - you don't have to go miles from home to have a good time