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.
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| 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.
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| Audley End House |
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| 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.
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| 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
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