Friday 28th May – Tuesday 8th June

Friday 28th May

This holiday was due to happen over Easter but, yes, you’ve guessed it, due to Covid-19 we had to delay. Husband and I are setting off in the motorhome today, only 9 days after my ‘op’, with a stopover at Burnham-on-Sea. My brother (JW) and Elaine will come down with the caravan in one go on Sunday.

Well that was a journey; we were in jams on the M25 and M4/M5 – it took 7 hours to reach Burnham-on-Sea – 195 miles. Nightmare! Husband is driving as I’m not allowed to drive for 4 weeks after my ‘op’ and probably, the motorhome isn’t a good place to start!! This also means we can’t take his car along, as we have been doing during Covid, to give us some extra flexibility.

The Caravan & Motorhome Club site at Burnham-on-Sea https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/southern-england/somerset/hurn-lane-caravan-club-site/ is good for an overnight stop and perfectly nice once inside, but it is surrounded by static sites. To be fair we didn’t explore further than the local fish and chip shop but, from what I saw, not my favourite place!

Mileage – Storage to Burnham-on-Sea = 195 miles

Saturday 29th May

With an early start, the second part of the journey was much better and included a glorious crossing of the Tamar (road) Bridge with glimpses of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s famous Royal Albert Bridge for rail next door, with the Tamar beneath.

On arrival at the site we hauled out the bright yellow, snakey, stretchy hose pipe to fill up with fresh water. It looks harmless I know, but for some reason, as the water filled it up it exploded / ripped apart and sprayed a lot of water over us both!! Good job I carry a spare hosepipe!

Mileage – Burnham-on-Sea to Looe = 156

Sunday 30th May

Husband took a walk down (and I mean down) into Looe and back up while I organised/chilled at the motorhome.

In the meantime, JW & Elaine set off early from home en route for Cornwall when, about an hour from the site, the Freelander broke down. The AA were called and it’s all a worry as to whether they can get going or whether they’ll need ‘relaying’ to somewhere. Home or here?! Eventually, ‘Chris’ the AA man, creates a fix to block the computer from telling the car it can’t go and they are able to set off again – phew!!

We are catering a BBQ dinner for all this evening (well Husband is). The steaks are on the BBQ when it simply stops working. We can’t seem to fix the BBQ so, for speed, we transfer the meat to the hob in the motorhome. The hob stops working too. Aha! I remember we switched off one gas tank for reasons too complicated to explain, we’ll just turn on the second gas tank! Turns out that guage in the photo means ‘totally empty’, not ‘totally full’! Since I’ve had the system converted to LPG for long trips to Europe, you can’t just pop and get a replacement gas tank, you have to plan ahead and go to a fuel station which supplies LPG. So, ……we move all the food, drinks, chairs etc. to the caravan and cook everything there!

Monday 31st May

We are alternating between days together and days apart. Today is a ‘together’ day and JW drives us into Looe. There is lots of parking but it’s quite a stroll from the small, busy town centre. We find a nice latte spot on the seafront and then divide for a mooch around the town.

Husband and I found a perfect place for a light lunch on the other side of the East Looe River – Tasty Corner Café (no website) – and JW & Elaine made the trip over on the ferry.

The LPG gas in the motorhome supplies the heating, hot water, hob, grill and oven. We can, and do, run the first two on electric, however, the hob, grill and oven only work on gas. In Europe, finding a fuel station which supplies LPG is simple; in the UK not so much! After a couple of false starts we were lucky to find a garage at Saltash – only a 24 mile round trip.

Back to the site and time to enjoy the wonderful afternoon teas gifted to us by Louise, my brother’s work partner. Delicious!!

Mileage – Looe site to BP at Saltash and return = 24 miles

Tuesday 1st June

This is an ‘apart’ day – I have no idea what we actually did, but I guess we must’ve just chilled out at the site!

JW and Elaine on BBQ this evening – lovely job.

Wednesday 2nd June

Day out together – a trip into Looe for elevenses – lovely little café – https://daisyscafelooe.com – great coffee.

After a stroll around town we moved on to the main event – lunch out at The Talland Bay Hotel – https://www.tallandbayhotel.co.uk A lovely welcome and prosecco on the terrace overlooking the garden and its many sculptures, the most lovely of which is a wired fairy. Also, as you can see, Husband met a friend!! We then had the most fabulous meal inside the hotel. The interior is very quirky – defintely worth a look at the website and a visit if you’re in the area.

Thursday 3rd June

Today we moved pitches first thing – the family next to us had two kids who were a little noisy but just having a good time on their half-term holiday. However, their father calling after them in a ghastly, booming, repetitive and ineffective voice has driven us to move!! New pitch – only a small view but very peaceful.

After the move, we took a taxi to the station and caught the train, along the East Looe River, into Liskeard and then out again to Plymouth, crossing the, previously seen, Royal Albert Bridge.

We had hoped to go to The Box gallery in Plymouth https://www.theboxplymouth.com but, as we hadn’t booked, we were (very nicely) turned away. It looks very interesting so definitely on the list for another time.

We walked through the city centre, down to The Hoe and had a jacket potato lunch overlooking the harbour – a stunning day.

A bit of an emotional drama trying to get back to the station in time for the – once every two hours – train. I’m not yet match fit, there was a very, very big hill, taxis were either busy or closed (Google saying a lot of them were ‘permanently closed’ – Covid I expect) and a no-show bus. Eventually, Husband found a route around the bottom of the hill to reach the city centre and we happened on a taxi with a lovely driver for the last half a mile; just made the train by about 4 minutes.

Friday 4th June

Our last day together today so we set off for Seaton Beach – a really lovely spot with The River Seaton flowing out to sea making a sea beach and a river beach and lots of fun for children floating along on all sorts of blow-ups. The sand is dark in colour and gravelly but, nevertheless, a lovely spot with rockpools too. After elevenses we strolled a little way along the coast path.

From Seaton we drove along the cliff road as far as The View Restaurant https://www.theview-restaurant.co.uk – full today but definitely a place to go back to sometime for fab looking seafood. We then turned inland and returned via a lunch stop at the Tredinnick Farm Shop.

Our turn to supply dinner this evening – as you can see, we made an all out effort on the dessert!

Saturday 5th June

We have decided to stay an extra night to avoid the Saturday half-term traffic, but JW & Elaine left early this morning with a much easier journey home.

It rained most of the day so we spent some time on motorhome clean up and just chilled. We did stroll to the shop in the next door campsite and I’m sure we must’ve done something else but I can’t bring anything to mind at the time of writing!

Sunday 6th June

Today we moved from Looe to Cirencester. It was raining; we should have put the table and whirly away before we went to bed!

On the way to Cirencester we stopped at NT Dyrham Park https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dyrham-park Good parking for the motorhome. Long walk downhill to the house and gardens; the gardens were OK, but small. Probably no need to visit again!

We found a very nice pitch at the Caravan & Motorhome Club Cirencester site – https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/cotswolds/gloucestershire/cirencester-park-caravan-club-site/ and a little sunshine to dry out all our wet stuff!

Drinks for two in the late evening sunshine – how lovely!!

And then ooops …… RED WINE SPILL, RED WINE SPILL, RED WINE SPILL!!!! ….. Husband flicked a full glass of red wine – it went simply everywhere – the table, the tablecloth, the candleholder, the iPhone, his glasses, the small table, the groundsheet and, the next day, we even found it on the motorhome wheel arch!! It has taken several goes to clean up!

Mileage – Looe to Cirencester via Dyrham Park = 108 miles

Monday 7th June

You can walk directly from the site into Cirencester, either near a road or through the beauitful parkland of the Bathurst Estate. We took the latter route. After a coffee, we visited Waitrose for a few bits and then Husband walked back; I waited 25 minutes for a taxi with the bags! Very apologetic etc. but it was a looooonnng wait.

This evening we had dinner at C&N’s – sadly no photographic evidence was made to illustrate the evening. As always, lovely food and lovely company. We held a Tea Vanners Planning meeting over Zoom with L&J; details of that inaugural trip to follow soon!

An on-time taxi back to the site https://www.homejamestaxi.co.uk. After the gentle walk through the site to the motorhome, Husband realised he didn’t have his phone …….. a quick call to C and she remembers pointing it out to him on the way out of the door so, process of elimination, it’s in the taxi! C kindly rang the taxi company, they had already found it and were bringing it back to the site. Very kind and deserving of a second tip!

Tuesday 8th June

Today it was just a pack and go effort; thank goodness everything is now dry!

Mileage – Cirencester to Storage = 145 miles

Total trip mileage – 680 miles