Wednesday 18th – Sunday 22nd August

We haven’t been away in the motorhome since our trip to the Lake District in June so we’re off on a hastily arranged jaunt to Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire. We’ve been a couple of times before …….. it doesn’t look that far on the map but, oh the roads!!

Wednesday 18th August

We set off from the storage at 11.00 am (Husband in my car with the bikes attached and me in the motorhome) ……. just a quick 4.5 hours later we arrived at the site in Sutton-on-Sea! We did have a pitstop at the A1M Peterborough services but then the route through Peterborough, around Spalding, right through the centre of Boston and then on the wiggly roads over the Lincolnshire Wolds (very pretty) was technical and loooonnnng!

During the drive my mobile had rung but I’d ignored it as it was an unknown number. The reason for the call became apparent when we arrived at the Caravan & Motorhome Club Site in Sutton-on-Sea https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-sites/england/east-midlands/lincolnshire/sutton-on-sea-caravan-club-site/. As I pulled to the barrier my phone rang again; it was the warden who had seen us arrive. Apparently all four wardens had tested positive for COVID-19 that morning and were isolating in their caravans/office building. Amazingly, they were still managing to operate the site by telephone. Many thanks to them for doing that!

Two wardens from a site 65 miles away are going to travel each day to clean the facilities block, empty waste and anything else necessary just to keep things ticking over. I’m guessing the site is closed to new bookings to keep the numbers reasonable as very few units arrived over the following few days.

Mileage – 122 miles

Thursday 19th August

By the time I woke up, Husband had been for a several mile stroll. Our plan this morning is a bike ride! It’s a short ride to the seafront where there is a promenade on which you are allowed to cycle. Destination : Mablethorpe!

We stopped for Elevenses and a mooch in Sutton-on-Sea. There are some nice little shops and an excellent hardware store, but it’s tricky to find a café that suits me from an astethic and Covid point of view! Eventually, we found the Ice Rock Café https://www.icerockcafe.co.uk which served great coffee and lovely Pastéis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts) – yum!

Then back to the promenade to cycle into Mablethorpe. We knew we’d reached the centre of town when the blaring music and sound of amusements blasted our ears. OK, I did stop at the traffic lights because the law says I had to, but as soon as the lights changed to green, I pedalled solidly until we had reached the other side of Mablethorpe – oh my goodness and yuk!!

Luckily we found a nice beach café on the clifftop for lunch – Seaview Café https://www.facebook.com/SeaviewCafeMablethorpe/ and both gorged on a hot dog roll.

On the journey back one had to keep one’s mouth firmly shut as there were a lot of flies – eeeek!!

Dinner outside this evening under the motorhome canopy with my new ‘outdoor’ lights which can, obviously, stay outside each evening!

Friday 19th August

Husband out for another early morning walk. There had been a scarecrow competition locally. Checkout this parachuting scarecrow who landed on the roof of The Fat Seagull deli/café.

Today a road trip, first to Alford, a pretty market village.

And then on to the National Trust’s Tattershall Castle https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/tattershall-castle which we’d never heard of before. What an unusual and interesting place – downside – no NT café!

You can climb to each floor of the castle and even on to the battlements from where you can see Boston Stump in the far distance. Lovely staff helping / advising and dressed up in costume too.

We must go back one day and visit the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Museum at RAF Coningsby just nearby https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/bbmf

Saturday 20th August

Today a road trip to Louth – a lovely and thriving market town. A place you could spend a pleasant weekend in and around. Luckily we hit on market day so plenty of mooching around the narrow lanes. Probably the most people we’ve seen in one place for a while, but still comfortable to walk around.

We lucked out at lunch time – we had passed a Spanish tapas restuarant but, of course, hadn’t booked. However we were welcomed in to a recently vacated table and the feast began. Bar Castilléjar https://www.barcastillejar.co.uk has lovely people and really delicious food. A definite must for any visit to Louth.

Sunday 21st August

Rain overnight and a grey day so we set off in the car to a beach café that I’d found which had great reviews. We were not disappointed. The Anderby Beach Café https://www.anderbybeachcafe.co.uk provided a superb jacket potato lunch in a beach-themed wooden building. In the garden were tables inside pretty beach huts which you could book for your special event. Lovely staff and the icing on the cake was a pair of scissors in the condiments’ pot so that you could cut your ketchup / mustard / mayo packet instead of fighting with the packaging – how sensible – yay!

A farewell to the enormous Lincolnshire beaches – we’ve decided to make for home this afternoon rather than in the morning.

Mileage – 119 miles

Total trip mileage – 241