We set off about 3 pm, with Paul on phone-manning duties as usual. Arrived about 4.30 – just a few last rays of light,  although we note with good cheer that the days are actually slooowly getting longer. Hurrah.

The directions to Rivermead  are quite specific and, when I phoned to book, the owner of the CS (David) was most emphatic that they should be followed to the nth degree. After our experience with “Uncle Paul’s bend” in the summer) we were more than happy to do this. The site is in the small hamlet of Weston Colley, just outside Micheldever. It has five pitches overlooking a meadow with the River Dever as the boundary. I imagine it’s a tributary of the Test as it looks very similar; clear, fast-flowing and laden with watercress.  We were advised not to attempt to eat it due to the leaching of – ahem – cow effluent. Noted!

Rivermead is a “CS”  (Certified Site – for Caravan & Camping Club members only – max 5 pitches).  It’s a lovely spot with all the things you’d expect or wish for (a posh toilet, fresh water, waste disposal (all types), lovely views and hard standings). And it has none of the things you don’t really need (if you’re us!) like a clubhouse and kids play area. Aside from the owner’s caravan, we were the only people on site tonight. Lovely.

It was pretty chilly and we got set up as quickly as we could so that we could get in the warm and snuggle down for the evening. We had dinner ready to cook and no plans to go out and were soon comfy with a cuppa. It’s amazing how quickly the van warms up, considering it’s not heated at all most of the time. We passed the evening watching the box and then retired to bed. I had put a hot-water bottle in the bed to warm it up and was glad I had. This is obviously a very peaceful location, and other than the rain on the roof, we had expectations of a quiet night. Sadly Mr Boy R. Acer ( or Hannu Mikkola, as we dubbed him) had other ideas! He did circuit after circuit – slowing down by the caravan field before accelerating noisily into the “90 left” just past the field. We lay there in the dark, waiting for him in the end – we could hear him for miles, it seemed. Luckily, he got bored and knocked it on the head by midnight! Hallelujah!

Saturday arrived – grey and rainy, as per the forecast.  Not a disaster but a bit of a shame as it would have been nice to have a walk around. As it was, we went out in the car and embarked on a tour of the small towns and villages in the area.  Snowdrops everywhere. I was reminded of the Tennyson (I think?) poem about Snowdrops, which makes me feel strangely wistful.

There are some really lovely churches in the area and we also spotted the village pump in Preston Candover. Photo opportunity!

We stopped for coffee in Whitchurch – Kudos Coffee – and very nice it was too. Archie was lucky enough to be bought one of their Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits. He seemed to like it, although it didn’t really hang around long enough to be sure! They do lots of yummy tray bakes and cakes but we managed to resist their charms.

We particularly liked the very beautiful St Mary Bourne and stopped to take this picture of fighting hares atop one of the picturesque thatches.

We finally ended up in Andover where we nipped into Waitrose for a few odds and ends. We then popped to The Range (for me) and Maplins (for Paul) and ate our (very late) lunch in the car park! Classy! My man knows how to show a girl a good time, eh?

After the nipping and popping was done, we made our way “home” and spent the remainder of the afternoon/early evening, putting together a plan for the next year or so, which involves (among other things) downsizing and a decrease in working hours for Paul. Really quite exciting stuff! As we were working, we noticed that we were going to be joined by a motor home this evening. And – when the owner popped in to bring us some eggs – he mentioned that another two mohos were also expected. Busy suddenly!

The evening passed in the usual manner – although we now have an Amazon Fire stick and can catch up on our favourite Netflix shows too. The rain seemed to be easing and it looked as if we might have a finer day on Sunday. Before dinner, we had some prawns as a starter and a while later I felt itchy all over and discovered than I had had an allergic reaction. A little consultation with Dr Google revealed that shellfish allergy is quite common and that people spend their lives quite happily eating prawns, when bang! They react. This seemed to be what had happened to me. I took some antihistamines (always have some in the First Aid box) and by bedtime my skin seemed to have settled down a little. Phew.

It was a lovely quiet night – we half-imagined that our friend with the car might show up again but not tonight,  thank goodness.  We slept until about 9 and then got up for our usual Sunday breakfast, eager to taste the free range eggs from the site. Reader, they were delicious, with huge, intensely orange yolks. Paul said that he felt that they tasted like eggs used to taste when he was a kid. We had  forgotten our trusty egg-topper – a gadget to which we had been introduced by my brother. It does just what its name suggests. It takes the tops off boiled eggs! Efficiently and neatly. Highly recommended. And, as we are avid boiled egg fans, an essential for our batterie de cuisine! I think we may need a caravan one!

It was a lovely day and David ( the owner) had mentioned that there was no hurry to leave  and we were welcome to take our time. This is one of the things we like about smaller sites like this – much more relaxed about departures, whenever they can be. As it happened, we had done everything we needed to reasonably early and we had one or two things to do at home (I have a whole week of work ahead). By coincidence,  we rolled off site on the dot of midday – the time most bigger sites require you to leave (some are even 11 am) which usually feels a bit rushed. A lovely relaxing weekend and we very much plan to return to this lovely little site.

Thursday 28th December

We’d had a day to recover and clear up from Christmas and it was time to up steadies and make our way down to the West Country for the New Year. We keep our van on the drive at home and had been sleeping in there since Christmas Eve (we had family staying) but it was still great to be getting away. We have done this for several years now and it has become part of our festive seasonal routine. I think I look forward to it as much as I look forward to Christmas, these days. Having dealt with all the left over meats by freezing them, we packed all the other goodies (Cheese mountain!) into the van and set off. We had chosen Chew Valley, one of our favourite “Tranquil Parks”  (Adult only)  sites for this year’s trip. It had been on our list of sites to visit for some while and we couldn’t wait to get there.

Traffic was not too bad and we stopped once for a comfort break for the dog and a coffee for us and arrived early afternoon, with daylight to spare. Chew Valley is at Bishop Sutton – a Somerset village, and the nearest bigger town is probably Keynsham ( spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M for those old enough to remember Horace Batchelor on Radio Luxembourg!)  and pronounced Cane-sham.  Quite interestingly, Bishop Sutton, is an ex- (as recently as 1929) coal-mining village. It has a pub, a shop and post office and even an Indian Restaurant. And of course our caravan site. It was well sign-posted and easy to find and we were soon reporting our arrival to reception.

Now for the treat! They ask you to unhitch on arrival, hook your van up to a tractor and then site and level it for you! We have never experienced this before. All you have to do is put the steadies down and hook-up electricity and services and you’re done!  You leave the car in the car park – once you’ve unpacked all you need. Then you just need to put on the heating, make a cuppa, eat a mince pie (or other delicacy in season) and relaaaaaxxx. We like! Oh and we were presented with a nicely wrapped Christmas gift (a Chocolate Orange) and another nice touch I omitted to mention was that we got an email from them just before we came saying “looking forward to seeing you”! Likewise.

And relax was just what we did for the remainder of the day. And the site looked very pretty at night – lots of Christmas lights. Many people had bedecked their vans with festive illuminations, too, as you can see below.

Friday 29th December

Well that was a Cold, Haily, Windy Night and no mistake! Actually it was just wind and heavy rain and we were snug as, but I’ve always liked the song (Steeleye Span – Please to see the King  -Track 2). Even with ear plugs in I could hear the rain! We had a slow morning but eventually headed out to suss out the lie of the land and to replenish our victuals (no cheese required!).

Our first destination was Chew Magna – a very pleasant little village that actually seems to have a thriving heart. The Chew, by the way, refers to the River that runs through the valley, and Chew Magna is/was the most important of several similarly named villages in the area. The Chew is a tributary of the Avon.

As we were driving to our next destination, we encountered an usual sight. A pair of (I think?) Rheas, in a field. They are a long way from home (South America). They were quite friendly and very inquisitive.

We passed through Compton Dando (nice name!) and thence to Keynsham, where we visited the Waitrose to pick up some fresh stuff and grab a coffee. Our tour then took us on the Bath road, and we decide to have a late lunch at The Blathwayt Arms, a nice-looking, dog-friendly pub overlooking the race-course.  We shared a baked Camembert (cheese again!), which was delicious.

Thus refreshed, we made our way home, via Bath, to our cosy van for a snooze. We stopped for a quick look (the light was fading) at the Canal leading down to the centre of Bath. Some happy memories of these locks.

Saturday 30th December

Well that was a Cold, Haily, Windy Night and no mistake! Are you seeing a pattern here? I didn’t get a great deal of sleep as the caravan was battered by the wind and there were a couple of gusts which made my heart beat faster. It truly felt like we left the ground, briefly! Luckily we survived with no harm done but I felt pretty groggy!

It was a grey and blustery day, with a louring and sullen sky as we set out, late morning. No cycling today. We popped in to Chew Valley Lake, which is very near the site. The Lake is actually a reservoir (opened in 1956) which supplies Bristol with its drinking water. Unlike other lakes we have visited, there is no provision for an off-road cycling (or walking) circumnavigation, which seems a shame. Lots of dog-walkers though, on the trails that are there.  Bristol Water don’t seem too encouraging of such an idea, judging by this article, although there is progress towards one. Anyway – as I already said, it was not a cycling day as it looked like it would pour down at any minute, so not an issue.

We thought we’d go on to have a look at another local lake –  Blagdon Lake. This, too, is  reservoir, again owned by Bristol Water. From my reading, it seems to be a a bit of a mecca for fisherman.  There is a visitor centre – Blagdon Pumping Station and Visitor Centre – but this is sadly not open at the moment due to “works” (according to Bristol Water)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoncliff_Aqueduct. This is a shame, because it looked pretty interesting and has a couple of old steam-driven beam engines.

Hunger reared its ugly head and we dropped in on the Plume of Feathers in nearby Rickford for a bowl of soup. The Soup du Jour was Mushroom and Anchovy. Yes. Reader it was not pleasant.  I note that their website could do with an overhaul, as the Christmas Menu for 2013 appears in the news section! It has a pretty location by a stream,though,  and I imagine it’s pretty popular in summer. I saw an advert for a Mole Catcher in the local magazine, which amused me. You don’t see that very often in our neck of the woods!

We noticed a very interesting building on the way in to the village by a pond, and stopped to take a couple of photos. It transpires the pond is Rickford Pond, and the “interesting building” is a former Baptist Chapel – now a Masonic Lodge.

We realised we needed to buy some more dog food as we had used the last the night before. We decided  to go to Cheddar to make the purchase as it gave us an opportunity to see – once again cos we love it – Cheddar Gorge.

Sunday 31st December

Well that was a Cold, Haily, Windy Night and no mistake!  Again. The rain was particularly heavy – almost monsoon-like. Not that I have ever experienced a monsoon but it was how I imagine it would be!

We had a bit of lie-in as we had had such a(nother) disturbed night and actually did not go out until  about 2 pm. The weather was, again, not up to much. Still not cycling weather and we were starting to wonder why we had bothered to bring them!

Because the weather was so rubbish, Paul devised one of his “misery” tours. We passed a most beautiful country house. Sadly it was closed but it was Iford Manor, which holds a Jazz festival in the summer. It was a nice photo opportunity.

We also passed through Freshford, which is the most beautiful village imaginable. All beautiful houses in honey stone and quintessentially English. Interestingly, the village featured in and filming took place here, for famous Ealing comedy.   “The Titfield Thunderbolt“. Also noteworthy is that this film was the first Ealing comedy to be filmed in Technicolour.

Our route took us through Bradford on Avon and thence to Bath, very pretty at night (for it was now dark) and a good re-fuelling location.  We arrived home and settled down for the evening, hoping that fireworks would not be too big an issue – although Archie’s hearing seems to be less acute than it was. Certainly the firework season, which has hitherto been pretty traumatic for him, passed reasonably peacefully this year. We did hear them nearby but Archie didn’t turn a hair, which was a relief.

Mon 1st Jan 2018

Happy New Year – and a peaceful night all round! And the forecast was good too. A cycling day, at last. We had stumbled across a cycle path, based on an old railway line, that runs from Bristol to Bath, which has a well-designed, interactive website. The path is tarmaced throughout (so hopefully wouldn’t be a mud-bath after all the recent rain). Our nearest point of access was Saltford, so we made our way there and set off. As is often the case, the path is near the canal and we got some lovely views as we cycled along. Not many boats on the move though, maybe because it was NYD?

The cycle path is a tremendous resource and very well used – walkers, cyclists, runners, dog-walkers, families. It’s really good to see. The surface is good too – a few puddles, but no mud. Excellent! It’s about 8km from Saltford to Bath city centre and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride, passing a few locks, a beautiful bridge and then – sadly – the cycle path was closed – less than half a kilometer from the town centre, due to high river levels. Annoying! The rest of the way was on roads, so we decided to give it a miss. We sat and had a drink and then commenced the return journey.

We eventually arrived back at the car park. We’d had a great ride, Archie had had a great run and we had also worked up an appetite for a late lunch. There is a pub (The Bird in Hand) right by the access point to the track, but I had seen a signpost earlier, to a canal-side pub and we decided to make for that. This was the Jolly Sailor which has a prime position right by Saltford Lock.  Bet it’s heaving with gongoozlers in the summer. The pub doesn’t have a website, but it does have a Facebook page, so I’ve included a link for those who use it. It was a nice meal – nothing special, but a bit pricey, I thought. Before we left, we took a few photos of the lock. The water was very high indeed – almost over the top of the lock moorings. It made us look forward to a time when we’d return here by boat, hopefully.

We made our way back to the van to do some packing. Paul was working on the 2nd, so we had an early start to get back in time for that. On the way back to the van, we called in at Avoncliff aqueduct, where we had been by boat earlier in the year with our great friends Sue and Paul Rogers. More happy memories and it was interesting to see it from another angle.

It was probably the wettest, windiest New Year break we have ever had and the weather prevented us doing as much as we might otherwise have done. But that didn’t stop us enjoying it at all. It was actually a nice opportunity to relax and read, eat cheese, make more memories and just be. Chew Valley is a lovely site with great facilities. Well worth all the positive reviews and we’ll definitely head back one day. We currently have no plans yet for 2018 but that will be rectified shortly, no doubt.

Friday

The Old Oaks is one of our favourite campsites – we initially visited back in December 2009, for our first annual “Wrapping Weekend”, where we take all the presents we have bought, wrapping paper, tags and trimmings; and bottle of Baileys to a campsite and have a lovely weekend, wrapping the presents on the Saturday evening, quaffing Baileys and making fun out of a bit of a chore. This was back when the Old Oaks stayed open all year. It closes now – after the carnival until March. And it has just won Campsite of the Year, I believe? Well deserved.

Anyway. Paul had been away at the annual Marine Electronic Trade Show (METS) in Amsterdam and flew back on Friday morning. I picked him up from the airport and then we came home, loaded up and set off at about 1.30 pm for Glastonbury.

We had lunch on the journey and had very few hold-ups, arriving just before sunset. We  quickly set up on our fully serviced pitch and were soon sat down, cosy and warm with a cuppa in hand. We had a quiet evening, reading and playing cards, after I had made and Paul had cooked Pizzas – from scratch – on our Cadac. They were delicious – ham, mushroom and gorgonzola, topped with grated mozzarella. Yum!

We were both tired and so retired to bed by 10 ish.

Saturday

After a lovely quiet night (owls!) we awoke refreshed and raring to go. We had a cooked brekker – again courtesy of the Cadac. I love the fact that you can cook outside with no stink/grease in the van! After a couple of coffees and a relax, we set off for a look round Wells. We have been before but it’s such a lovely place and with Market Day on Saturday mornings, it’s worth another visit.

We started with a coffee in a very pleasant little cafe – but not before I’d bought a couple of Christmas presents in a cute shop – Saint & Gray (lovely scarves and bags – must …resist…..). I had hardly walked a dozen steps from the car park before I’d made that first purchase! And then straight into another, well-stocked fabric and haberdashery shop for some lovely Christmassy fat quarters (in tasteful shades of grey ) to make myself a Christmas rag wreath. I was really motoring on the shopping front!!

After coffee we strolled up the High Street and round the market square. Loads of lovely smells. One fruit and veg stall looked particularly good, and was selling lots of really traditional old apples and pears. Paul said they looked a bit manky – he’s too used to perfect, waxed and polished supermarket apples. These looked like proper, unsanitised apples to me. And they had romantic names – like Egremont Russet,  D’Arcy Spice and Laxton’s Fortune. They smelt quite wonderful and reminded me of my childhood. Not a watery, tasteless Golden Delicious to be seen in those days.

We had a quick look at the famous bell-ringing swans (it’s true –check it out!)  and the at the Bishop’s Palace and then bought some delicious looking pasties for our lunch and made our way back to the van. We were being picked up by coach to go to Glastonbury for the Carnival, later in the afternoon. We had a comfy (snoozy!) afternoon and then got ready to go. Half way through the afternoon, Paul suggested we stayed another night (they had a special offer on) and I jumped at the chance.  He went and paid and it was settled. I love an impromptu decision!

The pick up was at 4.30 and rain was forecast. Boo! The coach deposited us right in the town centre (before all the roads closed in preparation for the procession) and we were left with a couple of hours to fill, before the pre-procession started at 6.30. We had a wander round and finally settled in a cafe – beers for Paul and coffees for me. The rain had started. And so it continued throughout the entire evening.

We found our viewpoint and settled in for a long wait. We had taken the opportunity to book tickets for a buffet in the Abbey Tea Rooms, which we could use as a base for the evening. But we could not go there until 8 pm, so we had a couple of hours of standing in the deluge. Luckily we had brollies, good rain-wear and walking boots, so it could have been worse! We had also thought to bring the backpack we use for Archie when we go road cycling. So we tucked him in there. Not sure he was very keen but we kept the rain off him with one of the brollies. Spirits among the crowd were high, despite the weather and this helped to make the wait more bearable.

The procession was awesome – in the very truest sense of the word. The work that goes into building the floats is unbelievable – as you can see in the pictures. And they are full of people, doing choreographed routines. Those people worked so hard! You would never have known they had done it all the night before in the neighbouring town of Wells! They must have been soaked and frozen to the bone, but they performed with gusto. Respect to them. They were amazing.

The West Country is famous for its carnivals and some (e.g. Bridgwater ) date all the way back to the 17th Century. They are actually related to the Gunpowder Plot/Guy Fawkes, but today are more about raising money for charity. Information about the circuits can be found here.

About 8.15 we made our way across to the Tea Rooms. It was packed out. I guess the impact of the bad weather was that everyone wanted to get in out of the cold and rain. There wasn’t a seat to be had. Very disappointing The buffet was plentiful and the hot drink was welcome though – even though we had to juggle with plates, cups, brollies and dog.

The procession takes about 3 hours to go through and we eventually made our way back to the coach at about 10:15. We hung up all our wet stuff and fell in to bed. What an amazing evening. So impressive. I’d thoroughly recommend a visit. We will definitely return.

Sunday

We woke up quite late –  to sunshine. Typical. But we had an extra day. How lovely. We agreed that we would buy food from a supermarket for our unplanned supper tonight, rather than go out to eat and would thus factor that in to the end of our day.

It was a beautiful day and, after a very late breakfast, we set off. Our first port of call was Street – home to the Clarke’s Shopping Village. With Christmas in mind, I thought it might be worth a visit. It’s also dog friendly – they claim that 90% of the shops are, which is good news. Sadly it was absolutely heaving (what did I expect??) and we decided to give it a miss after all. We saw some lovely views on our way there, though.

We had spotted a monument on the hills, and a little research showed that it was dedicated to famous seaman, one Vice Admiral Samuel Hood – after whom the famous WW2 battleship HMS Hood was named. We set off to have a look for it and finally found it. It’s an impressive edifice and has quite an interesting history. We were glad we had made the effort to take a look.

Our next hour or so was spent exploring the Somerset Levels – which became quite famous after the floods in the winter of 2013/14. We were hoping to see (although not really expecting to) some Cranes, which are slowly being reintroduced to the UK after being hunted to extinction a few hundred years ago, What a sight that would be. Perhaps another day. We did see many birds of prey – largely red Kites –  but beautiful to see, nonetheless.

We made our way back to Glastonbury and bought our provisions for our supper and then repaired to the van, which was looking lovely in the sunshine. We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing and chatting through a project of which more news in a future post. We’d had a lovely weekend with a bonus day and are now looking forward to our next trip away – maybe a wrapping weekend ?  – although December is already looking busy. So unless we can squeeze one in, our next trip may well be after Christmas for our traditional New Year break. We are off to Chew Valley, near Bath this year. Bring it on!