Home sweet home.....

As people are still looking at the blog I felt I should put an entry on for you.

Well, we have been home for 3 weeks now and we are just starting to get used to the mansion we are living in. Everything was just as we left it and the house and garden had been well looked after by neighbours and friends… thanks guys. The house just seems huge now but I do have to say miss my little caravan. There is something nice about being able to hitch it up to the car and move on to the next adventure whenever you want.

The weather last week was just gorgeous so we pretended we were still away and had a few days out in the sun. We had a day at Scarborough and a lovely walk at Cayton Bay complete with fish and chips and ice cream of course. We went to Fountains Abbey for a picnic last Saturday… can’t believe it was 30 degrees this time last week and now it’s freezing.

Andy the Landy had a special treat yesterday and spent the morning in the local spa (garage) having a full service. He has worked very hard and it would be a shame to get rid of him now – not sure John would agree with me there though.

I can’t believe it but I have got a job already and start on Monday!!! I thought it would take longer than this but I am not complaining, it will be nice to get back to reality for a while. John is going to be my house slave… looking forward to thatJ

Anyway must go now as I have lots of mundane things to do like shopping, cleaning, cooking.... oh reality.... it's not good.

Elvis has left the building…. Thank you very much!

Stratford-upon-Avon was the final official stop on our tour (we are not counting the extra one we added on to catch up with Lisa, Ant, Dusty and Jean). I promised John that he could have a chill out week after racing around the country for the last 5 months and I do have to say I quite enjoyed the rest too.

Our site was just a mile from Stratford’s centre so we could walk, cycle or get the river boat in for a wander round… and we did all 3 just because we could. I had my hair cut by a professional rather than by John with the kitchen scissors, which was quite exciting!!!

The walk in was great as we were on “Millionaire’s mile” and the houses were just amazing so we spent the week dreaming about winning the lottery and picked our favourites.

At the weekend we went to the Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre for their “Fakespeare” night of comedy. We were a bit nervous as we were sat right by the stage and prime targets for being ridiculed. There were 3 comedians on including Russell Kane and they were all hilarious, we have not laughed that much since the hurricane blew next doors awning away.

From Stratford-upon-Avon, we headed north again to Howden for our final weekend and met up with Dusty and Jean who saw us set off on our trip from Seahouses and our safe return.

We headed off to Bridlington with Ant and Lisa for chips, ice cream and a super fast speedboat ride… then it was back to the pub for an Elvis tribute night… it was very good of him to come for our last night.

Andy completed the trip clocking up 6,638 miles with a highly commendable average mpg of 34.73 and although he didn’t require any help from the AA, he has developed a few unique Landrover style “coughs and splutters”.

Rock and roll in Stonehenge…

We had a short stop at a campsite just down the road from Stonehenge. On the drive down the road we were both amazed by the stone circle on the horizon. Our National Trust membership was put to good use again with free entrance. Unfortunately there were rather a lot of tourists on coach trips and we kept being barged out of the way by those pesky Japanese zoom lenses!

We took a trip up to the Avebury Stone circle, West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill and then headed back to Stonehenge for a second viewing! And a few more photos!

Benny is still enjoying his adventure but unfortunately, Andy the Landy is feeling really tried now after covering over 6,000 miles on the trip and is looking forward to a well deserved rest!

Next stop... Stratford-Upon-Avon

Gran Turismo in Dorset…

We have managed to tick everything off Sarah’s list of activities for Dorset and even managed a bonus day relaxing on the beach.

For my birthday, we raced off for a site seeing day, which included Durdle door, Lulworth Cove, Corfe Castle and Blue Pool. I must admit that if I had to choose a favourite place it would be Durdle Door, which looked exactly the same as the photos in all the tourist guides and did not fail to impress… Wow!. The day was rounded off in a local curry house and followed by a few beers in the site bar.

 

                       

We had a spare day on Saturday and thought we could visit the local brewery, unfortunately it was closed so we really couldn’t organise a brewery trip! So instead we held a horse racing day in our caravan where we placed our bets online and cheered them along on the TV… (we made 84p profit)… don’t think we will make a career out of it.

We have added several hundred more photos and no doubt there will be a few more photo opportunities at our next stop… Stonehenge

Answers on a postcard...

No prizes for guessing where we have been today!

Head over heals in Dorset…

We have only been in Dorset 2 days and already we have visited Abbotsbury, climbed Golden Cap, walked Charmouth and Chesil beaches, seen the Cerne Giant and experienced Zorbing!!! if John thought he was going to rest this week he is in for a shock.

Hydro Zorbing was hilarious, a cross between a waterslide, a roller coaster and a washing machine!… 

Recipe: Throw 2 adults into a giant inflatable hamster ball, add 20 litres of water (preferably warm) close the zip and roll down the biggest hill available…repeat until giggling stops… good clean fun!

Chesil beach was very nice to look at but not so easy to walk on as it was shingle and a bit of a challenge, I am glad we did not do the full 18 miles.










Charmouth beach however, was a sandy one and much better for walking and very entertaining watching the hundreds of “fossil foragers” with their hammers and safety goggles on, systematically hacking the beach apart in the vein hope that they would be the one to find the next dinosaur fossil to be worth millions.





As for the Cerne Giant or Rude Man as he is known locally, he was rather disappointing and looked like he could do with a lick of paint, as he did not stand out as well as he could have in the photographs!

I wonder where we will go next? maybe Monkey World?...

Phew...

We are glad to report that with the help of our friendly caravan site owner and his tractor, we managed to get off a rather hilly pitch in Brixham and then over to "Andy the Landy" who got us up and over the hills to our new site at Bridport and is now looking forward to a very well deserved rest!

Could be a long walk to Monkey World though!