Thursday 29 July 2010

Wales is beautiful



Wed 28th

Mid Wales is stunning and to be honest I had a better day just driving through the beauty of the valleys with their rivers tumbling over steps causing mini waterfalls following the road, (or is it the other way round?) than the Brecons. Don’t shout if you are a mountain lover as I am one myself, but I chose the delightful Elan Valley as a way of passing a period of time, and a not unsubstantial amount of fuel. A series of connected reservoirs make up the valley that once housed villages. Not unusual I hear a cry, but this was to allow Birmingham to have water. The Welsh who did not need a reason to hate the English, found one right there. As I drove alongside the depleted water levels I could empathise. At one point all that could be seen was the original small river slowly making it’s way to the deeper channel. Turn off the taps and renew the leaking washers Birmingham!

The winding roads are in places steep and first gear nearly let me down on a tight switchback. I got to grip with tarmac just as the clutch started to get warm…phew. I had to do a rethink about my complacent daydreaming of skiing in the Alps next spring. Must Google snowchains as I definitely need them if after my trip to the snowdome is successful and the old knee holds up, I can plan in a ski on real snow.

Visiting Devil’s Bridge was a must. I had always read about it in bike mags as a good day out so I couldn’t drive past without a visit. £3.50 to negotiate 600 steps that are scarily steep on the way down is small price to pay for the fabulous sight of the many falls with massive tree trunks stuck on the way down. A lot of water passed by that day to move them, that’s for sure. My symbiotic pooch summed up how our ham strings felt after coming back up by promptly falling asleep and not moving for the most of the rest of the day.

So onto Machynlleth (Ma-hun-thlith) where the Centre for Alternative Technology resides. I think it might make a jolly day out. But, I find myself far further along the road that the projected two miles that the guy in the ‘ti’ told me, and not particularly cycleable as the road is fast and busy. I checked out the brochure and it doesn’t look particularly Fin friendly either. A rethink.

Onto another field with an attractive river alongside. I am paying about £4 a night for these sights, which isn’t bad, all things considered. I go to bed early as I feel exhausted.

Thur 29th

I awoke with a start at 0930- 0930!..., with my phone ringing. It was lovely as it was Ebony who is in South Africa, post world cup. She is about to fly to Durban as part of a five week holiday. The women in my family are adventurers. My Mum motivates me as at the age of late 60 something did a round trip to the states to pick up a 96 year old relative and took him to New Zealand, dropped him off and then went on to Australia. She was unsure of doing it initially, but with a gentle bullying session from me she did it. I basically told her she had to do it as I need something to aspire to and, well, here I am!

I have decided to have a down day and realize that being spontaneous on your own is hard work and time consuming. To decide where to go takes about an hour a day of research and planning. The Hobby is a big ol’ unit and I need to think about where I am going and what car parks I’m going to go in as most tourist car parks accommodate something the size of a fiat siecento. Reversing back into the car park at Devils Bridge to be able to negotiate the turn to get out of it was not funny. Many thanks to the bus driver who held the road open by waiting for me, as he probably knows only too well how difficult it is. I am getting to be a dab hand at negotiating small spaces though. It’s a learning curve.

So today is about summing up so far and while I wait for the butternut squash to soften into soup potential in a pan, I shall tell you what I have learned along this part of the way.

Buying this motorhome is my absolute dream come true and I love my ‘adult wendy house’. I had to plan carefully what I was to put in it and what to leave out. I have wanted to travel without agenda for so many years I still feel a little surreal doing it. I realize that for the first few weeks it is going to feel weird and lots of things that I have brought along cannot be used yet, but in a few weeks time I am seriously oop North and will need that extra fleece blanket I move from the bed to the sofa to the chair. Also, were I to do this with company I would probably spend more time outdoors in the evening, instead of sitting researching and writing. However, that is the point of this I suppose. As I write that I can see in my mind that when I get to the coast I may feel differently. It's something about the hemmed in feeling I get when I am surrounded by mountains.

I pause for amazing soup, and a nutty roll. See, this is the benefit of this vehicle, it can do everything I want it to do, shower not-with-standing, except wake me up with a cup of Earl Grey.

Today’s top tip. When you enter a field and assess the level with the naked eye, drive up to it and check it out from various angles with your triangular dual spirit level to see where the corners need lifting. Get the most even spot and if you have to use your chocks make sure you have not rolled across a fresh cow pat and coated your wheels. Plastic chocks tend to slip straight off again with a huge bumpety slide to the side, that is if you can even reverse up them to start with. When you get to the gate of a farm, stop and listen with the window down. The animal noises might give a hint to what kind of scat might await. I cannot imagine how a cow even got into this bit as barbed wire fence is everywhere, but bit’s of it founds it’s way onto my tyres…Su’s world!!

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Castles and Kingdoms



Sunday 25th July

I cannot get the water to heat and I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I text the previous owners but they are not interested as they didn’t text back. I will have to find a caravan repair shop in Wales and get it looked at or my dreams of wild camping are stuffed. Either that or become a grubby and stink…..ick!! Saying that I did manage to wash my hair over a sink today….well couldn’t let Pete see me a mess…. a girl has standards you know.

Pete and his mate Marcus arrived in the morning and it was lovely to finally make friends in the flesh with my phone-pal. We spent many hours chatting by phone after being introduced by Steve and I’m just so glad Pete is as fab as I imagined, although I had him older and darker in my head! Funny how you get an impression of folks over the phone. Apparently he read the blog and stated that I sound tired due to the spelling mistakes. So for the record, whenever there are blatant spelling errors from now on, assume I’m deeply tired (thanks Pete).

After we drank freshly ground strong coffee and talked macho biker conversation, something I haven’t done in a few years and had forgotten I loved (passionate male energy), the lads left and there didn’t seem much point staying, I tried to pay and leave but there was no-one around, so I left voicemail to send a cheque and drove away. I wonder how often people lose money this way. As I am a decent sort I will post it to them, but it does seems a bit lacksidaisical. How do you spell that?

So off to Caerphilly, to Jess’s pub and a beautiful castle. I am in the quiet room inside as Jess feels it will be better than the car park. I am inclined to agree as it's dreadful and on a busy roundabout, but only after the pub shuts. I’m old enough and love quiet, early nights and easy mornings. I admire Jess though as this is a bit of a Coach Carter situation. The locals are a tough lot.

Tomorrow the castle… I can’t wait…..

Monday 26th

God, I am definitely too old and too sensitive to sleep on a mattress on the floor in a so called quiet room. Two in the morning the noise abated enough for me to enter deep sleep so consequently I am pooped. However that being said, I’m excited about the castle. Last night I sat in the bar with Fin on my lap and wondered when I could politely leave. Fin sat for a few hours being his most attractive lovely self and wagging his tail at everyone who passed by, then after a bit he just stuck his nose in the crook of my arm and hid. Hmmm, he and I are so symbiotic, that’s exactly how I felt. We took our leave.

Breakfast from the burger van that lives in the pub car park helped get the day started, with a sausage for the wee boy. Nothing like an egg buttie with a smidge of tomato sauce to get you going. Feels like a Sunday. I hate tomato sauce, but an egg buttie without it is wrong somehow.

The castle is spectacular and at just over £7 for both, not too expensive to visit. The Marquees of Bute was a fabulous bloke. He restored this amazing spectacle to some semblance of glory in the '30's. He even knocked down buildings that belonged to him as they obscured the view, now that’s passion.

We spent a few hours going around and Jess was sweet to watch as she soaked up some heritage. I love ‘wow’ factors and we certainly got some of those. We imagined being 4 foot something tall and after walking up and down all the tiny spiral staircases knowing how hard it would be to work in a place like that. I only have size 5’s and I wondered how scary it must be to try to do them in heeuge modern size 11 pluses. Now that is brave. The rest of Caerphilly can be ignored, but the castle is defo a place to visit.

It is so nice to spend some surrogate mummy time with Ebony’s friends. We used to spend large amounts of time having ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’ chats when the girls were little. Ebony would come home with a crowd as they knew I’d tell them the truth. If you are old enough to ask a question, I reckon you are old enough to hear the answer, and it still goes on. Now when they are adults, it’s more like mates, but a ‘don’t forget how fabulous you are’ hug is always welcome, whatever your age. I’m impressed with Jess and the job she is doing. I shall watch where she takes her dream to own the best live venue in Caerphilly closely.

Tuesday 27th

Wow time flies and I must away.

I have no idea when I can place these words on the blog as the signal for my dongle is variable. Sometimes my poor addled brain is slow to cotton on to tekki stuff. I am just putting the words down as a word doc, and placing it on the blog as and when I can.

I have advice to go to the waterfalls of Ysrafellte (don’t ask me to pronounce it) and then onto Brecon to camp. I’m googling caravan repairs to try to get the boiler sorted on the way, I can’t do grubby and made the most of the shower here before I leave.

It’s been lovely spending time, but to away into the unknown….

The unknown took me to a waterfall called Sgwd yr Eird (don't even dream of a translation). I turned off the road and traveled down a road to a car park that was going to cost £4 to park and had signs everywhere that ‘thieves operate in this car park’. Hmmm…..A motorhome this size carries with it an unspoken ' I carry all my wordly goods on board'.I drove around and saw piles of broken glass on the ground where thieves certainly had been operating and left.

I have no idea why Ysrafeltre, (pronounced Isravelter I found out) is so nice as when I drove past it didn’t even wink and entice me in. I ended up in Brecon soon after as I missed the turn off for the camp site. Well, when I say camp site. I believe a CL has to have water and a toilet dump perhaps, and this did, but was just a sort of meadow, a pull in to the side of the road, not even a field. I’m glad it had a tap as Fin decided to do a role in something green and sticky session and, oh boy did he do a good job.

Doreen who runs the CL was intrigued by me and the Hobby. I could do a good caricature of her if I drew a picture. Imagine rounded farmers wife, curled hair, in her sixties, pink T shirt and tight leggings tucked into her wellies, glasses and as nosey as hell. I took a place of guard at the door as I knew she would be inside in a flash. She had one of those squintey eyed things going on and I could see her mind going ten to the dozen as she looked over my shoulder trying to . Folks seem to be fascinated by me doing this on my own. That's actually more about them than it is about me, as they could not imagine being the ‘girl’ on her own. I’m starting to like it.

Most interesting things I learned today- I get 26.3 miles per gallon, but I do have half a tank of water and a full tank of fuel so I didn’t expect the projected 28. Oh…..and don’t walk in a meadow at this time of year in sandals, as small wee slugs commit suicide between your toes.

Things that made me smile- Fin trying to walk in the meadow when the grass was twice his height and having to jump instead. I swear I could hear doink doink doink as he did it! Also on the way here I got lost in a small town, but god don’t say that to the locals, they get a little miffed. Anyhoo, on asking directions a friendly Welshman got all puffed up and started to flirt (well, he’s not made of wood) and was fascinated about me and motorhome…can you see the running theme? He gave me directions and asked me if I was married, then asked did I want to be. I laughed and he said he’d been married three times. I thought ‘Yeah? So? What’s wrong with that?’. He said ‘The first wife died from eating poisonous mushrooms, the second from strangulation, as she wouldn’t eat the mushrooms…!’ I’m a sucker for a man who makes me laugh, but this one was in his sixties and had wild ginger eyebrows, so I carried on laughing as I drove away………..

Saturday 24 July 2010

We are on the road.....



I never thought that we might ever get here.

In 1998 a dream was hatched and while on a motorcycle holiday in France I stated that I would travel the world in a motorhome. Twelve years later Finbar Saunders, my fabulous Jack Russell and I are on the first leg.

In the next three months we are to travel the UK in my Hobby motorhome with bicycle, roller blades and snorkeling kit. (I have also brought along my ski boots as I need to find out if my knee can ski after a hefty surgery).

The Hobby is a 26 footer, with permanent bed and toilet/shower room at one end, a kitchen area in the middle and great sofa and dining area at the drivers cab end. I love it. I had it weighed beofer coming away and in total it was 3.7 tonnes, which meant I have nearly a tonne of stowage...room enough for roller blades!

Week one started on the evening of Monday 19th July we set off. Fin (to his mates) sitting in the passenger seat with a harness. Being a left hand drive vehicle has not been hard for me to get my head around as I used to fly around in ambulances at one time in life. You just have to be aware of your corners and as the Hobby has amazing mirrors set up to see all of them I am able to see everything. First stop was 60 miles away in Willand to see my Dad and his wife. I have made a vow to sleep in the Hobby every night as I love it and I tend not to sleep well in strange beds. I was parked on the road outside and didn't wake up until 0840 when a school brat went past and shouted!

Night two was with Leanda, an old mate from school in Hinton Charterhouse just up the road. The next morning we went out for coffee and I got stung by a wasp, bloody thing may have lost it's arse end in my arm but it hurt in a truly brutal way and I've has a big red blotch for my sins ever since.

Night three with Maggs in Bathford, again very close by. It's so lovely to catch old mates that I may not have seen for a decade or more in some cases. Having no time agenda is a total blessing. Maggs was fab and her new man lovely. Loads of luck to them as they get a house together for the first time.

Night four I went to see Biggles and his wife Ian who I really haven't seen for a decade, though after 20 minutes it felt like just six months. They live in a lock keepers cottage near Chippenham, with the end of the canal and lock at the end of the garden. I had a great time catching up and reminiscing. Ian was my instructor when I went to training school for the ambulance service 21 years ago and his mischievous nature still drives him even now. I am definitely going back for another installment on the way home, but may not drink so much wine this time!!

Night five, six and seven are in a field just outside of Malmesbury in a Caravan Club Certified Location or CL. It has no electricity, loo or TV signal. Internet is intermittent. It's uber quiet and next to Foxley Road Garden centre, who's mad spaniel and Fin have made friends and spend time giggling, running round in circles chasing each other. I have stayed still for a couple of days as Pete who has been a phone buddy for a year after a sort of intro by my bike mate Steve (who got in the police dog section this week..Woohoo for you mate), is at work. We met briefly for five minutes nearby and are going for a bike ride tomorrow..yeah baby!!

So after a week of travelling, what have I learned?
That the gas for the fridge works if you press the button in for a minute to let the pilot light catch. I had to throw out loads of food before I sussed that one.... doh!
That lino in a motorhome needs a special tape to hold it in place over rounded edges. All that was holding the lino near the cab was dilute icky sticky goo!!! Thanks to the carpet man in Chippenham for advice and proper tape. I win the lino fixer of the week award.
That emptying the toilet cassette is a 'bogging' job. Fortunately a no poo rule makes it a smidge nicer that horrendous. Wild camping and wild pooing for me lads!
Sleeping head down makes your lungs fill with fluid if you are travelling with a mild chest infection.
Forgeting essentials like a prescription with three months supplies on it is really dumb. Good job that I have just phoned Deb an old friend and can get it sent to the Lakes.
Fin is very cute in his ebay-special baby rucksack and get loads of attention. He loves it and gets very excited about it. Nine kilos is a lot for me to carry on my wonky back by bicycle and he has boney elbows, but it means we can get into shops and Abbeys and the like with no questions asked.


So week one nearly over.

Week two moves to Wales where on Monday I stay in a pub car park near Caerphilly, can't wait.