Staycation - Dungeness Nature Reserve & Railway

Another staycation day between showers to take advantage of the dry weather that appears between them!

Molly the Moho is still at the dealers and so we are in the car again.  It's about a 25 mile round trip to Dungeness.  This is officially a desert.  I kid you not.

We had a walk on the shingle to the Polish Airmen's Memorial and then walked back to the station to have tea and wait for the last train of the day to arrive.

Luckily, when the train arrived it didn't hoot the horn.. If it had, Reggie would have gone mental. Instead he ignored the sound of it wheezing into the station.

Claire took a couple of photos on her phone.  Today the Sony A300 was left at home.....

The "New" Lighthouse

Staycation - White Cliffs of Dover

With Molly the Moho being in the dealers for some warranty work and a (possible) repair to the damage to the rear bumper, we are having to staycate in the car.

It also means that we can go away for a few days and so are based at home. The weather has been really poor. The "Mediterranean Climate" we were told to expect in the South of England as a result of climate change hasn't arrived. Instead we have had some really hot periods but not that long and wetter summers.

July 2023 has been the 6th wettest on record....

So this week we have been out between showers and some torrential rain where we can. Today we took a short drive to the White Cliffs of Dover to walk the dog and to have a look at Dover Harbour. The harbour under the white cliffs themselves.

I dug out Claire's Sony A300 DSLR and charged the battery. It seems a shame to let it sit unused in the case.  I had to format a 4gb compact flash card to get it to work, and a few test shots were fired off in the garden to make sure it was all systems go.

We had a coffee and a walk.  Despite signs saying it is illegal to fly a drone over the port area, there was a guy doing exactly that. A warden went off to locate him.  Maybe they need a jammer up there. I doubt they would get away lightly in another country...

We arrived home just in time for the rain to start again.  By then Reggie was tired enough to not need to go out again!

France on the horizon

Me caught almost unawares!

Langdon Cliff

Staycation Summer 2023 #1

So here we are.  Spring Staycations give way to Summer Staycations!

This time we are going away for a special occasion. Claire has been invited to the "Guide Dogs Experience Day" at the centre near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. It's a Friday in July.

Our first thought was to check that weekend was free and that we could take the Moho! It is free and she enquired whether we could park the Moho in their car-park.  Both have positive answers!

We will have only been back from Awaycation Summer #1 to France for a fortnight and so we need to careful about the pennies we are spending. On the other hand, Having a motorhome and not using it isn't that cost effective or value for money either.

I checked to see what sites there are near to the Centre.  There's really only one, and it worked out at £44.50 a night for the three of us. Reggie obviously has to come.

Once Claire received confirmation that she was on the guest list, I set about looking for places at a more reasonable price. I don't mint paying a little extra to cover an electric hook-up (EHU) as it means we have power and light in the evenings.

So for now I have enquired at a CL about 10 miles away from the Centre about a one night stay the night before the event. It is priced at £17.50 with EHU.  CL's don't have showers/loos but I am sure that we can make use of publicly available facilities.... Even though I went through https://clbooking.co.uk/  it was an enquiry not a booking. We know need to wait for them to get back to confirm. The "availability" calendar showed there was at least one pitch free.

The event finishes at 3pm or so and so I need to look for another night away rather than drive all the way home to the Kent coast.

I have recently been reading about the Wars of the Roses and the various battles that took place. As a Lancastrian I would like to visit the battlefield at Bosworth. This is where (evil) Yorkist King Richard III was killed in battle against Henry Tudor. Henry became King Henry VII in August 1485. The Wars of the Roses came to an end on that battlefield.

Checking on the CAMC site I was able to find a CL very close to the Bosworth battlefield.  It's also not bookable online and so I have emailed to see if they have pitches free to tie in with the trip...

I will also check to see how much of the battlefield is accessible to motorhomes and dogs!

Staycation Spring 2023 #3

I have been influenced. There I admit it. Influenced by something I saw on YouTube.

Claire and I watch a lot of motorhome vloggers on YouTube. Maybe too many to be brutally honest. It does save us watching anything involving Ant and Dec though in ITV. So that's a bonus.

This week we have added more subscriptions to our watchlist.

One couple, "The Frenchies' Motorhomies",  have been very good. We have watched a few of their vlogs as they tend to spend one or two nights away and in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

We like both counties and Claire's sister and some cousins live there. 

The only pain in the butt is that we have to go through the Dartford Crossing to get across/under the Thames! I don't mind the toll, but the traffic queuing each side. It's all done by ANPR but people still can't cross easily.

Recently the Frenchies' (and their two French Bulldogs) stayed at a couple of dog friendly Caravan and Motorhome Club (CAMC) Certified Location sites in Suffolk. One near Bury St Edmunds and a second near Southwold.

Both reasonably priced. Both in the sticks. Both with walks where there looks to be little chance of encountering Reggie's top hate, after squirrels, bicycles and the plums that ride them.

Ideal for us.

So I have booked us in to both for one night each, midweek, after Easter when the kids are back in school! One I think is adult only.

I think April may still be Spring?

Staycation - Back of Beyond - CANCELLED

In the end as it was forecast to be raining heavily in the South-East (where we live) and snow in central Southern England, where Back of Beyond is, we decided to cancel.  

Rather than drive 350 miles round trip in the Suki and basically sit inside using the gas and freezing we decided to cut out losses. 

BUGGER!

I suppose it does mean I can get on planning for the next Staycation to Mersea Island in a fortnight or so. It looks as though Staycation 2 has become Staycation 1!!!

Stay tuned.

Update Wednesday 8th

No snow here yet, but Hampshire has a few inches. Friends near Aldershot had a couple of inches. 

Staycation - Back of Beyond

When we planned this trip we didn't expect the weather to turn so cold. 

With global warming being on everyone's minds (possibly not) and predictions from the early part of this new century that southern England would have a Mediterranean climate by now, we booked our first Staycation for 2023.

We chose Back of Beyond Camping and Glamping because we had been before, last May, and it was a good site. A safe pair of hands to use a footballing phrase. What we weren't expecting was the tales pf doom and despair and that we might get snow! We have the choice of cancelling it, and losing £60.  BoB aren't that good at letting you choose another date. 

At the moment we have the van part packed.  I filled up the LPG for the heating and cooking last week. We only have the perishable food to load into the cupboards and stuff for the dog. I guess we'll have to make a decision in the morning whether we are going or not?  If it's not snowing I reckon we go. We can always abort the mission!

There's no glory in getting stuck in snow. We don't have snow tyres and so we would be going nowhere. I'd rather be here in the warmish rather than stuck in snow somewhere! Perhaps that a discussion Claire and I need to have!

The Ohrex upgrade that kept failing on the older Dell worked first time on the newer Dell. The 6.8gb zip file downloaded at the first attempt rather than 15 hours of failing! It's installed and I have had to setup all the "favourites" again. There must be a file you can save that contains them. Where it is I have no idea!

So do we stay or do we go.....?

Staycations in 2023?

What's the difference between a Staycation and an Awaycation?  Staycations are in the UK. Awaycations aren't.

I have already blogged these on Travellerspoint and so here are the links.  They should open in a new window.

https://invictamoto.travellerspoint.com/354/

https://invictamoto.travellerspoint.com/366/

Awaycations to follow.....