Llangollen Aquaduct to Home

Another damp murky start to the day and not much prospect of improvement apparently. We had to leave the site by 10:30 and set off up the coast in a steady drizzle that made driving very tedious. By Portmadoc it had not improved so I set the GPS to take us  to Llangollen.  I set off following the route which took us 8 miles on a single track road over the Snowdonia hills with 50yds visibility at times in the drizzle and into the low clouds. Not much fun!

The Pontcysyllte Aquaduct near Llangollen was well worth a visit and it stayed dry for us to walk along the aerial towpath. Another impressive feat of British industrial engineering designed by Thomas Telford and a World Heritage site at the moment. We had drinks and a toastie at the nearby Baptist Chapel before taking the A5 and M6 back home. No sun at all again today. Not a very good Welsh break.

Barmouth in the rain

The day started dull and the forecast rain started around 11 on schedule. We decided to just take the train to Barmouth for a few hours and walked to station in a heavy shower to join the other travellers. There were about 25 wet adults and children waiting for the 10min (£1.50) ride. We found a cafe to have a light lunch and to see if the rain would ease up. It didn't and we spent the afternoon wandering around some of the interesting gift shops including the Nepalese bazaar where we bought Marks chicken whispers hat last year. It used up the time until we caught the 4 o'clock train back to Talybont. Rosemary made a chicken stir fry from raw ingredients and we ate inside. It's still drizzling. Fortunately the TV signal is OK thanks to assistance from Freepoint. We still have the ice cream in the freezing compartment.

Mid Wales break

We decided to try and catch up on lost time, due to the cold wet spring weather, by taking a 4 day break before the main school holidays. Booked 2 nights at the Talybont site, we have used before, by the Phwelli to Barmouth railway line. We called at Chilcot farm shop and cafe for lunch and buy some meat on a nice sunny day. Arrived at 4pm only 3 pitches left, a lot different to last year. Pitched up near the caravan with seagulls nest over the wall and enjoyed a pleasant evening meal on the Jamie with a glass of red. Apart from a few young school children running around the site was pretty quiet. We walked down to the beach and the entertainment complex was busy but not overly so.

Cotswolds Wildlife Park

We picked up discounted tickets and walked over the road to the park which was created in the grounds of Broadland House. It's biggest feature is a  huge white rhino enclosure with 6 of the endangered species. There are 250 animals and birds many on the at risk list.  It's a popular venue for school groups, the bus park was full with end of term outings. It was the hottest day of the year so far so we spent about 4 hours wandering around to see the camels, lion, giraffes, owls penguins and meercats etc  before we staggered back to the site. Put the England flags on the van to watch there Euro game. Rubbish game as usual!

First trip of the Year

It's been such a drab year of weather this is our first few days away in the van. We having 2 days in the Cotswolds near Burford. We stopped in Stow on the Wolds for lite unch and shop at Tesco for provisions on the way,  then at Dalesford just for coffee. The CMC site is quite small and right next to the Wildlife Park.

Fishing for Carp

I decided to have a few hours fishing before we left and moved the van down to the lake. It was a lovely day and a very nice lake with some big carp. I only landed one small roach but lost a big carp diving into the reeds. I was not alone in having a blank day and spent most of the time trying to stop a very smart chicken from stealing my bait. I didn't realise chickens went mad for Spam!

We packed up about 4pm, stopped at Whitchurch for coffee and cake and arrived home at 7:30.

Speech House Food Festival

We parked the van at Speech House and used our pre-booked tickets to walk straight in to the festival which was even bigger than last year. It is now mostly food and drink from local businesses and we were spoilt for choice picking something for lunch. 

We had pulled pork tacos which were delicious, bought some cheese and were given some apples and cake (which we had with coffee in the car park).

We were hoping to have a homemade  pizza from the bar when we returned but the last orders are at lunch time Sunday.

We were almost on our own by the time we returned.

Forest of Dean

We are going to the Forest Festival at Speech House again and are stopping 2 nights at Broadstone Park. It's a quirky site right on the England Wales boundary with a fishing lake and a lot of rescue animals including a turkey, donkey, Shetland pony and lots of chickens. We pitched in the Wales field but the facilities are in England and electricity is metered.

Epilog

 We booked 4 nights at the show site and intended to visit the Pedlars while we in Malvern. However we stayed at home on Thursday, the first night, so that Katherine would have some company. We discovered that the Pedlars were away camping in Snowdonia over the weekend so the visit did not happen. As Katherine was away for the weekend Chippy would be on his own for 3  nights, so we came back a day early too. Our 4 night break turned into a 2 night break but it was a nice break with warm suuny weather in a picturescue setting.   

Lionesses

 

The Lionesses ladies football team reached the final of the World Cup and after adorning the van with bunting we watched the match after breakfast. Spain were the better team on the day and we were beaten 1:0.  After the match I went down to the arena to see one of the re-enactments of the Wild West. These had been taking place over the weekend and punctuated the sounds of the show with burst of gunfire. We had an Indian lunch and bought some samasosas before we left and drove home via Evesham and the A46. Arrived at M and S foodhall just outside Coventry as they were closing at 4:30 and were back home before 6:00pm.