Brecon to Croft

Morning on the CL at Brecon

The battery survived the evening with 5 hours of TV, netbook charging and lights, but I still need to replace it this year before we go away for a longer holiday. The morning mist had cleared by the time we left for a steady drive home through rural England and Wales, which was looking its best in the spring sunshine. There were tens of thousands of daffodils in the verges with hawthorn and blackthorn full of blossom. The route took us via Hay on Wye, Hereford, Worcester and finally Stratford upon Avon before arriving home early evening.

An amazing week for March with almost dawn to dusk sunshine every day, although the nights were chilly. All our van systems were proven to function normally. It was good to see Jean, Alan and Adam and we certainly managed to spring a surprise on them.

Time to go Home

a tentative paddle

Yet another super day but it was time to go home. Met Jean and family for a coffee before saying goodbye and  heading for Leicester. Stopped off at nearby Saundersfoot and I went for the first paddle of the year, it may be sunny but the sea is still cold! After a shop and a rather long fish and chip lunch it was decided to break the journey home and stop en route.

sunset in Brecon Hills 

There were very few CC or CC&C sites open until the last week in March but we found an isolated CL site in the hills near Brecon about half way home. Just a 3 acre field with two small camper vans to witness the sunset over the mountains and the starry, starry sky that followed. No hookup available - so an ideal opportunity to test the battery and the gas heating!

Anna's World

The family group at Annas World 

Another beautiful day dawned, not a cloud in the sky, and a birthday card had arrived in reception for Adam from Mark. Went up the road to Anna's World (she of 'changing rooms' fame) Wildlife Park today to wander with wallabies, lemurs and other hardy animals. We took the van and had a picnic, well almost a BBQ as we cooked some burgers,  in the sun in the parking area.

Back at Haven we spent a few 2p's in the amusement arcade and had a drink in the lounge to round off the day.

Adams birthday

Woke up to a lovely sunny morning and went off to surprise Jean - success - they were gob-smacked!

Adams very chocolatey birthday cake

Spent most of the day in Tenby, strolled along the beach at low tide, to buy Adam a present and have a pub lunch (half price of course) and then walked back beside the railway about 4 mile round trip. Everybody except Adam exhausted - we are obviously not used to the exercise yet.
Jean's handmade birthday cake was ceremoniously cut and I helped Adam build some Lego while the others dozed/snored.

We left Jean and Alan to enjoy the rest of the day with Adam.

Spring shakedown

super hardstanding pitches at Kiln Park 

First trip this year to check out the vans 'life support' systems was to Wales. We decided to go to Tenby to join Jean and Alan for their surprise 10th birthday treat for Adam and make it a double surprise. We enjoyed a good trip down to South Wales with mostly sunny weather until reaching the coast, which was shrouded in thick mist and fog. However the sun broke through just as we reached Tenby turning it into a very pleasant evening after all. Many of the touring pitches at the Haven's Kiln Park site have been upgraded to hard-standing super pitches.

Holland and Germany

We have met so many Dutch campers of our generation in France and Spain on our early summer trips to Europe, that this year we decided to go to Holland to see if there were any senior campers left there at all. That is one reason, the tulip fields are another and then we plan to head south down the Rhine valley to Germany, Lake Constance, Austria and Lichtenstein. We will be sailing from Harwich to Hook of Holland on 3rd May returning after 7 weeks for a family 60th birthday (not mine BTW) at the end of June.