roemin around

After a quality stay at Southland CMC site we headed for nearby Arreton for the only event taking place on the IOW this weekend - The Sweetcorn Festival. Basically a big village fete in a sweetcorn field beside a craft centre. I had  a massive BBQ sweetcorn and put a £1 bet on the snail race, mine came last out of 6! Lots of pet animals and sweetcorn themed events. Rosemary bought a few bits at the farm shop for later and we left the car park, on a sweet corn field of course, early afternoon. The only IOW Waitrose is right by the Red Funnel terminal and so we popped in for our free coffee and some  snacks. We parked on the esplanade to eat our late lunch and watch the yachts in the Solent until the 4:30 ferry back to the mainland was ready for boarding. We enjoyed our brief stay on the island and now we are at a Britstop again tonite on the edge of the New Forest near Hythe.

We left the CCC site to meet Rosemary's school friend Geoff Dolby and his wife at the Bartlett's Farm tea shop just outside Ryde. We chatted for about an hour over coffee and crumpets and took some photos before going to the nearby Rosemary Vineyard. I watched the video, which had some useful pruning tips while Rosemary did some tastings. We came away with a bottle of red and one of white and some cider. Then back down to the esplanade at Shanklin to have a paddle and some fish and chips. We then made for the CMC site 5 miles away just for the night. A lot more on this site than CCC but then it doesn't close till early November. Full sun today, we are still getting our paces in, nice sunset.

We had a day out driving over to the western extremity of the Island. We stopped at Godshill, elegedly the prettiest village on the island. We walked up to the church on the hill to light a candle and photograph the cottages and church. The village is a bit of a tourist trap with spaces for about a dozen tour busses and coffee shops to cope with them. We continued on the military road along the southern coast which is a short switch back of cliffs and bays to Freshwater. It was lunch time so we had our first seafood of the holiday at The Hut on Colwell Bay. A bit upmarket with lots of boaty types, a nice spot overlooking the bay and nice food. After lunch we drove up to The Needles. Rosemary said we could park at the NT old battery car park, but the road sign said - no cars. We followed a shuttle bus up the single track steep windy road taking people from the car park up to the battery. There were 5 staff cars and one motorhome (us) at the top - p erhaps Rosemary was wrong! Afte...

After a peaceful night at the Britstop we made our way to Southampton to catch the Red Funnel ferry to East Cowes on the IOW. We set off to find a camp site for a couple of nights stopping at the viewpoint on Brading Down for a late sandwich. We looked at Park Dean site over looking Bembridge Harbour except is was actually miles away and decided against it. Finally ended up at CCC site near Sandown. It is closing for the end of season on Sunday. It's a massive site with 270 pitches but there are only about 15 vans at the moment. There was a German couple, who met 6 weeks ago on the internet, in an old motorhome. Obviously smitten although she had 3 husbands and was still married. Very weird, but very chatty. We were entertained by low flying flocks of geese migrating west into the sunset. Rosemary was startled by a pheasant while walking by the river. Warm sunny days and cool nights for the next week we hope. Made contact with an old school friend of Rosemary who we are going to...

We have stopped at a delightful thatched pub between Newbury and Hungerford for the night. It's a Britstop so they deserve us having a nice meal here in return for a free night stay. It was nice too, steak and kidney pudding to die for.

We are going away in the van for about 10 days to the south coast while there is a bit of autumn left.

On the road again taking in the Ludlow craft centre, more food purchases and a NT house on the way home. Stopped at Wightwell House the Victorian home of the Mangers paint family near to Wolverhampton. It was rather gloomy wood paneled house not helped by the low lighting. We arrived home at 5:30pm.

We drove to the temporary park and ride at Ludlow racecourse, £5 to park,  to find there were about 3 bus loads of people waiting and only one bus every 30mins. So not a lot of happy people and some gave up, but we caught the second bus after a 50 minute wait. We spent the afternoon tasting  samples, watching a chef demo and eating some Japanese street food for lunch. It remained dry and everyone seemed to be enjoying the afternoon out, helped by lots of gin, craft beer and cider stalls. I tried my first Christmas pudding and mince pie samples of the year and enjoyed the rhubarb cider. We resisted the temptation to buy stuff we did not really need and arrived back at the campsite around 5:30. Rosemary chatted up the site owner and we picked three great bags of apples from the trees around the site and a small bag of very ripe plums to take home. It remained dry and there is a nice sunset tonight over the Shropshire hills.

Popped in the shop to buy a bottle of wine and a few posh chocolates before driving off to Bridgnorth. Its a nice old town on two levels either side of the river Severn. There's a Saturday market around the 16th century town hall where we shopped for a sandwich lunch to eat in the van Next stop was at the best butcher in England at Much Wenlock for some meat for tonite. There was a fete in the church where we had coffee and cake and Rosemary won a bottle of Italian red wine for £1. It will go nicely with the steak. Outside in the church yard there was a dog show going on. Very progressive use of a church. It's rained on and off all day and doesn't sound much better tomorrow. We are staying at Greenway for two nights, a quiet adults only site on Wenlock edge about 10 miles from Ludlow.

We are on our way to the Ludlow Food Festival and have stopped one night at a Britstop.  It's Halfpenny Green vineyard in Staffordshire. We arrived at 4 o'clock to find they have no gas in the restaurant, so no cooked breakfast tomorrow morning!  There are lots of crafty places on site for tomorrow and an opportunity to try and buy some English wine. We are on our own in the car park as usual.

This is the first trip out after getting our motorhome back from the garage following the theft from our drive on 5th July.  It's taken 2 months and we have missed the hottest summer on record, but here we go again. Three nights in the west midlands to check everything out and do a seasonal food festival.