Caravan Club Centenary 14th June @ Sandringham - A judge's view

Where better to spend the 100th birthday of the Caravan Club than with the friends we made over the winter. We had such an amazing welcome last time that we thought that is the place for us on June 14th.

Not great weather on the day, but a great turn out. Thanks to Sharon and John, those pesky wardens again, we ended up, by threat of no Chinese food or worse the threat of jogging ;-), doing the judging for the imaginative best-dressed hat competition. Mart was head judge (since he IS the oldest!) and me as Assistant Judge, it was a good laugh and was nice to have an icebreaker to chat to some of the other caravanners on the site. Chatted to people who have been caravanning for years and got some helpful advice, some very nice people on these sites……. Think some are scared by the fact two men are in the same van with one fixed bed! Yep, us puffs have managed to break into the caravan fraternity. There is no escape, denial is futile! Everything kicked off at 2PM when an extremely impressive buffet was laid out, a hell of a lot of work and blooming nice too. Quite a few people turned up straight away and it wasn’t long before sandwiches and quiche were being scoffed in their droves. Managing to balance a combined plate for us two and two drinks was a task in itself but we had a more vital role to fulfil (well got to build up our part!)

Lord Thingy from Thingy Hall (I AM still drunk but it will come back to me!) came to introduce himself as the new president of the club and was warmly welcomed into the fold.

More people turned up in more adventurous hats including a VW camper van sewn to a hat, lavender and foilage from the estate and the eventual winner and runner up. The winner was made up of very cleverly folded pieces of paper into cones and other shapes. The runner up, was a triumph of ingenuity, with lots of foilage and no hat but was a good 6” high collage of greenery. After the presentation people started to disperse…. Well once the food had almost gone.

A lovely day and a nice gesture for us two loonies to do the judging. ;-)

Think I had too much red wine last nite, me eyes are still crossed!

We love the South!

I love the South of England! Where else in Britain would you find such diverse people?

While staying near Denham, Bucks we saw.....

A FULL BRAND NEW loaf of bread been fed to ducks - bloody waste!
A house for rent at £15,000 per calendar month, yep £15,000 !
and a PURPLE, yep PURPLE Rover 100 with a big bore exhaust - well it tickled me!

Love it

Orbs and funny goings on.....

(Belvoir Castle 2007)

Just a quickie while the net connection is behaving itself.....

While we were at Top Lodge caravan site about 4 weeks ago we went to the amazing home of the Earl of Rutland, Belvoir Castle. Where you can pay for a permit to take photos inside, nice change. When i was sorting through some of the photos I noticed two had light anomolies on them..... will try and upload them here....

Also another amazing trip was to the English Heritage site, Grimes Graves, near Thetford, Norfolk. It is a Neolithic flint mine where you can actually descend a 35 foot ladder to see what it was like down in the galleries... amazing. Loved the experience but while I was down there, I couldn't help but feel I was been watched ( I thought it might have been CCTV). when I sorted the photos out, taken with a different camera to the Belvoir Castle ones I found orbs on those photos too.

Supernatural or not? Who knows but the atmosphere at both places where the pics were taken definitely felt unusual......

Blog in ell.... its been another two months!

...this year is just flying by and the net connections aint improving! Hope to get to an Internet Cafe or library soon to upload the 200 new photos for the Flickr gallery and also update this blog with a bit more stuff.

At Peterborough Caravan Club site again for 2 days after a superb 3 weeks on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, thanks to Sharon and John (the 2 nicest people we have met on our travels) for an extremely warm welcome and pleasant stay on the best maintained site we have encountered. :-) We will be back so be warned lol.

Off to Hertfordshire this week, tomorrow in fact, and then to Oxfordshire, slowly making our way down to the South coast for the summer.

Am still deciding what to do with all the witterings I've written and the millions of photos since we started on the road last September 06.... any ideas, apart from rude ones!, welcomed :-)

More soon......

Long time no blog.

Cannot believe that its almost 2 months since I updated the Blog. So here goes....

Whats happened since February...

We have been to two more caravan sites, in Denham Bucks and Peterborough - both sites we visited in the last 6 months but worth a revisit.

Found lots of new places to visit, going to upload a list to the webspace I have with the Open University. Oh yeah have successfully passed my first two courses :-) Great news.

Been to Cromer lighthouse again and had an amazing week wandering around the coastline. Saw some amazing sunsets, rises and waves. The RNLI Museum @ Cromer, which opened in 2006, by Ronnie Corbett, is a worthwhile place to visit, amazing stuff.

Had a lovely wander round London (Number 1 London, Buck Palace, real touristy stuff) met with a friend from working at Penrith library which was superb :-)

The last week:

Best place we found was today at Fotheringhay. The village where Mary Stuart was beheaded in the Great Hall of the castle. Amazing. Quite amazing as we have been to Dundrennan Abbey (where she spent her last night on Scottish soil), Workington (where she landed after a four hour boat trip from Dundrennan), Peterborough Cathedral (where she was initially buried opposite the grave of Catherine of Aragon). Its so nice to put the history into these different places and connect them all up. So much history in Britain. Its great this year out :-) More soon and in English hopefully, I wont rush the next entry....

Caravan Site Number 13... and beyond

Site 13 - Broadway, Worcestershire
Site 14 - Wyatts Covert, Denham Bucks
Site 15 - Ferry Meadows, Peterborough
Site 16 - Hargill House, Scotch Corner, Yorks
Site 17 - Beechwood Grange, York
Site 18 - Clumber Park, Notts
Site 19 - Top Lodge, Lincs
Site 20 - Sandringham Estate, Norfolk
Site 21 - Ferry Meadows, Peterborough.... again! only 2 nites
Site 23 - Ashridge Farm, Herts
Site 24 - Wyatts Covert, Denham, Bucks ... I know, its becoming an obsession
Site 25 - Sandringham Estate, Norfolk - 100th Anniversary week
Site 26 -

Fast food heaven!

A superb place to find a snack, or big meal, is Peveril Stores on How Lane in Castleton. Very friendly staff and superb food, well worth a visit if you are in the Peak District. We had sausage and bacon hot sandwiches and were very impressed with the amount we got :-) Brilliant place. Would recommend very highly.

Castleton Visits...

Above: Mam Tor (Mother Mountain) high above Castleton Village, Derbyshire

We’ve been here 1 week at Losehill, or Lowshill as its pronounced locally (Lows means burial mound or hill in Derbyshire). We have visited some amazing places in-between snow storms. Ladybower dam, where the Dambusters trained and the subsequent film was made; Wynatts pass and Mam Tor high above Castleton village, Castleton village itself with the imposing view of Peveril Castle and its lovely CoE Church dedicated to St Edmund. 1 week to go so more exploring to do…

Favourite places visted in 2006

Favourite castle : Kenilworth Castle, Kenilworth, Warwickshire (Oct 29th 2006) EH
For its links with Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley

Favourite hall, house or garden : Witley Court and Gardens, Witley, Worcestershire (Nov 3rd 2006)
For its atmosphere and interesting history

Favourite abbey/priory : Malmesbury Abbey, Malmesbury, Wiltshire (Oct 23rd 2006)
For its architecture, displays and tomb of Ethelred

Favourite cathedral : Peterborough Cathedral, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (Dec 13th 2006)
For the tomb of Catherine of Aragon, first resting place of Mary Queen of Scots

Favourite roman site : Piercebridge Roman Fort, Piercebridge, Darlington, Cleveland (Sept 16th 2006) EH
For its amazing design and location

Favourite church : Haverton Hill, site of St John’s Church, Middlesbrough, Cleveland (Sept 21st 2006)For its history, location, and the fact its gone

Favourite lighthouse : Souter Lighthouse, South Shields, Co Durham (Sept 10th 2006)
For it’s tour guides and the view from the lightroom

Favourite memorial or landmark : Windsor Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire (Nov 17th 2006)
For its history and amazing location

Favourite museum : Eden Camp Malton North Yorkshire (Oct 3rd 2006)
For its atmosphere, layout and overall interesting subject

Favourite community, village : Turville, Buckinghamshire (Vicar of Dibley and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Location) (Aug 25th 2006)
For its chocolate box appearance, friendly locals and the fact it was used in Vicar of Dibley

Favourite industrial visit : George Stephenson’s Birthplace, Wylam, Northumberland (Sept 28th 2006) NT
For its amazing location, superb tour guide and inspiring

Favourite pier : Dover Prince of Wales Pier, Kent (May 11th 2006)
For its views of Dover, for its location and for the atmosphere

Caravan Site Number 12 - Losehill, Derbyshire

Just arrived at the next site. Internet aint working very well and the TV reception aint brill so Mart is not chuffed lol. Nice site, lovely town, Castleton, and lots to explore. Hope to see some friends this weekend and visit the Bookstore near Buxton again - bargain books! :-) Lots of amazing views :-)