Lake Vyrnwy

Saturday 20th April

Today we vacated our peaceful parking spot at Fairbourne Point. We shared our spot with a number of fellow motorhomes last night, all here to enjoy the scenery.

Since we are wilding, or parking up with no services, there is a limit to how long we can last without services. Normally we would just book a night on a campsite and get sorted there, but as it's an beautifully warm and sunny Easter bank holiday I'm assuming that all campsites are fully booked up. I've not actually tried to get in anywhere, but Sues not feeling too good so we're heading in the direction of home.

First stop though is to be at Lake Vyrnwy where there are some waterfalls I've read about and I want to visit.

The route TomTom took us was through Llanymawddwy. I must admit to not checking before we left but the route was not really suitable for a motorhome ! Single track, sheer drops, extremely steep. Need I say more. 

But oh so stunning scenery.

I'll try and attach a dashcam video to reveal the full horrors. Needless to say I wasn't very popular, but hayho, what's new ?

Anyway we reached Lake Vyrnwy and Louis and I took a walk up to the waterfalls, it was well worth the effort, not quite Niagara but still worth seeing, with some lovely Welsh scenery on the way up looking at it`s best in the Spring sunshine.

With weather like this, who needs to go abroad ?

This dashcam video is of our journey to Lake Vyrnwy via Llanmawddwy, along a not entirely suitable mountain road.
It was very scenic but steep with sheer drops to make for a butt clenching journey.
The most challenging bit was when I met cars coming the other way.
I pulled over to allow them past, but the road was very steep and it took plenty of revs to get moving again and I think the clutch lit up a little more than I would have liked.
There was a bit of a burning smell in the cab afterwards but no long term damage done, hopefully.
I should confess to spoting a 2 Tonne limit sign, (we`re 3.8 Tonne) but turning around looked too difficult and I thought it`d only be a warning for a small stone bridge or something, nothing to stress over, ah well, it all ended without harm.

Sunny days

Friday 19th April

Today we awoke to bright sunshine as had been promised by the weather forecasters all week. What they hadn't told us about was the strong wind blowing. But I guess that's just a west Wales thing ? It always seems windy here.

After getting ourselves sorted out, we walked the short distance to the point of land facing Barmouth where there is a little ferry boat crosses the Mawddach Estuary to Barmouth Harbour. £2 each sees us safely transported across the fast moving tidal river and into the harbour.

Barmouth is a typical seaside town with lots of attractions for children and plenty of pubs for the grown ups. We had a wander around the shops and Caffe latte in a beachfront cafe.

The beach is lovely with soft golden sand, perfect for sand castles !

I remember coming here years ago when Lauren was small and we bought a kite to fly off a beach seller. So it must have been windy then too !

Later, we crossed back to Fairbourne Point and spent the afternoon relaxing in the warm sunshine and watching the comings and goings at the boat launching slipway directly in front of where we're parked, it's quite comical watching people trying to launch boats ! Especially the townies who are just here for a holiday, all the gear / no idea some of them.

An evening walk along the beach followed by sitting on the sand dunes watching the sun set below the sea was a perfect end to the day.

There was a full moon which I tried and mostly failed to get a photo of.

A short escape to Fairbourne Point

Thursday 18th April

With the promise from the met office of an Easter bank holiday heatwave, when does that ever happen ? I decided to book an extra days annual leave to tag onto the Easter holiday and make a long weekend somewhere.

Discussions were had, I fancied Snowdonia, Sue fancied Cardiff.

It actually looks like a really interesting city to visit for a weekend, lots to do and see but the campsite was full and alternative parking options looked uncertain, particularly as it's a bank holiday weekend. 

Also the prospect of navigating the M5 and M4 made me queezey at the thought of the queue's.

A compromise was decided upon and we (I) settled on a nice parking spot at Fairbourne Point near Barmouth, Wales.
It`s not a campsite, just parking next to the beach and with a ferry into Barmouth.
Best of all it`s free so a cheap get-away, just the sort I like.
The only downside is no services but fortunately we`re self sufficient so it shouldn`t be a problem.

It's on the opposite side of the Mawddach estuary from Barmouth and is a lovely spot with views over the estuary and over to Cadet Idris and Snowdon beyond, and best of all it's completely free !

Nearby is the walking and cycle trail that leads to Dolgallu which has spectacular views. Lauren and I cycled it a couple of years ago and it is stunning, I`d definately recommend it.

Ed was loaded up for his first proper outing of the year and off we set.

We arrived about 1130 and whilst it's warm and sunny, it's also a little hazy with must over the hills limiting the view.

After lunch Louis and I had a lovely long walk along the sandy beach and spent the rest of the day admiring the scenery.

A little ferry boat operates a taxi service across the river to Barmouth, do that's the plan for tomorrow.
I think I could sit here watching the tide go in and out for ever, I never get bored of it !

The weather forecast is excellent for the next few days so I hope it proves to be accurate.

First trip of the year

With amazing Spring like weather, in the last week of February, it was too much of a temptation to not go for a weekend away. 
We`ve enjoyed temperatures nudging 20c for the last few days which is quite amazing considering the awful weather we had this time last year.
So I decided to give Ed a first shake down trip of the year to make sure everything is working as it should be. Which it was thankfully.
Colemere in Shropshire was selected as the destination. This is a very peaceful spot I`ve been to before. There`s not a lot there except free parking, a wildlife sanctury and mere to walk around and also the Shropshire Union Canal with good walks. 
Ellesmere is accessible by the canal and there are some interesting shops and pubs there.

So after an enjoyable walk in the afternoon, it was back to Ed for tea and watching England get beaten by Wales in the rugby.

Another walk in the morning along the canal and Louis was a happy doggie.
It was a little misty and very cold this morning but the sun soon made an appearance and warmed things up considerably.

Wild Snowdrops

Shropshire Union Canal

Colemere

Shropshire Union Canal

My peaceful parking spot

More Wild Snowdrops

Tissington Peak District

Today I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we've had this week and head up to the Peak District. 

After last week's downpour all weekend it seemed an opportunity not to be missed.

I first went to Tissington village to have a look around. 

It is a very pretty village and as usual it was full of cyclists, walkers and day trippers enjoying the autumnal colours and the warm sunshine.

I'm glad I won't be here tomorrow though, there is a wedding fair at Tissington Hall so I think the village might be very busy.

The Tissington Cycle Trail runs through the village of course and I have cycled it before a number of times with Lauren, but I didn't have bikes with me this weekend, so Louis and I just walked a section of it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The parking in Tissington is not as scenic as in other places, so after lunch I set off up the A515 to an old favourite, Parsley Hay.

It's also on the cycle trail but has much better views of the surrounding countryside and I'm hoping for a nice sunset later on.

It's great to get away in Ed again, even if it's just for one night. It's also good to keep a check that everything is still working as it should.

Whilst having a rummage around in Ed I found some dried wild alpine flowers I'd picked in Austria when we crossed the Alps on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road.

They're not very good and have lost some colour as I'd never dried flowers before and didn't really know what I was doing, but it bought back a lot of memories of our Wheels Around Europe trip this year.

It also reminded me how lucky we were to be able to do that trip and see all the wonderful sights we enjoyed.

As I write this, I can feel Croatia calling to me ....... humm, I wonder ?

But Brexit is getting to be a real pain in the ass, nobody knows how things will turn out for Brits wanting to travel in Europe, so I'll have to just put it on hold until things become clearer.

Interesting development tonight, whilst walking Louis after tea there were two men setting up all kinds of large telescopes and cameras on tripods. I couldn't resist finding out more and it seems one is a landscape photographer wanting some long exposure night shots and the other a star gazer.

I promised them some hot coffee later if they let me have a look through the telescope.

We shall see later.

Well that was an interesting evening, I went and spent some time with the guys with the telescopes and saw some stunning images of the moon and some star clusters I can't remember the names of.

The sky stayed mostly clear with very little cloud and the area has very little light pollution, so ideal conditions.

One of the guys runs a plant nursery in Derby and he spends his spare time star gazing. His telescope looked pretty impressive to me, but he was telling me it's very modest compared to what you can spend on equipment.

Anyway it was an interesting evening and they appreciated the hot coffee !

So this was the last weekend of BST for 2018, the clock alter next weekend but hopefully we`ll get some decent weather and more trips out in Ed will follow during the Winter months, along with planning for 2019. 

Tissington Well

Tissington Hall

Tissington Hall Gardens

Tissington Church

Tissington Village

Tissington Trail - Istria (Croatia) style stone hut

Tissington Trail Parking

Tissington Well

Tissington Trail

Rained off ?

As I approached Ed following our evening walk around the Muckleburgh Military Collection site yesterday, I could feel rain in the air, ten minutes later it was hammering it down !

I had a lucky escape there as I`d left 90 minutes previously in warm sunshine,  no phone, no money and only in tee shirt, shorts and sandles. 
I would have been soaked to the skin and wetter than a wet thing if it had come sooner.

It continued to rain all night and blew a hooley.

It was still raining this morning and the forecast is for only a brief respite this afternoon before another storm comes in for tonight !

I decided we`d leave Weybourne and the Fox Hill site and follow the Norfolk coast round to the Sandringham Estate.

It was still raining when we got there so the gardens would have been out of the question, so did we want to just go in and look in the house ?

Or is it a Palace ?

Trip Advisor reviews were aplenty and most gripes were about the small number of rooms you could actually visit !

That made our minds up, we`d just knock it on the head and set the sat nav for home.

We didn`t fancy another storm cooped up in Ed, so heading home made more sense, so that’s where we are now.

It`s been a good break, I loved Suffolk in particular, we had some excellent warm and sunny weather, 23 / 24c most days and I`ve just enjoyed seeing a parts of the country I`ve not been to before.

The Dedham Vale ANOB in particular (Constable Country) was very beautiful.

So all in all a great break.

Wroxham, North Walsham and Cromer

We left the River Waveney Centre this morning and headed across country to explore Norfolk.

The countryside is of course very flat and agricultural but id nevertheless very beautiful. There are some lovely villages and of course lots of water.

Our first destination was Wroxham, known locally as the capital of the Norfolk Broads. It was very very busy with what looked like lots of organised boat trips leaving of the Broads.

It didn`t look like it was our sort of place so we carried on to North Walsham.

We parked up and had some lunch then a wander around the town. It was a nice enough place to spend an hour but nothing out of the ordinary really, so back to Ed and onward.

Next stop was Cromer, back on the coast. We parked on the west promenade clifftop car park for a reasonable £1.50.

We had a wander around the town and down to the pier.

Cromer is a traditional English seaside resort with a mixture of typical pubs, fish and chip shops, bucket and spade shops, Polish shops and Charity shops.

It seems to be living on past glories and has now seen better days, but it`s still ok for a short visit.

It was interesting to note that Cromer is one of the few places where if your hotel window faces the seafront, in Summer, you can watch the sun rise in the east and set in the west from the same window !

Our chosen site for the night was, or seemed, as there was nobody to ask, booked up full, so I drove to a little village called Weybourne and we are on a site called Fox Hill (GPS 52.941872   1.133643).

It`s a very small friendly site and is situated next to Muckleburgh Military Collection, This seems to be a private museum collection of tanks and guns.

After tea I went for a circular walk around the Military site, down to the beach and along back through the pretty village of Weybourne to the campsite.

There were anti-aircraft gun emplacements pointing out to sea, I wonder if they know something we don`t ?

It`s been blowing a gale today although it seems to have subsided in the last hour but we`ve had a bit of light rain in that time.

No photos for today, I forgot to take the camera with me to Cromer and it was far too gusty anyway to stand still enough for photos anyway !

Dunwich and River Waveney

Dunwich and River Waveney

First stop today was to rewind a little and go back to The Walled Garden and Nursery that was closed yesterday.

It is quite an interesting nursery, set indeed inside a walled garden, so no surprise there then.

There is also an adjoining garden you can have a wander through and was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so.

We bought a pot for the garden but no plants today.

Next it was Dunwich beach for some lunch by the sea, followed by a walk along the beach to blow the cobwebs away.

It was blowing a hooley today and the cobwebs were well and truly blown away.

It is very warm and sunny though so we`re not complaining.

Our destination for this evening is the River Waveney Centre (GPS  52.48204  1.66867) in Norfolk west of Lowestoft.

It`s basically a river Marina with adjoining campsite and it`s a very nice destination with lots to see and do.

Just down the lane from the campsite is a most unusual church called St Mary the Virgin Burgh St Peter.

It`s brick and flint stone construction with a thatched roof and an extraordinary, if a little ugly tower.

A bit of digging around and it seems the tower was rebuilt a a result of a request by Reverend Samuel Boycatt  Rector from 1764 who decided to apply for a Diocesan Faculty in 1793 to “Repair and build up the steeple which has long been in a ruinous condition.” 

There is no definitive explanation for the design of the tower but it seems it will have replaced something much more conventional.

The attached link gives more information on the church and has some interesting photographs of details around the church.

Louis and I had an enjoyable walk along the river and sat watching the river boats passing by and the local bird life of which there is plenty.

The Walled Garden and Nursery

The Walled Garden and Nursery

The Walled Garden and Nursery

The Walled Garden and Nursery

The Walled Garden and Nursery

The Walled Garden and Nursery

Dunwich Beach

River Waveney Centre

Dinner for two on the Poop deck ? 

River Waveney 

River Waveney Centre

St Mary the Virgin Burgh St Peter Church

St Mary the Virgin Burgh St Peter Church

St Mary the Virgin Burgh St Peter Church - Priest`s doorway

St Mary the Virgin Burgh St Peter Church - Main Door

St Mary the Virgin Burgh St Peter Church