12th May 2015 - Devon bound

12th May.

So, off on a bit of a holiday today down Devon way. I dropped Lynda off at work and had a few hours to spare before I could pick her up again at 1430 and we could get on our way. I collected Ruby from storage and went the couple of miles up to the C&CC Thetford Forest site, you are all familiar with this place of course.

For £7.15 the C&CC let you park up on their site and use the facilities for 4 hours and I thought it would be a good idea to sort out and tidy up Ruby and get the fridge nice and cold. Normally if you just want some water they would only ask for a couple of quid donation to the 'flower fund' but this time I thought I would go mad and spend the seven quid. I got all our luggage and bits and pieces put away, tidied up the garage, filled up with water and hoovered as best I could (£6.50 vacuum from Argos).

It was nearly time to leave the site when one of the wardens wandered over to tell me that for your £7.10 you don't actually get any electricity! As it was me he was okay for Ruby to be plugged in still though. Soon it was time for me to leave the site anyway. Once I had called at Tesco to check the tyre pressures and get some diesel it was more or less time to go and get Lynda.  Very soon we were on our way westbound.

You may recall I have mentioned on these pages before a scheme called Britstops, a scheme whereby various establishments, mainly pubs but plenty of other places, let you park in their car park for free in the hope that you might spend a few quid with them.

Our first stop of this trip was a pub called The Flowing Spring, not very far from Reading. We wanted to stop somewhere in this area so we could catch up with local family.  I had already phoned the pub in advance just to confirm we could use their car park, they only allow 2 vans to park and I wanted to make sure they didn't already have people there. About a 115 mile journey to the pub but it was generally pretty good, just some traffic, par for the course by all accounts, in the pretty and very up market town of Sonning.

I parked Ruby at the bottom end of the pub car park as I had been asked to do then we went in to see what the place was like. Friendly welcome from the landlord. We could quickly see we were going to like this place, all very cosy with cushions all over the place and civilised customers.

We had a couple of drinks and a pleasant meal, I had lamb kebab while Lynda had sausage egg and chips. I chatted briefly with the landlord about the benefits fo the Britstops scheme - we get somewhere safe to park overnight for free and he (hopefully) makes a few extra quid for no outlay. He said they get a couple of vans a week parking there.

Nice to sit in the sunshine on the balcony.

Nice old (new) car appeared in the car park, got a lot of attention as you can imagine.

13th May.

On our way by about 08.15 into the local traffic. Although there are mostly country lanes round here there is still a lot of traffic and everyone (except us) seems to be in a terrible hurry. Lovely drive in bright sunshine along the M4, A33 and A303 towards our next port of call, Lyme Regis in Dorset (I think). We have been here before of course but Lynda wanted to visit again. Once again we parked up in the Holmbush car park and went off to explore. Last time we were here the weather was pretty bad so it was nice to see the place in the sunshine. Quite a lot of people about including quite a number of German tourists for some reason. As the film The French Lieutenants Woman was partly filmed here we had to walk along Lyme Regis's main claim to fame - the Cobb.

After an ice cream and a wander along the high street we found ourselves back at the car park once again. Another Britstop for us tonight, Millers Farm shop at Kilmington, just off the A35 about 3 miles from Lyme Regis. I wandered in to the shop to make sure it was okay to park in their car park, no problem at all. They sell a lot of stuff in their large shop including a lot of items direct from France.

As I type this its 18.00 and we have both had a snooze and a snack, hopefully another quiet night before we head off tomorrow. My laptop quickly found a wifi signal I was surprised to see but its a BT service and they want £5 for an hour's connection or 'only' £8 for a day - too expensive for me to pay.

Only one photo of Miller's farm shop.

Lyme Regis photos:

Looks so much nicer than last time we were here, bit of sunshine makes all the difference. Beach is sand up this end, pebbles the other side.

As I'm sure you all know, this is called The Cobb and featured in The French Lieutenants Woman.

God, I look like a convict. Maybe I need a shave.

Seaweed (C) Lynda. She took this photo especially 'for the blog'.

We were watching some people making a bad job of manouvering a boat, we thought they were going to fall in any minute.

14th May.

Nothing is more likely to make you want to stay in bed more than the sound of rain hitting the van roof. This morning thats what we had though. I got us our first cup of tea at about 04.45, not that early for us, then Lynda mentioned that it sounded like rain. Soon it was pouring down and didn't stop. Someone of course had to get up and take Lucy out for a quick walk, regardless of the weather. I'll leave you to guess who job that was.

We had had a quiet night at Miller's farm shop but we were soon getting ready to hit the road. I have a new satnav which told me that our next stop was only about a 20 mile journey so a nice leisurely trip was on the cards. Despite the heavy rain we were having a pleasant drive but unfortunately I missed a turn and the satnav said that the distance still to travel was now 38 miles instead of 14! I  know when I'm beaten so we decided to turn round as soon as we could. Luckily, a Little Chef came into view so we pulled in to turn round. While there it would have rude not to have gone in and had a bacon sandwich and coffee each so thats what we did.

Once we were back on the main road and heading in the right direction again the distance suddenly reduced to 11 miles, much better. Quite soon we were very near where I expected the campsite to be. I was not going to be let off driving that easily though as we needed a french stick and some cash to pay the campsite. My idea was to just drive on site and ask where the nearest supermarket / cash machine was. A certain person however decided  that we should instead drive towards Exmouth 'only' 7 miles away and look for a supermarket on the outskirts.

After several miles of twisty lanes and oncoming lorries we reached Exmouth and stopped at the first convenience store we found. Typically, they didn't have a french stick but Lynda bought a crusty loaf which will do plus she got £50 out of the till, only cost 50p so not bad. Once more back heading towards our campsite for the next 2 days. As our satnav is designed for lorries it didn't take us down any narrow lanes but we stayed on main roads until we were pulling into Grindlebrook Farm campsite.

As I type this its just after 12.00 and we have electricity and a tv signal. I  had a quick look at the facilities, all looks very nice and clean. Its still raining though so all seems a bit gloomy, I'm sure it will be a great site if the sun comes out. Having had a bit of a mooch about around the site I still think it is pretty good for the £15 a night we have to pay, other places charge a lot more. The woman who runs the place, Cheryll, came round to collect the money and is very friendly and chatty. I think where they have come unstuck with this site is they haven't quite finished it off properly as some parts are a bit untidy. Also they need to keep the grass cut neatly. Lynda was not impressed by the large converted lorry parked on the pitch next to us. It had a family living in it, obviously fulltiming. Didn't cause us any disturbance but all making the place look a bit scruffy.

Lovely view of the countryside directly from our pitch.

Very large  pitches, need to keep the grass cut though.

This end of that building is 'reception', it was never open during our stay.

They also run a small nursery business here.

On the site's website there are photos of campers sitting on these chairs enjoying home made cake.

This end of the building houses the facilities, not bad. Nice large shower rooms.

15th May.

Much better weather today, dry and reasonably warm, looks like the sun might come out. We had a choice of places to go today but Lynda persuaded me to opt for Killerton House a National Trust property. This was the furthest away of the places to visit but I wouldn't have to shell out for admission fees as we are NT members of course. The satnav said Killerton House was only about 12 miles away anyway so not far. We had to bypass Exeter which was very busy with traffic, I will admit I ignored the satnav at one point and ended up going in the wrong direction for a mile or so and had to turn round.

We got to Killerton House without mishap and parked in one of their coach parking bays. It was still fairly early and we had to wait a few minutes before we could enter the grounds. First impressions of Killerton House were, wow! It helped that the sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm but we were very impressed. As the house didn't open till 11.00 and it was still only about 10.30 we had a good walk round the gardens. Quite often when we visit NT properties the gardens seem to be either not quite in bloom or on their way out for the year. Not so at Killerton House. The gardens, shrubs,  flowers and trees were very good with a backdrop of lovely views over the Devon countryside. Loads of photos for you to look at so you'll see what I mean hopefully.

Once the house was open we went in to explore. Not a massive stately home this one but many rooms to walk through full of beautiful furniture and paintings. There was also a fashion exhibition to look at which was quite good. We also liked the large number of photos of the last family to own Killerton which were dotted about the place. In case you want to know Killerton House was owned by the Acland (? spelling) family. Richard Acland gave the whole estate - 6500 acres, 18 farms etc to the Trust in 1944.

Soon it was getting near lunchtime so we headed towards the restaurant. Not quite open yet so we had a coffee while we waited. We enjoyed a very nice lunch, steak and ale pie for me, sausages for Lynda plus we had bread and olive oil / balsamic vinegar to nibble on while we waited for our food. Two coffees, our food plus wine for Lynda, rasberry drink for me came to £33 which we thought was okay. Very pleasant waitress / waiter service at the table too.

After lunch we carried on walking round the grounds. The chapel was different to most we have seen on NT estates, very interesting.  Before long we were walking back to the van, via the shop of course where Lynda bought some cider, jam and shortbread biscuits. We needed some supplies on the way back and Lynda decreed that we had to stop at an Aldi  she had seen on the way over. I pulled in as instructed to find a small, crowded car park with nowhere at all to park a 7.5 metre motorhome. I urged Lynda to be as quick as possible and went of to double park, blocking in several cars.

All worked out in the end of course and after getting some diesel we drove back to the site and sat outside for a while. Typically the sun soon went in as the grey clouds started rolling in so we were soon back indoors watching several Gavin and Stacey (groan) dvds.


Right, brace yourself for loads of photos....

Easy parking at Killerton House.

Lynda (on the right) and friend. 

Beautiful wisteria on the front of the house.

Gardens were great, quite a lot of gardeners working around the place not surprisingly.

One of the earls brought a black bear back from his travels, this is where he kept it.

Called the Bear House!

Entrance to the ice house.

Did I mention the fab gardens?

Foolishly I mentioned to Lynda that this tree had an interesting bark so she had to take a photo.

Giant Redwood tree, 37 metres tall apparently.

We managed to have a turn sitting in these deck chairs, lots of people after them.

Only photo I dared take indoors.

Lynda choosing lunch - 'yes, I'll have one of everything waiter, with extra chips'.

Very impressed with the chapel.

16th May.

As I type this it is still only 06.15 and I have been up and typing and sorting photos for quite a long time. We are leaving here today and we might not have electricity for the laptop later so I thought I had better get things done now. First cup of tea was at 04.00!

We left Grindlebrook Farm by about 09.30 not 100% sure where we were going next. I had a couple of places lined up where we could stay tonight, a Britstops pub just south of Exeter and a nice sounding farm shop the other side of Dartmouth. Lynda was not all that keen on either of these and would prefer to get to Woodlands Grove campsite (due there Sunday) a day early. I had a feeling that we would have to pay a lot for the extra night but I phoned the site anyway to check - they wanted £30.50 for the extra night. Considering we are only paying £54 for the next 5 nights this is just a tad expensive.

So, we would have to have a think about where to stop tonight. In the meantime we decided to revisit Buckfast Abbey, this is easy to get to and more important, free to get in. We soon arrived and found the car park quite busy. There was no one about to ask so I just parked in the coach parking area anyway. Its a lovely sunny and warmish day today so we just went for a wander around the grounds, all very pleasant. The abbey itself is a nice building, only built in the 20th century surprisingly.

We went in to the abbey to have a nose round and were pleased to hear there was a choir practice going on. There is a concert here tonight so they were getting a last practice in. We would liked to have stayed in the area tonight so that we could come to the concert (free). Ideally we could have just stayed parked up in the coach park but there is a sign saying no camping or overnight parking so they have obviously had people trying it on before.

Time for refreshments in the pleasant cafe. We both had croissant and coffee, not nice health croissant though - mine was full of cheese and mushrooms while Lynda opted for cheese and bacon, very nice though. Last stop before leaving was the shop of course, I waited in the van while Lynda had fun.

Choir practice in the abbey, sing up at the back there!

Nice healthy snack.

'Muriel'  on the cafe wall.

Still quite early and the weather was nice so we drove further along the A38 towards Plymouth so that we could visit another NT property - Saltram. Very easy to find but the car park was looking busy. I asked the chap on the gate if we could park in the coach park. He was, shall we say, a sandwich short of a picnic / not the sharpest knife in the box, but he said we could use a coach parking space if we couldn't find anywhere else. Bit of faffing about turning Ruby round in awkward places before we eventually found the only coach parking space. Lynda went in to ask if we could use it and they said okay. According to the pleasant lady in the ticket office Saltram House is so busy because it is very near the city (Plymouth) and easy to get to whereas many NT properties are out in the middle of nowhere.

Another day, another NT property. Some lovely rooms / ceilings and guides in every room waiting to tell you all they know about the house if you give them a chance.

Once the house had been explored we went off for a walk round the garden. All very well looked after but we both agreed that its not a patch on Killerton House where we went yesterday. By sheer coincidence our route took us past the chapel tearoom so of course we had to go and have a look. This is certainly one of the very best such places we have been in. All done out in a very olde worlde style with music from a bygone era playing quietly in the background. Very polite service too. We both had a large slice of cake plus Lynda had rooibos tea while I had oolong - no, I had never heard of it either but it was quite nice.

I think they call this the orangery.

I had to keep Lynda away from the water feature or she  would want the ladies again!

Superb tea room.

 

Would have been nice to have walk down by the river, as always we didn't explore properly.

Right, thats another NT property crossed off the list. We headed east back along the A38 turning off at Ivybridge to visit the large Tesco store there for supplies. There is a lorry park nearby which allows motorhomes to park overnight for a charge of £8. We had a quick look but certainly wouldn't stay there, it was full of lorries would you believe! Amazingly, Lynda actually suggested that we 'wildcamp' on Dartmoor. We have actually done this before in our first van and it all worked out fine. We were in a different area now though and nowhere near where we found a safe place to park last time. I pulled on the main road anyway at a place called South Brent. Very soon Lynda spotted a brown campsite sign and said we should go and have a look and see what it was like, only about a mile away.

What a mile that was. You will see from the photos below the problem I had with a low bridge. I had hoped that I would be able to park somewhere and send Lynda in to the site to ask about the cost of staying for one night. Unfortunately this wasn't possible because I had to pull on to the site from the narrow lane and straight away the owner was there. I soon found myself handing over (gulp) £23 to stay the night. The site owner, another Paul, runs this site during the summer (fleecing campers if you ask me) then spends the winter touring France in his motorhome lucky chap.

Pleasant little site I suppose and we relaxed and drank wine in the sunshine while I tried to forget about what it was costing. Just about 50 yards from our pitch the other side of a large hedge is a railway line. The train noise caused us no trouble at all but its another black mark against this site.  Massive black mark for the 'facilities' though. We had had a quiet night and I resolved to go and have a very long, hot shower this morning. Not only is the shower / toilet block in need of improvement, knocking down would be best, but the showere was barely warm!

Never mind, its about 09.30 now and soon we will be hitting the road for pastures new.

Quite a pleasant spot for the night.

I have never heard of a length limit, Ruby is 24' 7" long and 9' 6" high! Luckily I knew we could get under the bridge.