1st to 2nd August - Daisy Farm, Littlehampton, England

Views from the night before

Similar to what took us over

Heading into Dover

We left “early” to ensure we could buy the ferry tickets, most people at the caravan site had already pre-booked. No problem in the end. We arrived in Dover at about 12:30 (1.5 hour on the ferry) and began driving on the “wrong” side of the road (compared to UAE) whilst left hand drive. To be honest, the left hand drive is actually very easy. Just keep your mirror as close as you can to the gutter, fence or trees on your left and let the other motorist get out of the way!!

We took the advice of our GPS, called Brenda or Stupid bitch, and ended up on the ‘B’ roads, which are narrow, rough, bendy and not ideal at all for BB. She was Stupid bitch that day. What should have taken 1 hour took about 3 hours. Mind you we did some nice scenery. So from now on, we use Brenda in the background and stick to main roads until we need to head to our destination….campervaning 101 really.

There was one incident where I was glad to be wearing underpants when I underestimated a very sharp corner (poor signage really…) with a steep decline and then steep incline. I managed to break in time but as I was turning the beast I pretty much took up the entire two lanes, was close to stalling it whilst still blocking both lanes. I just caught first gear and slowly crept up….no harm done. I have realised, although obvious, it takes a lot longer to stop this thing when at speed.

Thanks to Brenda we drove through Hastings, which was actually pretty nice, and then through Brighton. We were going to stop and stay but all the campervan sites were fully booked. So we kept on trucking to Littlehampton (we will hopefully stay in Brighton on the way back). We stopped at a caravan site which is part of the “caravan club”. Long story short, to get discounted rates and in some cases be allowed to stay you have to be a member. So we are officially part of the grey haired army. There are other sites around but with this membership you can book on line and there are certified locations too which offer less facilities but also cost a lot less, some are also only for members.

The Daisy Farm site had some showers so I was able to have my first shower in three days, on nat’s request, although I was starting to itch….

We walked into the town and had our first fish and chips on the beach….well I think it was a beach. Couldn’t see the sand through the rocks and seaweed but a nice atmosphere none the less. The seagulls here are massive and put ours to shame.

My first BBQ of the trip and it had to rain

At this point I’m supposed to say something about Nat beating me at mini golf which included a hole in one but I can’t really remember the details.

3rd to 5th August - Stratford Upon Avon via Marlborough and Bourton on the Water

We left Daisy Farm direction Stratford. Drove through Salisbury and stopped off to visit the Cathederal which has the biggest steeple in UK. Quite a nice town (not like ours!) although we hadn’t booked anything so couldn’t stay. Went on to the stonehenge. Had lunch in the car park before walking to the henge. They wanted 8 pounds per person, apparently it costs a lot of money to keep 4000 year old rocks from wear and tear.

On our way to Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral

and again...

Oldest working clock in the world

more shots of inside the cathedral (above)

After a few phone calls we managed to get a place just outside of Marlborough (Kingston farm). Arrived, played our first game of badminton and then un-did all our good work and went looking for a pub. We took our bikes and rode them into town, typical English summer it bucketed down on the way but made the first beer taste even better. After four the ride home was fun but much harder! Was out our first real English pub and pretty much as expected, beer with cricket and soccer on the tv. For the record, 1 pint and 1 shandy was about 6 pounds…not too bad.

Our first English Pub

Our view from BB

Enjoying "Fat Bastard", a full bodied French Red with a Screw Top!! Frenchies, can you believe it!!

Well I knew this time would come but the Kingston farm did not have any toilets or showers so we had to do our first……..no. 2's in campervan toilet. I then had the pleasure of emptying the toilet into the chemical disposal point before we took off the following morning, as the “dumping” point (he he he) was outdoors the smell was minimal so was ok…..it was the visual that I didn’t need but I will spare you the full details.

The 4^th to the 5^th August was spent at Monk Farm in Stratford Upon Avon via a quick stop at Bourton on the water.

Arrived at our site in Stratford Upon Avon (Monk Farm) late in the afternoon. We stopped off at Bourton on the Water which was just the cutest little town (Nats words). Had our first cream tea (tea and scones) which were pretty damn tasty. Weather held out just in time for us to get back to car.

On the way to Stratford we also stopped at the Avebury Stone circles (above three photos)

Bourton on the Water

mmmm

Nat's favourite ice cream truck

More Bourton on the Water

We took a large amount of photos here but were all kind of similar..

After arriving to monk farm we did what was becoming a trend and went to find a pub. We were told there is a public path that leads to the village. The public path involved about 100m of gravel road and 800m of sheep and shit paddock which was great in my thongs.

The public path

We found a pub and I ordered a local beer which was warm, flat and tasted like piss. The real welcome to England!! I fixed the nasty taste with a Carling (becoming my beer of choice) and headed back.

Next day we walked into Stratford Upon Avon and visited Shakespeares house (up the road from a subway…gold!) and then walked down the river to the church where he was buried, which for some reason was quite a nice experience being there.

The main tourist street

Shakespeare's house...well sort of

Me, undertaking some deep level reflecting......or just taking a break

We also had what was apparently the “world’s greatest pasty” which was almost as good as a balfours in SA.

The walk to and from Stratford was about 80min…….justification for the beer after a long day.

Some more pictures of the city.

Found somewhere to leave Benny while I scoot around to the shops :)

6^th to the 8^th – Warwick (CASTLE TIME!!!!!)

Had a lazy morning before our 15 min drive to Warwick. Beautiful day with the sun out so we hung around the camper all day. I actually started to read my book which has been sitting by my bedside for the past 12 months.

Next day we spent the whole day at Warwick castle (much to Nat's delight). Awesome site with sword and jousting shows. Also did the dungeon viewing which had different areas with different scenes based around the 1300's. All based in small, dark and dank rooms, it reminded me of the classic ghost train at the fair, they used the element of surprise to shock you. During the tour a few young kids had to leave because they were scared, it was done pretty well. Actors would play the part of the town doctor or tourcherer and would describe what they did, the whole time they treated us like we were the peasants, pretty funny.

During one of them Nat was put in a cage for the duration and some guy was used as a prop to show how they used to torture people (twist and pull the tongue, cut little Johnson etc) . The day finished off with a demonstration of the trebuchet or catapult. “Benny was happy”, check out the video, it takes a little while, I need to work out how to trim the videos.

View from inside the castle grounds, one of the shows that they put on through out the day

View from one of the castle towers

The Gaol was actually kind of creepy, they had sound effects and left it dark and dank, they use to lock someone up in a cage to die and rot

I think this video is for the guys, hope it worked

The second day in Warwick was used to check out the rest of the town, nothing worth mentioning after the awesome castle experience. However we did visit the old museum in the city centre. It had many uses before the museum, hospital, school and some army headquarters. I took some photos to see if Mum recognised some of the old Victorian kitchen and class rooms…..