12 July to 2 August 2021

Let the adventure begin! No commitments for a few weeks so we can truly start life on the road. The only downside is that it’s the beginning of the summer holidays and there’s still limited overseas travel so we’re having to book further ahead than we’d like.

Never let it be said that it always rains in Wales! For two weeks, we had the most glorious weather to the extent that the thoughts for walking more of the coastal path were exchanged for walking to the nearest beach for a swim and a swim without wetsuits at that! The beaches were quiet and the water so clear you could think you were in the Med.

During the days we spotted, from a distance, dolphins and seals, and being to the west we watched the most amazing sunsets most nights.

We did do a little walking along the coast path from Cilfforch. Firstly it was north into Aberaeron, a small town with lots of restaurants around the harbour, and then along the River Aeron valley to the National Trust property at Llanerchaeron, an 18th century farming estate with a house designed by John Nash who is responsible for many of London’s grand buildings including Buckingham Palace.

The following day we walked south into New Quay, another small village built around a harbour. Another beautiful day meant that the beach was packed so we had a quick stroll along the harbour wall (from which we could see dolphins out in Cardigan Bay), grabbed a crab sandwich in a quiet café at the top of the hill and made our way back.

A change of scenery next as we headed inland to Aberffrwd, via Aberystwyth, and a complete contrast to the busy seaside villages. The CL is in the River Rheidol valley close to a reservoir and backing on to the river. This was a really well run little site and we sat outside the van watching the kites circling above and the steam trains of the Vale of Rheidol Railway as they passed along the opposite side of valley. We came here to walk to the waterfalls at Devil’s Bridge where the river plunges into a deep, wooded gorge, and the three bridges which span the river. We paid to enter the falls to be able to view them and the bridges better via the Waterfall and Nature trail, a circular walk of about an hour via steep paths and steps. A shorter 10 minute walk to view the river and the bridges is available at the Punchbowl across the main road. Our full 12 mile walk took us out across fields, up through some steep woods and over the railway line and we returned via the riverside to see other small falls.

From Aberffrwd we moved back to the coast to another cliff top site at Cae Du Farm. Definitely more a tent/campervan site than motorhome but that wasn’t a problem, and with the cheapest washing machine we’ve come across so far! We arrived early enough in the day to snatch a pitch close to the cliff edge (cliffs not so high here) and were able to spot a couple of seals, and on our last night here, another beautiful sunset from the beach.

The coastal path isn’t actually along the coast at this point so we walked a little inland to walk back out to the coast at Tywyn, a town which seems to be dominated by static caravan sites. We did find a few out of the way parking spaces along the route which we might use in the future, especially come the winter when a lot of sites are closed. We had lunch on the platform of the Talyllyn Railway, the World’s First preserved railway (apparently) running since 1865 with the original locomotives and stock.

The big hills now beckon!

Sites used:

Innage Farm CL, near Chepstow: £8 per night. No EHU but water and dumping facilities. All grass.

Pitton Cross Campsite, near Rhossili: £24 per night. No EHU (but available on other pitches), mixed grass and hardstanding. Full facilities including laundry.

Dale Hill Farm Campsite: £15 per night. No EHU. Coin operated showers. All grass and park anywhere on the sloping field.

Rhosson Ganol, near St David’s: £24 per night. No EHU but water and dumping facilities. All grass, some sloping. Showers, toilets and laundry short walk across the road (all fairly new!).

Cilfforch Farm CL, near Aberaeron: £10 per night. No EHU but water and dumping facilities. Great recycling including food waste. Mostly flat grass (kept short by the resident sheep!) with some hardstanding on old paved areas and sloping down to the clifftop.

Aberffrwd Farm CL: £10 per night. No EHU but water and dumping facilities. Mostly flat well kept grass.

Cae Du Farm Campsite: £25 per night. No EHU but water and dumping facilities. Long thin (low) cliff top site with free for all parking – need to find the flat spots!

We thought this would be a good opportunity to take stock of how our new life is going – what’s good, what’s not so good, things we like, things we don’t like etc!

It feels like it has taken a while to get into the swing of things as various appointments have meant frequent visits back to home. Not that we’re complaining and the reasons were important – vaccinations and medical, plus the bonus of seeing family and friends, just not how we expected life to be. We have also had to plan more than we wanted to work around COVID restrictions and the effect of people not being able to go abroad – campsites in popular spots booked and a backlash against inconsiderate motorhomers who are swarming all over the country.

The above aside, we have fallen into a new routine quite easily. Mornings tend to be leisurely starting with coffee in bed. The alarm is almost forgotten and is only switched on if we need to be off a pitch early (not so much of a problem on the small certified sites or locations) or have a long walk planned. Days are spent either walking along one the many footpaths we are discovering or have an admin/housework day, as yes it still has to be done. Luckily, we’re happy in our own company as we are together all day every day and we quite like being away from lots of people – we do sometimes wonder if we’re turning into grumpy old people!

Apart from when meeting friends, most meals are home cooked and having time to prepare meals is meaning we’re cutting our food waste considerably. We still want to find more markets or farm shops in which to buy groceries although using supermarkets has had the advantage of us also being able to do some laundry at the same time as well as relatively easy parking. We can do the small stuff on the road using a lidded box in the shower whilst we’re moving but that doesn’t work for the towels and bedding! We’ve used the Revolution outside laundry facilities on several occasions when we’ve been shopping at Morrison’s as the ones we’ve noticed at fuel stations didn’t have parking suitable for a 6.7m motorhome. We may, once or twice, have visited family or friends and cheekily asked to use their washing machine 😊

When ordering the van, it was kitted out with full timing in mind – as many solar panels on the roof as would fit, three leisure batteries, inverter and fully equipped kitchen. The large fridge/freezer has meant that we can also cut the number of supermarket visits which, in current times, has been a relief as well as allowing us to be more remote. All are working well to date and we are really living almost as we would at home, just in a smaller space.

We still watch the TV of an evening, either via the inbuilt aerial or our Firestick. We got a great deal on an unlimited data SIM last year through Superdrug so no problem with data usage. It will be interesting to see if they make any changes for European usage as it is currently unlimited there too but with the other UK providers now updating their packages post-Brexit, will our plan go the same way?

Every so often we’re emptying out the garage to check that we still need everything we’re carrying. Our first couple of visits home were accompanied by bags of stuff we realised we’d never use and we continue to refine the essential kit list. Clothes still need sorting and are split between what we currently wear and don’t, with the winter jumpers, thermals, gloves etc currently packed in vacuum bags in the garage.

There was never going to be a perfect time to embark on this lifestyle but this was the best time for us. Despite the earlier comment of liking our own company, we do miss family and friends but the internet has made keeping in touch so much easier. We just have to put a little more thought into meeting up. Financially, putting it off for a couple more years would certainly have been better but the almost stress free life far outweighs any financial gain. However, as pensions kick in over the next few years and we’re able to get out of the relatively expensive UK (even more so at the moment as places try to recoup the losses due to COVID and it being the school holidays!) that situation will ease. We were doing pretty well with running at just under an average of £15 per night for camping but the holidays will inflate that considerably. But, even though COVID has delayed our original plan to go to Canada and the continued turmoil around international travel the UK is proving to be a worthy alternative. We are finding amazing locations with the freedom to visit in our own time and at our own pace.

Back to the van – we love it! There’s not much we’d really change other than swap the LPG heating for a diesel heating system just because diesel is easier to source, and then a couple of smaller tweaks; we should have insisted on a Fantastic Fan rather than a Hymer one and also have requested external power points but these two are fairly minor niggles rather than problems. The big plusses are the garage (lots of room but have to watch the weight!), big fridge and plenty of solar panels to charge the extra batteries – we added on the power pack when buying the van which gave us a third battery with an inverter. Extra 240V and USB sockets were also added to allow us along with a MiFi aerial to keep us connected to the outside world. We would recommend the Froli Star bed system which goes under the mattress as we both agree that the bed in the van is even more comfortable than the one at home!

Our main difficulty so far has only become apparent in the past ten days or so when we’ve tried to book sites for the next few weeks (we’re heading to Snowdon and North Wales). We probably should have realised earlier but “staycations” are meaning campsites are fully booked and even our preferred small CLs and CSs are busy in the more popular areas. Not that we don’t want people to have fun but our patience on some of the larger sites runs a little thin at times with inconsiderate people, unruly children and constantly yapping dogs disturbing the peace day and night – yes grumpy old people again!

We tend to use Search4Sites as our main search engine and have picked up on recommendations through various FaceBook groups and friends. Using off grid park ups doesn’t feel good at the moment as there is a lot of media noise about inconsiderate campers leaving rubbish and worse in and around laybys and car parks. We know this is only a small minority but to a lot of people all those in campervans/motorhomes are the same. When travelling between sites we’ve come to the conclusion that we need to work on route planning together. As a left-hand drive vehicle, sitting in the passenger seat can feel a little exposed to the oncoming traffic in small country lanes. We’ve noticed that those driving company vehicles/lorries are not so keen on slowing down around bends although our only coming together was with a small car and neither of us was doing more than creeping forward! We’ve never been one for following Tom Tom blindly but it has made a couple of odd route choices recently so now we cross check routes against a good old-fashioned paper map!

Despite there also being lots of social media posts on the lack of LPG refilling sites, we have not had a problem as yet. We use the app MyLPG.EU.

And that’s it! Certainly, no regrets and all being well, we’ll be off to foreign lands soon 😊

28 June to 9 July 2021

After being in the city and then following the flat towpath, it was time to get back to some hills so off to the Malverns we went.

We were staying in the huge camping fields of the Deer Park in the grounds of Eastnor Castle. The facilities are minimal with just several freshwater taps spread across several camping fields with a couple of toilet emptying points. With few other vans there it was so quiet and peaceful – our nearest neighbour was at least 50m away from us!

Our long walk for this week was to be in to the Malverns and see how far along the ridge we could get taking into account the usual #clewleysstopforcoffee. We didn’t quite follow our original route having missed a path (which on our return we realised why – someone had stepped aside to let us pass and had stood at the start of the path) and ended up following another path which led us through shoulder high stinging nettles.

Refreshed after coffee and cake we walked up to the top of the ridge for some amazing views of the surrounding countryside.

The return journey went more to plan and after another coffee we walked up to the British Camp Hill Fort, a huge hillfort thought to date maybe from the Bronze Age, 3,500 years ago, and which was subsequently inhabited by the Romans.

We also paid a visit to Ledbury, a pretty town with a number of timber framed buildings.

From here we headed back to Wiltshire to meet motorhoming friends for the weekend. Kilma Farm was another farmer’s field but electric is available if wanted. Very friendly and helpful owners.

Unfortunately the balloon festival at Bowood House was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic but it was great to sit around and catch up with old friends. We did manage one short walk to the local pub and managed to avoid the rain enough to sit outside for lunch.

The organised route planning has not really kicked in yet for various reasons so we’re jumping around a bit; it’s back up to Hay-on-Wye on the England/Wales border and not a million miles from the Malverns stop.

We’d seen the Dark Orchard CL recommended by several people via the CL group on Facebook and it certainly lived up to our expectations. A well looked after site with a friendly welcome from Linda and her dad, and ideally located for a five minute walk into the town or a walk as long as you want into the Black Mountains.

This was our first mountain walk in a long time with a route planned up Hay Bluff along to Twmpa and back home. The first part all went to plan and we again avoided the rain which we could see moving through the valley.

After the second climb up to Twmpa (almost 3,000ft of ascent in total today) and our usual pork pie and mustard lunch, our luck ran out and it was on with the waterproofs as we made our way down back towards the Wye valley.

The downpour didn’t last too long but by this point the paths showing on our OS map either didn’t exist on the ground, were overgrown or just horrendous walking! After 16.5 miles, a few fly bites and scrambling through muddy hillsides, we made it back both very tired in time to watch England play the Euro semi-finals and devour a well earned fish and chip dinner.

Thursday is market day in Hay so we had a wander around the various stalls. With our cupboards fully stocked we didn’t buy anything but there was a good choice of produce in addition to the local shops.

Something new for the afternoon – wild swimming! A short walk from the town along the river is a small area called The Warren which has a stony beach and easy access to the river. Armed with our new chairs and flasks of coffee, we found our spot and waded into the river. Refreshing is probably a good description! I think this was probably a gentle introduction to wild swimming as the water wasn’t as cold as expected (well by June anyway!) although the strong current made swimming quite difficult. Definitely didn’t put us off doing again though.

On the way home we popped into Hereford to see the Knife Angel, a 27ft, 3.5 ton sculpture of an angel made from 100,000 confiscated knives from police forces across the UK.

The sculpture was outside Hereford Cathedral (also worth a visit) and has been touring the UK to raise awareness of knife crime and all forms of violence and aggression.

It was home again for a weekend to see friends for dinner (thanks Miller and Carter, Rickmansworth for allowing us to overnight in their carpark after eating there) and a day at home to see the girls and use the washing machine. We don’t just visit people to use their washing machine, we promise!

Next week the adventure truly begins…..

Eastnor Castle Campsite, Herefordshire: £12 p/n. No EHU, water and toilet emptying facilities, no rubbish/recycling bins. All grass and not level.

Kilma Farm CS, near Chippenham, Wiltshire: £15 p/n. EHU (able to pitch without for £10 p/n), water and dumping facilities. Currently no rubbish/recycling (June 2021). All grass

Dark Orchard CL, Hay-on-Wye: £12 p/n