Travels > The UK > Our mobile home

Sun 6.9.2009 by Liz

Here I write again, a few days gone. Currently I sit in our van, decked out with an air mattress (conveniently sized and fitting the van's back tray nicely), our sleeping bags zipped together to make "Super bag", our back packs (taking up some of my sleeping side of course) and a travel washing line suction-capped to the side of the ban with various items drying. It's starting to look like a bit of a mobile home now (in its own make-shift way).

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So, we left Liverpool on Thursday afternoon and chose the direction of Cornwall to drive to as the weather forecast for our initial northern planned route was looking too wet for our liking. We made our way South, via freeway and motorway at first, later diverting our path onto smaller country roads to better see the country we were travelling through, who wants to just see freeway anyway? In England the roads are labelled 'A', 'B', 'C' etc. in terms of their arterial girth and throroughfare... we decided it was best to stick to the furtherest lettered road as possible!

So the 'C' roads, mostly narrow and winding, without shoulders and were bordered by high hedges or thick tree growth, sometimes forming a tunnel of foliage. Driving these road at night sometimes gave me the feeling we were chasing a white rabbit into his ever expanding rabbit hole. The countryside, so lush and alive - more so than we'd seen for quite a long time was refreshing on the eyes.

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We wound our way down small one-lane roads (better done at night as oncoming cars are easier to spot around corners due to headlights) and finally found a nice place to pull over and rest for the night. Our first night in the van. Setting up was not without its kinks, some of which were are still ironing out (Jack edit: Lizzie was still ironing out!). The back of the van isn't long enough for us and the supplies together, so we have to transfer those into the front seat when we want to go to sleep. Doing so becomes a process you get used to until it's so practiced, it's like an art form.

The next day saw us at Hereford. It is a quaint town with an old style town square. It looked very much a tourist hub, where many passed through from one destination to the next. Here we got breakfast and scoped out our internet and power access options. The pub we finally settled into said we could hook up to their power and work a while. We sat working while listening to cheesy 80's music and early 90's pop one hit wonders. It was an enjoyable atmosphere.

Once it was apparent that we over stayed our welcome (a good sign is when the manager comes over and says "You two have been here a while chewing into my electrics with them computers"). We packed up and left his establishment.

It was perhaps our first experience in a town that had become far too overcrowded with the number of people living there considering the space available however we remain impressed as fortunately the people seem to be very considerate of each other. We left bustling Hereford (with its traffic jammed streets) and headed to Wales. Not sure why, but I liked how most of the signs had both English and Welsh on them. We ended up at a Caravan park near Brecon for the evening. (Yey, showers!)

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We woke in the morning, put on some washing and hooked up to their power to do some work. Once the washing and work was done, away we went. I plotted a loose route to continue south to by-pass a castle I wanted to see. It was a large castle (largest in Wales) with a moat! (Well, a river that was redirected as a water defence.)

It was just like I hoped; old, medieval, all stone, holes for windows and with moss and ivy on the walls. We managed to coax our camera to take a few shots before the battery gave up. Still, it was cool.

After my first castle experience (not counting the hotel one we saw from outside) we headed to Dartmoor National Park to find a wild camping area. Deciphering our low res map we had of the park, we headed out to find our camp.

Upon entering the camping area, we read a sign: "Drive slowly, sheep lay on road". OK? Sure... so we drive on. Sure enough, over the first hill, we see sheep laying on the road and beside it and grazing and walking... everywhere!

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We slowly wound our way down the road, avoiding the sheep or letting them cross. We pulled up to an inlet off the road for the night. Here we attempted to cook our left-overs from last night's burrito dinner. The wind, chilly and strong, made it a challenge to keep the stove alight. We managed our meal, but by then I was cold, grumpy and wanted to be in the van. Note: we must do something about this cooking situation. Cooking in the cold isn't working for me.

Since we arrived at night, in the morning we could actually see where we stayed. Dartmoor revealed a vista of rolling hills. Devoid of trees but scattered with small shrubs, bracken, rocks and sheep. From here, we made our way to Tavistock. We found a nice pub who were happy to have us in their establishment to work all day. And this one served food! Great food in fact. Five hours later, a meal and many beverages, we depart form our pub office and continue on our way.

We found our way to St Austell and now are in a caravan park that has an indoor pool. I'll see if the temp meets my standards in the morning. Well, this ends another long entry, I'd better call it a night.

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