Author: The Travelling Billberries

Does it ever stop raining?

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ 1 Comment

Wales, I have been here a few times, some of which have really stayed with me as happy, fullfilling memories such as beating Manchester United on penalties in the FA cup final and seeing my the future sister in law fall off her bike when a plane flew over us very low and loud. All that said the main overriding memory of Wales is wind and rain so it was not without concern that I agreed to hiring a motohome and setting off for dragon country.

Having said that we were going to spend time in Wales we did in fact start off in the cotswolds, Stow on the Wold to be exact. By chance we ended up at a campsite run by some bloke from country file, if you did know his name when you arrived then there was no way you would not know it by the end of your stay, Adam Heston. Everyone loves Adam, the tamest horse on the farm was only tame because Adam hand reared her from a foal. I found I was not his biggest fan by the end of it all. Nice campsite though.

The main reason for being in this part of the world was to see my family. We had been invited to my nephews daughters first birthday so we thought we would go and then go. We did, nice party good to catch up then head off into the rain and the tail end of storm Brian.

Strom Brian named by the Irish met office, was there no other name? Is Brian a good name for flooding and structure damaging winds why not Beachamp, Bernard or even Belinda?

Now we are firmly in the Gower, supposedly beatiful although I have only seen cloud and rain, we did do a nice walk on the beach yesterday where we saw great clams, snails and starfish in really lovely rock pools.

And Izaak has discovered the art of levitation, thought we would get a funny shot of us all jumping in the air. Izaak held it for a full minute I think it was the magical wellies.

We have a couple of days left, today is so horrible we are stuck in the van colouring and writing blogs. If there is a break in the weather we are going to go to the pub.

Swiss White

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ 1 Comment

So I knew the Swiss didn’t do things by halves but our campsite on the banks of the crystal clear ( if a little glacial) banks of Lake Brienz was something else. The loo collage gives you just a sense, clean, no queues, no toilet paper moments, even a dishwasher or a sauna should the mood take, and the company was fab too. 

Do you prefer the Chianti or the flurie?

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ 1 Comment

This is not a question you hear too often on a campsite in middle England but it was one I was asked nonetheless last weekend while camping near rutland water.

It happened on a wet  night while we were camping with Georgina and James and I felt I had to make a note of it so that it was not forgotten.

We did if course have a lovely relaxed weekend of kite flying, canoeing and, the kids with Siobhan and James “supervising”, sampling and aqua park of slides and jumps in the lake.

Fun was had by all. My answer to the question was of course “both!”

I told you so (and the best rockpools!)

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ 1 Comment

After a walk and a wail yesterday, I did drag the kids back to Corbiere’s lighthouse to walk out along the causeway, having watched ‘The Light between Oceans’ the night before it seemed even more poignant (even though it was not hundreds of miles from civilisation, just a few hundred metres along a causeway). I had read somewhere that there were the best rockpools ever, along the causeway and we were not to be disappointed, after a few minutes exploring we saw open anemones, little glass shrimps, underwater forests of the most beautiful seaweed and then finally a sea hare (a what I hear you cry, well to Joe it was a Kelp Dragon, and after the walking shark experience we were all inclined to defer to him on this occasion). However research at home proved it to be a Sea Hare – a species of sea slug – the most exciting slug I have come across.

A walk and a wail.

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ Leave a comment

The Jersey coastline did nothing to disappoint, an almost deserted route dotted with beautiful bays, surrounded by bright yellow gorse, lovely pink, purple and white bluebells. Probably only fair to mention the medium security prison that we skirted on our route, much to Izaak’s disdain, he seemed convinced we were going to be overrun by rioting convicts at any moment. The plan was to walk out on the causeway to the Corbiere’s lighthouse, however after about ten minutes of Mae wailing that her ankles hurt, her back hurt and we had promised it would only be a twenty minute walk we conceded that instead we would grab an ice cream and get the bus back. Family harmony was restored, but we are driving out to that blinking lighthouse and we shall walk the causeway!

Chillin…

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ 1 Comment

April in a tent, even a fancy one was always going to be a risk, would it be great or just wet and freezing. Well three nights in and I can safely say we are chilling. When the dipping sun drags us, our glasses of wine and chocolate in from the veranda, a cosy fire awaits. Nights are spent playing cards, watching films and listening to the not so dulcet tones of endangered animals which sound like they are trying to further reduce their numbers.


Mornings are heralded by a distinctly cold tent – but tucked up in my double bed and duvet – am I bothered, no – and the call of every monkey and bird in the place, chickens and dogs in South America have nothing on this. But the kids sleep on, there must be something hard wired into their brain that just blocks out all noise, how they sleep through it god only knows.

Nettles, Tents and a Dumb Bunny

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ Leave a comment

How do you prepare yourself and family for a week in Jersey? I am not saying I got it right but my strategy was to make them watch a particularly early episode of Bergerac and endlessly play the theme tune to the series at breakfast for a week or so before. Excellent conditioning all round.

So off we set a nice relaxed start from the station and we were soon  in Jersey, no problems other than missing the train and having too many bags, the usual stuff.

This trip sees us in a very fancy tent staying in a wild life centre (zoo) that was set up by Gerald Darrell. It’s lovely and if the weather holds out its going to be great.

I am sure the kids will want to say something about it the zoo so I may leave it to them. It’s really good for lemurs.

As with every easter we had a very generous visit from the Easter Bunny but I have to say that he can’t be too clever. While liberally scattering small chocolate treats about the tent, which at the time was very very cold, he decided to put a small ganache filled egg under Siobhans pillow. At 4.30 in the morning I was woken up by a very confused wife sitting up hands in front of her, covered in molten chocolate. I can only describe it as like the scene in the godfather when the movie producer finds the head of his prize horse in his bed. Crazy crazy stuff. All I could think about was just how could someone make so much mess with such a small egg it was everywhere and naturally the bedding was a perfect white.

The rest of the week is animals, sea, a hill race and I think some nice wine….

Wow that was quick

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ Leave a comment

It was 4 o’clock in the morning and my beauty sleep was screwed (auto correction of ceased but parents told me to leave it). Scampering into the car to give us plenty of time to catch the train. After trying to sleep but it being unsuccessful due to joes constant blabbering about his tooth I decided to listen to some music and let the journey pass by.

A boose cruise run like clock work…..now referred to as Biturbo Rally #1

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ Leave a comment

At the beginning of the year Matt suggested it would be pretty cool to drive to a wine warehouse in France in the Biturbos to have some lunch and pick up some nice cheap wine as a day trip. What a great idea! Everyone was keen….

Some months later, October in fact, we found ourselves preparing for the trip which coincided nicely with matts 50th birthday. The idea was to preorder the wine, go and pick it up then have a nice lunch. Texts were duly sent off to Matt to remind him to order and we looked at the lists to see what we would like. Time ran on and soon the order deadline was missed …. no problem though as they have loads of wine to choose from it would be OK.

The day trip planned was Sunday 16th October. The Friday arrived and we were all relaxed and looking forward to the trip with a nice coastal route planned. At a late hour Siobhan casually dropped in “is the warehouse open on a Sunday? It is France you know…..” well, it was bloody France and the shop would be shut, “well it’s not really about the wine is it” was my only reply. Thankfully matt had also forgotten to order anything so no harm done.

Sunday morning we were up at 5.15 to meet matt and family sans Gabriel at south Mimms for 6am, cold and dark, the heating in the car not working grumbles from everyone about what the hell we were doing. I think I was the only happy one awake.

Matt not knowing the details of his train turned up a little later than I would have liked, seemed pretty relaxed and we promptly made the journey to the tunnel where it transpired I had booked the earlier train to matts, a cold and tired Siobhan observed she could of had an extra 30 minutes sleep, so far so good……

Train was fine and we took a beautiful dry coastal drive to wimeraux a seaside town with charm and no coffee shops. Leo managed to almost fall in the sea with an unpleasant thud on his backside and a coffee shop was found.

Then it was off to Montruil via the motorway allowing us to give the cars a good run where we had a great lunch in a place called froggys tavern ra ra! The meal was huge and so good that one fairly large potato left with us for later, Matt took it.

 

By the end of a big lunch finished off with a very special fig tart it was time to walk, the kids needed to get out and run a bit. As we ventured out to the open it started to rain but being hardy we still strode out. This was not our sensible move as 30 minutes later we were all back at the cars soaked through.

A wet drive back to the tunnel commenced where we managed to get an earlier train despite matt and niamh getting stuck at passport behind a car containing, as matt called them “terrorists”. Niamh for some reason referred to them as Romanian, not really sure about that.

the rest of the day was simple and personally I had a good laugh. It was nice to catch up with the family and for the day.

All in all it was you could say a well conceived yet poorly executed away day. Next year will be Biturbo rally #2 I can’t see it being much better.

img_0752.jpg

Back home (and Joe’s wobbly tooth fell out)

~ The Travelling Billberries ~ Leave a comment

2088 miles, 80 ice creams, 120 swims and lots of fun later and we are home, with only one hour delay during the whole journey! Now it’s just  10 loads of washing, two runs of the dishwasher, a tent, boat, snorkelling equipment, 5 chairs, a table and a car to clean and we can relax to a roast beef dinner, Bill chocolate ice cream (make that 85 ice creams) and bottle of red (our last for a while – detox). 

Oh and did I forget to say, Joe’s wobbly tooth just fell out!!!!!!! Happy holiday memories made.