“Road Ahead Closed” doesn’t always mean the road you are on – it could be a side road, and as there were no diversion signs and nothing to suggest any issues we carried on.  MISTAKE.  Back we went (where of course there were plenty of diversion signs) through Wells and onto the lorry route to Cheddar.  Not a motorhome-friendly route and far better to approach  the place from the other direction,

Cheddar village centre is ok with most of what you need while the walk up to the gorge reveals more interesting bars, tea rooms and gift shops.  Trouble is by the time you walk from the campsite to the gorge you don’t feel like walking much more, let alone climbing up to the viewing points.  There is loads of parking at the gorge, so maybe a place better visited by car.  A place to return to after doing a bit more research.

Cheddar tourist part – Arthur been here?

There is public transport to Wells and Weston and a few other places.  We went to Wells for an afternoon – busy but pleasant.

Wells Cathedral

The Bishop’s Palace

Getting into Salisbury was bad, but getting out was worse.  No matter – Crossways was easy enough:

Two campsites here – Caravan Club one where we were and the Camping and Caravaning Club one pretty much next door.  Oddly, the latter is the more manicured of the two.  The Camping Club one has composting toilets and they did smell a bit but not of compost – just an odd whiff which was neither fragrant or unpleasant and no reason for anybody to be put off.  Just don’t drop your phone down the loo.

Train station next door has a regular service to Weymouth, Dorchester, Poole, and further afield.  We skipped Dorchester (probably a mistake) and went to Weymouth and the Saturday and Poole on the Sunday,  Weymouth was pleasant  with a castle to go round whereas Poole seems a bit less interesting but featuring boat cruises.  Unfortunately on a Sunday on a bank holiday weekend, the place was mobbed and so were the cruises.

Who ate all the pies?

Tudor toilet where the pies ended up

Portland Castle

Brokenhurst to Salisbury – easy drive apart from the Saturday morning Salisbury ring road.   Confusing and busy.

Salisbury is a pleasant enough place with a cathedral, nice architecture, decent public transport and a nice ambience.  The Magna Carta is here but that is a bit out of date these days.  Salisbury seems like a very cool place to live but on first impressions is lacking a bit as a tourist destination.  No doubt we’ll come back after doing a bit more research into the local area.

There is a big Spitfire on a pole outside the campsite:

Secret Spitfire

They built them here and (other places) without Hitler knowing about it.

Of course the main reason to visit here is the stones, and here they are:

Stonehenge

Stones

Awsome.

Arrived in the New Forest following a few days each in Birmingham, Winchester and Bognor.  Plain sailing until the Bognor-Brokenhurst leg where we got thouroghly lost.

Unfortunately it has rained cats and dogs since we arrived in the New Forest.  We have no idea how long or easy it is to walk to the village since the rain was never off long enough even to attempt it.  In the little bits of respite we managed to meet some of the natives:

Some deer in the New Forest

A horse in the New Forest

Another horse in the New Forest

Leaving for Salisbury tomorrow, hoping for less rain.

Ariived at Somers Wood, Meriden, a wonderfully screaming-children-free adults only site on the outskirts of Birmingham.  Here is a bit of trek to the bus stop along a busy road but the lack of child induced mayhem make it worthwhile.  Moved on to Moreton-in-Marsh next  for a couple of nights before going back to Chapel Lane and finally to Ross-on-Wye before returning home.

The Birmingham arrival coincided with the bank holiday event at the transport museum, so here is an old bus that we got a ride on:

HOV685 at Wythall Transport Museum

Ross-on-Wye is a good place to go with decent public transport links, some interesting shops, a good butcher and a pleasant riverside walk.  Or it would have been pleasnt had we not walked up every hill in the place at least twice to try and fnd the river, eventually discovering there is a prefectly level approach through Aldi’s car park.  The campsite is a short walk to a Morrisons supermarket so no need to go hungry or thirsty.

Metal bird sculpture on riverside walk

Shop with many signs – Ross-on-Wye

We took the bus to Hereford from here.  Good shops, Cathedral, old map if you pay the money (we didn’t as we had both seen it before), and a generally very pleasant place to amble round.

Hereford Cathedral

Our first trip this year took us to London – in February.  It was pretty cold.  Our first stop was Kingsbury Water Park near Birmingham,  followed by Moreton-in-Marsh in the Cotswolds.

Not much tourist activity on this trip, although we finally got to the tower, on a miserable grey day.  The hiighlight was the Beefeater guided tour.  Our Beefeater was ex-Navy, a jovial chap and highly entertaining.  The group following us got an ex-Army, who took his role-play seriously – half the group looked terrified.  The crown jewels were suitably impressive but also somewhat depressing, having seen the puny-in-comparison Scottish crown jewels a few years ago.

Visited Greenwich on one of the better days:

Docklands from Greenwich

Greenwich Foot Tunnel – south entrance

Returned home on 9 March via a couple of nights at Chapel Lane.