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.

Plan was to go to Dorset, maybe Minehead since we don’t see the sea often these days and the weather is still ok.  Plan stuffed by the fuel shortages with the crisis still in full flow.  Tewksbury seemed like a good idea, since it is only 100 miles away,  more or less on the way home and has shops and good public transport links.  We still have a possibility of moving somewhere else afterwards should the crisis abate.  Every petrol station we passed on the way had queues or was deserted, and none had any diesel.  Load of cars going into every motorway services.

Day one was very pleasant – sunshine and people sitting out even though it could hardly be described as warm.  Here is the abbey bathed in sunlight:

Tewksbury Abbey

Day two rained cats and dogs all day.  Not going out in that, so no wine and still no fuel.

Day three and very cold out.  Got the bus to Cheltenham which took longer than expected,  The bus passed many petrol stations, all of them with queues to get in and yellow tags on the diesel pumps saying “not is use”.  Cheltenham was freezing and not much fun, but at least we got to see a half-man half-bull person:

The Minotaur and the Hare

We did not intend to go home this early, but the fuel situation is hopeless.  Home is a couple of hours away from here and we have enough diesel to get there – just.  Meanwhile, government ministers rant on about there being plenty of fuel at the refineries, so no crisis.  My arse – if it can’t get to the pumps, I can’t put it in my tank, so their words are as empty as the petrol stations.  And idiot in chief, I mean Chief Secretary to the Treasury, says that the shortage of lorry drivers (which is causing all of this) is nothing to do with brexit.  Really?  That was a waste of an expensive and elaborate education.  Muppets.

Next stop Sparkford:

Why come to this small village a few miles from Yeovil?  Simple – this.

An excellent collection of vehicles, mostly free of the ropes that usually fence off access to the exhibits,  meaning we can walk around most of them  Well done to Haynes for setting it up like this. 

Lancia Flavia convertable

1939 Delahaye

Delahaye interior

1936 Auburn

Why are all the cars I picked red?

Breaking news – fuel crisis.  Not so much panic buying when we got here but the pumps were dry by the time we left.  200 miles from home with just over half a tank of fuel, maybe about 250 miles worth in real world driving.  Pants – this holiday is coming to an end. 

Another mini-holiday kicking off from Birmingham. Next stop Winchester:

The campsite is due to close for refurbishment, to reopen next summer.  We’ll be back then as it’s a handy distance from the midlands and an easy drive.

Usual things to see in Winchester:

Winchester Cathedral

Fine building – but they are charging money to go round it.  The French ones are usually free.

Wolvesey Castle

This one is impressive, interesting, and FREE.  No doubt if this was in France it would cost money to go round.

2020 was a disaster due to Covid.  We managed  to get a short break after the 2021 lockdown:

Nice Campsites and nice weather, but France this was not, which is where we would expect to be at this time of year.

Chirk Aquaduct

Tank floral arrangement at Bridgenorth

These flowerbeds at Bridgenorth were great.  In addition to the tank were other war-related subjects.  These were in the castle grounds in the upper town.  Best thing about Bridgenorth, though, were the hot spicy sausages from the butcher in the lower town, not far from the funicular.

We did manage another “holiday” this year.  Going south we stayed on the M40 and doubled back to Bladon Chains whereas going north the sat nav took us north on the A roads and joined onto the M40 at Banbury.

Not many pictures taken.  Here is Scotts Farm campsite in East Wittering:

Chavland
Nice campsite and nice place – the other visitors not so much.  It’s so cool for three generations of moronic chavs to cick balls around and play hide and seek around your motorhome while swinging from its wing mirrors.  Never again.  Mercifully they had gone by the time this picture was taken.

Not a great year for going on holidays.  We did manage a week in Southport after the first lockdown.  This was a miserable affair with wind, rain and generally rubbish weather.

Pleasureland indeed

The trip:

No France holidays last autumn due to sitting around waiting for a new motorhome, which arrived just as it was too late to go there, what with everything shutting down.  Although we managed a few trips to Birmingham in it before the end of 2019, it was January this year before we got to go on anything resembling an actual holiday.  Birmingham, Bristol, and Moreton in Marsh made up the itinerary, so not that much of a holiday, but better than nothing.

Of course the weather was rubbish so we took the chance to have another wander around the SS Great Britain, which was free as it was less than a year when we last visited.  A few more pictures, then.

Across the river on the way to the ship

Random store room on Board the SS Great Britain

A tub inside a tub