Things slowly return to 'normal'.....

A long interval since my last post when I was beginning the longest stay in one place for me in 16 years of van life as a result of course of the UK Covid Lockdown.

 

My 14 weeks staying put in mid Wales from before Christmas until mid March saw me celebrate my 61st birthday, walk or ride to a local bothy 28 times, assist in the evacuation of a cold walker from said bothy and generally watch as the pandemic slowly came under control as movement ceased and vaccines were issued.

Thus in mid March I presented myself at the Vaccine Centre in Bronllys, Powys where I was hugely impressed and moved by the kindness and dedication of all those involved in this remarkable achievement - there is so much to be said about the pandemic in other media but for me it was another chapter in my life on the road and apart from missing Mandy as we were apart for 6 months it was yet another episode in what has been a varied and rewarding life. As always I prefer to look forward with my plans and blog about the latest experiences.

 I spent a few days in Lower Chapel and finally, I hope, got on top of the long term van water ingress, discovering a slight leak between the air intake and fan housing either side of the bulkhead - remedied by replacing the OEM foam gasket with silicone. I then fitted camping mats for sound and heat insulation followed by a one piece replacement carpet that took some cutting and fitting before putting back the Autosleeper carpet to give a much warmer quieter finish and dispense with the water saturated rubber matting.

Then with lockdown easing only allowing self contained vans to use campsites I took off for southern Snowdonia and stayed near Trawsfynydd on a small, idyllic and empty campsite arriving in a substantial storm. However the forecast break in the weather materialised allowing me to catch a bus down to near Barmouth and begin a traverse of the Rhinogs in perfect conditions.

A steady climb in hot sun took me over Diffwys and then Rhinog Fach before a sublime bivvy beside Llyn Cwmhosan. This left me ready to tackle Rhinog Fawr and then head over the central Badlands passing above the Roman Steps and Cwm Bychan for lunch at Llyn Pryfed before a long afternoon haul over tough terrain had me up to the summit of Clip, the trig point on Moel Ysgyfarnogod, Diffwys (2) and back to the site after a demanding but rewarding day. 

 

Clear blue skies offered superb views in every direction and I was pleased to complete a long held ambition to enjoy this remarkable ridge.

 

 

 

With no one else staying over Easter as the Welsh lockdown excluded English visitors I stayed on for a few days and enjoyed walking the lake and the excursion down through Welsh rainforest to Maentwrog - an 18 mile day that I hadn't really planned so soon after the traverse...

I called briefly at Arenig bothy on behalf of Tony, the MO, where all was well and had a good night above Lake Vyrnwy before taking a look at the potential new bothy building to see how it had weathered another winter : good news, all was well.

 

With travel to England allowed once more I picked Mandy up from Sheffield for the start of a month away - strange but lovely to have another person on board. Three days on a cracking little Certificated Site south of Longnor just over the border in to Staffordshire saw us walking in the White Peak to climb Chrome Hill and cycling down to Hulme End to enjoy the Manifold Trail down to Waterhouses. From there we took a lovely side road past the ruins of beautiful Throwley Hall with the world's friendliest cat curling round our legs in the warm sunshine. At Fenny Bentley we picked up the Tissington Trail and returned north stopping in Tissington for an overpriced sausage sandwich - everyone seemed vaguely overawed by unfamiliar freedoms as people socialised for the first time in months.

 

A couple of nights at Dethick gave us chance to catch up with good friends, Nina is determined to endure pain and discomfort to overcome her injury and is making great progress. It's a lovely spot to be based but like us they are keen to be on the move again with the constrictions of Brexit and Covid to be accommodated.

 

 We walked in Tideswell Dale and then in the village I discovered the small organic butcher whose Saddleback pork and bacon was almost as good as the Oxford Sandy and Black meat I used to produce in another life two decades ago. For a variety of reasons I have decided to eat less but better meat and this was certainly a good start.

 

 

 

Moving on we walked round the idyllic Blithfield Reservoir before pulling up at a Club Site of the Caravan and Motorhome Club that we have joined just for this year at High Onn. This simple site met our needs very well and we enjoyed two day rides using the Shropshire Union Canal, Sustrans Route 55 and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal to create some great traffic free rides. Having read a good book on canal history recently I was delighted to see my first crossover bridge and see canal features that appear in the BBC series Canal Diaries.

 

A steady day's drive placed us on the North Somerset coast on a small site at Blue Anchor near to Dunster where a good friend was staying in her brother's beach hut.

We enjoyed a steady walk over Withycombe Hill passing the ancient settlements of  Bat's Castle and Gallox Hill before passing through dreamy Dunster - at its best when quiet and enjoying a cream tea before heading up to the Conygar Tower - a folly giving extensive views across to South Wales and the Brecon Beacons.

 

Retracing our steps slightly we stopped in Glastonbury, climbed the tor in a stiff breeze on a sunny afternoon and finally arrived in Frome to stay on the drive of an old friend Pete who has just retired.

 

Our plan the following day was to ride the Imber Circuit, a mostly off road route around a part of Salisbury plain so we met up at Westbury White Horse car park and set off on a spectacular 26 mile route in bright sun but a stiff fresh easterly. It was a great ride with the added excitement of two helicopter gunships hovering on a live firing exercise above nearby woods. Pete produced an excellent curry and Sunday saw a longish walk to Nunney Castle and back via the impressive stone quarries near Mells.

We then headed off for two enchanting nights at Win Green by Cranborne Chase for a good sunset, starry night and pleasant walk down to Tollard Royal and back through the Rushmore Estate - the setting for our last group gathering last October.

Three nights on a CS south of Fordingbridge were very peaceful and we cycled through the New Forest, avoiding the free ranging ponies and donkeys but not seeing any pigs at this time of year. Most of the trees were still bare as despite the sunshine there was, as throughout this trip, a chilly easterly wind but we covered many peaceful miles on the excellent network of gravel tracks and trails. A walk on a slightly wet day took us past a fish hatchery at Bickton where the herons had breached the net and over 30 were sat in a large oak awaiting their turn at the free for all.

With the BH approaching we did laundry in Wimborne, took a walk round the town, stopped at Dorchester for lunch and arrived in a hailstorm near Crediton to tuck away with John who is still doing great work rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming hedgehogs. The ducks and rabbits were as charming as ever and we enjoyed a couple of good rides on the traffic free lanes of mid Devon. We reached Witheridge for a pub lunch and returned via a mix of lanes and bridleways with me using a hybrid road bike as my Cube was away for an overhaul. I had intended to get a new bike but last year's renewed interest in cycling and Covid related factory closures has led to a shortage of stock across the land. Anyway it added to the excitement and reminded me of a You Tube clip of a 2CV going over the Gap Road in the Brecon Beacons and a guy I met in Morocco heading for Cape Town in a Renault Kangoo - any fool can do it in a 4x4 - well almost! 

We also had the privilege to meet a friend of John's who many years ago helped a Tibetan family escape the Chinese invasion and now runs a charity in India restoring the sight of people with cataracts - mixed feelings about these humbling efforts when that nation has a nuclear weapons programme, a space programme and large numbers of multi millionaires who could hire private jets to return to the UK en mass a couple of weeks ago to escape Covid lockdowns.

The Bank Holiday Monday was predictably wild and stormy so after watching the tumble weed blowing around in deserted South Molton we pitched up on an empty and exposed field near Twitchen, south Exmoor for an exciting night. The van is warm, dry and feels very stable in all conditions and we had a good TV signal for the evening. Much better conditions dawned the following day and we walked up on Exmoor to Pinkerry Pond, encouraging en route a skittish lamb to get out of a fenced hedge bank and return to its wary mother.

Greg and Alex at Lynton made us very welcome and have achieved much over their first three years - the annexe and shepherd's hut provide different but comfortable accommodation - Google : Air BnB, Lynton Shepherds Hut and the linked properties for further details. We walked up to the remote Hoar Oak Cottage whose website is worth a look for its fascinating history before returning along the Two Moors Way.

 

Soon after departing we stopped at Countisbury Hill to walk down to Foreland Point lighthouse and look across to Nash Point in South Wales, our destination in a few days time, before returning to a favourite private campsite up on the Mendips near Priddy. Despite being less than half a mile from the highest TV mast in the south west I neatly aligned myself behind a large conifer thus negating any signal for TV or phone, as discovered later. Bristol friends joined us for a walk across the hills, down Ebbor Gorge and back through Wookey with Nick completing the walk despite taking a nasty tumble on a stile early on. I guess as a few friends are planning to retire and move away further south to Devon these old haunts will become forgotten but with luck new opportunities will arise and we at least may be able to travel abroad soon enough.

Crossing the swirling muddy waters of the Severn over the original bridge was the prelude to visiting Chepstow Castle but  a navigational error led us down to the slightly eerie Old Ferry Boat departure point right under the bridge - as it turns out well worth a visit. An enormous pylon takes 400,000kv power lines across the estaury and the Severn Rescue team have their HQ down by the turbulent river.

The castle as it turned out still needed to be prebooked so we just enjoyed the quiet streets of Chepstow and shared briefly some of the joy of a couple getting married in the local church. A nip along the M4 brought us to Nash Point where the cafe allows camping on its dramatic cliff top headland.

After dark we could see Foreland Point flashing 17 miles away across the Bristol Channel and the next morning walked down to the pebbly beach beneath beds of limestone that at sea level reminded me of the tessalated limestone I saw in Tasmania a decade ago now.

Coffee with friends near my old farm was a good chance to catch up before we headed to Lower Chapel where I am due to farm sit in a month or so. As always Jan produced superb meals and we enjoyed a good walk over to the Wye Valley, had a long sighting of a kingfisher feeding its young in a river bank nesting hole and admired the remarkable bark of old sweet chestnut trees near Llangoed Hall. Back at the farm the bottle fed lambs were a delight but pesky pheasants were hoovering up spillage from the bird feeders at first light. A sparrow hawk darts in occasionally to grab a small bird and woodpeckers also visit.

 

 

 

I'd noticed a slight feathering on my n/s rear tyre so swopped it for the unused spare and will get a depot to flip the wearing tyre to even things up - it's likely to be a tracking issue but few places seem willing to set up the rear so it will just have to be ignored. My MOT is not until August and with only 7,000 miles on the clock since the last one it should dovetail nicely with a 10,000 mile oil change. I will do the other filters myself before departing for Europe this winter if possible but need a timing belt change at the oil service as well. As this also includes changing the water pump I will get Autohaus Dolby in Sheffield to carefully go over the entire coolant system as well before a longish trip. The new Brexit rules (and that's making the hefty assumption that Europe will be on top of Covid anyway, let alone Morocco) will limit the EU element of my winter away to 90 days in any 180 so an extended period in Morocco beckons - brilliant!

Whilst at Lower Chapel in June I will strip the brakes as usual and check the floating caliper sliders as after a winter in the UK these can stick if the small rubber gaiters perish and cause premature pad wear. I'll also get a second MOT done in November to align the date with a time when I am most likely to still be in the UK as I have the privilege of two weeks in the Lake District - very much missed last year. I have pursued extending the two weeks to four but at present cannot get two successive weeks in the same lodge so will have to bide my time. It's part of my end of life care plan anyway so there's no rush - life in the old dog yet : see later.

We nipped in to Moel Prysgau bothy after following two logging trucks that remarkably negotiated the Devil's Staircase in Abergwesyn Gorge and found all well with just a quick tidy up and the removal of two tents needed. At Llyn Brianne an army Chinook enthralled us with some training exercises before we lunched high above the reservoir.

 

 

The final night of our trip was spent at my Sennybridge base where I collected my all Wales bus pass that will open up some linear coastal walking opportunities and circular walks from stations on the Heart of Wales Line out of season. My Cube has also been restored to good working order - the guy who did the work is considering the leap in to full time self employment as a bike mechanic so if you are within reach of Talgarth get in touch and I'll pass on his details.

We also admired a substantial Toyota Hilux Crew Cab based drive away camper that belonged to friends of Crad and Dawn. With all on board conveniences and great ground clearance it should just about keep up with the Topaz in Morocco - how about it guys??

 So after one of the best UK based months away I can remember we returned to Sheffield briefly where I gave the van its first full vacumn for a year, swopped maps and winter clothing (a tad ambitious perhaps) and then left Mandy to catch up with friends, family and supervise some work on her house.

 

I picked up some more excellent bacon in Tideswell, imposed myself on Pete and Nina for a night and then headed off to Rugely in Staffordshire where a farmer has a simple field with tap and bins for a tenner a night. From here I took the Trent and Mersey Canal past the disused power station's cooling towers that are due to be demolished on the 6th of June and headed towards Stone and Stoke passing Shugborough Hall. The tow path was quite bumpy for twenty odd miles but improved as I approached Stoke and then the long Harecastle Tunnel. A route over the top took took me in to Kidsgrove before the Sustrans Route 5 brough me through Hanley and back on to the canal. It was a painful return not helped by dislodging my GPS battery and having to retrace my steps adding another 4 miles to give a total of 92 - so bike well and truly tested and faultless but bits of me now needed repair.

 

 

Despite this the following day I knocked out 30 miles around Cannock Chase, definitely an area to return to before yesterday heading back in to Wales where I stopped above the Elan Valley to check on the repairs to a bothy door 5 weeks ago. This seems to have worked and all was well with the hut which remains shut until the final lifting of retsrictions in June.

I had intended to ride the Radnor Ring today but a nasty little storm has brewed up so after a comfy night in Rhayader I am now plugged in to life support at Llangurig for two days and will visit the local bothy tomorrow. Three others then beckon over the weekend before from the middle of next week I am based in Snowdonia for a week as a group of us try to complete a Covid delayed barn roof project. Then it's a week spare before the mid June farm sit, after which we plan to visit Chester, Ironbridge, the Black Country Museum and Etruria at Stoke before a few days in July in the White Peak.

As you can see we have packed a lot in to a month yet completely avoided the crowds by visiting places perhaps not on the Sunday papers' must do lists but often for that very reason well worth the effort to visit anyway. Having over the years largely concentrated my UK trips either high on the hills or (although perhaps not recently) deep undergound it has been a revelation to experience new highlights , something that began last October with my trip to the south and east.

Foreign travel will loom large in my plans for the future beyond the end of 2021 but with flexibility, a compact self contained van and the desire to look around the next corner  there is much to be said for looking in your own back yard.

Piccies here and thanks for reading.