Week 10: Back on the road and Suffolk bound!
- Nov 8, 2021
- 5 min read
Our stops this week:
-1 night-Cholsey Grange CL-(Near Ibstone-just off of the M40)
-1 night-Margaret Street car park-(In Thaxted, near Dunmow)
-4 nights-Polstead Camping and Caravan Club Site- (Near Hadleigh)
-1 night-Fynn Valley CL- (A golf course near Ipswich)
Steve's parents (Sonja and Bob) have recently swapped their caravan for a motorhome, so we arranged to meet them for a night, as we headed towards Suffolk. Steve found Cholsey Grange, a CL just off of the M40 where we all stayed. The thing we have noticed more than anything on our travels, is that lots of places surprise us and there are lots of beautiful nooks and crannies in places you would not expect! Cholsey Grange being just that. It is only a few miles off of the M40 but has beautiful views and hardly any road noise. It was all a farm at one point but has now diversified, with the campsite and some local small businesses run from the barns. Cholsey Grange has 200 acres of land in total, with woodlands, rolling hills and horses. It was great to be able to walk the dogs straight out onto 'the land' and Bear thoroughly enjoyed walking and spending time off the lead with his Romanian furry family: Maya and Martha (Sonja and Bob's rescue dogs from Romania). The thing that Steve and I were more aware of, is that the weather has definitely now changed, with the days being shorter and it being much colder.
Cholsey Grange CL
Cholsey Grange-in the evening
The changing weather and limited daylight changes how we live in the van and the feeling. Normally, we have the door and windows open and have a more inside/outside approach, enjoying the fresh air and opportunity to be outside. With the evenings getting darker, it creates a more 'hunker down' approach, I suppose similar to how we are at home in the Winter...but with less room! The van is a lot quicker and cheaper to heat though! We have found that now the evenings are darker, we need to vary them more. This may be with reading, going to the pub, training the dog, playing board games, planning the next part of the journey etc. to stop 'Cabin Fever' setting in. We are also more careful to make the most of daylight and to make sure we are out and active. It's not awful or a moan, its not changed our love of Mo Ho'ing, its just different.
We then headed for the car park...yes you read this correctly, a car park! It seems over the last few years, as Mo Ho'ing has become more popular in the UK, there has been a greater variety of camping/parking options made available to those in motorhomes. (Countries like France are far further ahead in their thinking and have offered these types of options for years.) Thaxted town actively encourages and allows Mo Ho's, to camp for free, in the town car park for a maximum of 48 hours. The car park has 3 designated spaces for this. Often, the thought behind this is that it brings tourists to the area and that they then spend money in the local area. It worked with us, there was an Indian takeaway a 2 minute walk away and as our camping was free we had Indian for dinner! There are no facilities available, when parking, so we wouldn't want to stay longer and it does feel different to being on a campsite, so for us we would only use these options occasionally. It would mainly be based on the car park giving us access to a particular location. This is the first time we have stayed in a car park and we decided to try this one, because of the location and because Thaxted is a quiet little town, it was also mid week, so we thought it wouldn't be too busy or noisy. There were also benefits: there was good lighting when taking Bear for his evening 'wee' walk! The whole car park is 'hard standing' and not many campsites are that close to a town centre.
...but the best thing about this car park, is that it gave us access to Vicky! Vicky is a friend from University (a fellow tall Essex girl :-) who I have now known for 24 years. There is a gaggle of us that are still good friends, who love the opportunity to meet up (one text on our group WhatsApp, when we met in July described our gatherings 'as good for the soul) ...but who are spread out across the country; with commitments of jobs and kids to also navigate and as with the whole world, Covid has made this particularly difficult/impossible, at points, over the last 2 years. Vicky met us in Thaxted for the morning. We walked the dogs, had a drink in the pub and chatted (Vicky and I a lot...Steve still thinks we can circle breathe!). Bear quickly realised that Kimmie (Vicky's dog) didn't want him bouncing all over her, whilst hitting her in the face and wasn't impressed by his dancing on two legs! Bear actually walked next to her and didn't hassle her after the original excitement of meeting-this is rare for Bear! It was great to meet up!
Polstead was a campsite recommended to us, by a man we met in Tintagel! A really pretty campsite that is open year round. On the Thursday, my parents came to see us...I suspect allured mainly by the chance to see Bear! We had a pub lunch (across the road from the campsite) and the food was great. We also visited a local garden centre-I'm sure on the website it said they were dog friendly-but when we arrived the sign said they were not. We did well out of the visit with Bear's advent calendar being delivered! Steve being given some beer from my parent's holiday and me a scarf.
Whilst at Polsted we went on a range of different walks with Bear, so that we could see the local countryside and area. Unfortunately, Bear was in one of his 'funny moods' whilst here and kept stopping/refusing to walk...who knows with Bear?? But having spent nearly 3 years training him to 'not pull on the lead', it seems we now have a dog that stops instead. Bear's 'irrationality' highly frustrates Steve, with him regularly asking Bear 'why he does this?'...Bear doesn't answer!
Bear's winter range outfits!
From here, we also cycled to Dedham-where Constable's famous Haywain is set and on another trip, to Sudbury. Gainsborough's house is here and I'm sure he lived here because of the great chips from the local chippy!
Next, we moved on to Fynn Valley, on the outskirts of Ipswich. We are definitely seeing some different places by using CLs and Mo Ho'ing. Fynn is a really nice golf course, which has a venue for weddings, a few holidays lodges, bar and restaurant and then at the back 5 CL pitches. We were the only campers here and the pitch overlooks the course, at the 6th hole! (There is also access to a footpath at the bottom of the golf course.). It is quite random having a whole golf course to yourself from about 4pm.
The campsite, Ipswich marina and some pancakes made in the van!
From this location we cycled in to Ipswich for a few hours and also drove to Sutton Hoo, from which we then cycled to Woodbridge. (The Dig-is a film with Carey Mulligan based at Sutton Hoo, a slow and gentle film that is really beautiful and worth a watch.) Having watched this, we wanted to visit. At Sutton Hoo in 1939, an archeological dig discovered an Anglo-Saxon burial ship and other findings. A really interesting place that is now managed by The National Trust.
Sutton Hoo and view of Woodbridge from Sutton Hoo
Another great week back on the road!
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