Week 8: Oxford bound

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Bear struggling in the wind-the weather has also turned, its coat time!

Sorry the blog is late this week. Since we've got back, it's been a mad dash to get everything done: endless washing, van service, van MOT, Bear's haircut, Drs appointments, tidying the garden etc.

Our stops this week:

3 nights-Trewethett Farm Caravan and Motorhome club site. (Near Tintagel)

1 night-Bicknam CL (Near Bath)

Trewethett is another beautiful campsite. It is right on the cliff's edge looking out towards the sea. The pitches are spacious and flat with good facilities.

Campsite pitch

Whilst here, we managed to cycle into Tintagel for a few hours, it was just a few miles away. We walked towards Tintagel Castle but did not cross the bridge to go onto the 'rock'. It cost £17 + each and I was a little bemused by this, as in truth, there is no castle left. There is a big rocky area with some ruins of the castle left. I like history and finding out about different places but this seemed very over priced. Hence my view, it should be renamed 'Tintagel Rock'. Steve felt this would not be a positive approach for advertising.

The bridge to the castle/rock was however very impressive, there are some pictures below. It has been built recently and won a number of prizes for architecture. This is a link about it.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/tintagel-castle/tintagel-bridge/

'Set on the rugged North Cornwall coast, Tintagel Castle is one of the most spectacular historic sites in Britain.' I feel bad now, when looking for information about the bridge, the Tintagel Castle website had the quotation above. Sorry Tintagel....rock!

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Whilst here, we also walked to St Nectan's Glen waterfall. A really pretty area with the cleanest stream water I've ever seen. The scenery was beautiful and the area felt very serene. At the top of the river, there is a lovely cafe. Walking along the river's edge was less serene...when with Bear. Highly over excited by the sound of the water and other dogs, he spent the walk trying to dive headfirst into the water. Although fairly little, he is very stubborn and determined and as the path was quite muddy-he kept pulling the lead and causing Steve to slip and have his arm yanked. Steve and Bear had a number of disagreements on the walk!

Other than this, we had really bad weather and spent some time in the van trying to 'ride it out'. On the Tuesday night there was a thunderstorm from about 3 in the morning. We were all awake! The thunder and lightening felt very close and very loud. We have a number of rules for Bear. One is that he doesn't sit on the sofa. I keep telling both Bear and Steve this-but somehow Bear keeps appearing on the sofa! Another rule is NO dog in the bed-which has always been followed. However the thunder was so bad, that he darted across the van terrified... and did make it onto the bed for the first-time ever. He was good and then settled quickly and didn't even question it, when chucked back on the floor at 6.30am, once the storm had stopped. Thankfully he has not tried to get back on the bed since.

Bear NOT on the sofa!

Conversation that went with this picture. (I am the other end of the van trying to brush my teeth.)

Yvette-Steve, the dog seems to be on the sofa!

Steve-Yes, you're right he is.

Yvette- (Pause...slipping into teacher mode) How do you think you could respond/address this? (Turn back around away from Steve and Bear...providing 'take up time.').

Yvette- (Looking back towards Steve and Bear) Why does the dog have my Rab jacket on?

Steve-He told me he was cold and we thought we would address it by putting your coat on him!

On Wednesday night, a storm from France came across and there was 40-50mph winds, with lots and lots of rain. This lasted from about 6pm until 7am the following day. It felt endless and like being on a plane during turbulence but for a long time. A caravan arrived on the pitch next to us at about 5pm, the man put his awning up in the rain and was drenched. During the night we heard him but did not know what it was or what he was doing. When we saw him the following day, he said he had to take the awning back down in the middle of the night, as the wind was so bad he was worried it would be ripped away from the caravan. He had dumped it in his car but now needed to dry it out and put it back up...maybe we didn't have such a bad night after all!

Since being in Tintagel, we very much felt like our first adventure was coming to an end and we were heading home, rather than going on a new adventure. Tintagel, also felt less Cornish. Different people have asked us, are we looking forward to heading home and what have we missed about the house? But we both agree 'nothing really'. We seemed to have packed 'just right' and there was nothing that we desperately needed or missed, we had enough things in the van to keep us occupied, clean, fed and comfortable...I even admit that all the gadgets Steve had added/snuck onto/into the van were of use! (Wi-fi, cameras, Alexa, charging cables etc.) It would be nice to have a washing machine, so that things could be washed more often or the dog bedding could be just 'chucked in' etc. but if we really wanted to...we could just do another wash for these bits!

We stopped in Bath to break the journey up from Cornwall to Oxford and to see John and Donna. Steve lived in Bath from about the age of 11 and knows both from attending Cadets as a 11/12 year old. We had hoped to stay for 2 nights, so we could meet with others who also live in Bath and the surrounding area but could only get 1 night at the campsite-it was evident that it was the start of the school holidays-as everything was booked up! However, we had a drink in the pub and it was good to see both. Bear, I think, was disappointed that they didn't bring their 8 month old miniature Schnauzer!

Bear admiring himself in the pub window

It was then back to Oxford!