We awoke in the car park of a very nice pub in the Meon Valley with both Toby and I craving a fry up. So we decided to head for the Forest of Bere near Wickham.

A wonderful woods with a cool play area for the kids, Toby thought all his dreams had come at once. We sent him off with a walkie talkie whilst April and I made breakfast in the car park.

After consuming our brekkie, we headed into the woods for a wander. we covered quite a distance and came across a pooh sticks bridge which Toby was keen to explore.

After our wander, reluctantly we decided it was time to head for home. we certainly have enjoyed this week and are all thoroughly holiday tired..

Here’s to more to come..

This was the reason we decided to stay near Exeter, Crealy’s Adventure Park, a truly fun day out for the three of us, me, I can take Toby on the rides and April can enjoy the animals they have there.

We woke on the beach to a stunning vista, beautiful sunshine and gorgeous views and got ourselves ready. I personally had a minor breakdown as my Vaporiser’s battery had overheated in the night and wasn’t working any more.. so I had to delay the arrival at Crealy’s whilst I searched for another battery. Luckily there was a shop in Exmouth that sold the one I wanted so.. Panic over..

We arrived at Crealy’s quite soon and stayed there the entire day. Lots of things to do.. Tobes and I went on a roller-coaster and the three of us went on the log flume.

Toby had lots of fun in the play areas, finding a new friend every fifteen minutes to play with.

At the end of the day, we decided to head for a BritStop in the Meon Valley to bring us much closer to home, we found a pub who was very accommodating but it was a long drive and it took us until about 10pm to arrive. I found it much easier to drive at night as the lights give you a better indication of other vehicles proximity to you.

As we arrived late, Toby was already asleep when we arrived so we all settled down very soon after arriving.

A slow day was needed today, the past few days have been very heavy on the walking and with Aprils knee still on the mend we thought it was time for a bit of a rest.

A number off options were open to us today, drive the majority of the way back and stay overnight somewhere in the new forest or try and find some shops for a peruse..

Tomorrow made up our mind, Toby will love it so we decided to head for Exeter. After a new pair of walking shoes for April (with grip) and some rugby clothes for Toby and a massively long roam around looking for something for me (which turned out to be pointless) we headed out of Exeter, refuelled and headed for Exmouth to find a wild camping place on the beach with some stunning views. Toby thought this was the greatest and was in his trunks before you could say “Beach”, grabbed his body board and was off.. The waves were a little big for him to use his body board so he stood there like King Canute instructing the waves to break.

The weather looked very angry, and later on did rain, Toby finished building some lego and we all played cards with a storm lantern lit.

After Toby had gone to sleep, April and I sat and watched the night roll in over Dawlish in the distance. Then to sleep with the waves crashing not 20 yards away.

Steps.. So many steps!!

We woke in the morning after a quite quiet nights sleep. I managed a bit of a stargaze in the car park at 3am, it was very clear and you could just make out the wisp of the Milky Way above you. A gorgeous sight.

We had a small breakfast and wandered out of the car park we had slept in, topped up the machine to allow us to stay the day and wandered down the road and path towards the castle.. Interestingly we thought we’d parked a long way away from the castle but it turned out to be quite close.

Having negotiated the cliff path up to the castle, the “head” Island wasn’t open for another 10 minutes but the views from the top were breathtaking.

We, ahem, paid for our entrance (another English Heritage site) and wandered down onto the sands where the caves were.

In the first cave, we were able to clamber through, neither April nor I having the best footwear for the job we ended up sitting in a cave looking out to sea, quite a lot of iron ore in the rocks by the looks if it and the cave walls were very high. We strolled across the other end of the beach to another cave which was impassible when April mistook a hole in the dark for a rock and tumbled over hurting her knee, shoulder, neck and back.

This, however, wasn’t about to stop her from climbing the many thousands* of steps up to the “head” Island. Again beautiful views and somewhat unsafe paths, particularly if you have children.

Cliff edges R us and with a hyperactive child it’s an accident waiting to happen.. We wandered around for a while and it started to drizzle so with that and April’s injuries, we turned back to the van.

I had booked a caravan and camping club site for this evening as we had waste to empty and so we headed for Bude. Strangely we felt a bit “observed” on this site, almost as if others were looking down their noses at us not a pleasant experience to be honest., Toby loved the playroom though, they had a pool table and a table tennis table. He found a few friends and played into the night. After a quick tea, we decided to get some sleep..

*tens! many tens but it was a long way..

Seemed difficult to start this morning, none of us wanted to get up, it was raining and a weird noise was coming from somewhere behind us. Not sure what type of machine was making the noise.. But it was very strange.

After a fry up for brekkie, we set of with the Lost Gardens of Heligan in mind. Helga (our Tomtom) decided to take us through the narrowest, hilliest and windiest road possible.. Not sure how to turn motorhome mode on (or even if there is one) but April was driving and not enjoying it one little bit. After the roller-coaster ride that it was we arrived to find a separate parking place for motorhomes with a sign saying “no overnighting please..” :o(

There was lots to see, Toby had a trail to follow at the start, with 5 stamps to achieve, whilst April and I enjoyed the wander through the woods.. It was a very large area to explore and there was something for everyone..

We wandered through a woodland trail which changed into a jungle, a oriental gardens and out onto a field for some games with a large rope swing, a set of skipping ropes, cups and balls and a small outdoor bowling alley.

After a short while here, we wandered into the house gardens which had walled gardens for flowers and vegetables. These were Aprils niche.. Apparently I have to come up with about 5 acres of walled off land so she can have a garden like that.

A short wander later and we find ourselves playing Crochet on the lawn. I must remember to look up the rules, I used the time as much needed golfing practise.. We must have walked about 5 miles start to finish.. I can feel the burn in my legs..

Once we were done, legs tired we strolled back to the van with tomorrow’s target in sight.. We’d chosen a BritStop near Bodmin (which is where April’s Dad was born) only to discover that we’d have had to have arrived there before 6pm.. With it being 6:30 we had to come up with a plan B. We decided to drive in the direction of Bodmin so that we could get us some internet. Bodmin provided us with what we needed and we pulled into a car park to find out where we could stay. We are planning to go to Tintagel tomorrow so we looked in that direction. I downloaded the wild camping points of interest into Google Earth and found that there were a number of car parks in Tintagel that allow you to sleep overnight (for a small fee). With that in mind we headed off..

We’re now sat in one of the best kept motorhoming secrets, a field with a pay and display meter in Tintagel. Very quiet and no-one except us (and 15 other motorhomes) here..

Toby has a bit of a cold, hopefully he’ll be ok in the morning.. He’s snot rattle snoring right now in his bed..

Here’s to a good night sleep.. Castling to do tomorrow..

Up early today and set off for St Austell and the Eden Project, lots to do and we all had a good day here, the Eden Project is significantly larger than I was expecting, and very cleverly placed so that you can only see it once you’re in and through the ticket barrier. The price wasn’t as bad as it could have been as we received a discount for being English Heritage members, we were also able to pick up a discount voucher for tomorrow’s adventure.

Once we were in, we received an adventurers booklet for Toby and he was given his adventurers name by some picking of letters of his name. His name was Poison Wolf he was taught how to navigate by nature, how to tie a couple of knots and we were sent in search of a T-Rex (nothing like throwing an 8 year old into the deep end)..

After wandering past a T-Rex that had slain a Triceratops we wandered around looking for a bite to eat. Burgers and hotdogs with sweet potato fries and we were ready to hit the bio-orbs.. Toby was very interested in the Mediterranean Bio-orb, but not the Rain Forest one. My assumption is it was too hot in the latter and it was a long walk around, certain bits were shut due to the temperature (too hot?). He did however do a grand job of getting stamps in his adventurers booklet.

After the bio-orbs we wandered around the gardens looking at as many nooks and crannies we could. April has decided we must get a couple of hundred acres so she can design a niche garden, I’m not sure Bognor Regis is ready for that..

After the Eden Project we left for Polkerris, which had a gorgeous beach with spectacular views. Toby realised it was a beach just too late, unfortunately leaving his body board, trunks and towel in the van. Not dissuaded by this he had a swim in his pants.

A long walk back up the hill to the van, we left Polkerris behind us and have found a BritStop for the evening (Number 5) my only complaint is they asked us to purchase a couple of drinks in order for us to stay, also I’m not convinced they have all the things the BritStops book says they do.. Anyhow, it’s much quieter here than the last place so hopefully we’ll get a good nights sleep.

Much fun to be had tomorrow.. Night all..

Hello!! So here we are, it’s about 2 o’clock on the 21st of August, the van is ready and we’re just leaving for Okehampton which is on the way to Cornwall, we picked a BritStop (number 12) to stay at and are on our way..

The journey was pleasant, April drove to Ringwood where we pulled into a layby for a short break.. After refreshments, I took over and drive the remaining 2.5 hours to Okehampton.

We found our stop, very nice and pulled into a parking spot. The landlady ensured we had parked in the best place, which we had and left us to ourselves for the evening. Next to where we had parked was a small play area which Toby was happy to utilise, we had tea and settled down for the night.

Our nights sleep wasn’t the best, we’d parked under a tree and the rain was very loud (also sleeping 2 feet away from it doesn’t help). There were , a few cars on the adjoining road as well but the rain was what kept us awake.

It does go to show how easy it is to relocate to a completely different area and how quickly.

Saturday morning, up early and the van is packed very quickly, there’ll be four of us this time so an extra set of clothes, one extra duvet and a full fridge. We left at about 08:30 and headed for a Camping and Caravanning Club Certificated Site called Mendip View. One stop in a services on the M4 and we arrived in Bristol. Nearly as soon as we had arrived in Bristol, Helga – our trusty Tomtom, seemed to have a problem figuring out where we were and we somehow managed to get lost in the Bristol roads and ended up driving over the Clifton suspension bridge, nice for all but April who doesn’t do heights well, and she was driving.

So once we were the other side we hoisted up our proverbial socks and arrived at our campsite at about midday. The quickest thank you to our landlord we headed for the Balloon Festival held at Ashton Manor. We had driven past a car-park just after the bridge and I had told Helga to remember it, so we asked her nicely to route us there again. £7 to the lady on the gate of a Nursery (a children one, not plants) and we had parked.

Had to walk quite a way and mostly uphill we find ourselves overlooking a mass of fairground rides, eateries and attractions.

We decided, at first to find the lay of the land and had a walk around the site. We then found a carousel and let Toby have a ride whilst JP and I sat on the grass and watched people wander by. Once the cliff edge chase had finished, we went to watch some model aeroplanes being flown in unison in the main arena and a paraglider. We then decided to have a peruse of the arts and crafts tent, which was very creative and Toby saw a ride he’d like to go on. Not the easiest if rides to explain but up to six kids stand on a bouncy castle style platform in a circle while a padded arm spins and tries to knock them over. The lady operating it was “evil” stopping it immediately underneath them or raising the arm just as it reached them (he he).

From there we went into the World War One site run by the BBC, Toby had a number of runs through their assault course and managed to bandage me up as I’d hurt both my head and arm. April helped the gentleman assisting Toby with my sling and Toby was issued with a certificate for his endeavours.

Soon it was to close, so we left and found a nice place to sit ready for the evenings entertainment and watched a Rolls Royce Spitfire fly past and a parachute display team.

A few battles with the rain later, a clear outlook and the arena flooded with hot air balloonists who all rolled out their balloons on the floor. Then the VERY LOUD COUNTDOWN started (which unsettled Toby and forced us to move).. After the countdown was over 20 balloons inflated in the field and once up they started flashing in time to music. Quite lame to describe but incredible to watch. Here is a video on YouTube of the night glow

A long walk back to the van and a short trip back to the campsite (no detours this time) and we were all tired enough to just pass out.

An experience not to be missed, I heartily recommend it.

A, again, very quiet nights sleep, we rose at about 8am and had a small bite to eat and headed for Winchester and the Intech Science Center. We all love this place as we have been here before, lots of hands on science for Toby to play with; he even made a tornado!

Theo was very good and stayed in the van whilst we explored the exhibits. April booked a stargazing for beginners session in the planetarium for Toby and I and whilst we did that she went and had a cup of tea in the cafe and went to look in on Theo.

After the planetarium, Toby and I went back to the van and then April took Toby back in the Center whilst I stayed with Theo and did puzzles in the paper. After 30 or so minutes, they were back and we were on our way again.

We came down the M3, hit the M27 and April decided she’d like to sit atop Portsdown Hill on our way home, so with a slight detour we had an ice-cream overlooking Portsmouth.

And then we drove home, the end of our first trip. We’re both amazed how much we have managed to fit into 5 days.. Imagine what we could do with two weeks!

Click here for a map of Trip 1
Here’s to many more adventures to come.