A Tale of Twenty One Waves, Van Envy and Lost Balls

Another Friday see's us Woolacombe bound once more - we are THAT impressed with the campsite we visited a couple of weeks previous that we booked again.  Thankfully this week we were able to get away a little earlier and so rocked up at Damage Barton with 10 minutes to spare before their "NO ENTRY AFTER..........." limit.

 

 

Rainbow over the ocean
(although this picture does it no justice at all)

 

Yet another beautiful pitch, right on the edge of the park with the most amazing views and we were once again treated to the most beautiful rainbow over the ocean on Saturday afternoon.

 

Earlier on that week, I had attended a conference which also involved a golfing activity in the evening, whereby we were given some very basic golf lessons, putting, irons, driving etc. So buoyed up with a new found confidence in my golfing skills I decided it was entirely appropriate to challenge Wolf to another game of pitch and putt - a revisit of our golf challenge a few weeks previous. 

 

The stakes were high, not only did the loser have to make tea for the duration of our visit, but the winner got to pick dinner, the loser had to make the chosen meal AND make breakfast in the morning as well.

Lost Balls

I got off to a good start, I actually managed to get the ball off of the ground which was a distinct improvement on last time, however my putting skills were letting me down - badly - thankfully however Wolf did not fare so well on this pitching skills so it was quite a close game, but I choked on the 7th hole and took far to many attempts to putt, even Wolf losing a ball in the tree and having to take a 2 point penalty could not save me.  So it was with good grace I lost, BUT vowed to return again!

Taking the bus back to the campsite

Twenty One Waves!

Owning a motorhome, as we have discovered, means that you become part of a club.  Of course there is the Caravan Club which offers you no end of benefits, as does the Camping and Caravan Club, however there is an underground club, one that only motorhomer's know about, and you don't discover until that very first day you take your pride and joy out on the road.........the club is nameless, but it features automatic enrolment, the benefit it offers is that it will bring a smile to your face and the only conditions of becoming a part of this club is that you are driving a motorhome and can raise an arm/hand/body part by way of acknowledgment.

THE WAVE........ that's the nameless club....... once on the road in your beautiful motorhome it becomes compulsory for the driver to wave at other motorhome drivers... whether you are the "waver" or "wavee" it is poor form to not show any sign of acknowledgement. Up until this weekend, we have always been the "wavee" not really confident enough to launch in to being a fully fledged "waver" however on our trip back home we decided to take the plunge, not only were we the "waver" BUT, as is typically us, we changed it up a little and decided to be a "waver tag team".  There is something unusually funny about this phenomenon of waving, and I can't deny that every time a fellow motorhomer waves at us it brings about the hugest smile on our faces for no apparent reason. Our best count to date was infact this weekend where we had Twenty One waves on our trip home!

Our First Experience of Van Envy

Wurtlefkey in Woolacombe

We love Wurtlefkey, she is our home on wheels and we personally think she is awesome!  Motorhomes are not to everyone's taste, even for others that share the same love of travelling, they don't always share the same love of methods of travelling/accomodation - motorhome, caravan, campervan, tents to name but a few, and every one will advocate about why their choice is the best.  For us it is simply that the motorhome we have chosen fits the lifestyle that we lead. 

We generally keep ourselves to ourselves when we are away, and not really mingle with other campers, but we do like to take a walk around the campsite and look at other peoples travelling homes, see if we can pick up any good ideas in terms of layouts, what they do with chairs, windbreakers, canopies, awnings, lighting, storage solutions etc.  As we were packing up on Sunday morning, there was a knock on the door, a lovely older couple were standing outside, they said they had been admiring our motorhome from the outside and were wondering if they could have a quick look inside.  It was a little bit unusual, but we are like proud parents with Wurtlefkey so we invited them in and showed them around our accommodation - they "oooooh'd" and "ahhhhhhh'd" with envy as we showed them the table that moves around, the electric drop down bed, the kitchen, and more importantly the storage space (something only motorhome owners can fully appreciate).  It was our first real encounter with fellow motorhomers, we sat and shared stories, got some tips from them about cooking in a motorhome, and travelling in Europe, it was actually really lovely getting to meet them.  But I admit that there was also an element of pleasure that we took from their envy of our motorhome, not that we need anyone's approval, but to know that someone else thinks your home is as great as you think it is, is always nice to hear. 

Wookey Hole

The area around Wookey Hole

 

This weekend we decided to take advantage of the beautiful place we live in as opposed to travelling away somewhere.  Monkey has been talking about Wookey Hole for a while now, so we took the opportunity this weekend to visit, as it is relatively local.

There is a quite long queue once you have paid your entrance fee to get up to the caves, but it is well worth the wait, and the views while you are waiting are great.  You get a guided tour around the caves, which resulted in me having to ask Wolf to sacrifice his hat as they kept talking about the bats in the cave of which I have a chronic fear.  It's actually fascinating and I'm glad it was a guided tour, we learnt so much more about the caves.  The great thing about these caves is that unlike others we have been to, for example Cheddar, they have been left very "natural" they are dimly lit, the ground is uneven, muddy and slippery and there are a number of places where you have to bend quite low to get through, but it is worth it to truly experience the natural beauty of the caves.

 

The history of the cave is fascinating, how they have explored from one cavern to the next, the number of years it has taken, the cave divers, and the myths about the witch of Wookey hole.  Allegedly a witch that had lived in the caves for years, was chased down into the depths of the cave, sprinkled with holy water which turned her to stone....



Personally I don't see a witch, the shadow is
supposed to be the witch, however especially in
this picture, I see a horse head.

 

We were lucky enough while we were there that they had just recently opened a new cavern to the public after a multi-million pound investment.  As it was so new we had to wear hard hats to go into the cavern, but it was really amazing, mother nature is an amazing thing with the masterpieces she creates

 

Inside the cavern complete with hardhats

"Merlins Beard" - part of the inside of
the newly opened caverns

Once the tour was over and we were back in the outside world there were a whole host of activities, a dinosaur display, crazy golf etc. etc.  We had a great family day out doing something that we all enjoyed, whilst also getting to learn a little more about the area in which we live.

 

 

 

No trip to the caves would be complete without the obligatory caveman photo - definitely the best looking cavemen I have ever seen!!

 

 

Rainbows

One of the many benefits of living where we do is that we often go for beachside walks.  Having returned from Woolacombe earlier in the day, the torrential rain seem to have dried up so we decided to go for a stroll along the beach where we were treated to the most beautiful full rainbow and a second rainbow right alongside it. Of course there is no rainbow without rain and we ended up getting totally drenched, but it was worth it!

 

 

Feeling very lucky and blessed to be enjoying the life we have!

A little more adventure than we had anticipated!

Wurtlefkey loaded and ready to go
as the darkness starts to fall

This weekend saw us Woolacombe bound again, only this time instead of camping in a tent we were taking Wurtlefkey to spend a luxurious weekend in the warmth and comfort of our motorhome.  We got away later than planned, the problem with living on the coast is everyone that doesn't live on the coast wants to head that way on a Friday night and so for the summer months there appears to be a mass migration southwards which clogs up the one freeway that goes south and is essentially our way home from anywhere!  It was already dark when we left so we knew it would be a long journey, however hope glistened when quite by accident we discovered the road to Barnstaple is a well lit main road and a good way into Woolacombe.....but that joy was short lived and so we experienced for the first time what I'm sure seasoned motor homers experience often....the dreaded re-route through unsuitable roads.  It was with disappointment we found the main road had been closed due to an accident, so we took the next turning available and hoped that the satnav would pick up a new route....success!  She did!  Except we got through a housing estate only to look at the width of the road and decide...no....we won't fit down here...so out I jumped, held up the traffic and directed Wolf to backup, round the corner and turn around.  A great feature I found on our satnav was to avoid roadblocks - it worked, but this time our reroute instructed us to go down a road with 6'6' width restriction, which is a bit of a problem when we are 7' wide!  We carried on up the only road that was available to us and eventually the satnav rerouted us - what followed was about 30 minutes of nail biting, white knuckle driving down single track dirt paths, as close to off-roading as a motorhome could be and praying to anyone that would listen for no other vehicles to be going in the opposite direction.  Wurtlefkey is exactly 7'6' - the road was approximately 7'59'... There was catching and scraping, pot holes, sharp bends, steep hills, it was the road from hell, so you can imagine our joy when we appeared back on the open road, and suddenly I recognised where we were.  BUT I knew this road we were on (or one thereabouts) suddenly got really narrow again and wasn't going to be appropriate for a motorhome, and I have to admit about 100 yards from our final destination (although that little fact had at the time eluded me) in a moment of panic I made wolf turn around and go back in the opposite direction, having got my bearings I then sent us back from whence we came and finally, three hours later we arrived at Damage Barton.

I can't speak highly enough of the site here, amazing views, great pitches, such a peaceful place to be, and as if all that wasn't enough,  the people here are genuinely lovely, so friendly and helpful.

Waking up to this view made the antics of the night before absolutely worthwhile.....

 

 

It rained all night, absolutely torrential, so we were once again beyond grateful for the warmth and comfort of our climate controlled, completely waterproof motorhome!  It did however scupper our plans for a day at the beach, so waking up at 7am we looked out the window, and decided to go back to bed. 

Later in the morning when we did finally surface, the weather had eased, so our usual veggie bacon sandwiches consumed (yes I have a bit of a veggie bacon addiction) we decided to set off for a bit of a walk into the nearest village - Mortehoe.  It was a lovely walk, we did of course head off in completely the wrong direction, but did find a really pretty little waterfall/pond along the way.

We stopped for a cream tea - no visit to Devon is complete without a cream tea - and then decided as the weather was so lovely we would walk all the way in to Woolacombe (gotta burn off all that clotted cream!!) spend an hour or so around Woolacombe before catching the bus back.  Woolacombe (as I think I may have mentioned before) is full of flipping hills!  Not just any hills, but steep steep steep hills... the kind of hills that hurt to walk down, do there was no way in heck I was gonna be walking back UP to our campsite... Wolf on the other hand is part mountain goat, so is in his element on a hill.

Whilst in Woolacombe, we decided to play a little 'pitch-n-putt' - not that we are competitive or anything but it was "on like donkey kong"!  The loser has to make tea for the rest of the vacation.  This was the inaugural "Woolacombe Golf Challenge" and I cannot even explain the tension in the air as it came to the last hole, I was two shots down and managed a putt from about 100 yards, without doubt it was the best putt of the day, but sadly it wasn't quite enough and so I was tortured with tea making duties for the rest of our stay. 

Back at the campsite, we took some well deserved time to just sit back, relax and enjoy spending time in our motorhome.  We always tease each other about how much of a nerd the other one is, so this is photographic evidence that Wolf sits with his hat on, feet up, reading "Motorhome Monthly Magazine" to which he has a monthly subscription - it doesn't get much nerdier than that :-)   But he is my nerd after all and I love him! 

We had a fantastic trip to Woolacombe, the difficult journey there was just a distant memory, and so in the torrential rain we unplugged, packed up and drove home feeling relaxed, refreshed and eager to go back again.

 

Pony, pony, pony..BULL...pony, monkeys, pony!

Ponies, ponies everywhere

Starting to get to grips with driving a motorhome, we ventured a little further four our next outing - this time we headed for the New Forest.  We made it an "adults only" adventure and also had the luxury of an extra day tagged on to our weekend.

Earlier this year we had rented a motorhome for our birthdays, sort of as a trial run to see how we like it.  We stayed in the New Forest for a day, but found the motorhome we had rented was really big and soon learned not that practical for narrow country lanes, so we never really ventured far from the campsite.

Wurtlefkey however is perfect for motorhoming in the New Forest, nice and compact, the smaller roads were a doddle.  The journey there was at points a bit of a white knuckle ride, we had left quite late in the evening due to work commitments, so it was dark, with narrow roads and some really sharp bends, it was very much a "cross country rally" style kind of trip, Wolf drove while I shouted out navigation instructions from watching the SatNav .... "sharp right coming up....left left left....right right right!!!" all the while I was holding on to the "oh s**t" handle for dear life (we all have one of those handles, its the one just above the passengers side door)

Wurtlefkey and awning

We arrived about 10:30pm (still relishing the ease of plugging in and being set up in a matter of minutes) and settled down for the evening.  Saturday morning saw us up bright and early (well 10am'ish) to properly level the motorhome and pitch the awning - 30 minutes later we were all done and tucking into our veggie bacon sandwiches - oh the joy of an air inflated awning, with no poles to put together, a couple of pumps and voila the awning is up!

Cycling Tour of the New Forest

The BULL!

As the weather was fairly decent we took off to go and explore the New Forest.  Luckily there was a cycle rental shop on site so we rented a couple of mountain bikes (we forgot to pack ours) and set off with just a vague idea of which direction to go.  The views were absolutely amazing, and the path into the nearest village was actually relatively easy to follow.  Along the way we came across so many ponies we stopped counting, just wandering wild through the forest, a few cows and one rather large bull.  I tried to get pictures of the bull but it kept looking at me so I chickened out and ran away!

We cycled about 10 miles in to a local village Brockenhurst where we treated ourselves to the most humongous chocolate éclair I have ever seen!!!  Part of the journey took us out on to the main road where we came across mayhem - there was a wild pony taking a leisurely stroll quite literally down the middle of the road, with a couple of his "pony pals".  He walked about 100 yards and then just stopped, in the middle of the road and turned around so he was essentially completely blocking the road, he just stood there - the traffic was building up around him and he just stood there with a "this is my forest fool!" kinda look to him.  He wasn't moving for anyone, the traffic was having to manoeuvre around the pony party going on in the middle of the road, and then to compound the problem a couple of Shetland ponies joined the party and it was bedlam!  I suppose if you live in the New Forest this is something you get used to, but for us, it was almost the highlight of our day!

Cycling tour of the New Forest

Monkey World

We decided for our second day that we would take Wurltefkey out and about for another adventure - Monkey World.  I used to take my Son here when he was little and haven't been for years.  Just recently in our downtime Monkey and I had started watching the television show about it, and so whilst Wolf and I were down that way we decided to make a day out of it.  The drive was easier than we had anticipated, the country lanes were much easier to navigate during daylight hours and aside from one campervan confrontation (who calls someone to move forward into a gap and then moves into it themselves??!!??!!) it was infact a lovely drive.

Monkey World itself had changed such a lot, I didn't recognise anything about it, so it was a whole new experience for both of us, which we really enjoyed. There were so many exhibits, with some very weird and wonderful looking primates

Selection of the weird and wonderful

I personally loved watching the organutans, whilst Wolf bonded with a gorilla.......

Bonding with the ape

He even tried teaching the monkeys how to eat ice-cream (badly).....

Wolf and his ice cream disaster

 

All in all we had a great long weekend.  The trip was a complete success, we set ourselves some goals in as much as going out on a day trip in Wurtlefkey, not being tied to the campsite, and exploring the area - all of which we did.  We even managed to make time for a really yummy barbecue, a long walk and the odd game of dominoes - I won, Wolf lost and the forfeit was to make tea for the remainder of the vacation.... Not surprisingly I seemed to have developed quite a thirst that weekend!

 

 

Turtle and Wolf at the top of a really high thing in Monkey World