Devon

We went to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We drove around town looking for a free park because every car park in England you have to pay. We stopped outside a house with a sign - ‘BMW’s only’. Mum and Thomas walked to Anne Hathaway’s cottage. We didn‘t know who she was but obviously she was connected to Shakespeare. When we got to the cottage we discovered she was Shakespeare’s wife. We didn’t want to pay to go inside and the gardens weren’t blooming because it’s winter. We found another park in town and walked to the house where Shakespeare was born and grew up. Like all the other houses in was Tudor style, Woven willow plastered with mud (Wattle and Daub) and big hand-cut log framing to support a thatched roof. We didn’t go into any of the houses. Mum went to the ticket desk and asked where the Library was but didn’t ask for the public library. We ended up signing in to the largest collection of Shakespeare books in the ’Shakespeare Centre Library and Archives. We felt like total idiots especially being such a big family while everyone else in the reading room was studying. We left very quickly. We ended up in the Public Library but there was no internet so we read some books. We went to a Motorway rest stop for dinner. We went to a pier on the Bristol Channel but the pier was closed and it was getting dark. We stayed at the end of a residential street in Burham-on-sea.


The next day we walked on the beach with lots of other dog walkers. There was a lighthouse beacon on stilts and quite a lot of rubbish on the beach. We drove into Devon. Rolling hills of green grass. All the fences are stone and hedges. The country lanes are very narrow and we had to pull over or reverse for other traffic. There were lots of sheep too. Mum had organised two HelpX places to stay for a couple of days. The first one was Middlescott Farm. It was pouring with rain when we pulled up to the gate. It looked very muddy on the driveway so Anneke, Thomas and Dad walked. There was a huge, tall house and a lot of slate farm buildings. We met Lawrence in full wet weather gear. He showed us where we could park. We parked out of the mud next to the house and Dairy. After settling in we went into the kitchen. Karen was making the week’s worth of bread in her busy kitchen. We ended up talking until dark. Karen and Lawrence were architects in London and moved to Devon with their daughter and son 20 years ago. They have sheep for milking and make organic goat’s, sheep’s and cow’s cheese.

We had a very windy and rainy night.

The next day Mum and Dad took a full tour of the Dairy and how they make the cheese. It was interesting hearing the tips and tricks of setting up your own small business. There was a formal dining room which we thought was very ‘English’. There was a massive table and there were thirteen people seated around it. Karen and Lawrence’s recently married daughter and partner popped in. There was their other son, Ben. And Louise, helpXing from France.

Mum had made a huge pot of vegetable soup and we had Karen’s bread and the cheese. We’re looking forward to being able to put a range of homemade cheeses on a board like that. The cheese was very tasty. Even though we don’t really like the aroma and taste of Goat and Sheep Cheese this was very nice. Karen showed us wool from their own sheep and beautiful baby clothes and knitting kits she sells along side her cheese at the market. The kitchen floor went from brown to black when the girls mopped the kitchen floor. We were invited come along to the ‘Open Mic night’ at the local Pub. When it is a clear day you can see the sea from the farm. We drove down to Lee on the coast and parked at the ‘Grampus Inn’ and walked on the beach before dark. The music started at nine and Karen and Lawrence came down later. The Pub was a beautiful old building with a low ceiling and there were only a few locals. Most of them sang or played Guitar. The owner of the Pub was a great fiddle player. The man organising the Music was very good at encouraging people to come up and play. Anneke and Thomas did a song on the ‘out-of-tune’ piano. It was quite difficult after not playing for a long time. We were all surprised when Johanna went up the front and sang a song without any accompaniment. We played snooker with four young welsh men who sang a Celtic or Gaelic anthem. A very friendly American/English guy (who was very good at singing and played some interesting music) invited us to come park up in his paddock. If we hadn’t planned for other places to stay we would have loved to stay there, so we asked him to come to NZ instead. We said goodbye to Karen and Lawrence and stayed in the Grampus car park.

We drove to another HelpX called ‘West Aish Farm’ in the middle of Devon. Mum had also organised this HelpX before but not as a proper exchange just sharing some meals and helping out when we could. Our hosts were Caroline and Mark and their kids Rose (3) and Joshua (5). Caroline and Mark were accountants from London leaving the city to live the good life. They have a ‘Smallholding’ in beautiful Devon countryside with a few sheep, pigs, dogs, ducks and the chickens were eaten by a fox the day before we arrived. We had dinner with them the first night - delicious homemade sausages. Joshua and Rose took us off to their rooms and showed us all the toys. Thomas read them a bedtime story. Joshua kept correcting him when he pronounced a word wrong (not in a English accent). We had parked up by the house on a nice flat spot, the field was too wet and muddy to park in.

Next to the house are two cottages that Caroline rents out for the summer holidays. One cottage was the stable of the historic farm and the other is the ‘Roundhouse’ where the flour was ground by horsepower. A builder was coming in to put in a new kitchen in the round house so we spent the day demolishing the old kitchen. William was dismantling the cabinets while Thomas removed the tiles. The hardest thing was dragging the old night store heater into the barn. We liked the idea of drinking tea while in England so Caroline waited on us with cups of English tea. Mum had made another pot of vegetable soup so we had that for lunch. We borrowed some movies and watched them in the camper.

Joshua went to school, Rose to Playschool and Mark to work. Mum and the girls started cleaning up the camper and organising some things to make packing easier. William and Dad make stands out of recycled wood for Caroline’s new beehives. The bees are coming later this year. Anneke and Thomas spent most of the morning trying to find the right tools for making a small fence and picket gate to protect the Hives. It was very muddy so the posts went in the ground easily. Caroline had cooked a delicious pork ‘Tikka Masala’ for dinner. We ended up watching almost all the Harry Potter movies. A Ute of Firewood came and we slpit and stacked it in the barn. We helped the nieghbour hill start his car when the rain had briefly stopped. Wiiliam and Dad crutched a sheep with some scissors. It ended up a warm and sunny day but there was a cold frost overnight.

We left West Aish farm and said goodbye. Caroline gave us some screws and staples to put in our new home so a part of them was with us.

We drove to the seaside town of Weymouth and for one of the first times in England (and Europe) we paid for parking. We went to the Sealife park and Aqurium with our Merlin Passes. All the rides and outdoor attractions were closed for the winter. The animals and sea creatures were just like the other Sealife centres in Scotland. The octopus was out and about and there were some giant spider crabs. We were underdressed for the cold because we thought it was warm with the sun shining. We watched the seal and Penguin feeding then left and drove to Salisbury where we stayed in front of a truck in a business park.

Back to England

We stayed in Ameins just in car park in the town. Mum and Dad walked in the Notre Dame-Ameins-Catherdral. It was lit up in the dark and they said it was an amazing gothic Catherdral. When we all went the next day we thought it was very similar in the Notre Dame Paris. It had lots of Gargolyes and Statues on the front of the two bell towers. The doors had huge decorated arches above them. There were some huge Glass windows inside the Catherdral but most of them were clear. There were plaques for the Anzac’s in one part. The back exterior was under restoration so we couldn’t see it.


There was some cool Music, Art and other shops in Ameins. We walked through a clothing market and went into a Fresh Produce market in a Food hall. There was a Mall as well and we had a look around there.

We drove to some of the ‘Aires’ on the Coast that we had stayed at in the summer. It was raining so we drove further towards Calais. We had a night on the cliffs and spent the next day doing nothing. We had our last shop in France and got some of the things that are cheap and good in France like Pate, Cheese and lot’s of Wine. We had our last bite of French Baguettes and Cheese. Mum had booked the 1o’clock (in the morning) ferry but we arrived earlier and got an Earlier crossing to Dover. While waiting at the Dock a small Van full of 10 drunk Lithuinians parked waiting behind us.

We left the continent at midnight and had a smooth, fast crossing back to England. We watched ‘The Jungle Book’ which got quite boring after the first five minutes. We parked on the Marine Parade in Dover.

We had an interesting experience in a Tesco Supermarket with all the people speaking English again and all the products with English labels! We went to a Motorhome dealer in Canterbury for a quote who explained different options how we can sell our Motorhome. We decided we’d try going to go back to the dealer we bought it from in Northhampton. We drove to Herne Bay on the North sea where the Thames finishes. The sun was out but it was cold. The water was brown and the beach was stones with walls going out to sea to stop erosion. There were little huts all different colours along the beach. We decided to walk to the library. It was much further than we had thought it was and we ended up walking more than 10kms. There were a lot of people using the library and we were asked if we were there for the homework club.

The next day Mum and Thomas went back to the library. They did a little shopping on the ‘High Street’ and got a jacket at a Charity Shop. There was a really neat ‘Witch’ shop with incense, candles and spell making ingredients. The lady was very happy to explain what the different things were. Mum got a purple beeswax candle for success in legal matters and some charcoal disks and dried lavender. Mum wanted to meet up with her Uni friends Fiona and Robyn. It got dark very early while we drove around London and under the river Thames. We got to Robyn and Jule’s place and parked next to the stable. There was a lot of mud everywhere. Jule’s had cooked a Beef Cassserole and Christmas pudding and Robyn’s lemon cake. Robyn told us stories of practical jokes at University. It was nice to see Fiona again and we had never met Robyn but we like her. We watched some TV until late then had a good sleep. Fiona and Flossie were nice and warm in their little Peugeot. When we went in the house in the morning we had nice hot showers and Porridge and our dirty washing was clean and folded. Jules took us on a tour of their every own graveyard. It was very interesting and a little creepy. Robyn rode two of her horses in the Dressage arena. The girls had a little ride as well. We had dinner in a Tesco car park then stayed on a street opposite a special hospital in Ampthill. We drove to Gary at ’Heart of England’ motor homes. We watched a movie while Mum and Dad talked inside. After Gary looked in our Motorhome we left. Mum and Dad decided they wanted to sell the Motorhome with Gary. We went to the same Shopping we bought the Satnav/GPS and had dinner. We stayed in Warwick at the St. Nicholas Park where we before in summer.

We went to Warwick Castle the next day. We had our Merlin Passes so it was ‘free’. The grounds were quiet and empty. There weren’t any outdoor shows cause it was too cold. The actors really made the day special and the castle’s history come alive. There were little details that we noticed differently from last time like secret doors. We took the Ghost tour and dressed up in the Princess tower. The view of Warwick was spectacular from the tallest tower. It is a very historic town and all the old houses are crooked.

Portugal to Paris-New Years

After our wonderful Christmas ’break’ with Sharon we decided it was finally time to start heading back to England and the cold winter weather. To see a different part of Portugal and Spain we decided to go along the bottom of Portugal and then up to Salamanca. We visited a couple of beaches but found them unattractive because of all the development that restricted our camping overnight options. We did find one nice place with a big parking area and lots of other campers, internet and a beautiful long beach. As well enjoying the soft sand and nice walks we had to take some photos for selling the camper. We managed to transform our camper (by adding the carpets and taking off the covers we made in Scotland) and it looked brand new. We usually have all the fabric covered so seeing it out with the new carpets reminded us of how nice our little home is when we’re not all in it. We crossed over the border into Spain and drove all day along motorways back to Salamanca. We got stuck in the petrol station height restricting bar back in Salamanca and stayed in the same truck stop we had stopped on the way to Portugal.
During the drive we watched a few new movies which made sitting in seat belts a lot more inviting. The vast landscape was very sparsely populated but there were lots of plantations. Oranges and citrus in the warmer south and olives in the dryer north. There was also a lots of homesteads with crumbling sheds and collapsed tile rooves. One thing I really remember is having lunch in a gigantic supermarket carpark which felt deserted. It was warm enough for us to just wear T-shirt and Shorts while the locals were in Jackets. We played outside with tennis balls just to get a bit of exercise the few locals that were there looked side ways at us. Then after lunch we got diesel and the man running the station laughed at dad because he jumped out to help in bare feet. He was really nice though and gave us lollies and a Spanish newspaper which we couldn’t read so we coloured it in and did the puzzles.
The next day we drove from Salamanca all the way to Bayonne France. Some of the longest driving we’ve done on this trip. It was another long day. It’s amazing how the scenery and houses changed when we crossed back into France. We like the French camping facilities and Mum can understand the locals. We spent the night in a very busy Aire with lots of other campers. In the morning it was a beautiful sunny day so we went down to the beach and found that very busy too. Because the locals have a few days off.
We drove through lots of Pine trees looking for somewhere to stop for New Years because we weren’t going to make it for Paris (800km away). We looked at a few empty beaches but stopped at a large smooth lake. There was the most amazing sunset over the lake. The water was shallow for a long way out and would have been nice to swim in warmer weather. Thomas went ‘Paddling’ but it was freezing.
We transformed the back of the camper back into a Cinema and watched ‘Into the Wild’.
Thomas and Anneke went to the lakeside ‘beach’ and made a little mound covered in white corn flour. We saw lots of them on the Mekong river for Chinese new year in Luang Prabang. Ten minutes before we were going to go out and light a candle a group of eight or ten loud and drunk ‘youngsters’ walked past and we didn’t feel safe leaving the camper. We knew we had entered the new year when some unexpected fireworks went off across the lake.
New Year’s Day we went down to the beach and lit a candle on our mound. It took a while because of the wind. We drove further north and went walking on a beach near the biggest sand dunes in Europe. We didn’t climb the dunes. We stayed by a river with an old watermill, surrounded by the town’s Boulanger, Patisserie and Pharmacie.
We went to a Motorway rest-stop with fast-food restaurants and budget hotels. Mum spent a while on the Wi-fi internet at McDonalds trying to work out how to sell our camper and where to go for our last 24 days. We talked about listening to each other and respecting one another in such a small space. It was much colder after driving only a couple of hundred kms north. The pond where we stayed froze-over, overnight. We had fun smashing the ice and bouncing stones on top, making funny noises.
We drove past a town called ‘Angerville’ and soon we were on a busier Motorway to Paris. There were some huge powerlines to our right. We got further into the city past some big office buildings and a hot-air balloon. There were lots of vehicles on the roads. We were back in the Bois de Boulonge with the ‘Ladies of the Night’ vans. We walked towards the ‘Arc de Triomphe’ past lots of familiar things. There were fenced off pens for Christmas tree recycling. The Arc de Triomphe was lit up and bigger than we remembered. We took the underpass under the huge roundabout with 12 exits. We then walked down the Champs Elysees. The trees were sparkling with Christmas lights and all the shops had Christmas lights out front. Everyone was shopping and there was a waiting line for the ‘Louis Vuitton’. Looking through the windows we could see handbags and coats for hundreds of Euros. We turned right and reached the Seine river. There was the Eiffel tower lit up gold. There were two spotlights shining outwards like a lighthouse. We walked down the river past the river cruise docks. We walked under the tower behind the Army guys with big guns. There were lots of annoying vendors (some illegal immigrants), hassling us to buy the little tourist souvenirs and these light-up spinning helicopters. We turned around to head back to the camper then the whole tower (as well as being gold) was sparkling with flashing strobe lights. It was amazing but only lasted five minutes. We saw a man cooking in a small tent on the footpath. We walked past some cafes and green-grocers on the way back to the Bois de Boulonge. It was a little scary at night. We drove out of Paris to a place we’d stayed at before on the Seine river.