Created by KeefH Web Designs, September 28th, 2026, 10.46 AM Motorhome trip No65 : 23-27th September 2026 Sandiacre, Derbyshire->Firs Caravan and Motorhome site->Sandiacre, Derbyshire 93 miles Firs Caravan and Motorhome Club Site - Top Campsite East Midlands. Try our Campsite Advice to help select and book a campsite. Introduction Firs Caravan and Motorhome Club site - What a lovely campsite and so close to home, we will go again, peaceful, adult only and a small site with great views, we were especially lucky as 3 of the days were full sunshine, hey getting a suntan towards the end of September is a real plus! Visit our You Tube Channel for many more motorhome-travel videos and slideshows, thanks Best pitch on the site, pitch 31, full sun nearly all day long and some nice views behind Slideshow of Images from the Trip This records our fun times at Firs campsite accompanied (of course) by Close to the Edge by Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks What a wonderful campsite, heavy sunshine and views & peace , adult only site Panoramas Firs site views across the Derbyshire countryside Bakewell Museum Tudor House Dolls house collection The Tudor House Bakewell Based in the museum which is locally sponsored and supported, what a fabulous find, quite a climb up past the old church to get to it but well worth the climb. Next time we go , the modest £7.50 admission charge entitles you to unlimited returns free for 12 months, we will use the car and blue badge, there is probably space for 3 cars with adequate turning space, would save our legs. The video introduction by a relative of the original tax collector owner Mr. Christopher Plant is a lady called Sophie Plant. Here is a quick extract. Such a useful overview video, history brought to life The Tudor house started with Henry VIII. We had a great time there, the warden was extremely helpful, a purchased ticket enables you to 5% discount on many other Peak district tourist visits, why not use it. Just so interesting. We climbed via the road past the church but a better route is thru the church and up the side alley which is how we descended on advice from the warden, much better on our aging legs and knees! Here is a little historical summary of said Tudor house. If you climb via the church and jitty this is your entrance Currently however there is renovation work underway (grant funded) so the front is a little obscured by scaffolding and canvas coverings (what a shame!) but worth it for the house's longevity. A visit to Bakewell’s Old House Museum is, above all, a journey deep into Tudor domestic life, preserved within one of Derbyshire’s oldest surviving homes. Built in 1534 during the reign of Henry VIII as a tithe collector’s cottage, the house still carries the unmistakable fingerprints of its Tudor origins — thick stone walls, timber beams, wattle‑and‑daub panels, and the vast hearth that once served as the beating heart of everyday life. What makes the Old House Museum so compelling is how authentically it communicates the lived experience of the Tudor period. This was no grand aristocratic hall but a working yeoman’s house, built for Christopher Plant, steward to Ralph Gell, who oversaw the collection of tithes — the mandatory tenth of local produce owed to the church. The building’s earliest rooms, still intact, speak to this practical purpose: modest spaces for accounting, storage, and daily domestic routines. During the reign of Elizabeth I, the house was expanded into a more refined gentleman’s residence, and these enhancements remain visible today. The most evocative feature is the garderobe, a rare surviving Tudor internal toilet — a luxury at the time — discovered during 20th‑century restoration and now open to view. Nearby, the magnificent Tudor fireplace dominates the central room, its scale revealing how essential fire was for cooking, heating, and social life. Standing before it, you can almost imagine the bustle of Tudor servants preparing meals or families gathering for warmth. The museum’s layout across ten period rooms allows visitors to trace the building’s evolution, but the Tudor sections remain its soul. The 16th‑century parlour, with its exposed beams and original stonework, is a highlight — a room that feels frozen in time. Artefacts discovered within the walls, including Tudor domestic items, deepen the sense of authenticity and connection to the people who lived and worked here five centuries ago. Beyond architecture, the museum excels at storytelling. Exhibits explain how the house later became workers’ cottages under industrial pioneer Richard Arkwright, yet the Tudor fabric survived. This layered history enriches the experience, but it’s the Tudor era that leaves the strongest impression: a rare glimpse into everyday life at the dawn of modern England. Visiting the Old House Museum feels intimate, atmospheric, and wonderfully immersive. Its quiet location behind Bakewell’s parish church adds to the sense of discovery — a hidden gem that rewards curiosity. For anyone fascinated by Tudor history, domestic architecture, or the evolution of English life, this museum offers one of the most authentic and engaging Tudor experiences in the Peak District. It is not simply a museum; it is a 500‑year‑old time capsule, lovingly preserved and rich with stories waiting to be explored. If you want to lean more they have a website, at The Old House Museum, Bakewell Overview of the Trip We packed the final bits and pieces on Wednesday morning, there was a small shower but since we were not travelling far (still my desire to get my new knees used to the motorhome driving...I think I'm now almost there after 3 relatively short trips in Wendy House in 2026 i.e. Blogs 240 (this!) , 238 & 237.) we chose to leave at 1pm. The journey was roughly 30 mins from home so mega local. Its a good idea not to arrive at Caravan and Motorhome sites at 1pm which is when everyone is arriving nowadays. Our Sat Nav took us mostly via Motorway. We chose pitch 31 and what a great choice that was, Peter and Sally the wardens know our pals Lawrence & Yvonne so suggested it was a good sunny spot, how kind of them, as they say its "not what you know but who you know" #smile After setting up got the chairs and table out in the sun and settled in for a relaxing afternoon. Port and lemon at the ready. Had a chat with near neighbour Philip from pitch 30, a lovely chap who had lost his dear wife to a brain hemorrhage soon after completing the NC500 in their caravan. He was clearly lonely and asked to join us, which we said yes and welcomed him. Lots of fun discussions and shared beers. By about 6pm the temperature was dropping so we all called it a day. Keef cooked lasagna and garlic bread, rapidly becoming our go-to campsite first meal. It was early to bed that night. Next day (Thursday) the sun was ever so warming so table and chairs out again. Philip was going home and had got his mini caravan stuck in the hard standing pebbles so we gave him a push and said our goodbyes. Nice chap! We then went for a bit of a walk around the site and visited the purpose built brick information "shed" , the best on any campsite so far. We got a few books to read. I started the last Jimmy Perez in Shetland one (called Wild Fire) before he moved to Orkney (and I've read that one as well by Anne Cleeve called The Killing Stones). The Orkneys and Shetlands are dear to us having been to both twice, our most recent trip in the motorhome can be read up on via Blog 206 Orkneys and Shetland trip. We then went along to the site viewing spot with picnic benches and some rest chairs, what fabulous views across the undulating countryside. Not surprisingly I snapped a few pix. After that is was back to chill, crochet, reading and snacking. Friday was very overcast with predicted showers and as we had read up the forecast in advanced decided it was a day to take the motorhome out. The bus service to Belper and or Crich / Matlock whilst very convenient to the site has a very sparse timetable meaning being stuck in say Belper for over 4 hours so that was a no no for us and we know Belper quite well as friends lived there for quite a few years. So we visited Heage windmill, sadly closed for maintenance, then Belper itself, note most car parks have a height barrier which makes it difficult to park and then onto Bakewell where we were determined to visit the Old house museum which in all our years in Derbyshire we had never done. We drove up there ,very steep but all parking permit areas so after a protracted n point turn we descended to the flat and the main car park across the old bridge by the River Wye. Boy that goes along way! The park guy was amazingly helpful, found us a slot, had a chat and helped me car the van. He was a volunteer who obviously enjoyed his job. We then walked back to the museum, which you can read all about above. We walked back down via the easiest route after probably spending over 2 hours in the museum, it was fascinating. We had lunch of fish and chips in the splendidly ornate Rutland Arms Hotel, yummy but very filling. We then called in at the Thornbridge Brewery and tap room to hopefully get a case of Lord Marples (a great beer) sadly for the 2nd time I have been there they didn't have any so bought a case of The Union (7% IPA be very careful NOT!). It was then back to the car park and slowly wending our way back to the campsite, a fab day all in all! Saturday was again very sunny so table and chairs out and a day of relaxation. Sunday up fairly early, washed dressed breakfasted and ready to break camp. It was showering on and off which hindered us a little but definitely confirmed it was time to leave. The Sat Nav took us via smaller roads thru Derbyshire, lovely scenery. Once home we unpacked bringing everything in from the van, as we have family visiting in October and most sites ae closed in November we have taken the decision tis will be out last trip of 2026 in Wendy House. More next year, roll-on. Summary If you ever needed proof that Derbyshire can deliver both tranquility and a suntan in late September, Blog 240 has you covered. Trip 65 sees us (subtitled - our intrepid duo) boldly travelling a whopping 93 miles — practically an expedition by local‑holiday standards — from Sandiacre to The Firs Caravan and Motorhome Club site in Ambergate near Belper. The Firs, an adult‑only CAMC hideaway, is described as “lovely,” “peaceful,” and “small,” which is code for: no screaming toddlers, no inflatable unicorns, and no one reversing a caravan for 45 minutes while shouting instructions that defy physics. Instead, you get great views, sunshine, and the rare opportunity to top up your tan in late September without boarding a plane or pretending you enjoy airport security. Three days of full sunshine apparently blessed the trip — a meteorological miracle so profound it should probably be documented in the Derbyshire Archives under “Unexplained Phenomena.” The blog even includes panoramas and a slideshow, because nothing says “we had good weather” like photographic evidence to taunt your rain‑soaked friends. The site’s location gets a glowing review: close to home, easy to reach, and scenic enough to make you forget that you packed four different coats “just in case.” Being adult‑only, it’s the perfect retreat for anyone who enjoys quiet mornings, gentle birdsong, and not stepping on Lego. The blog hints we will definitely return — which is the motorhome‑traveller equivalent of Michelin awarding a star. Tags on the page proudly list everything from “Top Campsites East Midlands” to “4K UHD,” suggesting that even if you didn’t go on the trip, you should at least feel guilty for not appreciating Derbyshire in ultra‑high definition. Watch the video why don't you? In short: Blog 240 is a celebration of sunshine, serenity, and staying close enough to home that you can still nip back if you forget your slippers. A cracking little break, a cracking little site, and a cracking reminder that sometimes the best adventures are only 79 miles away. Thanks for spending time reading, the author truly appreciates it. Documents Here are some of the documents associated with both the site and the environs for safe keeping Campsite Advice Leaflet with Local Visits High Lighted Feel free to download this PDF it will give you some great ideas for visits in the local area

By keef & annie, May 28 2012 08:35PM Dorset and North Devon trip A KeefH Web Designs Travel Blog Dorset and North Devon, Motorhome trip No2 : May 8th -21st 2012 Try our Campsite Advice to help select and book a campsite. NOTTS->CAMBRIDGE->NEW FOREST->DORSET->NORTH DEVON->NOTTS somewhere between 633 and 1000 miles depending whether we are using google maps, my speedometer in the van or the travel blog route creation app. Dorset and North Devon trip - Join us on a classic coastal motorhome adventure through Dorset and North Devon, packed with beaches, cliffs, cream teas and the odd navigational wobble. This blog explores the campsites, the views, the walks and the stories that made the trip unforgettable. A search‑friendly look at touring two of England’s most beautiful coastlines, full of scenery, charm and proper holiday fun. Prefer to listen to the audiobook version of this Blog, click HERE thanks Want to view the short travel blog route videos? click HERE thanks Apart from our trial run for a couple of days to Clumber Park, Notts (in the rain) this was our 1st holiday in our brand new van. Our lovely Autosleeper Clubman Anniversary (nicknamed ‘Wendy House or Gav' initially but Gav was just too silly, sorry can’t tell you why but it makes us laugh 😉 We stocked up and set off to visit my friend Kev in Linton, Cambs and parked the van at the Caravan Club (CC) site at Cherry Hinton, Cambs. Quite a nice site but with differing levels and a rather sereve one-way system which meant you had to queue up at the gate to be registered and then ferried in one at a time, still very convenient for Linton, which we must say is a lovely traditional English village, give it a visit if you have not been there. We then set off the next morning after a lovely meal, wine fest and sleep at Kevs for the Centenary CC site in the New Forest, Hants travelling round the outskirts of London, it never stopped raining so we were glad to arrive at the site (one of CC’s best) based on an old airstrip. Very modern and well laid out but guess what it never stopped raining. The setting for the site is brill and just out of the gate to see New Forest ponies. We will certainly go back again and maybe spend a little longer there next time. We travelled from the New Forest to Knoll beach Studland one of our fave beaches in all the world to meet up with Annie’s 3rd cousin to ‘do some’ genealogy. Alas no beach today as a washout but nice coffee and lunch in the café. We then went off to Hayman’s Cross , Dorset and stayed at Haycraft CC site for 2 nights. Just opposite Dunshay Manor, originally owned by one of Anne’s relie, way back. Rather fortuitously our Thurs / Fri stay there coincided with the Railway & Beer Festival, 5 mins walk from our site, now what more could one ask for, well ‘no rain’ really is the only answer! Went into Swanage on the steam train and visited the family tree research centre on the pier to finally meet up with the wonderfully helpful David Haysom who runs it. After leaving Haycraft we spent the day as getting sunny on Studland beach and did our first walk in the sand dunes. Even read our books on the beach. After this we checked into Crossovers CC site near Bovington. Best site in the UK we have been to so far, like being in a Canadian outback forest site, but with eco long drop toilets. Not as bad as they sound (honest!) The Sunday we spent walking and sun bathing and reading, bliss! We visited T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, place at Clouds Hill. He owned a 1929 Brough Superior SS-100 motorbike, nicknamed George VI. It was one of 10 motorbikes on display in Clouds Hill, Bovington to commemorate 100 years since Lawrence’s involvement in the Arab Revolt of World War I. It was customized to fit Lawrence’s height, with the top of the fuel tank cut away to allow for the lower saddle. That motorbike is still locally owned and ridden. It was a weird place. My dear pal KJ was obsessed with him and also visited and wrote about him. Monday morning did some shopping in Tesco’s on the outskirts of Dorchester then visited Athelhampton house in the rain. Not NT but privately owned. Interesting history and gardens, never stopped raining alas BUT local uni students shooting a movie there, medieval costumes, swords etc what a hoot . We then travelled on to almost Sidmouth / Honiton and a rather nice CC site at Putts Corner where we met a German couple on the next pitch who had bought their hired van over for Hannover for 3 weeks in the uK, claiming it was cheaper to hire and pay the ferry costs that hire in the UK, now that worries me . What are our UK companies doing? Our new pals had difficulty in getting the electrics to work, nothing too difficult, it was just the usual CC site electric ¼ twist to get it to lock in. How many others have suffered form that 1st time – I know I did We then moved onto visit NT house at Killerton, been there before but love it, especially Tom the bears house. After Killerton it was onto Minnows campsite at Sampford Peverell, Devon. Lovely walk out the back of the site along the Grand Western canal, and such a lovely evening stroll ending up with a pint of Otter ale in the local pub. We then had a lovely drive across Exmoor via Bridgetown. We both fell in love with Exmoor and are ashamed to say it is the 1st time we have visited but we will definitely be back again. After Exmoor we visted the delightful medieval village of Dunster and the NT castle before moving back into Somerset from North Devon and stayed at the Minehead CC site. A nice 3 levelled site with easy walking into town, we even went to see the outside of Butlitz (hehe), actually I was expecting minehead to be quite tacky and tasteless in a Scarborough sort of way but it was surprisingly nice, in fairness I’m sure Scarborough is now, it’s just memories I have from my childhood (Discuss!). From Minehead we went off to Selworthy up a very interesting narrow road, not ideal for Motorhomes but do-able and visited the NT Holnicote estate (pronounced Hunnicutt), now this is what quaint English thatched villages are all about. After Selworthy it was the prospect of Porlock hill (1 in 3), I chickened out and we went along the Porlock Manor Estate toll road (£4 for a van) and so glad we did and the views are tremendous. You can stop at the top and look out across Porlock Weir and the coast, yummy and those Exmoor ponies ahhh! Then onto the lovely UK’s little Switzerland at Lynemouth & Lynton. Loved the place. The old funicular railway still runs but seems to be no longer water powered, which was its claim to fame. Nice place, nice Devon pasties. Oh and the Glen Lyn gorge is well worth a view. We stayed the night at Willingcott CC site (no one there) having been through Coombe Martin and Ilfracoombe, not really our cup of tea I’m afraid, but Woolacoombe we loved. Voted 3rd best beach in the UK and I can see why. Went to visit NT Arlington Court and the National coach and cab museum, all very interesting especially the convoluted link to Sir Francis Chichester. Then stayed our last 3 nights at Damage Barton associated CC shared between the Caravan Club and Camping and Caravan Club, nice site, great sea views would thoroughly recommend it. We had trips out and visited the charming Appledore and had fresh fish and chips whilst overlooking the sea. We gave Clovelly a miss as probably similar and just too packed /steep for the van. We did visit Bridport / Barnstable/ Broughton & Westward Ho as well. Since the Olympic torch was being run thru our area causing 6 hour delays we got up at 5am on the last day and were well clear of the hold ups by the time the procession started. We made pretty good time back to home here in Nottingham. Its been a true 5🌠 experience #tick scary tag because of Porlock Hill although we chickened out and skipped around it Crossovers Caravan & Motorhome site, next to TE Lawrence's abode at Bovington SLIDESHOW 192 Photos available, go on you know you want to look *smile*, see SLIDESHOW. Comments Left on old site before Nov 21 AUDIOBOOK TRAVEL BLOG ROUTE VIDEOS #shorts

By keef & annie, Jun 15 2012 02:44PM Blog 38 Scotland trip No 1 A KeefH Web Designs Travel Blog Motorhome trip No3 : Scotland - May 29th – June 11th 2012 NOTTS->ALNWICK->FIFE->ANGUS->KINCARDINE->ABERDEEN->BANFF->MORAY->NAIRN->INVERNESS->ROSS & CROMARTY->SUTHERLAND->CAITHNESS->SUTHERLAND->WESTER ROSS->SKYE&LOCALSH->INVERNESS->ARGYLL&BUTE->NOTTS 1675 miles Blog 38 Scotland trip No 1 - Take on Scotland the long way round — 1,675 miles across the east coast, the far‑north edge and the wild west in one unforgettable motorhome adventure. This blog captures the routes, the campsites, the scenery, the weather mood‑swings and the laughs that kept us going. A search‑friendly deep dive into touring Scotland’s coasts, packed with views, stories and proper road‑trip magic. MENU Diary Slideshow Travel Blog Routes Retro Scottish holiday vids (utubeo) Audiobook That's all folks INTRODUCTION / DIARY Oh and we loved every moment of it. Scotland is such a fabulous place , breath taking views, lochs, castles to die for, interesting history and of course the deep fried mars bar. Sadly I still haven’t had the chance yet to sample this delicacy but scotch pies , white pudding etc. etc. were yummy! Pictures available under the site photos and slideshow tabs. In order to see these it is necessary to login using either your Facebook login / password or set yourself up one for our site, which will mean supplying your email address and accepting the automatic link that is sent to your inbox. EASY Remember a picture paints a thousand words! Basically keeping to the coast we travelled up the east, across top and then back down the west. As we have been to most of the islands already and the cost of taking the van over was not included in our budget we just had our memories and the views from the mainland. Maybe they are for another trip depending upon how much CalMac have ramped up the price for the multi-island passes, must check when I’ve finished this blog! So we left home and spent the night with our lovely friends Chris and Allyson in Alnwick, what a great Madar Jaffrey curry , thanks Chris. Part of this trip is inspired by a trip Chris & I did over 40 years ago when we were about 18 and we both hiked & hitched around Scotland, not been back to some of these places since and part so that Annie can get to John O’Groats as well as Landsend, I kept telling her she hadn’t missed anything and that proved to be true *smile*. Plus thanks to George & Emma for allowing us to park in Green Batt , George suggested his Auto Sleeper Executive and ours may well breed if they got a little closer. Haha – maybe an Eriba. Anyhow after a bit of shopping in Alnwick we set off for the borders. Then over the impressive Forth Road Bridge and into Fife. Did you know that Dunfermline (home of Annie’s ancestors) was once the capital of Scotland. We stopped at the Royal Burgh of Culross to visit the palace there, but sadly it was closed (something to do with a wedding and a corporate ‘do’ for the National Trust of Scotland). This didn’t stop us though and we still looked around the outside, gardens and interesting cobbled back streets. A real nice place. Give it a whirl sometime. No probs with parking the van either, 2 very big car parks that were hardly full. We discover Scotland has a lot of Royal Burgh’s an award which seems to have been bestowed the moment a Scottish King or Queen visited but I could be wrong! Then we drove onto St Andrews for the night, the home of golf, it hardly ever stopped raining. The site was a little expensive at £24 a night but they justified it by having a new indoor heated swimming pool and bar / games room. We went over for a swim but sadly it was a woman only eve, felt a bit conned. Still had a nice evening meal and some wine instead! Next day we visited Falkland and Falkland Palace, a very impressive castle. The Scots sure know how to do castles. It is also the home of real tennis, the very knowledgeable guide told us there had been a world championship there recently with the team from Ballarat , Vic, Aus represented. Blimey, we have been to Ballarat and it is the most unlikely setting for real tennis. *surprise*. It is still effectively owned by the Queen jointly with the NTS (Nat Trust for Scotland) and previously the kings of Scotland. We then left Fife and travelled into Angus staying at a lovely campsite in Carnoustie, you will need your satnav, it isn’t straight forward but Annie thought facilities wise it was the best we stayed in throughout Scotland, and it isn’t a Caravan club site. Having left there we went on through Arbroath & Montrose and visited a bird sanctuary /nature reserve in river basin with great views of Montrose. Never been in this area before but really nice, we would go back again. Whilst in the area we visited the famous House of Dun (NTS), it was owned by Lady Augusta FitzClarence, the illegitimate daughter of William IV (Queen Victoria’s dad) and his ‘actress’ mistress Mrs Johnson with whom he had 10 kids, she had over 20 in total with about 8 different partners, scandal, love it…. She never married any of them but apparently was great on the stage (or was that bed). The other things we remember were the last working damask linen handloom, big sequoias in the garden, the house had many doors that don’t open, they were just for symmetrical structure, each side was a mirror image of the other throughout, and joy of joy it had the best 1960’s stereo system I have ever seen, I want one. Mick Jagger bought the 1st apparently. It was then on into Aberdeenshire and Stonehaven which has a heated art deco pool plus we visited Dunnotair castle, are you getting it yet? castles and deep fried Mars bars with the odd Belhaven 80/- beer thrown in and a few lovely single malts and wine. Our ideal hols, hic! We avoided the city of Aberdeen as we had been there before when we went to the Shetland Isles. The onto the Feughside caravan park in Strachan Banchory Deeside, nice views, mostly a static caravan site though and a very nice pub / restaurant on the riverside less than 2 mins from the van. On this occasion we didn’t eat there however as we had fresh food to use but it looked lovely and many of the other ‘vanners’ were going there. Strachan pronounced “strawn” must be the origins of its sister town in Tasmania, Oz. The river Dee is lovely and looked like a heavily used fly- fishing area, trout apparently. Got up early the next day as much to see and big distances to travel. Visited Crathes castle & gardens nr Banchory and the craft village. There were many germans, dutch, french, italians with motorbikes, caravans & motorhomes and this repeated itself throughout our 2+ weeks in Scotland especially in the highlands, great to see! Crathes castle gardens had a floral tribute to the Queens 60th jubilee. By the time we had finished at Crathes it was getting on so I rang the Culloden Moor Caravan Club (CC) site to warn them we would be late. As long as you let them know you can arrive anytime up to 8pm in the eve. Then it was onto Cruden bay, fish & chips and Viking ships. Lovely quiet harbour and a beach to die for. Highly recommended! Then onto buller o’buchan just down the road. Similar to Pancake Rocks blow holes in NZ but not so dramatic and only one, maybe Scotland’s answer to Durdle Door in Dorset but with a wave pool. We did go thru / stop at Peterhead & Fraserburgh but not much to recommend them unless you are into industry and oil, sorry! Then turned the coastal corner into Banffshire – Macduff, don’t mention the Scottish play – did WillS really travel this far?,Banff with its own version of the Banff Springs hotel (haha – not surprisingly missing out slightly in the class / cost stakes, Then Morayshire including Portsoy,Cullen where Cullen skink comes from (a haddock soup) and thru Nairn onto Invernesshire for the 1st time this holiday. We stayed at Culloden Moor CC site for 2 days, nice setting and facilities, but v busy. From here we were able to visit Culloden Battlefield , one of the best historical presentations we have ever seen anywhere in the world and great use of technology to deliver the story. Well done them, do visit you will learn loads, we did. All about bonnie prince charlie,duke of Cumberland and what a disaster the dukes 25th b’day party was for the Jacobite clansmen. There long march and hoped for surprise (haha) just didn’t work and after 1 hour they had lost many many body. Interesting Charlie saw the writing on the wall and ran off after 10 mins (over the sea to Skye and never ever to return). The battle field is rather poignantly a war grave. In the afternoon we went in search of the Thane of Cawdor (oh no not the Scottish play again) by going to Cawdor castle, just down the road from the campsite, so all in all a great choice of site for the closeness of stuff to see nearby. The next day we called into Inverness to get fuel etc. but didn’t stay long as we have been there a few times in the past. Then it was up the A9, across the Cromarty bridge and into Rosshire, Alness (nice) and Invergordon (not so nice, oil platform restorations) there was a German cruise ship in presumably so they could visit Culloden etc., surely not Invergordon itself? Then onto Tain (brill) where there was diamond jubilee celebrations for the bank holiday including Capercaille playing for free, alas we couldn’t stay on as they weren’t playing until late in the evening but they are great and were on previously in Culross for £25. Had my 1st warmed scotch pie here *hungry* Then a visit to the Glenmorangie distillery where I bought a glass. Annie stayed in the van as she said no interest in whiskey. I bought 2 bottles of single malt whilst away, Old Pultenay & The Dalwhine, nice flavour both. Then it was onto Sutherland and many town / villages / hamlets the best of which was possibly Dornoch, nice old town and great architecture plus a good beach with the East Sutherland lifeboat station. There are also some nice lovely old towns at golspie,brora & helmsdale. Then we were into Caithness where we stayed at the Wick riverside site, quiet and cheap if somewhat antiquated facilities. The couple running it were very helpful. The SatNav guides you to the entrance under a railway bridge, watch out it is very low, We rang them and the guy came out and guided us round through the other entrance. Enjoyed our stay at the site. Found out that Caithness glass closed sadly 2006, became dartington crystal then closed in perth, may now be in crieff? Shame some great glass pieces were produced by them, real works of art! After visiting the Old Pultenay distillery in Wick (2012 whiskey of the year) and the old harbour and heritage area we set off for John o groats. There had been a fire on the heather moors the previous day that had shut the A99 but today it was open but the smoke, fire and smell still raged filling the van with an acrid stench that was fun to get rid of. We got great views of the Orkney & Stroma and did the usual tourist stuff but the craft area is not as active / busy as Landsend. We also visited Duncansby head and The Queen mums castle of Mey (v interesting) and stayed at Dunnet bay (view of dunnet head) caravan club site which has a great beach which we went for a walk on, we had it to ourselves and oh so sunny, best weather in the country. The next day onto Thurso & rain & shopping then to scrabster to revisit the ferry we used in 1987-ish for our holiday to the Orkneys when the boys were v young. Then on back into Sutherland again. Thru Coldbackie, Tongue & the youth hostel (Chris do you remember this, chores using a toothbrush before we could go to catch the one bus that left every 2nd Tuesday, Royal Mail with veg and livestock?) then round loch eriboll (wow – the best) single track with passing places and very busy then onto Sango sands campsite at Durness where we stayed for 2 days. It was windy, remote but brill views, loved it! On the 2nd day we drove down to the Durness quayside about 2 miles from site and went on a truly memorable trip to the great cape wrath (see pix – loved it) and came back to the craft village at balnakeil and visited its beach/ house/ cathedral ruins…. Walk to faraid head is rated as a must but we didn’t have time to do it so walked some of the beach, you need to be careful as families have been cut off here by the returning tide which circles round the back of the sand. Our Cape Wrath guide warned us of this. Then it was the roads to Ullapool, into Rosshire again and first Armaid and then to our Broomfield caravan park site next to Broom loch, conveniently places minutes from town and ferry terminal at Ullapool. Indeed the ferry runs past the campsite which I remember from when we went on it early 90s to Lewis & Harris. Would you believe it we couldn’t get a high tea in Ullapool although there appears to be a good Indian restaurant next to the campsite now! The next day it was the Wester ross coastline a real highlight including the Corrieshalloch gorge & suspension bridge, a lovely valley, little Gruinard beach, loch ewe (home of war time exercises),loch torridon, the brilliant Inverewe gardens nts, some of the best in Scotland based on location and plantsmanship. Then loch maree, the wonderful road to shieldaig, gairloch, loch carron and then into Skye & lochalsh. Here we saw a weird heather burn possibly that joined the smoke to the clouds, before reaching the famous road to the isles, which we have travelled many a time. Love it. We alighted at Dornie to see the most photographed Eilean doran castle, indeed Annie’s Canadian cousin Janet had this as her Facebook background pic. We stayed at Morvich CC site, very nice, for 1 night, superb beinn / mountains on all 4 sides. We left the next day to return to Fort Augustus (too touristy for us) and the wonderful Loch ness although not surprisingly Nessie was not “out to play” that day! From here it was to Fort William where the world Mountain bike champs were on that weekend at Beinn Nevis so very busy and wet *sigh*. We booked into Bunree CAMC site at South Onich nearby for 2 nights overlooking Loch Linnhe, near fort william. Great site great views great midges, don’t forget the spray folks! We were planning to go up Beinn Nevis on the Monday by cable car as never having been up there but sadly we had a big leak in the van overnight which mean the duvet acted as a wick and woke up wet. So rang the van people who asked us to bring it back. So sadly but sensibly we left early. Wouldn’t have been good if it had happened in Europe. We want it fixed before our next trips! So it was 400 miles back thru Argyll & Bute, loch leven , the truly wonderful glencoe, crianlarich, loch Lomond, trossachs, bypass Glasgow, Carlisle, M6 home… 6.5 hrs tired but ready to get the van into workshop the next day. UPDATE 15/6 they have found a seal leak around one of the windows so hopefully it will now be fixed. Currently undertaking serious soak test and leaving it out in heavy rain. eilean donan castle, dornie, skye & lochalsh Return to Menu SLIDESHOW 215 Photos available, go on you know you want to look , All on KeefH Web Designs You Tube ( utubeo) channel #majortrip #campsites #motorhometravelsblog #motorhome #fun #fab #weHEARTscotland Return to Menu TRAVEL BLOG ROUTE Here is roughly where we went, have a look, there are lots of other routes for our Scotland trips in our lovely Wendy house, you can see them all in the tick list here Return to Menu RETRO SCOTTISH TRAVELS Return to Menu AUDIOBOOK Return to Menu THE END

Originally By Keef & Annie Hellinger 15 April 2022, 9.51 a.m. Best Travel Blogs Updated KeefH Web Designs, February 20th, 2026, 9.36 AM A KeefH Web Designs Travel Blog - Motorhome Touring Routes Scotland Motorhome trip No 49 : 30th March – 14th April 2022 NOTTS->The North Coast 500 route and Isle of Mull with Friends, Scotland ->NOTTS 1633 miles Use the MENU motorhome touring routes Scotland #hintsandtips time suggestion do the NC500 clockwise, that way you are always on the coastal side in wester ross and Sutherland, which in our humble opinion are the best bits scenery wise, means on single track you are not crossing the road for your photo opportunities, just a suggestion, of course it is entirely up to you! Blog 177 the NC500 route in Wendy House, motorhome-travels blogs MENU Calendar Maps Campsites we stayed at Diary Slideshows Video (The Talkies) Audio Diary Scottish Travel Blog Routes Retro Scottish Family Holidays Tags & Comments If you would like to see the associated Image Slideshow please click HERE, thanks Suggestion , use the side menu to go directly to Blog 177 Calendar Go to Menu Campsites Go to Menu Maps Go to Menu Diary Feel free to use the Audio Diary if you would prefer to just listen to the audiobook or combine it with a full slideshow HERE This trip was the repeat of the one we tried last year when sadly our Motorhome cambelt snapped near Birnam – Dunkeld off the A9 past the gulf garage and opposite the Erigmore Leisure park. See Blog 152. This time we paid tribute to it as we passed but our lovely motorhome, which we had a full engine service on just before the trip passed with flying colours, up hills, and down dales or should it be glens. 😉 I had no ideal Birnam was so famous. The pretty village of Birnam lies 15 miles north of the city of Perth and sits opposite the twin town of Dunkeld, across the river Tay. The village is well known for featuring in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. You can visit Dunsinane Hill, to the south-east of the village, where the ancient Birnam Oak stands as the sole survivor of an attack by Malcolm III on Macbeth. Birnam is linked to Dunkeld by a seven-arched bridge built by Thomas Telford. The village is surrounded by lovely Perthshire countryside, especially the Hermitage, a beautiful, wooded gorge. The area inspired Beatrix Potter, who spent her childhood holidays here. She is celebrated in the Birnam Institute’s Beatrix Potter Exhibition & Garden. Anyhow to the trip. I suggest you read (or listen) to this in conjunction with the Calendar. Day 1 Having packed up the van beforehand we set off and drove the 250+ miles on the way up to Berwick Upon Tweed in Northumberland. The weather wasn’t great with rain and sleet to keep us company and lots of spray from the many lorries on the M1, M18 and A1, A1M. We stopped for lunch in the snow in Darlington. A place I had bad memories from my Boots days and EPOS of logging out prescription methadone to addicts BT and here is the good news it was actually a much nicer place than I remember. The chip shop we found was in a rather scruffy area but provided the best fish and chips I have ever had, Harry Ramsdens Leeds you are relegated. It had won northern chippie of the year 2020. Yummy. Having feasted we travelled on past where Chris’s rose cottage was in Detchant and beyond Lindisfarne to the Caravan and Motorhome club (C&MC) site at Berwick. We have stayed there before with friends. The icy winds made filling up with water not very nice, anyhow we were in for the night, warm, fed and bedded. Day2 A further 230+ miles today up to Grantown on Spey in the Cairngorms National Park. We left Berwick after a healthy breakfast, it was still incredibly cold and sleety. Packed up the van wearing my Icelandic hat and gloves, it seems they are essential on this trip, indeed overnight after the heating is off, I wore both a jumper and my hat nearly every night bar one, that will give you a measure of the cold temperatures for this trip. As an aside the motorhome Therma heater is amazing, warms the van in no time, either on electric when hooked up or gas for wild camping #hintsandtips So after Berwick we used the A1 up as far as Burnmouth having stopped for photos as we crossed the border into Scotland, touristy I know but you have just gotta do it, we then turned off onto the A1107 or the Eyemouth coastal path. We loved Eyemouth both the harbour and the town centre and beach. We had a look at each which you can see in the picture show. Having left this coastal loop we came back to the A1 and left again on the scenic coastal route, the A1087, to Dunbar. When Keef was a child living at 10 Lessar Clapham the Scottish family living upstairs where named Dunbar, not sure they came from there though, sadly mum can no longer tell me. #sigh It is worth noting we travelled passed the Belhaven brewery but didn’t stop. Dunbar Highstreet we stopped in, this also contains the birth place and museum of John Muir, OK confession time, I had to look him up as well #smile Naturalist and Preservationist, but big in Dunbar by all accounts, apologies to friends of John Muir. After our Dunbar visit, we re-joined the A1 bypassing Edinburgh as best we could and crossed the 4th road bridge at Queensferry, I remember in my 20’s South and North Queensferry having a ferry crossing available for the Firth of Forth, a very distant memory. It was then on through Fife and turning off to visit Loch Leven at the Kinross turnoff. We parked up for a walk, the sun came out and sadly so did a few early midges, out damn spot! Annie remembers visiting here with her parents and them taking the hire boat out on the loch to visit the castle prison where Mary Queen of Scots was held but Anne’s Mum freaking out when the motor cut out, suck memories not. We had a good look around a very nice spot. We then headed past Birnam turnoff where the van conked out last time and onto Blair Atholl, a lovely place, stopped near the heritage area with its wood carvings, old bridge and post office, a bit of sun and a few people picnicking. Irn Bru and fish suppers. Keef took pictures of the River Tilt. We then hit some snow, pretty strong through the Grampians and the Cairngorms National Park arriving at Aviemore a tourist mecca we had never been to before, quite liked the place, especially the Strathspey steam railway station and the views of the snow-covered Grampians Boy it was cold and snowy. We saw the train being readied for the season as we left Grantown the next day outside Aviemore. We then went onto our campsite at Grantown on Spey just outside the main town, a lovely site and a very helpful warden on his Golf buggy greeted us. Set up for the night, it then started snowing quite heavily, a little worrying. Kept the heating on for quite a bit. Had our usual day 2 lasagne and garlic bread supper with strawberry yoghurt pudding, delicious. Then to bed we start the NC 500 tomorrow snow allowing. Day 3 Nice and sunny this morning which meant the snow dump we had had overnight melted quickly. When we first work and drew back the roof light the snow – ice crystals that met us were fascinating to watch from the comfort of our beds as it melted. After breakfast we parked up in Grantown on Spey near the kilt shop and walked from one end of town to the other. What a lovely place it is, with some very interesting buildings and gardens. We liked it so much we have decided in the future we will come back to this area and probably stay at the same site. It is a Caravan and Motorhome club affiliated site which means a discount is applied when you show your club card #hintsandtips We took a drive out in search of the River Spey but could not find it so returned to Grantown and started heading off to Inverness to start the North Coast 500, allegedly 500 miles hence the name but from our Odometer a bit more that that at 550 miles and we left out the steep climb over to Applecross via the Bealach Na Ba Road (Battle of the Cattle). So glad we did miss this bit out as it was snowing and it said NO MOTORHOMES 😉 Bealach Na Ba Road We did indeed cross the Spey on quite a few occasions on our route. We travelled to the City of Inverness, then Beauly to see the town, trees, priory and Shinty ground, must look up what that is, if interested look HERE. We passed the Glen of Ord distillery but did not go in. At Marybank Keef stopped to take both his first picture of the NC 500 road signage and the wonderful old metal school gate, quite a classic. After that we joined the main A835 through Contin past the Museum of Childhood (seen one of those in Sudbury Derbyshire so didn’t stop) onto Garve where we stopped for lunch overlooking the loch. We then turned off onto the A832 past Gorstan onto Achnasheen where we stopped in front of the remote railway station. This is the Kyle of Lochalsh line from Inverness so you can join up with a ferry to Skye. Less used now the road bridge to Skye is available but we have used the Arisaig ferry and Kyle of Lochalsh ones in the past. A little about Achnasheen which we loved, the air was so fresh, the views fantastic and the oakmoss on all the trees reflected the clear air. Achnasheen Train Station is a stop on the Kyle of Lochalsh Line, serving the small village of Achnasheen. Opened in 1870, it was an important connection point for freight, mail and passenger trains travelling from parts of Wester Ross to Inverness. Today, trains from Achnasheen train station connect the village to Inverness, which can be reached in less than 90 minutes. It is a stopping point mainly for tourists and walkers who wish to visit the village or explore the surrounding area. The original Achnasheen Hotel, built soon after the station, burned down in 1994 but accommodation for visitors can be found at the Ledgowan Lodge Hotel, which is located half a mile from the station. Four trains from each direction stop here daily on weekdays and Saturdays. Sundays have one train all year round and two during the summer. The two platforms at Achnasheen station are connected by a footbridge and both have small shelters and seats. After Achnasheen we travelled through Glen Carron and on the Wester Ross coastal route past loch carron , a lovely village, very touristy where we stopped and then again on the wonderful loch Kishorn, a sea loch for many a photo opportunity. Just past Ardarroch with sleet, snow and mist in full swing we came to the start of the Bealach Na Ba Road which said no Motorhome, its possibly the steepest road in the UK. Annie convinced Keef, quite rightly that we shouldn’t do it, friends have since told us its scary enough in a car, let alone a motorhome in snow, so a good call, Keef however would love to do it one day in a car, maybe in better weather and get across the steep hills up and down to Applecross. Anyhow we took the mucg flatter single track road across to Shieldaig through the forest. We had forgot that the Torridon hotel lauded by Susan Calman, and Giles and Monica was at Shieldaig, we knew we were on the lookout for this plush hotel on the NC500, keef promising Annie via a 2nd mortgage to buy her a high tea there, sadly it didn’t happen, maybe another time. After Shieldaig it was through the Glen Torridon onto Kinlochewe and the fab loch Maree which seems endless as a freshwater loch in an area of so many sea lochs. The weather was finally beginning to clear a little making the views even more spectacular. We then went on past Victoria falls arriving at Gairloch harbour now sadly in the rain and sleet. We stopped momentarily knowing we would return tomorrow, as it was now getting late we went out along the coast road to out Sands resort campsite at Big sands for the night. Not the greatest site facilities wise but the sand dunes and views were to die for. Day 4 A nice bright but cold morning, not that we knew it at the time, but potentially the best weather of the holiday maybe bar the last day on the way back at Bolton Abbey in the North York moors, anyhow after breakfast we drove back into Gairloch, filled with diesel and Keef bought a route 500 road sign, why not you may ask. Not the tourist tat that Susan Calman is so keen on however in my defense, ha-ha. We parked up in the estate walks car park, had a look at the river Kerry from the old bridge and then crossed back over the main road to the old fishing harbour which we walked all the way along via the fabulously named sit-oot-erie, with lovely spring bulbs. Keef went to the end of the pier talking to a few deep-sea fishermen on route, mostly lobster and mussels was their catch. We called in at the little harbourside shop to buy a few things on the way back to the motorhome, we absolutely love Gairloch, what a special place. Having left Gairloch we travelled back on the A832 through the very rocky area up to Poolewe. The next bit we have done before in reverse order as we travelled anti clockwise through parts of this area on our third trip in the motorhome back in 2012 Blog 38. So we drove past Inverewe gardens which wasn’t open anyhow and stopped once again at the WW1 lookout over loch ewe. In the current climes we by passed the Russian Arctic Convoy museum, we would have done anyhow, way too boring. Tee-hee. It was then past little sea loch Broom and then stopping at Ullapool for lunch. We love Ullapool and all of Sutherland, but the huge Viking Venus cruise liner was in the port harbour ferrying lots of American tourists off the ship into port so with walking tours led by old men in kilts it was a little too busy for us, so we moved on into the somewhat more remote and relaxing Assynt. Stopping off at the old Ardvreck castle , Annie stayed in the van after reading the tourist info boards but Keef walked along the short path to the old 1490 castle, the home of the Macleod’s of Assynt. The area also had a fascinating Calda manor house c 1730 ruin with information stating it belonged t the MacKenzies of Assynt. Some of the clear reflection in loch broom were amazing and I hope I have captured that in some of my pictures. After the castle we left onto the A837 along the side of lock assynt through little Assynt and then down 5 miles at the start of the wee mad road to our campsite at Clachtoll beach, run by the amazingly helpful Tom and Andy, a glaswegian and a yorkshireman. What a nice campsite in such a nice area. They had a fire going so you could sit out under the stars, wet suits, and body boards to borrow, plus fire pits for your own BBQs. The only downside was the stupid female couple who blocked me in on entry to the site and I had to initiate a 10 point turn to get out of it in very narrow surroundings whilst they watched, grr, no effort to move or help at all oh plus despite saying we saw 2 cases of folks lighting fires on the ground when the owners clearly pointed out that that was a no-no and you could borrow their safe grates. How silly and disrespectful is that! In the eve we took a long walk down and along the beach via the boardwalks as the sun was beginning to set, just magical. Day 5 Not the greatest weather today. Packed up and left the Clachtoll beach site early which was a very sensible move considering the challenges of the Wee Mad Road. I saw a 30-foot-long trailer pulling a caravan combo which in my humble opinion was nuts. Luckily, he went in the opposite direction and did the 5 miles back so no obstacle for us. I also did not know it was a book by Jack & Barbara Maloney. Here is a simple synopsis of that book which says more than I could. Lovesick sheep, rumours of war, storms at sea, whisky galore - a midlife escape from an 'empty nest' in America to start afresh in the wilds of Scotland. When their children grow up and leave home, authors Jack and Barbara Maloney sell their house in a Midwest suburb and run off to the Highlands. Following a one-lane track called ''The Wee Mad Road,'' they discover an isolated remnant of traditional Gaelic culture, peopled by characters as unique and memorable as the surrounding mountains. The Maloney’s settle into an old stone cottage and spend two years in repeated collisions with quaint Highland ways. Entries from Barbara's diary detail the realities of village life, while Jack recounts tales of poachers, crofters, and lairds in one of mainland Britain's most scenic and isolated corners. The Wee Mad Road is a warm and witty account of two years in the Highlands, with illustrations of everyday life in the wildest reaches of the United Kingdom. It's a 'how to' book for anyone who dreams of escaping the doldrums of suburban midlife and starting over. We were looking for somewhere to get milk along the road. We stopped at the Drumbeg viewpoint overlooking Eddrachillis bay where we met a white-haired ex-hippie who was also doing the same route as us, indeed we saw him often on our travels, next popping up at Sango sands in Durness. We exchanged witticisms about how we were only doing the NC500 to find a rubbish bin, there were none at Clachtoll beach site where we had both been the night before. We thought we would walk to the shop in Drumbeg but the wind was so overpowering we got back in the van and drove there, only to find it was shut anyhow as it was Sunday. No worries we carried on round the very twisty steeply inclined (both directions) road, its name is not without cause, but we loved it, the remoteness and views are what the NC500 is all about in our humble opinion. Back on the main road A837 at Unapool we were able to make a little more progress, we stopped at the only open shop in Scourie to get milk. After that we went to Laxford Bridge, Rhiconish then the single-track road all the way across the “rock ridges” of upper Sutherland to Durness, where we had been before in 2012 when we visited Cape Wrath. Note the single-track road was a breeze after the Wee Mad Road, I can tell you. Much of this area is a route called the rock route with tourist info boards, I read a few but rocks are just not my thing unless forgive me it is reclassified as Rock music, now you are talking! Tee-hee We checked into Sango Sands site, one we have stayed at before, choosing a pitch on the cliff edge with fab views. It was raining , we had looked for diesel here in Durness but none was available. Luckily, we had enough to get mostly across the top of Scotland. The rest of the day and night was rain, sleet, snow and what I can only describe as near gale force winds that rocked the van for most of the evening and night, not the most relaxing, and indeed our second experience of horrendous winds at this campsite. As no one was in the office when we arrived and we certainly didn’t fancy walking anywhere the kind lady came to collect our fee at the door, which almost blew off when we opened it. Not sure we will return to Sango Sands ever again although our pals from Mull went there in Storm Dennis and were the only ones on the site, not surprising, but either brave or foolhardy , I wouldn’t. We had a quick chat with the young Belgian couple next to us who were touring in his converted Sprinter van, they needed some change from us to do their washing. I think with the worry we managed to sleep at least a bit but it wasn’t great, couldn’t wait to leave. Day 6 Up early couldn’t sleep because of the wind anyhow, it had lessened a bit, we drove over to the only amenities open all the ones near us were boarded up against the weather, not great really. The two good things they had done since last time we visited 10 years ago was set up many more level graveled pitches and a breakfast bar, not that we used it but the lady who took our money was thankfully tucking into a bacon butty. We reckon the reason so much of Scottish food is grease ladened is to shut out the cold, it’s a bit like covering yourself in fat to swim the channel. It reminds me of our deep-fried mars bar experience in Blog 131. Didn't know that there was a memorial in Durness to John Lennon. Here is a write up about the Durness stuff, indeed In My Life off the Beatles rubber soul album, which he wrote was inspired by childhood stays at the croft in Durness. We are collecting visits to John Lennon Memorials as back in 2019 just off Reykjavik on Videy Island Yoko build the Imagine Peace Tower. (See BLOG 135) . We then went past Smoo Caves which we still haven’t seen, to the Robb Donn trail clearance village. Then it was around loch erribol on the single-track road onto tongue across the kyle of tongue causeway which was being repaired. The famous youth hostel Chris and I stayed at back in 1974 which was a posh yoof hostel by 2012 was sadly now closed, boo! At tongue we finally found some diesel and at £1.97 a litre I had no choice, I would have paid even more. Saw castle Varrich and quite a few more clearance villages before the long scenic drive through highlands Caithness to initially scrabster where we once caught the ferry to the Orkneys back in 1985. Then into Thurso and buying some much needed provisions in Lidl there, having lunch in their car park overlooking the bay before heading on through Dunnet-to-Dunnet head and visiting the lighthouse at the most northerly point in the UK past Brough. We then returned down the awfully maintained single track back into Dunnet and then onto the wonderful Caravan and motorhome club site at Dunnet bay where we stayed for 2 days. We set up camp and whilst the weather was reasonable walked down onto the beach via the boardwalk and walked quite a long way along, it is allegedly 2.5 miles long and when the wind is up makes a great surfing beach, lovely sands, but as the tide was coming in and the wind bitter, we turned around and returned to the van for some warming soup. Then it was time to read and relax, listening to the new Bryan Adams album so happy it hurts, just wonderful. Day 7 2nd day at Dunnet Bay campsite, not great weather in the morning, rained most of the time, a clear patch mid-afternoon gave Keef time to walk into Dunnet and visit the Gin distillery there as well as walk up to the turning for Dunnet head. The gin place was closed but I was able to look into see the process and some of the Gins they sold. I was also able to stroll around their gardens where there were lots of herbs I had never heard of which they used the flavour the gin. Hugely expensive the cheapest in the shop window seemed to be £57 a bottle, wow! By the time I had walked back it was raining again but at least I got a little exercise and some learning. The viewing platform at the other end of the beach was interesting at was the displays but school kids outside the cap site. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and reading. I am reading a historical novel about Katherine De Swynford, mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt, later on in the holiday this enable us to say that Allyson and Annie are distantly related. On the site there was an auto sleeper executive very similar to ours only somewhat older, just shows they keep going. Day 8 Left the fab Dunnet bay past the Queens Mums castle of Mey (which we visited in 2012) and travelled onto to John O’Groats hoping it had improved since our last visit 10 years ago. The brochures said the quaint village of John O’ Groats, on the way we stopped at Gills Bay where a ferry goes to both the near island of Stroma and St Margaret’s Hope on South Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands which we visited in 1985. The ferry is run by Pentland Firth, I need investigate whether it carries vehicles because the John O’Groats one is only passenger. It may be an alternative to Scrabster – Stromness when we return to the Orkneys which we are thinking of doing in Wendy house as well as the Shetlands assuming there are enough campsites. Sadly, John O’Groats is still a dump, and the new holiday pods look more like WW2 bunkers, note to self never go back again. This is what was in the Dunnet Bay Caravan and Motorhome Club site marketing leaflet, we looked for it honest but didn't find it, hugely disappointing. where was it? how did we miss it After John O’Groats we stopped near Keiss castle, went past the lovely Sinclair Bay and after that we travelled onto Wick to buy shortbread, Scottish products and visit Old Pulteney distillery to buy Doug a rare whiskey for his collection. In wick we even visited their old castle, not that wonderful. Then it was on down the A9 past Dunbeath castle, Helmsdale, Wolfstone and onto Dunrobin castle which we had not been to before. We spent a pleasant few hours there, in what seems like a French chateau, owned by successive Dukes & Duchesses of Sutherland, the earlier ones being responsible for the Highland clearances so not that popular. Loved the fact that one so rich built his own station nearby and ran steam trains to it, he was an engineer . I personally loved the old clocks of which there were plenty. The gardens were very formal, we took hundreds of pictures and tried to spot the falconry. The images were in case we decided to invest in some solid real estate, ha-ha. It was then back to the start of our NC500 trip and the Torvean campsite on the other side of the city of Inverness, by the Caledonian canal, a very overpriced campsite for what it was, we would never use it again preferring Grantown on Spey that isn’t that far away #hintsandtips Day 9 Filled the van water tank to about half, then we left for the lovely drive along the edge of Loch Ness, didn’t see Nessie but we stopped at Urquhart castle for a squint at the relic. We then stopped at the Commando monument mostly for the view of the mountains especially a snow-covered Ben Nevis. From here it was through a somewhat built-up Fort William, along the side of loch eil and stpooing for lunch just the other side of the Ballachulish bridge off the A82. From here we motored on to Oban , got some diesel did a bit of shopping and joined the ferry queue for our 4 pm departure to Mull and Craignure. Allyson had collected Chris from Oban hospital and was in lane 1 in the queue beside us. So great to meet up with our pals on the ferry. Chris was recovering from an op and as they were in a car went ahead of us who are somewhat slow in our van across the 34-ish miles of south Mull to their house in Ardtun near Bunnessan Days 10-13 lovely times with pals Chris & Allyson plus the Harveys whom we picked up from the ferry terminal in Chris’s car which I borrowed, besides friends time, escape room games, great food, chat, music - especially Skippernish - trad scottish with a hint of sea shanty, walk to Bunnessan, chic feeding , car practise to Fionnphort , seeing Iona at a distance , Annie and I first went there and to Mull in August 1976 before we were married, walks on Uisken beach, sitting on Peter Morris’s chair, walk to Ardalanish beach across the river and Dunes, near the Weavers we went to before, Annie visiting Monica from NZ with Allyson, venison and oh so many wonderful meals, they sure did look after us, just a great time spent wih pals, so loved it. Stopped for David to take this picture on the way from the Ferry to C&A's at Ardtun. mid south Mull, lochs near ben buie Day 14 up early washed, packed and ready for the long drive back to Craignure to catch the ferry back to Oban, from there we drove via Inverary , Rest and be thankful, Loch Lomond, Fish and chip lunch in Dumbarton with its strange castle / prison riverside, The Erskine bridge and mass traffic around the outskirts of Glasgow back to the Strathclyde country park Caravan and motorhome club site we have stayed at often, a great stopping off point. Day 15 Back across the border into England today leaving Glasgow via the M74 right next door to the campsite, how convenient. Right down as far as the North York moors, pulling off the motorway past dales through Hawes, we stopped for lunch and a bit of shopping in Skipton, quite a busy place especially as the market was on, then it was onto Bolton abbey via Bolton bridge, through the low arch next to the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire plush estate and into Strid woods and the Cravan and motorhome club site named Bolton Abbey, used to be Strid Woods. Greeted by our pals Yvonne and Lawrence who are sole wardens there, had a fab evening meal and time with them catching up, we will see them again soon. Day 16 said our goodbyes and headed back through Harrogate, Weatherby, A1 , A1M to home and unpacking the van, a truly lovely holiday doing the NC500 and seeing friends. We both loved every moment of it. Go to Menu Slideshows Sites and other stuff campsites we stayed at Key moments Full Slideshow with Audio Diary Intro Go to Menu The Talkies Go to Menu Audio Diary Go to Menu SCOTTISH TRAVEL BLOG ROUTES Go to Menu RETRO SCOTTISH FAMILY HOLIDAY VIDEOS You Tube / utubeo videos recreated in a more modern way in 2023 Go to Menu That's All Folks

Created by KeefH Web Designs September 27th, 2023, 7.53 AM A Travel Blog by KeefH Web Designs Motorhome trip No57: 19th-25th September 2023 NOTTS-> Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Chester, Cheshire and Castleton, Peak District, Derbyshire -> NOTTS 289 miles MENU Introduction Calendar Love2stay campsite, Shrewsbury Shrewsbury with friends, Shropshire Moreton Corbet Castle & Church Chester, Cheshire David the Town Crier Castleton, Derbyshire Travel Route and Map Audiobook Summary INTRODUCTION This is a 6 day travel blog. We left home about 11-ish and used the truck nav to navigate to our campsite at Emstrey just outside Shrewsbury. The route was torturous and should have been about 1 hour 30 minutes in duration and 77 miles in distance but for 2 reason that was not to be. Firstly trying to avoid the M6 toll and secondly a truck fire on the M54 outside Telford that created a nose to bumper diversion. Note to self next time we go to Shrewsbury use a different route #stress Anyhow we got to the beautiful Love2Stay campsite around about 2-ish and checked in. The rest of our absolutely fun time can be found under each successive chronologically order travel blog write ups below i.e. fun with pals in Shrewsbury, day out in the marvellous city of Chester and finishing in the spectacular High Peaks in Derbyshire. Only real downside was the weather, wet and windy nearly all the time. Sadly dry and sunny on the journey home from the Peaks. #typical but it didn't spoil our trip and fun. friends: meal at the riverbank, victoria quay, shrewsbury after cruise Return to Menu CALENDAR Here is a calendar entry I used to plan the trip, what is they always say prior to travel, make sure you plan properly otherwise it is the old adages "fail to plan, plan to fail" and "the 3 P's... p**s poor planning" #advice planning our vacation Return to Menu THE FAB LOVE2STAY CAMPSITE AT EMSTREY Arrived about 2-ish,checked in and set up camp on pitch FS1 near the amenities block, very convenient. Beautiful hill top views from this pitch, 360 degrees when the sky was clear enough to see. Checked up on buses from the site which are only every 2 hours and stopped pretty early in the evening for the way back. Our lovely friends ferried us back both nights for which we are eternally grateful. On the way in each day we used Shrewsbury's GoCarz app, very efficient and quick and they pick you up by the site reception, roughly £9 into town (dated sept23). Here is the marketing blurb! Love2Stay really has it all. The fully serviced resort is set in 22 acres of stunning landscape, with the Shropshire hills within easy reach and the Welsh border in striking distance. Love2Stay was created to make it easier to do something special with your down time, so we’ve made sure that there’s as much to do in the surrounding area as there is onsite. If you’re looking for a day off from driving, the medieval market town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, is a short bus ride or taxi away. Shrewsbury is home to timber-framed black and white buildings with steep narrow streets and alleyways to discover. The Castle and Shrewsbury Abbey are both worth a visit and the River Severn flows past effortlessly. Try the River trip on the Sabrina. We would definitely recommend the site if you want to find out more click here Love2Stay info by KHWD Here are some images from the programme, very professional I must say, that we were given when we arrived, so much so that we intend going back next year with our extended family to stay in one of the Woodland lodges. You may find it of interest. Return to Menu SHREWSBURY TOWN WITH FRIENDS, DARWIN's BIRTHPLACE After arriving and setting up the van we phoned for a taxi and had him deliver us to the Riverbank restaurant at Victoria Quay. Had a bit of a look around and the Sabrina was just coming in from its current trip. Lovely area. We arrived about 5 pm and settled down at what was to be our table for the night post cruise with a lovely (and I mean lovely, better than my prize bean to cup machine at home). Mandy and Colin arrived at about 5.30 p.m. and Neil and Marice soon after. So lovely to catch up. After some drinkies, nibbles and a chin wag we crossed the road to wait for boarding. Guess what it was starting to rain. The river trip lasted about 45 minutes and was just lovely leaving from the Welsh Bridge we headed up to the English bridge past the posh boys school , lovely riverside dwellings and the funfair. The rain intensified and apart from the endless great tunes blasting out from the speaker system and humour from the captain it was time for the Icelandic hat to ward off the elements. I think everyone had a great time and it was then back to the Riverbank for a lovely meal. Frankly I have no idea how the combined cruise and 2-course meal was so cheap. Well done colin, £25.50 per head #amazing After a lovely evening Neil kindly drove us back to the site past the abbey and the odd red light #smile The security guard , a Maori looking guy who you definitely wouldn't mess with let us in. Tip you need your barrier key to get into site after 10 p.m. #justsayin Bit of history for you about the origins of both bridges. During the 12th century this stretch of the Severn served as the frontier between England and Wales, so both the English and Welsh Bridges were fortified as they served as part of the town’s defences. DAY 1 highlights - Friends, Cruise and Meal oh and cold blue steel soundtrack by her majesty Joni! Here's the Riverbank menu , far to much food but very very nice, I would especially recommend the mushroom risotto and never fear sticky toffee pudding shared with a loved one, 2 spoons essential. riverbank menu Up reasonably early, breakfasted and caught the taxi from site reception to the Premier Inn where our friends were staying, we drooled from the tradesman's entrance whilst they gorged on what can only be described as a Edwardian feast of a breakfast, no scraps available for the onlookers #smile we had a coffee. The weather wasn't great so Neil, Marice and Mandy took the car to visit the Abbey and beyond on their Cadfael tour. Annie, Colin and I decided to brave the elements and started the Town quiz. It did bucket down so we often took shelter. It was a fun way to discover parts of the town and a bit of it's history that I guess we would otherwise never have uncovered. The 3 of us aren't what you may call fast on our feet so it was a fun way to travel around. Some of the cryptic stuff got harder and harder the further we were into the quiz. Colin was wonderful outside St Mary's church with the most confusing of questions. Some lateral thinking is required. We made a good team. i think it was after question 14 that we stopped for lunch and met up with the others at the Alb, a nice real ale pint and some good food. Weather very variable (ok mostly rain) we headed off in 2 groups again, us to complete the quiz, what heroes eh? The others sight seeing, we all met up at one point, in St Almond's place just up from the 3 fishes in Fish lane, grope lane and the home of John Wesley, Shrewsbury has got it all! A really fun day, back to The Premier in to rest and bask in the glory of solving the quiz. Indeed we were able to sit in perfect sunshine looking down Pike hill at the end of the quiz, self satisfied, and being curtsied to by both tourists and the police. Ok maybe that bit is fiction but the sunshine wasn't. Some famous folks of Shrewsbury beyond Darwin were Clive of India, Sir Philip Sydney, Jane Webb, John Wesley, Neil, Marice, Mandy, Colin, Keef & Annie x DAY 2 highlights - Friends, Cadfael discovery, Town Quiz, Premier Inn, Rain , The Alb for lunch and the Loopy Shrew (Screw) for supper #funtimes Here is both the cover sheet and final answers page for the Shrewsbury town quiz, answers missing of course, know smugly by Colin, Annie and Keef, you will have to torture us, me hearties to get the answer either that or it is in Davy Jones locker! The following are some memories from our Shrewsbury time Return to Menu MORETON CORBET CASTLE (ENGLISH HERITAGE) & CHURCH We drove just a little way outside Shrewsbury to Shawbury and Moreton Corbet castle and Church, a free English Heritage site. It used to be called Moreton Toret initially but changed names when the Toret's married into the Corbet family, the most famous of which was the 5th mistress of Henry 1st who bore him 2 children, one of whom the daughter Sybilla went on to marry Alexander 1st King of Scotland. You can see the family tree related to that as seen in the church. Very interesting to visit , shame such a regal manor was like many others destroyed by Cromwell's thirst for power. Corbet's Claim to Fame This extract from the Corbet family history is held in the church for all to see, as genealogists we found it all very fascinating, so worth a visit, castle and church combined, spent well over an hour there. Sybill Corbets times 2, family history, Henry 1st mistress no 5 and queen of Scotland & Normandy Moreton Corbet Castle is a Grade I listed building located near the village of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire, England 1. It was built in the 13th century and has been remodeled several times since then. The castle is open to visitors from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day of the week. The ruins of the castle are impressive and are the result of over 500 years of building works. The earliest surviving remains are those of a stone castle begun in about 1200, included the fine gatehouse. The Corbet family remodelled the castle in the 16th century, and the Elizabethan south wing is a rare survival from this period of a bold Italian-inspired design, which was devastated during the Civil War. Fine Corbet monuments fill the adjacent church. Especially the very well preserved crypts of both Robert and Richard Corbet and their spouses. If you’re planning to visit, please note that there is limited free car parking available in the layby next to the castle. Wheelchair access is possible to most of the site, but there are some short flights of stairs within the ruins. There are no toilet facilities at the castle. Dogs on leads are welcome. #hintsandtips. See our travel bog slideshow with special effects created by KHWD If you want to read more click here to enhance the KHWD travel blog I have created a second version of the castle slideshow here minus the Don McLean "Castles in the Air" soundtrack for the benefit of friends! Prepare to be scared Return to Menu THE CITY OF CHESTER, CHESHIRE Stayed at the Chester Fairoaks site for 2 nights, a caravan and motorhome club site, listed by us as M&CCsite tag because motorhomes are now more prolific than caravans in our humble opinion, and take far less time to set up, I would accept the use of the car by caravanners is a plus however but our little Wendy house autosleeper we can park almost anywhere. It is only 5.4 meters long. We arrived at the site about 1.30 p.m. which was a good entry time, normally at Caravan and Motorhome club sites folk are queued out onto the main roads before 1 hoping to get in early or straight away, these are probably the folk we remember arriving on site at 9 a.m. in the old days blocking the site for leavers, I could say inconsiderate but who am I to criticise? Here are some details of the site, we stayed on pitch x, it was in the wardens words probably there worst year for rain and as a clay undersoil the site was pretty boggy in places, indeed the continual rain we had whilst there didn't help either, our pitch was slightly under water at one point, nothing extreme but great for ducks. On the second day at the site we walked up the lane, not great traffic wise because of the lack of pavements and across the bit junction down to the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet mall, wrestling the winds and driving rain, hey we are on holidays. Note on the right hand side there are also no pavements to get to the bus stops mid outlet mall. The site info suggest a 10 minute walk to get the bus and I know we are slow but I would allow 40 minutes as the buses don't run that frequently and you don't want to miss one. Stand B for Chester, stops at the zoo as well, Stand A on the way back and into Liverpool. Our trip took about 35 minutes and stopped at the new Chester bus station, where you can pick up the hop on hop off bus just outside. A bargain at £10 concession, we used it to go around once before lunch and once after. Had a great dinner at Chester's near the clock in I think main street, can't recommend it enough. Here is a slideshow of our Chester stay fun. Note its about 7 minutes long but will give you a great overview of what there is to see there esp. the 2nd most photographed clock in the UK, Chester's fab fish and chip shop, great architecture, roman amphitheatre, town walls and a whole lot to do. View on. This is the talkies movie recorded mostly on the Hop On Hop Off bus, guess what it was raining a lot, no surprise there then Return to Menu THE WONDERFULLY FRIENDLY CHESTER TOWN CRIER, DAVID Tee hee maybe David should be called a city crier rather than a town crier. What a lovely man, a retired junior school teacher whom we met on the X1 bus into Chester from our campsite, who then proceeded to show us around a bit, and ring us literally off the bus "Keef and Anne are leaving the bus" #smile He is quite a tourist fixture in Chester, he helped us onto the Hop On Hop Off bus which he also went around on, just a lovely chap with a great sense of humour, hugely comfortable with the public. He even "rang" me in and out of the Bus station loos, an essential for us ageing population #teehee It is also a well known fact , by David mostly, that he is "ye moste handsome town crier in all the land" #fact with the wonderful David at Chester bus station Here is his calling card, maybe give him a ring if you need a guest speaker, at the very least use the Chester Hop on Hop off (HOHO) bus and you may well get the opportunity to meet up with him, you won't be disappointed, one of lives great gentlemen. PS Victoria Coren-Mitchell was nowhere to be seen (in joke!) Return to Menu CASTLETON IN THE PEAK DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK, DERBYSHIRE & WINNAT's PASS We left the Chester site reasonably late after packing up, all the water off the pitch had now gone. Not the best journey as around the Manchester airport area trying to get onto the A6 to travel through the Peaks there was an accident so we used a different route through some very nice Cheshire areas eventually going past the canal areas, the Torrs riverside park at Low Leighton and Bugsworth basin through to areas of the Peaks National Park we know well, going down Winnat's pass and eventually into our Caravan and Motorhome campsite at Castleton, not a place we have ever stayed at but one I have been to to pick up our pals Lawrence and Yvonne who are site wardens at the Bolton abbey site so I knew where it was. A very nice site, weather not great, so we mostly spent time in and around the site and van, reading, watching stuff and generally relaxing. I like this site. the wonderful Winnat's pass entrance to C&MC site at Castleton, Peak District Here is a slideshow of the time we spent at Castleton, with special thanks to her ladyship Kate Bush for "running up that hill" to remind us of Winnat's pass. Here are some details as well of the Castleton campsite, a lovely site I think, what do you think if you have been there? Leave comments at the bottom of the blog, thanks Return to Menu TRAVEL ROUTE AND MAP This was our route through Shropshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire, a fun 6 days Here is a PDF google created for me of where we had been grabbed from my phones GPS settings #bigbrotheriswatching #smile Return to Menu AUDIOBOOK Return to Menu SUMMARY That's all folks, a fab few days away in the van initially with pals but then discovering the delights of Chester which we haven't been to for an age, city walls with the kids when they were young, was our memories and so nice to be back in the Peaks, so close to home, note to self spent more time there! Winnat's pass is a must if you don't know it #hintsandtips Return to Menu

Created by KeefH Web Designs August 5th, 2023, 17.33 PM A Travel Blog by KeefH Web Designs Motorhome trip No56: 30th July - 4th August 2023 NOTTS-> Witley Court and Gardens, Worcestershire, Plough Lane Campsite, Kington Langley -> NOTTS 385 miles This Travel Blog slideshow of our week away in the lovely county of Wiltshire, one we didn't know that well before hand, gives some highlights of the week away. Prefer to listen to the Travel Blog than read a blog, click HERE for the audiobook. MENU Introduction Panoramas Witley Court and Gardens Plough Lane Tranquil Site A bus trip to Bath A day out with friends Seeing lots of Wiltshire in the Rain Chillin Travel Route & Map Audiobook That's all folks INTRODUCTION As our grandchild minding duties were off this week, extended family on holiday, we took the opportunity even though the weather was predicted to be "not great" to get away, the reality is apart from the Tuesday when we were with friends the weather was awful, leading up to the UK's first named storm of the year, Storm Anthoni. Anyhow we drove the 165 miles down to Wiltshire stopping about half way at the English Heritage site outside Droitwich called Witley Court. It was then onto our Tranquil Site at Plough Lane, Kington Langley near Chippenham. Whilst there we visited Bath, what a lovely city both for architecture and history. We had a day with friends visiting the lovely quaint, but touristy village of Castle Combe, can't imagine being a resident, with all those tourists (us included) peering it at us, must be like living in a goldfish bowl #help The next day although raining we visited Kington Langley village, Morrison's (the nearest supermarket to the campsite) , Kington St Michael village, Marlborough and its exclusive college (Royalists that we are, NOT apart from our fabulous old queen), Avebury and its standing stones, Silbury Hill (what is under there I wonder?) , Devizes (home of Wadsworths) and Caen Hill locks just outside, amazing, puts our local Foxton locks ( in Leicestershire) to shame. If you want to read more focus on each individual section here on teh blog, I hope that works for you? Listen to some of the Talkies videos we made whilst spending a week in Wiltshire, a fun accompaniment to this travel blog. We caught Miranda singing Nessun Dorma in from of Bath Cathedral / Abbey, what a treat, what a voice, give her a listen why don't you. Return to MENU PANORAMAS Here are a couple of panoramas we took of English Heritage's Witley Court and Gardens, which we visited on the way down to Wiltshire, you can see some more history on this place which is now just a shell after a fire in 1937 HERE witley court and gardens, lovely laid out gardens the shell that is witley court after the fire in 1937 typical bath street off great pultney street during our quiz Return to MENU ENGLISH HERITAGE SITE, WITLEY COURT AND GARDENS Here is a slideshow of our time at Witley Court and gardens, quite interesting to visit and obviously with a lot of history , shame it is now just a burnt out and stripped shell of a building but lovely grounds, boathouse, lake and swans with still the ornate plaster work on the walls and intricate stone masonry (if thats a word?) #smile on the outer walls and palisades. Well worth a visit even in the rain. Loved the lavender gardens, water feature and formal gardens and information boards. Shame they didn't say like other English Heritage properties that the audio apps on your phone don't work and you need the old Skool audio kit to go around with, indeed they never even offered it , you have been warned #recommendation #takecare It made a nice driving break on the way to Wiltshire, in fairness for the subject of this blog about half way. Here is a slideshow of the history of the place and a very brief summary however click on the links below for "full scale fact overload" . Witley Court, Great Witley, Worcestershire, England is a ruined Italianate mansion. Built for the Foleys in the seventeenth century (c 1630) on the site of a former manor house, it was enormously expanded in the early nineteenth century by the architect John Nash for Thomas Foley, 3rd Baron Foley. The estate was later sold to the Earls of Dudley, who undertook a second massive reconstruction in the mid-19th century, employing the architect Samuel Daukes to create one of the great palaces of Victorian and Edwardian England. The declining fortune of the Dudley's saw the sale of the court after the First World War to a Kidderminster carpet manufacturer. In 1937 a major fire caused great damage to the court, the estate was broken up and sold and the house was subsequently stripped of its fittings and furnishings. We noted that English Heritage had their own ice cream van, now that is enterprising. Here are some links if you wish to read more. Witley 1. Witley 2. Return to MENU PLOUGH LANE TRANQUIL SITE Here is a slideshow of our overview of the campsite at Plough lane, an allegedly Tranquil site which I'm afraid it wasn't the A350 outside could be heard all day and night even with the windows and blackout blinds down, so in our humble opinion that is a no no #justsayin Here are the site details and details of the Tranquil sites book we found it in. A walk down the road to the right from the main entrance will take you to the lovely village of Kington Langley, there is also a very limited bus service the 91 that will take you there but it is only about 20 minutes walk. On the other side of the A350 (tricky to cross) there is a 30 minute walk to Kington St Michaels , not in our humble opinion as nice as Kington Langley but it has a village shop and pub. Here are some campsite details, we were on pitch 7, it now has 52 pitches (2023) and I'm afraid no where near enough facilities, no matter what time of day you go the 2 showers and 1 privacy cubicles are ALWAYS full , the site when we were there wasn't even full, who knows what it would be like if it was. This is another great no-no so overall despite the price being less at £33 / night than C&MC sites at average £45-£50 nowadays we would NOT recommend. Sorry Plough lane. However getting out from it it is a great location for surrounding areas of Wiltshire. Read on McDuff! Return to MENU BUS TRIP TO BATH, VIA CHIPPENHAM PLUS QUIZ Don't forget to listen to Miranda, just amazing Here is the bus timetable for the X31 to Bath which we caught from Chippenham bus garage after a false start drop off in town, none of the buses from outside the Plough Lane campsite actually stop at the main bus station so be warned, it's all very confusing, we also found that despite the very limited time table the buses actually run longer than it tells you, however as they aren't that reliable I would not base your journey on that level of trust #hintsandtips PS Corsham and Box are lovely, the bus does however take a while to get into Bath as it travels many backstreets and housing estates. Indeed the 44 we caught in from Plough Lane (there are 3 to choose from 91,99 and 44) went through the whole estate that is currently under construction, very weird! Still, we oldies are racking up the miles on our free bus pass #jobdone Here is a slideshow of our fun times in Bath, what a lovely city. We used the town Quiz to basically guide us around. We did about 4.5 miles and by the end of pounding the streets for a couple of near septuagenarians, knackered! Here is the cover of our quiz that led us around, we have done quite a few whilst away in the motorhome, both fun and a great way to be led around all the major sites, gets you closer that the traditional hop on hop off buses you see everywhere however you could if you wish do that around Bath as well. We loved Bath! Return to MENU DAY OUT WITH FRIENDS, CHIPPENHAM, CASTLE COMBE & BIDDESTONE A lovely day with friends Julie and Martin, here is a video of our day out in Castle Combe and Biddestone. Julie very kindly picked us up from the campsite and took us back to their house where we had a lovely meal and chat and a look around their lovely garden, I am well jell at the amount of space and wild flower meadow (maybe thats a little exaggeration, but its lovely with all those fab insects as well) and especially their veg plot. After lunch Martin kindly drove us to Castle Combe, a place we have wanted to visit for ages. We had a great walk around, watched the brown trout enjoying the crystal clear stream, had fab ice creams and even a drink in the pub, my first pint of Wadsworths 6X in almost 20 years. How good was that. We even fought off the wasps whilst chatting in the pub garden. All in all a fab day and a great chance to catch up. Fun with friends #friends Return to MENU WILTSHIRE IN THE RAIN Here is a slideshow of our fun day out in the van touring admittedly mostly in the rain, but hey we saw a lot We visited in order Kington Langley, a lovely village with Manor houses just along Plough Lane, then Morrison's for provisions (oh OK lets confess - some cake as well #naughtybutnice, Kington St Michael's, then we drove along the M4 to the very busy (and I mean busy) Marlborough, there was an open day at the exclusive mixed public school there. Want to read more about the college and the Royals and alumni click HERE. Was nice to slowly go thru the town in the driving rain however because we got to see all we would have done if we had parked up (fat chance) and walked through the town. After Marlborough we went and visited the standing stones at Avebury, a Neolithic henge monument and UNESCO world heritage. Interesting in comparison to Stonehenge which is also in Wiltshire. A real area of history. Fascinating! Want to read more. After that we went to see the Silbury Hill, which is English Heritage and also UNESCO which with the City of Bath makes 3 UNESCO sites visited in one trip. #classy Want to know more ? Then it was onto the wonderful Caen Hill locks before returning to the campsite for a dry out and a well deserved cup of tea. On Route we stopped off by a weird old campervan site possibly illegally used on a by way, some of the van conversion reminded us of those we had seen often in New Zealand. Wooden horse box conversions with engines. I love quirky vans like that. Return to MENU DAY OFF CHILLING IN THE VAN & SITE After all the travelling yesterday and with a long drive back to Nottingham the next day we decided upon a day of rest, the morning weather was great, and we even managed a late trip to the ever busy showers post brekkie but the afternoon p**ssed down. Soggy bottoms oh yes! So reading, family research / genealogy and watching the Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix (we love it ) were the order of the day. Cheese and bikkies for lunch, salad for tea and a few odd drinkies during the day. We have both acquired a liking for Port and Lemon, old crusties that we are #smile No pix, it was a day off even from my well worn motto, if it moves snap it, if it doesn't move snap it! Return to MENU MAPS ETC. Here are maps of both Chippenham and Bath we collected on our travels from various tourist handouts, some from the campsite, some from elsewhere. Feel free to use this scalable map to delve deeper, hope it helps This is our travel route Return to MENU AUDIOBOOK Here is my Audiobook of the Blog number 196, all created by KeefH Web Designs for this travel blog. The first is published on Soundcloud. The second on my You Tube channel as a slideshow video with the audiobook overlay. The third is the soundtrack from the amazing Miranda performing Nessun Dorma in such a lovely setting, I have remastered it with Dolby and published on Soundcloud! Return to MENU THE END Return to MENU

Travel Blog Summary NOTTS -> Briarfields Campsite, Arle Court, Cotswolds -> NOTTS (204 miles) Created by KeefH Web Designs, October 18th, 2025, 9.36 AM We spent a delightful four days on the edge of the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire, following a week of celebrating Annie's brother's birthday with our dear friends, Pete and Joy. What do we always say? A combined 284 years around the table, and we're still going strong! This time, we revisited the fabulous Gloucester for a day and spent two days at the wonderful Cheltenham Literature Festival. We soaked in four fascinating talks, bought a mountain of books, and sipped copious amounts of warmed mulled wine to fend off the chill—well, that was our excuse, anyway! The Fab 4 "do" lunch at Gloucester Quays Greek restaurant - Why Not? Menu Overview Briarfield Campsite Gloucester Cheltenham The End Overview We set off from home around 10:30 AM. Over the past few days, we’d packed everything up, so it was smooth sailing on the M1/A42/M42/M5, followed by a short jaunt down the A40 to the lovely Briarfields campsite. It used to be an ACSI site, but as far as I know, it’s not anymore. Our last visit was in the summer of 2015, and let me tell you, it looked a whole lot different back then! The convenience of the bus service is fantastic, even if my old bus pass had expired. But hooray! My new one has arrived, so I no longer feel guilty. Even without a valid pass, I don’t look a whole lot younger! #smile When we last visited Cheltenham, there was a car and music festival on, so this was like 80 years' worth of festivals in one! Set in the heart of Regency Cheltenham, the festival site buzzes with culture and conversation. Montpellier Gardens transforms into a vibrant hub each October, with elegant marquees nestled among autumnal trees. The main tent, alive with literary luminaries and eager audiences, hosts headline talks, while smaller venues offer intimate panels, book signings, and workshops. Pop-up cafés and book stalls line the paths, creating a festive, intellectual atmosphere. The layout encourages serendipitous encounters—between authors and readers, ideas and inspiration. Whether you're dashing between events or lingering over coffee, the charm and energy of the site make it the beating heart of the Literature Festival. Here’s an overview slideshow created by KHWD of the whole shebang! A wonderful 4 days spent in the Cotswolds with dear friends Return to Menu Briarfield Campsite Located just off the M1, a mile down the A40, Briarfields is a hugely convenient and well-tended campsite. We’ve been here before, and 10 years later it’s now quite different. (See blog 88 when the site was all grass and smaller). Much of the grass and pitches have been replaced by hard standing, but its major benefit remains: the closeness to two bus stops right outside the site—one to Gloucester and the other to Cheltenham. What could be better for four oldies with bus passes? #hintsandtips #CheltLitFest Briarfields Campsite at Arle Court offers a peaceful, well-maintained base just outside Cheltenham. It’s ideal for exploring the Cotswolds or attending local festivals. With spotless facilities, level pitches, and excellent transport links—bus stops to Cheltenham and Gloucester are right outside—it’s perfect for both motorhomes and tents. The adult-only policy ensures a quiet, relaxed atmosphere, while nearby shops and eateries add convenience. Whether you're touring historic towns or enjoying the Cheltenham Literature Festival, Briarfields combines comfort, location, and tranquility. Its friendly staff and thoughtful layout make it a top pick for seasoned campers seeking a hassle-free, restful stay in Gloucestershire. Fun in Gloucester We woke up early, had breakfast, and then headed out to catch the 94 bus into Gloucester city centre. We arrived at the very modern bus station and walked through the city centre, admiring some very interesting old buildings, including some half-timbered ones. My personal favorite was the clockmaker's shop, with its almost Germanic outer bell time feature. Just wonderful! Clock makers heaven After that, we discovered even more about Annie's relative, King Richard III, and made our way to the fabulous Docks area, which we had visited before. Surprisingly, it was quite quiet, but the old warehouses now serve as posh pad dwellings, and the barge cafés, along with fab history boards, made for a lovely time. We headed to the Gloucester Quays mall to shop until we dropped. It was a little too early for lunch, and after balking at the price of the docks museum, we popped into Weatherspoon's. Believe it or not, a pint of Ruddles was £1.89! I thought I’d time-traveled back to the late '70s. We then enjoyed a lovely Greek lunch—just super—before walking back through the dockyard area and city centre to catch the 94 back to the Briarfields site. Once the bustling heart of Britain’s inland shipping network, Gloucester’s historic docks now blend industrial heritage with vibrant modern life. Victorian warehouses line the quayside, their red-brick facades repurposed into museums, cafés, and apartments. The National Waterways Museum anchors the area, telling the story of canal life and trade. Tall ships and narrowboats still moor here, echoing the maritime past. Cobbled walkways lead visitors past restored cranes and dry docks, while the shimmering canal basin reflects the city’s transformation. Gloucester Quays, a designer outlet housed in former warehouses, adds retail energy to the scene. The area buzzes during festivals, with food stalls, music, and heritage tours drawing crowds. Just steps away, the cathedral spire rises above the skyline, linking the docks to the city’s medieval core. Whether you're after history, shopping, or waterside strolls, Gloucester Docks offers a rich, atmospheric experience steeped in character and charm. Once back at the site, we indulged in our traditional cheese and biscuits, wine, and port. Indeed, it was all about eating, drinking, and being merry—except maybe not so merry when playing Trivial Pursuit's travel version. The ladies absolutely trashed us blokes with ease. A very pleasant evening, indeed! The Cheltenham Literature Festival CheltLitFest I attended four sessions, one with Pete—PMQs unpacked. It was an interesting analysis, but the repeat questioning (six in total) from Kemi to Kier was a bit much. The panel gave a unanimous thumbs up to Kier. This was in the Town Hall, which had much more comfortable and less cramped seating than the next venue. All four of us saw the "Exploring the World in Later Life" session in the big tent at the Montpellier Gardens arena. It was interesting, and Joy bought the signed book by the lady who traveled around India in 80 trains. The next day, Annie and I attended a discussion between a stone mason and an art historian about "Craftlands: Rediscovering Britain's Lost Arts." It was okay, but Annie pointed out that the absence of women on the panel was a significant omission. Again, this was at the Town Hall. Perhaps we saved the best for last: all four of us saw Ed Davey and the truly inspirational Lindsey Burrows discussing the importance of "Who Cares for Our Carers?" Too right! The Town Hall coffee shop was also a huge hit. Pete got a signed copy of Sir Ed's book with a dedication, no less. I had wanted a copy of Ben Elton's autobiography, "What Have I Done?" Even though he and Michael Palin were there the previous week, I managed to snag one of the few remaining copies from one of the many huge Waterstones pop-up shops around town—mine specifically at the Montpellier Gardens site. I also bought Edie a children's novel in the Waterstones kids shoppe. #CheltLitFest so many books bought There was also a whole set of free literary events in and around town, as well as at the main Montpellier Gardens site, complete with a well-produced guide to those free events. Maybe take a look at the slideshow to view that guide; I suggest running it in full-screen mode and stopping on the pages you’re interested in. 100 free events as well as paid sessions #CheltLitFest Over 100 free events lit up the 2025 Cheltenham Literature Festival, transforming Montpellier Gardens and Cheltenham Town into a vibrant, accessible celebration of books and ideas. From 10–19 October, the Festival Village hosted 30% of the program as free-to-see, including fantasy map-making, community writing showcases, fairytale ceilidhs, and the immersive Wonderland adventure. Families could drop into The Den for crafts, comics, and storytelling, while adults enjoyed Lit Crawl, VOICEBOX, and post-event discussions in The Huddle and Times Square. Whether you're a curious newcomer or a seasoned book lover, the free program offers something for all ages. Check out some of the people you could see! Ken Follett was also there promoting "Circle of Days," which I bought for Annie, plus sites around town and the Montpellier Gardens main layout. Here is a link to some of the many posts on Facebook about the Festival. Note you may need to be a FB person to view, but I'm not sure—just give it a try! Sayonara Farewell until next time, folks! Such a fab literary festival #CheltLitFest #shorts #reel #CheltLitFest It is such fun traveling with our dear pals, and a Literary Festival was a first for us, but we really enjoyed it.

Created by KeefH Web Designs, September 8th, 2026, 9:39 AM Motorhome trip No64: 3-6th September 2026 Sandiacre, Derbyshire -> Grafham Caravan and Motorhome Site -> Sandiacre, Derbyshire (179 miles) Grafham Water Caravan and Motorhome Site - What a Lovely Site Continuing our recent spate of reservoir and water trips, we’ve gone from Carsington to Grafham. I guess we might make this a future voyage of discovery in the UK, targeting all the campsites near water. From what we saw while travelling around Grafham Water on Sunday, heading to West Perry for Sunday lunch, the setup at Grafham is quite similar to Carsington. There’s a high-level walkway, a boating headquarters, and a water plant tower. The difference? Grafham has tons of solar panels, which is fantastic news and a great use of land on the slope. Grafham Water Caravan and motorhome site, a nice quiet site Pitches we were on pitches 14 and 13 respectively Friends, great meal at the Mermaid Inn, Ellington, Saturday evening Slideshow of Images & Video Reward from Farmer "Axe Man" for Pete lifting dead sheep was a Rhea Egg Grafham Water Caravan and Motorhome Site write-up - A modern digital trip storytelling (or if you prefer "Travel Blog") - see further if you are interested in our Decades of Travel, mostly in a motorhome. Overview of the Trip Having packed in the week prior to the journey on Thursday morning, we were well set. This would be the longest trip in the motorhome I had driven since having both knees replaced. But, the reality was, it wasn’t a problem at all! The only weird bit was after a long stretch on the M1 motorway. When we hit the A14, I had to slow down at the roundabout at junction 20 after some 80 miles of continuous driving. My right knee felt a bit odd, but thankfully it was manageable. Onward and upwards is my motto now! The campsite staff were incredibly friendly. Upon arrival, I was told our pals had already checked in. I asked to be placed in the pitch right next to them; either side would have been fine. But, I was told that wasn’t allowed because we had "hard standing with awning - white pitches," while those on either side were blue, "hard standing without awning." We weren’t going to use our awning, and pitch 12 was empty the whole time we were there. A little JOBSWORTH, if I’m honest! Anyway, it wasn’t a big deal, and we had a great time at the campsite. The rest of Thursday was spent chilling, catching up, having the odd bevvie, and enjoying the sunshine. The campsite was very quiet and relaxing. In the evening, Keef cooked lasagna and garlic bread, while Annie prepared a lovely salad. We finished off with cheese and biscuits for pudding. All very nice indeed! Discovering Grafham Water On Friday, Joy treated us to her lovely smoked salmon scrambled eggs and avocado for breakfast. Then, we set off to "discover" Grafham Water, walking out of the site and down into the village of Grafham, where we found a community shop. The guy in there was super friendly and told us about the Cider and Sausage Festival happening on Saturday, which we decided to attend. He also shared the best route down to the water, which involved walking back to the church and using the St. Neots road down to the water's edge. It was a nice walk, but here’s a big BUT: before we started down that road, the weird farmer nabbed Pete and asked, “Are you strong? Can you help me pick up a dead sheep and put it in my van?” Never one to avoid a challenge, Pete agreed. Others had already turned down the farmer’s kind offer in the village, so we were all a bit worried as the farmer carted Pete off into his fields (which we couldn’t see... "Axe murderer jokes abounded"). As a reward for his bravery, the farmer gave Pete a Rhea egg. He kept a Rhea in his field, as you can see in the slideshow/video. To avoid carrying it all the way to the water's edge, we hid it in the hedge, taking pictures so we’d know where to pick it up on the way back. The water was interesting, and we walked along the reinforced edge, which had seen better days. We chatted with a local fisherman who had caught two trout but returned them as they were too small. After that, we walked back to the campsite via the lovely old 12th-century church, where there were book sales in the porch, and along a beautiful rose-lined pathway. Just stunning! We then relaxed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon with an extended game of Trivial Pursuit "Globetrotter" version. Thank heavens Annie finally won it! Joy made a lovely tea, and we all eventually retired early to sleep after so much fresh air. Cider and Sausage Festival Saturday brought croissants and fruit bagels for breakfast. We set off into Grafham again (avoiding the farmer this time) and arrived at the pub (Grafham Trout, manned by local volunteers) right at opening time at 1 PM. We managed to grab a table for four at the festival. The ciders and sausages were delightful, especially the Appley Dapley cider and the elderflower cider, not to mention the huge variety of hot dog sausages. The festival was very well supported by both locals and folks from the two campsites, CAMC and C&CC. Pete and I occasionally listened in on the Forest vs Spurs football match while enjoying live music from a lovely lady saxophonist. After a fun-filled afternoon, we returned to the site, where the men watched the tail end of the game while the ladies relaxed. Sunday Farewells Sunday rolled around, and it was time to pack up and head out for Sunday lunch at The Wheatsheaf in West Perry, not far from the site. The food was ginormous, and not one of us managed to finish it! After saying our fond farewells, we traveled home, reflecting on a lovely weekend with friends. I can definitely recommend the Grafham Water site! Summary Trip 64 to Grafham Water was supposed to be a calm motorhome getaway — a bit of fresh air, a bit of scenery, maybe a sausage or two. Instead, it turned into a rural sitcom featuring me, Pete, Joy, and an ensemble of wildlife that clearly hadn’t read the script. The Caravan and Motorhome Club site itself was its usual dependable self: peaceful, well-kept, and blissfully drama-free. Everything outside the site, however, seemed determined to provide entertainment. The headline act was Pete’s unexpected audition for “Country Hero of the Year.” Spotting a dead sheep in a ditch, he did the neighbourly thing and hauled it out — a task that really should come with hazard pay, applause, and possibly counselling. The farmer, known only as “Axe Man” (which is not the name you want to hear when approaching someone with livestock news), rewarded him with a rhea egg. Because obviously, in rural Cambridgeshire, the natural response to sheep retrieval is to hand over a prehistoric-sized egg from a bird that looks like it escaped Jurassic Park. Back at camp, the egg became an omelette so large it could have been classified as a minor geological feature. Fuelled by this protein monolith, we all headed to the Cider & Sausage Sizzle at the Grafham Trout — sunshine, live music, and enough sausages to trigger a national shortage. It was the perfect blend of village charm and mild food-based chaos. The weekend wrapped up with hearty meals at The Mermaid in Ellington and The Wheatsheaf, proving once again that nothing complements unexpected sheep encounters quite like proper pub grub and good company. Short trip, big laughs, oversized egg, heroic sheep-lifting — Trip 64 will be retold for years, whether you like it or not. Documents Campsite Advice Leaflet with Local Visits Highlighted Feel free to download this PDF.

By keef and annie hellinger, Aug 24, 2014, 04:58PM Blog 71 French Holiday Motorhome trip No17: May 14th – August 1st, 2014 A KeefH Web Designs Travel Blog NOTTS->FRANCE, ITALY, MONACO & SWITZERLAND ->NOTTS 4611 miles Blog 71 French Holiday - A sweeping French adventure in 2014 brings sunlit coasts, mountain passes, vineyard valleys and the easy rhythm of life on the road. This cheerful blog retraces miles of memories — from Provence warmth to Alpine views, Loire châteaux, Atlantic breezes and Brittany’s rugged charm. A bright, nostalgic look at a journey where every region offered something new and the whole trip felt wonderfully full of “la belle vie.” In late September 2022 I revisited this Blog to enhance it, it was hastily transferred from Moonfruit and was such a lovely holiday I felt it deserved the time, care and dedication to restructure and enhance it, whilst keeping much of the original look and feel. I do hope you like it. Best KeefH Web Designs HIGHLIGHTS: Gorges du Verdon, Annecy, Allemagne du Provence, Quimperle, Cavalaire Sur Mer, Burgundy, Loire Chateaus,Blois, Louhans, Chalon Sur Saone, Noyers, Brittany especially Finistere (Eckmuhl), Les Pieux, Cannes Film Festival, Monaco, Alpes & Juras, Lac Leman, Evian, Montreax,San Remo & Meeting Marco, Concarneau & Micmac (Celtic band), the number of sites with indoor and outdoor swimming pools. LOWLIGHTS: Mechanical Problems with the van, our French being incredibly rusty Read on, or if you would prefer to hear the words of this Blog as an audiobook, please click HERE, thanks Probably easier to document this holiday by showing the calendars for May, June and July 2014. See attached images to see where we were on each day. MENU Overview Images Route graphically displayed Overview text Hints and Tips for Motorhoming in France Diary Slideshow of Images Write Up of Trip Memorabilia Audiobook Map of France That's All Folks On the way to Annecy, France, reworked with vignetting and film grain and borders our autosleeper anniversary clubman, called Wendy, Rhone-Alps , France gorges du verdon, provence, france so many sites have pools Return to Menu OVERVIEW OF BLOG STRUCTURE & CONTENTS There is also the consolidation of 26 original photo snack slideshows (a technique I used at the time for creating image slideshows, they pulled the plug back in 2017 - commentary by KeefH Web Designs 2022) creating 3 sets of 30-minute-long slideshows which show our adventures plus one additional one showing every campsite we stayed at, most of which were via the ACSI book, if you are travelling France then it is a must. Return to Menu ROUTE MAP This video was created using the phone app Travel Boast where i drew out all the places we stopped at on route in order down to the smallest villages. It then draws out the route with a motorhome driving to show where we went. I then hooked its 4 formats I had created into one You Tube video. Landscape, Portrait and square maps which were further altered to be Day, Night and soft blue just for effect. I joined them together with some relevant images using Microsoft's Clipchamp. See what you think, i think it brings the journey to life and adds to any travel blog #newfeature The thing I do find out of kilter though is its estimated distance which at 3180 miles is way less than the 4611 we recorded on the speedometer in the van. A huge 1431 miles less. About 1/3rd of the distance. Methinks the app developers need do a bit more work. But anyhow I like the moving motorhome. Return to Menu #hintsandtips HINTS AND TIPS FOR CAMPING IN FRANCE For UK folk get membership from Vicarious books in Kent http://www.vicariousbooks.co.uk/ or direct from ACSI online. There is also a book of all the Aires which are similar to the UKs CLs/ CSs (certified location/site) where for a fraction of the price and limited services you can stay overnight (or longer) on your journey. Tip take your own loo seat, paper, soap and towel in France, most sites do not provide these. Also, the reverse polarity issue is not as bad as some would have you believe, after checking the 1st 5 sites with my expensive kit I gave up, it is I believe only an issue if your internal electrical items are faulty. Don’t forget your 2-pin convertor – many of the sites are not bayonet fittings oh and most are 6 amp, 10 is becoming more the norm but they will charge you for an upgrade if their system allows it so I suggest you take that gas kettle else you will blow the fuse! Note 2021 UPDATE photosnack died a long time ago, c 2017 I combined those all into 2 You Tube videos, 1 all the slideshows, 2 the "talkies", enjoy, they are HERE, also most sites have great swimming pools often indoor as well as outdoor so that is a real plus. Note: The Index shows ALL blogs already published or you can find Blogs about a specific subject by clicking on a word in the TAG CLOUD or under these new blogs, thanks, motorhome-travels. Why not take a look Leave us some feedback here on the blog if you wish, thanks Return to Menu DIARIES Our calendar diaries for this major trip, such fun, May through July 2014 Return to Menu WRITE UP OF TRIP All in all, a nice relaxing and discovery type holiday mixed with chillaxing and tourism! Great times, we love our little motorhome. Summary of commentary posted on Facebook etc. during our travels was Around France in 80 Days - well some of it... Last slideshow shows where we camped on each of those 80 days Thanks, all folks,Love K&A 31/7 Deauville, Trouville,Honfleur beach – pont de normandie & Dieppe views,Etretat,farm campsite near Yport, Yport, Fecamp, Minnimay(-sp?),st valery sur somme, Calais, densole 28/7 Les Pieux sunset, anneville,saint vaast la hougue, ravenoville, Utah beach, Omaha beach (st Laurent-sur-mer),carhagnolles(flower camping campsite),Bayeux,Arromanches-les-bain(gold beach), falaise, beavron-en-auge, camping deauville 26/7 Breton: pointe de primel (plougasnou), st quay portrieux, dinan, st malo,domaine de la ville huchet, Normandie: mont st Michel, Granville, les pieux 23/7 Eckmuhl / St Guenole (near Penmarche), Quimper,pointe du raz, Douarnenez,Locronan,Chateaulin, Cameret sur mer/ Pointe de Penhir, Pointe des Espagnols, Roscanvel, Le Faou, Plougastel Daoulas, Landerneau, Brignogan-Plages, Plougasnol Shipping News Update 20/7 Love Bretagne *FACT* Now in Penmarche FINISTERE Wind Blowing ENE and southerly to cool the warmed skin! Visited Concarneau and Benodet today having stayed at Clohars-Carnoet last night after visiting the wonderful Doelan fishing village (used in films allegedly). Loved Guerande (old town) when we visited it and the wonderful Martin from the AA (from Liverpool) based in Nante who fixed our recurring van problem with brake lights/ engine mgt warning. Far Bretagne cake is the best yet… crème anglais, almond, black gold plums (or prunes as they are known in French), seriously yummy Off to discover the coast, Quimper, plus more delightful blue Bretagne fishing villages and head towards Brest 2moro… Love to all our lovely family & friends 2 new slideshows on the website, one at the end of this page and one on the top of a new page Update 16/7 Now on the Pays deLoire Alantic Coast – Fab weather (hooray) 33c sunny no clouds and beaches to die for Staying near historic town of Guerande. Stayed at Piriac Sur Mer yesterday, great beaches here and at La Baule. Deserted often. La Baule reminded us of Surfers in Queensland, such a huge curve of endless sand. Also went over the Loire River outlet bridge between St Nazaire & St Brevin, such a huge expanse of water. Bit like Confederation bridge in Canada going to PEI from Nova Scotia, only not quite so long. Have seen some lovely places recently. Recommend Angers, Ducs of Anjou territory. Sadly, more minor probs with van so AA / Garage out for us 2moro early. Brake lights stopped, may be tied up with earlier probs and continuous Engine Mgt system light which we had checked out in Switzerland as “minor” wait till UK, so delaying our move onto Brittany for a day or so, no real hardship as weather, area and beaches FAB 1 new slideshow on website Love K&A xxx "Not a lot of people know that".... Michael .....but we went from Deaville to St Valery Sur Somme. Normandie, Picardy & Nord Pays de Calais and you can see the pix in the latest slideshow. Only one more to go....Love K&A xxx — with Serendipity Girls Designer Dresses. Hard to believe but my photos inspired Monet - 1st 2 the Lieutenancy @ Honfleur, last 2 Port Eval at Etretat (4 photos) one in the eye for Harald — with Serendipity Girlsdesignerdresses. At Bayeax les pieux to deauville , normandy - visited all the DDay landing beaches, quite harrowing, les pieux sunset wine with our chairs on the beach just so romantic, william the conquerors hometown falaise and a whole lot more see the latest slideshow "les Pieux to Deaville" — withSerendipity Girlsdesignerdresses. (10 photos) Plougasnol Brittany to Les Pieux Normandie, oh what a beach and campsite - we will be back Another slideshow on the website — withSerendipity Girlsdesignerdresses. (7 photos) for all you clapham-ites went to abbeville (picardy), bonneville (rhone-alpes), trouville (normandy) and narbonne (langedoc-rousillon) still working on pixs One more slideshow on website, Eckmuhl to Plougasnol, All Bretagne and mostly Finistere which we loved Update 16/7 Now on the Pays deLoire Alantic Coast – Fab weather (hooray) 33c sunny no clouds and beaches to die for Staying near historic town of Guerande. Stayed at Piriac Sur Mer yesterday, great beaches here and at La Baule. Deserted often. La Baule reminded us of Surfers in Queensland, such a huge curve of endless sand. Also went over the Loire River outlet bridge between St Nazaire & St Brevin, such a huge expanse of water. Bit like Confederation bridge in Canada going to PEI from Nova Scotia, only not quite so long. Have seen some lovely places recently. Recommend Angers, Ducs of Anjou territory. Sadly, more minor probs with van so AA / Garage out for us 2moro early. Brake lights stopped, may be tied up with earlier probs and continuous Engine Mgt system light which we had checked out in Switzerland as “minor” wait till UK, so delaying our move onto Brittany for a day or so, no real hardship as weather, area and beaches FAB 1 new slideshow on website Love K&A xxx Update 6/7 Still in Burgundy (just – we are off to Loire in a couple of days) at Lac Marcenay. We really, really like Bourgogne. On the Grand Route de Cremant now. Saw Route de Grand Crus other day. Also, we saw the source of the seine yesterday, a trickle in truth. Can’t believe it is so wide in Paris! The site we are on is owned by Dirk (a Dutch ex-hippie with a French wife) – it’s so quirky, mostly Dutch here. I watched Netherlands Vs Costa Rica last Nite with crowds of screaming Dutch (and drank with them, headache!) I asked if I could be an honorary English supporter, they were more than happy bedecked in orange, lions heads and other strange attire, but what fun….We spent a fab 4 days at and in and around the site at Lac Panthier (near Commarin) – best site we have ever stayed at, lakeside pitch such views and our 1st true Burgundian meal out – gammon and parsley terrine with Dijon mustard drizzle (starter), Bouef Bourguignonne & veg (main), true eglace deux boule - assorted flavours (pud) oh and how could I forget a 1l carafe of local white burgundy, which was better than any white I’ve ever had from a bottle (honest!) plus met a whole host of nice folk of many nationalities. Spent quite a few more days in Burgundy than we originally planned but we love it. Very different to Provence, Cote D’Azur and Rhone Alps. Seen two very different Chateau’s so far (Chateauneuf des auxois & commarin), the 12th century Cistercian UNESCO Abbaye de Fontenay, the 12th century Duc of Burgandie's wine press (still working) and the canal de Bourgogne, so real tourist times with some swimming, sunbathing, reading, chillin and just fun…. Ohhh our times are going too fast, but appreciate we are very lucky to spend so much time travelling …. 1 new slide of pix on the website, 1 to come when I get time later — with Serendipity Girls Designer Dresses. Now in Burgundy, just had a fab Pinot Noir from local Vineyard (hic) in Meursault. From Annecy we went all the way around Lake Geneva / lac leman (Swiss & French sides) Loved Evian, Montreux and much more besides, then travelled over the impressive Jura mountains into Franche-Comte and into Cote D'or area of Burgundy, after another minor hiccup with the van we are fully roadworthy again. Can thoroughly recommend Loughans & Chalon... 3 new sets of slides on the website More probably when we next manage Wi-Fi.... love to all our family and friends Life is a beach.... Love the Med More pix of Grimaud Ville, so old Provence great day in St. Tropez today saw this yacht in Monaco the other day, now in St Tropez, the playground of the rich and famous, one of our fellow ferry brits referred to the helicopter as really 'taking the p', hee hee new pix of port Grimaud and Saint Topless (Tropez) now on website Del Boy and Annie doing cocktails - Hey its officially 34c 93F here today Thats hot and humid, but aren't complaining Latest Pix listening to CSN in the sun on the cote d'azur fab.... my Italian is coming on (not really), discussed, just, Mondial di calcio (football) - world cup with Nico next door, smile, off to the beach this afternoon, still someone's gotta do it... want to see more of our holiday photos, try SLIDESHOWS, enjoy love us xxx "THE END" Image of Carcassonne at night which we did visit, a magical place, this was provided by the younger brother of my old Bonneville infants and juniors school buddy Martin. His brother lives in a property below the castle. The other thing I remember is playing the board game named after this castle, which we had the pleasure of going around on this wonderful 2014 trip The wonderful Carcassonne at Night Return to Menu SLIDESHOWS The French slideshow areas are Overall Holiday with Images with Text descriptions Overall Holiday, the "Talkies" Folkstone (UK) to the Gorges of Verdon (Provence) Volonne (Provence) to Finistère (Bretagne/ Brittany) Clohars-Carnoet (Bretagne) to Home Every campsite we stayed at Switzerland Monaco Italy Note: Music on "Around France in 80 Days" by Micmac, a band we saw in Concarneau in Brittany, Headlines, the first 2 slideshows are the overview slideshows and videos, the more detailed ones follow Return to SLIDESHOWS This is what we would call the "Talkies" Return to SLIDESHOWS Folkstone (UK) to Gorges of Verdon (Provence) There were 1629 images taken, the first of these slideshows shows those lasting 31 minutes. They are dated from 14th May 2014 to 17th June 2014 and in sequence cover travel and images between these places. Home, Folkstone, Lempdes Sur Allegdon (region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), Lunel (region Occitania ),Agay (region Provence alpes cote d'azur), all the following are also in Provence, just a fab place, I remember lavender fields, perfume, baguettes, wonderful food and produce, anyhow here are the places the images are from. Cannes, Nice, Grasse, Port Grimaud, Saint Tropez, Grimaud again including our swim in the Mediterranean Sea, Cavalaire Sur Mer, Le Rouen Salernes and finally the magnificent Gorges Du Verdon. How I remember that gorge and the panic about whether the van would stall and not restart out in the middle of nowhere #scary Take a look why don't you, Provence in the South of France is an area we cannot recommend highly enough, and the toll road motorway make it quite a straightforward drive, but remember it's a long way, and at the toll booths, well at least back in 2014 it was necessary to remember there was both a high level and low-level automatic pay booth, tee hee for vans and cars alike, very clever. Return to SLIDESHOWS Volonne (Provence) to Finistère (Bretagne/ Brittany) This was the middle part of the trip from low down in the south of France right the way back up to see the beaches of Normandie where those WW2 battles and evacuations were held so ablely mastered by Sir Winston Churchill, and many points in-between, plus we had the pleasure of visiting some of the wonderful Chateaus especially in the Loire valley. The 1st slideshow which was reconstructed in 2022 is n minutes long and includes 1678 images. It covers the following regions and details extra places in those regions, those being in no particular order, Burgundy, Bourgogne, Franche-Comte, Pay-de-Loire, Rhone-Alpes, Lac Panthier, Cav-sur-Mer, Lerueon , Vincelle, Saumur, Commarin, Marcenay, Concourson, Guerande, Volonne, Annecy, St Jerioz, Grimaud. The second slideshow from 2014 is 44 minutes long. Return to SLIDESHOWS Clohars-Carnoet (Bretagne) to Home There are 1535 images in this slideshow, and I have included all those that have text on them as well, which I have not done on the other 2 parts of the trip, basically because it is not an even third split of the images being only 13 days from 20th July to the 1st August and on the way back even though we stayed at Delsole very few images were taken, it was mostly travel. Here is a list of the places we traveled through hopefully mostly in chronological order. Carhans, Penmarche (both Bretagne), Finistère, Eckmuhl, Plougasnol, then Normandy, Le Pieux, Deauville, Concarnaeu, Benodet, Abbeville, Etretat, Valery Sur Somme, Honfleur, Miannay, Pointe De Raz, Quimper, Les Pieux, Dinan,St Quay Portrieux, Granville, St Malo (port), Mont St Michel, Huchet and its old castle campground, just fab, Deauville as well which is in Picardy. The 1st slideshow last for 1 hour 13 minutes, the 2nd 31 minutes. Return to SLIDESHOWS Campsites The following is a quick summary of all the campsites we stayed at in France on our 2014 big trip. They are as best as possible in chronological order, but the reality way back then is we didn't always take a picture on the pitch we were on, nowadays we always do. #campsites #motorhometravelsblog #motorhome #majortrip Return to SLIDESHOWS Switzerland This shows our few days camping and driving around Lac Leman or Lake Geneva as we Brits like to call it. What splendid weather and a great campsite and spring waters from Evian. We went through Montreux, Lausanne and Geneva on the Swiss side of the lake entering at Saint Gingolph and leaving again St Julien En Genevois on Highway one. The video which features some lovely music by one of my musical heroes John Martyn is about 11 minutes long, enjoy! #music #maps Return to SLIDESHOWS Monaco We spent a couple of days in and around Monaco travelling there on 3rd June 2014 by the French double decker south coast train (always busy) picking it up near Antibes on the St Tropez line at Biot Gare, station where we were staying at a campsite nearby that you could walk to the station from. Note images also include Frenes Biot campsite, listed as Antibes East. The train went from Biot to Monte Carlo, carefully misspelt in one of my texts as Morte #haha On route we passed the amazingly expensive French Riviera, views to die for, it also went through Menton a town we would take the van through on our route to Italy and Sanremo The 1st video which has all the images in it is 15 minutes long, the second with text and the wonderful John Martyn is 4 minutes long, enjoy. Return to SLIDESHOWS Italy, San Remo We crossed the border at Ponte San Ludovico on highway SS1 past Menton in Monaco which we had been passed on the train, but Monaco is entirely wrapped in France before you get to the Italian border. At Sanremo we met the wonderful Nico and Daniela who are still friends to this day, mostly on Facebook. We could not speak each other's language, but no worry, gifts, coffee, grappa and Nico's brother who could speak English, so he acted as our translator, in later times, Google translate really helps. Note Nico often returns to the campsite at Sanremo, we thought whilst the restaurant and beach views were great and we enjoyed our walk around, the site was a little too cramped for our liking. The pool however and company was wonderful. We stayed at the Villaggio Dei Fiori campsite and went for a lovely walk up the hill outside the campsite and overlooking the bay, seeing the very plush villa's and all the lovely bougainvillea in flower, just so bright and cheerful. We were lucky enough to see the Giraldo de Italia cycle race which was going past. The slideshow with John Martyn's back to Marseille is 10 minutes long, enjoy! #music Return to SLIDESHOWS That's it for slideshows Return to Menu MEMORBILIA (Phone) Our French mobile number #memorabilia #takenfromfacebook It was ordered on eBay in advance and therefore worked when we arrived, hugely useful #timeline image actually taken in a layby in rhone-alpes, 2014 Return to Menu AUDIOBOOK Audiobook over some of our images, a selection, with text. This slideshow is 30 minutes long and the audiobook portion at the beginning is 20 minutes long, so you have some fab John Martyn music to accompany the flags depicting which parts of France we were in. #enjoy Return to MENU MAP OF FRANCE Zoom in to find the area you are looking for. Our texted images in the very first slideshow is divided up into these regions (in alphabetical order not geographically). Note Switzerland, Monaco and Italy are included in these groupings of pictures. Around Lac Panthier, Camping Day by Day, Cannes, Cavalier-sur-Mer to Lerueon, The chateaus, Vincelles to Saumur, Commarin to Marcenay, Concarneau and Benodet, Concourson to Guerande, Deauville to Densole UK, Eckmuhl to Plougasnol, Folkestone, Kent to Agay, France, Gorges du Verdon, Grasse to Port Grimaud, Grimaud Ville, Les Pieux to Deauville, Marcenay to Vincelles, Menton to Biot, Mesnois to Burgundy, Monaco and especially Monte Carlo, Nice, Plougasnol to Les Pieux, Port Grimaud & Saint Tropez, Sanremo, Italy, St. Disdille On Lake Geneva, Lac Leman in Switzerland, St Jerioz walk to the Lake, Volonne to Annecy, what a fab place the last one is, where we could relax in the pool whilst viewing the snow covered caps of nearby mountains and then catch the bus into Annecy to see the UNESCO listed prison surrounded by the moat and stroll through the embankment market with cherries, apricots and nougat, heaven. Return to Menu THAT'S ALL FOLKS

by keef & annie hellinger 1 May 2022, 10.16 a.m. NOT A MOTORHOME TRAVEL BLOG BUT DEFINITELY BLOG RELATED, Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics *** PROUD **** Last Updated 31/8/2026 to show latest Visitor stats Last updated 30/9/2026 to show our You Tube Channel Statistics To 25th June 2022 we have had an average of 19 visits per day to the site, pretty good in anyone's book #illtakeit Most of my friends and family know of my obsession with numbers and statistics, a defect I accept , but a product of my mathematical background and a lifetime as an "IT Guy" and Annie will tell you a full gadget freak, if its new technology I am there, so lets go Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics. #3fingersalute #ctlCctlV #imsorryHALicantdothat MENU Visitor Counter Table for website over time June 2022 Stats with Comparison on Visitors June 2022 Visitors by Town since start of the year June 2022 Visitors by Town for that month April 2022 Stats Counter for ALL my websites You Tube Channel Tags and Comments Other Plaudits Witness after our time up with pals on Mull (see BLOG 177) where we were 1st introduced to FiFi the robot cleaner, that we now have one Alexa driven, tee-hee "Alexa Start Fi-Fi" Clearly we have Blink cameras focused on our motorhome as protection, in this day and age when you are proud and protective of your vehicle you can't be too careful #recommended Motorhomes are now much in demand, an adjunct of the Covid pandemic possibly and peoples desires to 1) save cost on their holidays 2) use stay-cations. Part 2 hopefully will not last too long, we would love to get back to Europe for some long trips again in our lovely Wendy House. We also have a TruckNav for the motorhome which enables us the enter its full dimensions height, width and length which means in planning our route it will avoid narrow roads and low bridges, a real plus I've always believed since my early discussions / disagreements with a boss at work who said early 80s that the "information supe highway" (now known as the internet would not happen, time for a name drop, it must be in my DNA being at skool wiv Sir Tim Berners-Lee #fact So I discovered a whole stack of clever ways of getting statistics and reports via WIX, my website creation tool to analyse my blogs and for your delight and delectation I have decided to publish them here, my guess is I will feature a month here every now and then, potentially yearly just to see how the Blogs are being received but who knows, depends on my level of Nerdyness at the time. I know for you techies a lot of this stuff is available by Google Analytics but this is in so much better presentation material, I'm impressed and that don't happen often #fact VISITOR COUNTER TABLE Date Count Diff / Average per day 22/2/12 1 n/a 28/6/12 700 699 : (128 days) : 6 20/7/12 800 100 : (23) : 4 29/12/12 1450 650 : (163): 4 10/8/13 2294 844: (225): 4 18/8/16 13255 10961: (1105): 10 8/11/17 20028 6773: (448): 15 22/11/20 36363 16335: (1111): 15 12/2/21 40495 4132: (83): 50 * WOW * 15/11/21 52959 2788: (277): 10 30/12/21 55747 2785: (46): 61 * WOW * 25/6/22 59924 4177: (178): 24 ​31/8/26 ​79229 ​19305:(1529) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ The above table gathered over the years from our embedded counter shows the growth in daily visitors to the site over time, evolving from infancy to where it is now. It has undergone 4 different technologies to create and maintain it #functionalityretired and various rewrites along the way. I confess to struggling to understand the 2 huge hikes in number of visitors per day apart from at the first I probably introduced and / or plugged so much more through social media and was rewriting using WIX although my own visits are allegedly excluded from this equation. Did that obliquely attract more visitors, not sure #yourspuzzled Anyhow it is my intension from now, maybe yearly to update this table. Graphically the above table translates as such, the 3 graphs are date 25th June 2022 Visitors to motorhome-travels blog over the years, since start Pie chart of average number of visitors to site per day pivot table showing descending visitors per day and no of days between readings This actually using summed totals means since inception we have had a average of 19 visits per day to the site #proud By JULY 2022 we had also had over 250+ NEW visitors to the Blog from around the world. Here is a snapshot of that but you can see up to date details on our site under the dropdown , just search for VISITORS, thanks for looking. July 2022 Visitors map Visitors Map As at June 2026 we now have a fully paid up Visitors map on 5 of my 15 web sites crafted by KeefH Web Designs, all the rest only have the free version of the Visitors map so top out at 100 last visitors but I'm not currently prepared to pay for those. WEBSITE NAME COUNT @ 18/3/23 KeefH Web Designs 2677 Motor Home Travels Blog 5276 Serendipity Girls Designer Dresses 941 Decades of Travel 601 Travel Video Blog 169 RETURN TO MENU JUNE 2022 STATS I have just taken a look at the comparison of new visitors between April and June 2022. The visitor traffic map (which has been a real issue and 7 days wrestling with WIX & Names both of whom said it was NOT their responsibility - it is I pay you both, Grrr x when the map was classed by MS Edge as "unsafe content" / dangerous.... the final solution was WIX had messed up the pointer to a domain for this embedded app so now all sorted - see the commentary at the end of Blog 182 if you are interested) Anyhow .....rant over ....to the Stats comparison It should be noted that the "traffic" recognition on this map is only for entirely NEW visitors from that location , returning visitors do not count. Visitor stats from 25th June 2022 Comparison: So, in 60 days between the 2 dates, we have had 67 NEW visitors that's just above an average of 1 per day, not bad in this lovely motorhome world #tick I've also included the overall site visitor counter from the Trailer NOTE on the visitor maps the stats if you don't pay ONLY record the last 100 unique visitors, Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity are a much better place to look for real statistics. If you do pay and the only one, I currently do that for is motorhome-travels blog .NET you get the last 500 unique visitors. By September 22 this site had 340 unique visitors. This is 114 more than when we last checked in June, so between the 2 dates, which is 95 days. So slightly more than 1 new unique visitor per day, social media is certainly helping #proved Visitor stats from 28th September 2022 5/1/22 19/5/26 RETURN TO MENU MORE JUNE 2022 STATS This is the map of visits by town since the start of the year, note that not all 139 towns are listed on the key, but the slideshow that follows shows all the detail #nerdy map of town visitors NOTE Ashburn listed here with high user count is the Data Capital of the world , want to know more, feeling Nerdy enough then click HERE This data has been gathered from Google Analytics. I have also looked at the WIX Data, not sure if they match but I would expect WIX to get their extensive site statistics directly from Google Analytics but I could be wrong. For good measure you will see following my Statistics here by town taken from the start of 2022 that I also have some statistics for the month of June taken directly from WIX and exported to Excel where maps and charts can be easily made. Let me know what you think in the comments below if you feel so inclined #overmyhead The TOP 20 town visits since the start of the year are featured in the next image, a lot of them are local attracted potentially by local posts via social media, next door app or whatever It makes interesting reading. Why Columbus Ohio is the top visitor I have no idea #puzzled Top 20 visiting towns since the start of 2022 - June 2022 RETURN TO MENU Data taken from WIX Statistics for just the month of June 2022 visitor stats you can get via a heat map Here is the accompanying list of towns (with their countries attached) and visit data RETURN TO MENU APRIL 2022 STATS So here goes, these stats refer to the Month of April 2022 when there were 187 published Blogs on the site, maybe it will only have an audience of 1, i.e. ME ha-ha Details for the most visited Blog posts in descending order on motorhome-travels blog dot net for the month of April 2022, how about that #nerd #statistics #obsessed RETURN TO MENU Other WEBSITE Stats (created by KEEFH WEB DESIGNs) As of 31/8/2026 it would be far easier to visit the "sites by KHWD" website and use the MENU to search for Websites, currently there are 18, if you scroll across you can visit all , their associated You Tube playlists and their visitor maps, hope it helps. WEBSITE DATE Visitor Count Link KeefH Web Designs 25/6/2022 966 View Holiday 2007-8 25/6/2022 13463 View Holiday 2010 25/6/2022 7213 View Holiday 2013 25/6/2022 8451 View Holiday 2017 25/6/2022 15795 View SerendipityGDDs 25/6/2022 44623 View ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ RETURN TO MENU YOU TUBE CHANNEL As at 20th September 2026 even more praise for our You Tube Channel 240 blogs, amazing YT stats As at 4th August 2026 some big improvements 1.Statistics as of 20th September 2022 for Keef's You Tube Channel, 16 subscribers, 913 videos, 23.6k views, 480.1 hours watched (Created to match date of Top 10 below) Likes 2643 2. Statistics as of 2nd September 2022 for Keef's You Tube Channel, 16 subscribers, 908 videos, 23.1k views, 469.9 hours watched Channel Stats at 2/9/22 (Lifetime) TOP 10 Channel videos I am starting to collect and create a new TOP 10 playlist roughly every year, I first did one on 10 Sept 21 but forgot to create statistics lists so for the second I have decided to record them here. There were on 20 Sept 22 8900 views of my top 10 videos. This had slightly changed both in terms of sequence of the Top 10 and adding 2 new videos created during the year since the previous September. Here are 19/9/22 image captures for prosperity If you want to know all about the KeefH Web Designs You Tube playlists then have a read of Blog 8, there are a whole stack of nerdy stats in there as well. RETURN TO MENU OTHER PLAUDITS Good stuff for Annie's GIRLSWEAR online shop Next door a local comms mechanism for kHWD RETURN TO MENU That's All for now folks Take a look at our visitors map if you want to go full NERD ;) x

Created by KeefH Web Designs, September 20th, 2026, 15.30 PM Alright, so you’re probably here because you love the idea of hitting the open road in a motorhome, RV, or campervan, right? Maybe you’re dreaming of swapping your four walls for four wheels, or perhaps you’re already living the van life and just want to soak up some inspiration. Either way, you’ve landed in the right spot. Today, I’m going to chat about what really makes a great motorhome travel blog tick. Spoiler alert: it’s not just about pretty pictures or a fancy website design (though those help). It’s about the stories, the tips, the laughs, and yes, the occasional mishaps that make you feel like you’re right there in the driver’s seat with the blogger. Exploring the Best Motorhome Blogs Before we dive in, I have to give a shout-out to the best travel blogs created by KeefH Web Designs over at motorhometravel blog. They’ve nailed the art of combining practical advice with engaging storytelling, and honestly, they’re a fantastic example of what I’m about to talk about. Exploring the Best Motorhome Blogs and what about the associated You Tube Channel? Awards galore What Sets the Best Motorhome Blogs Apart? When I first started reading motorhome travel blogs, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of them out there. But after a while, I noticed a pattern: the best motorhome blogs have a few key ingredients that make them stand out from the crowd. First up, authenticity. You want to read about real experiences, not just a polished highlight reel. The bloggers who share their triumphs and their disasters (like that time the awning blew off in a gale or the campervan’s engine decided to take a nap mid-journey) are the ones you keep coming back to. It’s like having a chat with a mate who’s been there, done that, and isn’t afraid to admit when things went sideways. Next, practical advice. Sure, it’s lovely to see stunning photos of sunsets over the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands, but what really helps is when bloggers break down the nitty-gritty details. How do you find the best campsites? What’s the deal with waste disposal? How do you manage power and water on the road? The best motorhome blogs don’t just inspire wanderlust; they equip you with the know-how to make your trip smoother. And then there’s the storytelling. A great blog post isn’t just a list of facts; it’s a journey in itself. The bloggers who can weave a tale that makes you laugh, think, and maybe even shed a tear are the ones who turn casual readers into loyal followers. Eye-level view of a motorhome parked beside a serene lake at sunset Why These Great Motorhome Blogs Keep Us Coming Back Now, let’s talk about those great motorhome blogs that have a way of pulling you in and making you feel like part of the adventure. What do they do differently? Well, for starters, they’re consistent. You know when to expect new posts, and they deliver content that’s both fresh and relevant. They also engage with their readers. Whether it’s through comments, social media, or newsletters, these bloggers create a community. It’s like having a virtual campfire where everyone shares stories, tips, and sometimes even recipes for the perfect campervan stew. Another thing I love is how they balance the technical with the personal. You get detailed gear reviews and route suggestions alongside heartfelt reflections on what life on the road means to them. It’s this blend that makes the blogs feel genuine and relatable. And let’s not forget the visuals. Stunning photography and well-edited videos can transport you right into the heart of the journey. But the best blogs don’t rely solely on visuals; they use them to complement the story, not replace it. Close-up view of a campervan dashboard with maps and travel guides What is the 3-3-3 Rule for RV Travel? Okay, here’s a little nugget of wisdom that I stumbled upon and found super helpful: the 3-3-3 rule for RV travel. It’s a simple guideline that can make your motorhome adventures a lot less stressful, especially if you’re new to the lifestyle. The rule goes like this: 3 days: Plan your trip in chunks of three days. This helps you avoid burnout and gives you a natural rhythm for travel and rest. 3 stops: Limit yourself to three stops per trip segment. It keeps the journey manageable and lets you really enjoy each location without feeling rushed. 3 essentials: Focus on three essential things to carry or prepare for each trip. This could be anything from water, power, and food to specific tools or entertainment. Following this rule helps keep things simple and enjoyable. Trust me, when you’re juggling driving, cooking, and maybe even a bit of work on the road, simplicity is your best friend. How to Spot a Motorhome Travel Blog That’s Worth Your Time With so many blogs out there, how do you know which ones are worth bookmarking? Here are a few tips from my own experience: Look for detailed trip reports. The best blogs don’t just say “we went to Cornwall and it was lovely.” They tell you where they stayed, what they did, how much it cost, and what they’d do differently next time. Check for up-to-date information. Motorhome travel is always evolving – new campsites open, rules change, and gear improves. A great blog keeps its content current. See if they share mistakes and lessons learned. Nobody’s perfect, and the bloggers who admit their slip-ups are often the most trustworthy. Engagement matters. If the blogger responds to comments and questions, it shows they care about their readers. Look for a mix of content. From gear reviews and travel tips to personal stories and destination guides, variety keeps things interesting. And if you want a shortcut to some of the best examples, I highly recommend checking out the best travel blogs created by KeefH Web Designs at motorhometravel blog. They’ve got a fantastic mix of everything I just mentioned. Bringing It All Together - Your Next Steps to Finding Great Motorhome Blogs So, what’s the takeaway here? Great motorhome blogs are more than just pretty pictures and travel diaries. They’re your companions on the road, your source of practical advice, and your inspiration when the road gets long and the weather turns grey. If you’re looking to dive into the world of motorhome travel blogs, start by exploring those that combine authenticity, practical tips, engaging storytelling, and community spirit. Bookmark a few, subscribe to their newsletters, and don’t be shy about joining the conversation. And remember, the best travel blogs created by KeefH Web Designs at motorhometravel blog are a brilliant place to start. They’ve done the hard work of blending all these elements into a resource that’s both fun and useful. Happy travels, and may your motorhome adventures be filled with laughter, discovery, and just the right amount of unexpected detours! High angle view of a campervan parked on a cliff overlooking the sea

Travel Blog Summary, Carsington Water area, Derbyshire, Motorhome Trip No. 63, 78 miles, 27th-31st July 2026 NOTTS -> Carsington Water, CAMC site, Brassington, Longcliffe, Middleton Top, Wirksworth, Knockerdown, Kirk Ireton, Ashbourne, Derbyshire -> NOTTS (78 miles) Blog 237 Wendy House trip 63 Motorhome Travels Created by KeefH Web Designs, August 1st, 2026, 9.27 AM time to chill! sigh! INTRO As its only been a few months since I had both my knees replaced together (you fool!) we wanted to chose somewhere quite close to home so I didn't have to drive too far. The Caravan and motorhome site at Carsington Water was a good bet when I did the research so we booked mid week for 4 nights / 5 days. According to the camp wardens (who were very pleasant) weekends are always full especially during school holidays. I have to say with 138 pitches that is some attendance and good money for the club. It wasn't that busy for us and we got a great pitch (pitch 106) right by the amenities block. the wonderful pitch 106, great views, great sunshine THE STORY Blog 237 Wendy House trip 63 Motorhome Travels We travelled via Hulland ward after Brailsford past the site and onto the wonderful Mainsails cafe at the Carsington Water visitors centre for coffee and cheese scones on the terrace followed by a brief walk around before arriving at the campsite. Check-in by about 2pm. If and when we return we would not take this route, next time it will be A52, Ashbourne and Kirk Ireton. Set up and relax, great site. That's Monday, Pimm's and lemon and much reading of the real Trump's truth social in Regime Change book. Tea of our usual Lasagna. Tuesday had a long walk around the campsite, quite steep and dramatically changed from when we first visited 14 years ago, 138 pitches is a lot and they told us 8 trees came down last year, presumably sustainably felled and 70 are planned for this year, an expense for either the land owner or the club. a nice relaxing day topping up our suntan. Wednesday we took the van out for a time of discovery visiting local villages and towns. Started with cafe at Carsington visitors centre. Only £2 parking based on ANPR. Good blue badge parking but you still have to pay, indeed there is a place for motorhomes up top. Not impressed with Wirksworth, far too busy, not what we remember although its been a while since we visited, remember mung bean curry in a pub there with friends. The Y festival near Longcliffe was sold out, a music festival apparently although we had not heard of it. Ended up at the Knockerdown pub for a lovely lunch , highly recommended #recommended We have stayed at the holiday place often over the years and the pub then was small and not great food, it has improved immensely. They told us once before they were going to tack on a campsite, which is thee but not great and the pub staff told us it was being sold on. Definitely would not stay there. Thursday was a day of rest and sun bathing, bought cakes and chocolate at the campsite shop. Finished the Trump book and started my next Frieda McFadden (her of the housemaid fame) Great views from our pitch, cows, horses and probably Kirk Ireton on the hill. Think the Barley mow has been renamed the Red Lion. Friday up early, packed and back home by 8 am. A lovely few days away. SUMMARY If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a familiar campsite gets a new name, a fresh sign, and a slightly more whimsical identity, this blog delivers the full saga. Your beloved Blackwall Plantation — once a rugged, quietly dependable Derbyshire stop — has now transformed into Carsington Water, a name that sounds less like a campsite and more like a religious retreat. But fear not: the trees are still tall, the walks are still gentle, and no one is expected to crawl through a miniature door to reach the facilities. The blog follows your return visit, where you bravely investigate whether the rebrand has changed anything important. Spoiler: it hasn’t. The woodland is still peaceful, the lake is still doing its best impression of a postcard, and the motorhome still fits perfectly on the pitch — no shrinking required. You wander the area like seasoned explorers, checking that the paths haven’t suddenly become child‑sized or that the ducks haven’t unionised under the new management. There’s a lovely thread of nostalgia running through the whole trip. You revisit favourite corners, compare old memories with new ones, and confirm that the site’s charm remains intact despite its possibly more sensible new title. Here's a fellow travellers review. The blog captures that comforting feeling of returning somewhere familiar, only to find it’s just as welcoming as you remembered — even if the sign now sounds like it should be painted in pastel colours, maybe by Monet. In the end, it’s a warm, funny look at how places evolve while staying exactly the same where it matters. A gentle adventure, a familiar landscape, and a campsite that proves you don’t need a dramatic makeover to stay a favourite — just a good name and a great view. Some history in the old name maybe? MAP the real Blackwall plantation IMAGES SLIDESHOWS Revisit, what changes over the years Our first visit 14 years ago gone from 40 pitches to 138 and far less pines (sadly)