On the Road Again!

We enjoyed the last  Campers & Coffee in June and decided to sign up for the September event. Once again we can only go on the Sunday as I have Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday.  It will be a busy weekend and we have Luke Combs UK the night before in Herne Bay! We'll need to set off earlier this time and make sure Malibu Molly is nice and tidy... Just in case someone wants to view inside.  I cleaned her before Malvern, and she still picked up a load of dirt and flies off the road.

With the holiday to Europe shot down in flames we have been looking for things not too far away to fill in the "lost" weekends. The week before is my first visit to Wembley Stadium to support Oldham Athletic in the Promotion Final.  It's so long since we last got to a final of any kind. So this weekend, it's just an awayday across to Sussex for Campers and Coffee.  As we were expected to be in France, I hadn't booked anything.  Once I started to feel better after the UTI had passed I looked and was too late to book the overnight stay on Saturday into Sunday.  However there are day tickets. So I booked us in. It's open from 10am to 4pm so we need to get up nice and early! Looking forward to the short drive across the Hellingly.

This weekend we are going to try a pub stop.  It will be our first as we usually stop at small sites with no more than 5 pitches or larger Caravan Club sites. It was a last minute decision to get away for a few days and today, Thursday, would have been ideal but Claire had a massage at 2pm that meant the travelling time would have been too late to benefit.  So instead we are planning to go tomorrow morning after the workers rush hour and see what time we arrive at the Beachy Head Hote l.  Hopefully there will be plenty of space. I dropped them an email and they said to come along and just pop into the bar when we arrive.  From the overhead photos it does look as though there is plenty of space in the car-park. Fingers crossed.

The plan was to go this week for a pub stop to The Beachy Head near to Eastbourne in the week and stay over in their car park.  The pub is near the Sussex white cliffs of Beachy Head. But with Storm Herminia still hanging about after this last weekend we decided that we would abort the trip, for now. I had a look on their website where you can book a table and add that you want to stay overnight in a camper or motorhome. Maybe next week?

With the trip in mind I dipped into Microsoft's AI generator to get a picture of Molly in Brighton. No matter how much info I typed in, getting a true representation of Molly didn't happen. We are there two nights. Last year we went for a weekend trip staying in the Caravan Club site just up from the Marina area. This year we return to the same site but not at the entire weekend as we have advanced a day in the calendar.  The chances of us getting to park outside the pier is very remote. So AI to the rescue. The van isn't quite a Malibu but is a Ducato! The second image is more fanciful but might almost turn into a partial reality in the Autumn. 😉  Once I have worked out where we are going to go on the Summer trip I'll start to look at the Autumn trip to Spain again.  Maybe we'll give Alcossebre and the timeshare another try. Earlier in the year, October 2024,  there were so many places still open that weren't when we stayed in November ...

Déja-vu! Back to Brighton. Last year for Claire's birthday in February we went to the Caravan Club site in Brighton.  The site is a bit out of the city itself but not far from the Marina. It's an easy enough walk from the site. Once by the Marina you can walk along the promenade alongside the little railway to the pier. Last year it was chilly and we only made it about a third of the way to the pier!! The marina area has restaurants and bars, plus shops and a McDonald's. We did go to Mac and gad a coffee only. We saw a recent vlog where they ordered burgers and bits from the city and it was delivered by scooter to the site entrance barrier. So a year to the date we are going there again. Report to follow.

It's school half-term and I am on holiday.  So we are looking for places to go. Sheffield Park Gardens is a National Trust Estate and is dog friendly. Their busiest period is in the autumn (fall) when the trees are turning and so they have a pre-booking scheme in place.  I have booked for Monday 25th at 1230-1300. This gives us time to decide which route to take to get there and of course, make the 1h40m drive over there. More to follow. Waterproofs and dog towels?

Today's Staycation trip was to the nature reserve at Rye Harbour in neighbouring East Sussex. It's only about 25 miles door to door but it shows that we have some wonderful scenic places on our doorstep. The A259 road across Romney Marsh winds through the marsh and salt marshes from Kent into East Sussex and the Cinque Port of Rye itself. We passed through Rye to the harbour, parking up in the free car park near the old ruined castle. They keep the car-park free and ask for donations. The entrance to the path into the nature reserve is right outside. It's over a mile along side the River Rother on one side to the salt marsh on the other. Along the way are hides to watch the waterbirds from. At the end we had a walk on the beach and I let Reggie off the lead to run around and into the sea for a cooling lie down. After a sit in the sun on the rocks we set off back to the car. I checked on my phone to see if the Red Pig food truck was open at Petts Level in nearby Winchelsea...