September and the Isle of Wight

On the 4th September we left home to drive and ferry to the Isle of Wight. It was one of the places we had never been to, even at our age! We sailed with Red Funnel from Southampton to Cowes and it was easy-peasy. Arriving at Southampton a bit early, we were put straight on to an earlier sailing, no queueing at all. Off the other end, having eaten our sandwiches on the way, and straight on to the road for Brading. We arrived at Whitefield Forest Touring Park around 3.00pm and were most impressed. We had been told about this site by some dancing friends who were going to be at Bembridge Holiday Park whilst we were there. It was new, only open about 6 months, run by a family who used to manage the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Adgestone. It was beautifully situated in the forest with red squirrels and lots of birds all around. All the facilities were made of wood and everything was very eco-friendly.

We spent 2 weeks there, good weather all the time and visited many beauty spots. Ventnor Botanic Gardens was one of our favourites as well as Shanklin Chine. We made good use of our National Trust and English Heritage memberships going to Osborne House, Godshill Village, Bembridge Windmill, Alum Chine and the Needles on a boat trip.

The Isle of Wight music festival was on whilst we were there and although we were a few miles away from Robinshill we could hear quite a lot of it. We also saw a lot of the revellers walking the lanes with their rucksacks etc. Almost like Glastonbury!

At the Bembridge Holiday Park there was a country music week, so we drove over to catch up with Jack and Hazel on the Friday and then stayed for the dancing in the evening as well as dancing again with them on the Saturday evening. As you can see we usually have our dancing feet with us wherever we go!

Brading Village itself was quite interesting...old pubs, church with a beautiful cross-stitch picture .......




and an entertainment complex called the Brading Experience. Again more suited to children, but we thoroughly enjoyed the day spent there and thought that it was well worth the entrance fee.

We sailed from Cowes back to Southampton on 18th Sepember, once more having our lunch during the crossing. We arrived slap-bang in the middle of the Southampton Boat Show, not a good move with a trailer on the back of us. There were people and cars everywhere, it took us a good hour to get out of Southampton and on the road to Dorset.


We went to stay for a couple more weeks at the Camping and Caravanning Club Site at Moreton, which is not far from Dorchester. This is a well-positioned site not far from many of the highlights of Dorset.


We were able to take the train from just outside the site in to Poole and then a little ferry over to Brownsea Island. We spent a day there wandering around the woods and watching the wild-life. We could see why it was used for the first Boy Scout camp originally by Baden-Powell..it was perfect.

We drove along the coast past little villages such as Abbotsbury and stopped at a gorgeous beach near Burton Bradstock. There was an excellent fish restaurant there, so we treated ourselves to a lunch, then had to go for a walk along the beach to burn off the calories!

We spent a morning investigating the home of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and then went for a look around Brianstpuddle. Every time we drove away from the site we had to cross over the River Piddle...such strange names in this area!

Dorchester was good for shopping and just browsing especially the market and some of the museums when it was raining and Weymouth was also very similar.
Compton Acres nearer to Bournemouth was a pleasant garden to spend a day in, we picked up some good ideas for when we get back home.

Poole had lots of boats and the marina to wander around..we had great fun choosing 'our boat' for when we win the Lottery.Dorset Photos

We managed to find a dance night in Dorchester Corn Exchange one Friday night so dug out our 'dancing feet' once more and went along. It was quite a good evening with a band that we know well, in fact we had also heard them one of the evenings on the Isle of Wight. We also went over to Chesil to a club there as they were advertising a partner dance club night. It was quite small and not really what we are used to, but it is fun to see how other areas learn their dances.

We had intended to pack up and spend a further week at Longleat, but the weather by then had turned quite chilly and wet most days. We were getting a bit fed up with having wet clothes hanging around and the heater on, so eventually on the 8th October decided to come home.

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This turned out to be our last outing of the year, having spent 82 nights on campsites and travelled over 2000 miles. Our site fees total came to £1025 so that works out to about £12.50 per night. Where else could you get that length of holiday for that sort of money? We love our folding camper!!! See you in 2008 in our follow-on diary....thetravelmoores.blogspot.com/

Summer 2007 short breaks

During the summer months I have quite a bit of work with the council, so we can not stray too far from home. However, we managed to go to Battle in Sussex for a week in June, which included my birthday, local strawberries and cream tea! It was also possibly the wettest week of the year! Many places round and about were flooded. Luckily we had chosen a hard-standing, but even so were surrounded by huge puddles everywhere.

We did get to spend a day wandering around Battle Abbey which was interesting.
Another day we went to Herstmonceaux Castle and had a look around. They have a Science Park there which is well worth a visit, especially if you have children.



We were like big kids ourselves trying out
all the hands-on experiments and even made
ourselves a laser paint-ball picture which we
were able to email back to home.








We also went to the Clipgate Music Festival again - at the beginning of August, 6 of us, in a folding camper, a Classic old VW dormobile and a posh caravan along with about 100 other Westerners and were blessed with a beautiful sunny weekend...at last. One of the ladies chatted to a pilot with small plane on the airstrip next door and ended up going for a flight in aid of charity (she had never flown before and was petrified!) We actually managed to have a barbecue and an outdoor jam session. All-in-all an excellent weekend.

Wales and Corsham May 2007

We sailed back from Rosslare to Fishguard overnight on 14th May, a bit of a wild night so did not get much sleep, even though we had booked a cabin. As it was only 77 miles to drive to Cynghordy and we had arrived off the ferry at 1.00 in the morning, we drove to the nearest picnic area, put our seats back and curled up with our pillows and blankets for a few hours!
We eventually arrived at the campsite at Cynghordy at 7.30 am in time for breakfast. It was still raining, so we got set up as quickly as possible, made coffee and toast, then went to speak to the ducks.

Cwmcuttan, as it is called, is a beautiful quiet Certificated Site belonging to friends of friends of ours. (see post for Summer '06 and link to website))


We spent a week there walking, relaxing etc., then drove down to Lacock in Wiltshire to meet up with our friends who have a caravan. This was to be a dance festival weekend at Corsham with lots of other friends.



On our free day we took a walk along the towpath
by the Caen Flight locks in to Devizes.





We danced all over the Bank Holiday weekend and finally drove home on 29th May, having been away for 6 weeks!

Fossa Rally - Killarney

It was a much easier drive, 158 miles, from Cong to Killarney and for once it was in the sunshine. We got to our campsite about 3.00pm and met up with our friends from Cong as well as a few more units. There were a couple of really nice motorhomes, some caravans and our folding camper - we always seem to be the odd one out!

As most of the excursions were going to be arranged for the following 2 weeks, Brian and I decided to make the most of our week there and do our own thing.

We had a very nice day out driving around the Dingle Peninsula, although it was a very grey mizzly day. We visited some of the famine cottages, as well as Dingle itself and Slea Head which is the westernmost point of Ireland.






One day we went for a walk over the Gap of Dunloe, which was spectacular,
even in the rain!

The rest of the group were scheduled to do the whole tour which involves a 2 hour ride in a jaunty car followed by a wet boat trip down the lake to the town, the week after we left.




We had an Irish music evening at a pub called Kate Kearney's cottage - all of us went along for drinks , music and to watch the dancing. Brian and I even managed to do one of our country dances to some of their music. It was an excellent evening.

One day we drove to Ross Castle and then on to Muckross House and Gardens ( as you can see we are in to our Houses and Gardens!) After that we went on up to Torc waterfall and the Ladies view over Killarney.

There was so much to see and do, we would love to go back there again, maybe at a different time of the year in order to see another facet of the countryside.

Again the people on the rally were very friendly, but spent quite a lot of time sitting around drinking and chatting - we prefer to get on with life, so are not sure that we would go on a rally again.

There are a lot more photos in our web album - just click on the link at the side of the page.

Cong Rally - Co. Mayo

Our rally site at Cong was a long day's drive from Rosslare, about 220 miles, so we set off early in the rain. We found the Irish roads not as suitable for towing as ours back at home, there were very few places to stop for coffee, lunch or toilets, and they were not very well surfaced. We arrived at Cong about 7.00pm, still in the rain and met our stewards John and Margaret. Once we were set up we put the heating on, again! and made our dinner and then went to bed early, again!
Next morning, what a different world, the sun was shining, the grass was green and we were warm. John took a couple of us ladies in to the town to see where the shops were, so we came back with bacon and eggs and newspapers in time for breakfast.
As it was our first time rallying we were not sure what to expect, but as more people turned up we all got chatting around coffees and drinks and were asked what we would like to do. There were a few excursions arranged, but we did not feel pressured to go. As Cong is renowned for the making of the film 'The Quiet Man' we had a showing of it one evening in the little cinema on the site. The next day we went on a walking tour of the town/village to see all the locations used in the film.


One outing was to drive up to Westport, where we took a cruise along the Killary Fjord which was beautiful, even more so as it was again a nice sunny day.

After the cruise we went for a look at Westport House, as well as Kylemore Abbey and Gardens.





Brian and I like walking and were spoilt for choice around the grounds of Ashford Castle which was right next to our campsite, so we spent a few pleasant afternoons wandering and watching the wildlife on Lough Corrib.



We also had a beautiful drive around Lough Mask, stopping to talk to some fisherman repairing their boats at the side of the Lough. We saw some old houses with lots of land, where they have now built new houses alongside.





Cong village itself was quite pretty, with plenty of watering-holes for the inevitable Guinness and was a pleasant 20 minute walk across the golf course.

We had a few evenings aranged with auctions, quizzes, games and watching DVD's; one very hot afternoon we all decided to go and play crazy golf on the course next door , ending up with about 20 crazy adults having a competition!


All in all a very interesting fortnight with other folk, made all the better by the fact that we probably had the best weather of the summer. There were 18 units at this rally and 9 of us were driving on to Killarney to the 3 week rally there (although we were only going for one week).......see you at Fossa Camp site!