UK Holiday 2012 - First stop Tewkesbury

Friday 24^th August

We left at 3pm and headed off on our 2 week trip around UK, taking in a visit to the in-laws in Northumberland. Our first stop was Tewkesbury Abbey Caravan Club site, we left in the rain and it was miserable all the way up the M5, the M5 was very slow and what should have been a 3 hour journey turned into a 4.5 hour journey. We arrived at the site and pitched up just as they were closing for the night.

Luckily I had cooked before we left and brought it along with us, so it wasn’t long before we had the kettle on and I was dishing up Biryani.

Saturday 25^th August

It rained throughout the night but by the time we woke it had stopped, we had breakfast and headed out to explore Tewkesbury. The town was on the doorstep,  just out the site and turn right, past Tewkesbury Abbey and right again.

The sky turned black but the rain stayed off, so we decided to sit outside costa and had a coffee.  Afterwards we found a small market at the top of town just as it started thundering and then the rain started.   

Luckily we were looking around a stall at the time so sheltered there for a few minutes. It was only a quick shower and then the sun came out again. We headed back into the town where we were told that the hospital had a fete from 1pm to 4pm. 

So 1:30 we proceeded to the hospital, paid our 50p each to get in but were disappointed to find the stalls were empty and everything was sold out and it was only 2:30. They were still serving tea, so we stayed for a cuppa and a slice of cake (leftovers) and then as we walked back through the entrance we saw that they had packed that up too.

On the way back, walking through the town, the heavens opened again and we had to shelter under a shop canopy for ages until it stopped. 

It had been raining on and off throughout the day but in between the sun shone and dried it up. This time, however it was thundering and very grey in between heavy showers, so we moved from one shop canopy to another and ended up in one of the pubs sheltering from the rain until it stopped.

We headed back to the van for a couple of hours before heading off back to town for an Indian meal at Spicy Life. I had the usual, Onion Bhajis and Chicken Tikka Masalla which was very good but Billy tried the Spice Life Biryani. He said that was very good too.

Sunday 26^th August

We woke up to sunshine today, so we had a quick breakfast of toast and then decided to go for a walk along the river, stopping first of all for a coffee at Theoc House. I perused the menu whilst Billy was ordering the coffees and they had, my favourite, american pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, yum!! It was 11:30 but they did breakfast items as brunch throughout the day. I could not resist and we were on holiday.  They were also serving lunch and Billy could not resist the pasta, chorizo and Chicken. So we ended up eating 2 very different brunches.

We then walked off our brunch, with a walk beside the river. The weather was far better than yesterday, it stayed dry and the sun shone for most of the day.

However the field we decided to cut across was very wet in the middle and at one point we stood in the middle trying to work out which was going to be the best way out, whichever way we chose we were going to get wet feet. We picked our way through the wet marshlands and eventually found ourselves on dry ground but with very wet feet. We continued walking to dry our trainers off.
We found another campsite by the river – Millavon, this turned out to be a Marquis dealer. This was a stones throw away from the site we were at and we didn’t know it existed.

Back at the van we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening enjoying the sunshine by relaxing beside the van. Billy cooked burgers and sausages on the barbecue for supper, which we enjoyed with a bottle of red.

This was finished off with a stroll around the site to see what was happening elsewhere and then back to the van for the evening.