Long weekend over Easter. ( 5 nights)

2nd - 7th April


The weather forecast was for a cloudy cool weekend so we packed the caravan with warm cloths, food that we could cook in the caravan or the new electric frying pan and set off on Thursday evening in the rain for a 5 night break at Dan yr Ogof. We were set up by 7pm but were soaked through so made use of the drying room to get our coats and jeans dried out. Since our first trip out we have fitted an electric towel rail in the bathroom ...it has made a big difference and now we get out of the shower to a dry heat instead of the blow air heating which has a tendancy to chill you when you're wet.

The other investment we've made is 2 duvaleys. They are every bit as good as the reviews and we are now enjoying a really good nights sleep and waking up without painful hips.

Well the weather men got it wrong and by Friday afternoon the clouds were dispersing and the sun was raising the temperature and by Sunday the temperature was in the high teens reaching 21 degrees by Monday. Steve had to drive home on Saturday and pick up some cooler cloths as we were melting in our winter woolies.

The highlight of the weekend was a walk to the Wellington bomber crash site. It has been my ambition for over 40 yrs to find the site but have failed several times. We were fortunate to meet a gentleman called Jack who knew where the site was, but even with his experience we struggled to find the site. The wreckage is the same colour as the rocks so you can easily walk within a hundred metres and miss it. After a few attempts we found it, the sense of achievement was almost overwhelming.

Our new friend Jack

I love being up on the mountains

Our next trip is in a couple of weeks .. we will be celebrating my 60th birthday with all the family at Dan yr Ogof ....I can't wait...not to be 60 but to be back up in the mountains.

First trip 2015 ( 2 nights)

Our first trip this year was 13th - 15th March to Dare Valley Country Park in Aberdare, 35 mins drive to what turned out to be a super location for dogs and children. It was only a 2 night break but it was lovely as both my daughters and families came with their caravans so it was a bit of a rugby party weekend. The site itself is beautiful, and apart from a couple of motorhomes very quiet. The access to the site however is a bit hair raising as you have to go through the town centre then through a very narrow and congested street to get to the entrance. You do need your wits about you but it will probably be easier next time as we'll know where we're going. This was my daughters first trip with her pup and he loved it as all dogs do. We took the largest of our cages for our two so they had somewhere safe to stay whilst we watched the rugby, they enjoyed being together.

Rossi's first trip

Barney and Bella snuggled up.

Glad to be back in the caravan after the long winter.

Our little commune lol.

Plenty of room for the kids to have fun.

Our new toy for the new season is a roof box ..so much easier to have somewhere to stow the awning and ground sheets etc especially when they are wet packing up. The main reason for buying one though is to release some payload to have a motor mover fitted. We are clearing the back of our garden to bring the caravan out of storage and will need a mover to get her in front ways for access. Sooo looking forward to having her at home as it means no more wasting time cleaning out before coming home, I can do it at my leisure.

The next trip is next weekend for 5 nights (Easter) up to Dan yr Ogof as Steve has to work the Saturday but really looking forward to seeing some old friends.

Autumn in Devon.

Oct 5th we headed back to Modbury for a 7 night break. The reason we chose Modbury CC site was simply the dog walk. We had originally booked Broadway in the Cotswolds but decided that with the proximity of the main road it wasn't a good choice to take a still skitty rescue dog. The dog walk in Modbury is HUGE and secure and a brilliant area to teach recall. Bella is proving to be very easy to train as far as basic commands are concerned .. I will add a video later.
The site also gave us a good base to take Bella to some busy areas for socialising.

Torquay

Kingsbridge

Modbury CC site.

This is the same site we stayed at when we took Barney to meet and greet Bella at her foster home. This photo was taken the day we collected her to take her home ... a very frightened and shell shocked little dog.

And this is her doing the same journey 4 1/2 months later a confident and sociable member of our family.

Catch up posts

Sorry to any followers but I haven't been keeping my blog up to date ...I know I'll regret it if I don't update, it will be nice to look back on one day. Anyway we have had 3 trips since my last post, the first 2 were to Dan yr Ogof which I'll give a very brief report on and then last week week we went back to Modbury for the week.

The first of the 3 trips was a 6 night break on 3rd Aug which was meant to be a chill time in between looking after the grandkids for the school holidays. Unfortunately it was anything but relaxing as Bella, our little rescue dog, became very ill the first night with sickness and diarrhoea. It was so bad that we had to take her to the vets for treatment. We also had to go to Swansea on another day to visit my daughter on her Birthday which meant taking the dogs home as it was too warm to leave them in the caravan. We did manage a couple of days at the end of the week to just relax.

The second break was 3 nights on 11th sept, Steve had to go to work on the Saturday so my daughter came up for the day with 2 of my granddaughters. They spent the day picking cob nuts ..3 carrier bags full ..whilst my daughter and I caught up, we don't see much of each other even though I see a lot of my granddaughters.

The two short trips were good for the dogs and gave us the confidence to travel to Devon for a weeks holiday with Bella.

As you can see from the photo we have changed our chairs .. the old ones had served us well but I really liked the idea of lafuma zero gravity chairs, my back problem means that sitting for long periods becomes very painful and I'd been told that this type of chair would alleviate that and, I have to say they were right, I can now relax for longer periods.

First trip with two dogs.

Only a short trip for 3 nights to our favourite Dan yr Ogof site to let our new rescue dog Bella experience the joys of caravanning.
We were a little nervous in case she wouldn't settle but any doubts we had were quickly expelled ....she loved it.

First job once we got the stays down and electric on was to introduce her to her roaming lead.. she was brilliant, wandering off to the end of her lead and then back to us. I remember the first time we put Barney on a roaming lead ..he thought he'd been given freedom and shot off at full speed only to bend the metal stake and frighten himself half to death. Bella was far more sensible, and considering that a couple of months ago she hadn't been outside her breeding cage at the puppy farm she was rescued from, she felt her way to the end and realised that was as far as she could go.
Perhaps Barney had had a quiet word with her before hand.

He certainly had a good chat to her whilst we put the awning up.

Once the awning was up we took her in to see her new holiday home ..she was a little bit worried but Barney looked after her.

and showed her how to chill on holidays

She didn't master the steps very well so we're going to have to have a think how we can make them better for her .. we have changed them 4 times to find ones that Barney was happy with and now have the Milenco rubber tread non tip ones so can't get better ..scratch head time!!! Anyway I did manage to encourage her to climb them once with a bit of ham but she resorted to whining for a lift the next time. She did manage to get down them without any problems so I'm sure she'll learn.

She thoroughly enjoyed the great outdoors and soon found that if she went into the shade it was cooler. The weekend was glorious and this was probably the first time she had ever experienced hot sunshine so just stood there panting till I took her under the trees where Barney was.


My very own King and Queen of the jungle!

Their favourite spot behind the caravan.

We were lucky to have llamas in the field beside us.

Some pics of the site .. Dan yr Ogof is a very quiet site right by the national showcaves and shire horse centre and a great place for exploring the national park.

There is also a farm for the kids ... Bella wasn't impressed with the Emus ..they were big birds!!

It's going to be quite a few weeks before Steve can get any more time off so it's TTFN.

Modbury CC site Devon.

What a wonderful week we had. Not the best weather but good enough to get out and about and ..dry and sunny to put the new awning up and dry and sunny to take it down again .. what more could you ask.

Modbury Caravan Club site is a real gem of a site. There were a few bad reviews about the last couple of miles to the site but honestly the road is fine. I think any road seems narrow after hours and hours of driving on motorways and dual carriageway, it just takes a while to adjust. We found that after a week of driving around Devon the homeward journey along the same road was a piece of cake. Our advice ..after leaving the A38 slow right down and give your brain time to adjust to the road width and it is fine.
The site itself is very underused because of the bad press, a real shame as it really is a beautiful site. There are 2 really good sized fields which are kept mowed .. one for the kids and one for the dogs, a large playground that looks like it's got new equipment and acres of well spaced out pitches. The facilities are what you would expect from a CC site, if I could make one small criticism it would be that the tiling is rather outdated .. pretty flowers are a bit 70ish .. but the wardens do a good job of keeping the block clean. The whole site was beatifully manicured and a credit to the wonderfully friendly wardens. Can't wait to go back.

We're delighted with new Dorema all season awning. Lovely and cool inside when the sun was blazing down. The feel of a full awning with the ease of putting up of a porch. Perfect for us.

Relaxing.

Burgh Island.

Kingsbridge.

Plymouth Hoe

Barney having a cuddle with teddy after a long day out.

People watching ...or being nosey lol

Coombe Martin.

Kingsbridge. There was a food festival on all week so went back a couple of times.

Just managed to BBQ dinner when the rains came.

Dartmouth.

Barney loves his new hammock .. brilliant for keeping the dogs contained and comfortable in the back of the car.

You will notice that I said dogs as in plural .. Yes we brought our new rescue schnauzer home with us so we now have Bella to keep Barney company on our adventures. She is a very scared little girlie, but hopefully with lots of love and TLC she will soon be in good health and enjoying life.

She doesn't look much like a Schnauzer but that's not suprising after the way she was kept on a puppy farm and she has had to be shaved underneath as she has been spayed and has had to have a hernia repaired, but I'm sure she will soon blossom into a stunning dog. My sincere gratitude goes to Many Tears Animal Rescue in Llanelli who work tiredlessly to rescue these poor dogs from a life of hell, and in particular for saving Bella. xx