Christmas at Hillhead, 2019 – Day 3 +

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An entire week has passed since our last entry. It’s been extremely hectic which goes some way to explain the lack of blog time.

The week started with some very wet and windy weather and despite our double-pegging of the awning, the wind managed to dislodge most of the pegs with the caravan rocking not disimilar to aircraft turbulence.

Monday and we drove to Redruth to collect our new Dometic hybrid coolbox. Two technologies in one (thermoelectric or compressor) allow provisions to stay cool when we are in transit and the compressor, which operates on 240V will keep things cool or frozen regardless of the outside ambient temperature.

The latest caravan addition – Dometic hybrid Coolbox

We also managed to finalise most of the remaining parts of the Christmas shopping.

Tuesday was more of the same and another horrible day of rain and wind. Entertainment in the clubhouse tonight was Christmas carols with the Torbay brass band.

Hillhead CMC clubhouse – Torbay Brass Band

Wednesday and the big day arrived. At our age the magic of Christmas isn’t quite what it used to be but nethertheless, our first Christmas in the van and a Turkey crown to pop on the BBQ a bit later.

The weather had blessed us for Christmas day – very warm for the time of year and we enjoyed sun and blue skies throughout.

In the morning we set off for a walk towards the coast but were thwarted by a steep path which had turned into a stream following all the wet weather. It was even warm enough to don a pair of shorts.

View from the walk
View of our caravan at Hillhead
Sea in the distance

Early afternoon and it was still nice and warm and time to start the Christmas lunch.

Here’s a picture of Joe trying to work out how long a Turkey crown takes to cook on a Weber Q.

Hey Google, how long…

And it looks like Google came up trumps.

The Christmas bird

All in all, the Christmas day lunch was a huge success which was fortunate, because we had to do a repeat performance on Boxing day for Sue and her boyfriend.

This time the weather gods didn’t look down kindly on us. Torrential rain and the winds returned too. We rigged up a tarpaulin to cook under but it was a whole lot harder to keep the BBQ warm. In the end, we had to cover a number of ventilation slots with foil to keep the correct cooking temperature.

We returned to East Devon on the Friday for a weekend with our friends Bob, Mandy and Tilbury Dave who’d had a rotten journey of some 9 hours from London – traffic appeared gridlocked just about everywhere on Friday but I’m sure it was worth the effort.

A terrific weekend with many highlights:

  • Walk around Budleigh Salterton and the Otter estuary
  • A visit to the Fountain Head at Branscomb
  • Sunday lunch at the Bridge Inn Topsham
  • Dinner at the Pig and Pallet smokehouse

A selection of pictures below

Otter Estuary
The three wise monkeys
Lime Kiln Car Park Budleigh Salterton
Views across Budleigh Salterton
Mandy catching up with the “news” at the Fountain Head, Branscombe
The Octagon
Budleigh Old Lime Kilns
Dinner at the Pig and Pallet, Topsham