Some time ago it had been our intention to cruise to St Petersburg for Joe’s 60th birthday along with twin Ali and hubby Chris. Coronavirus put paid to that so an alternative plan was hatched.

We would spend a few days at Hamble-Le-Rice and dine at the Jolly Sailor for our joint 60th celebrations. The Jolly Sailor is nestled on the banks of the River Hamble with stunning views of the river and harbours.

We travelled from Woodstock to our campsite at Hamble (Sunnydale farm caravan park) and were allocated Pitch 2, for the second year in a row. A fully serviced pitch close to the toilet block.

We were not blessed with nice weather on our joint birthday bash but we secured a great table at the Jolly Sailor. Food was good, Ali’s choice of pink champagne excellent. Long lunch followed by a cream tea at the caravan.

Spent the next day with Chris and Ali at their retirement place on Hayling Island. Nice walk to the pub for lunch and refreshments – The Ferry Boat Inn.

Watched a seal swimming just off-shore.

The next day was very hot and sunny. A mini heatwave has finally arrived so Joe finally got his birthday cruise – albeit a few days late.

There are some nice walks along the coast and up the estuary alongside the River Hamble. This Egret was the most interesting bird we saw.

There were some interesting boat names. The “mouette blanche” and the one below caught our eye.

Tomorrow we pack up for an early departure on Friday morning. The site has already cleared out substantially this week, but somehow a group of “proper” travellers has occupied a number of pitches here. Could there be a link?

I can see now why many sites ban White Transit vans with lettering, German caravans and twin axle caravans. This group would have been caught by all three.

Giant Propane bottles are leaned against the caravans and black sacks of litter strewn around. Bicycles are tossed in the hedge. Need I say anymore…

Assuming we have an event free packing day tomorrow and a safe return to East Devon on Friday, this will be the last posting from this trip. I think it is nearly 5 weeks ago that we headed to the Peak District and the weather was damp, often downright wet and very cold. Temperatures in the South are now a very pleasant 25 degrees and we look set fair for about a week of excellent weather.

This is our last visit to the Caravan and Motorhome club site at Bladon Chains – a short walk away from Blenheim Palace and the Oxfordshire town of Woodstock.

The site has been rented by the Club from Blenheim Estates and it seems Blenheim estates just can’t build houses fast enough on their vast “bank” of land assets. In this case it appears that they are going to build dozens of Log Cabins. It’s a shame because this site is always a sell-out and it’s the perfect location to explore the surrounding area and has regular bus and train routes into Oxford itself.

We have visited this area on a number of occasions and here is a link to a prior stay.

Southern Tour, 2019 – Day 20, Bladon Highlights…

We arrived after a very short tow from Mollington near Banbury arriving around 12:30. The wardens here are helpful and polite and the site is well-kept despite the fact it will be handed back as early as September 2021.

The Kampa Leggera Awning was swiftly erected devoid of any “divorce” moments. In the evening, Bob and Mandy hosted a BBQ and we settled in to watch the England (2) v Demark (1) Euro 2020(1) tournament semi-final on Bob’s not so-wide-screen TV!

Thursday and made our first foray onto public transport and caught a train to Reading From Long Hanborough. Met some friends and spent the afternoon eating and drinking. The food at the London Street Brasserie was as good as ever.

Friday we set out on what was described by Bob as a 7 mile hike. Some 5 hours later and we arrived at the Black Prince, having covered some 10 plus miles with another one or two until we arrived back at Bladon chains.

We entered Blenheim palace grounds “under” the car exit barrier. Apparently there are public footpaths through most of Blenheim, one just needs to avoid the area close to the building itself.

We saw lots of butterflies on our route through Blenheim and beyond and lots of froglets crossing the paths

From Blenheim grounds we exited towards and through the village of Combe and finally arrived at the Roman villa of North Leigh.

From the Roman villa we headed back towards the grounds of Blenheim palace, before dropping into Woodstock by the Black Prince public house.

The plan was great, a decent 6 or 7 mile walk and lunch in town. In reality, the final tally of nearly 12 miles, limited water and no food en-route proved a challenge. Arriving at the Black Prince after the kitchen closed at 14:00 was just the icing on the cake!

The landlady took pity on Moe and provided her with chocolate ice-cream and a wafer – on the house – a very nice touch. The guys enjoyed a couple of beers and a packet of crisps!

Evening we were entertained at Bob and Mandy’s, eating take-away pizza from a “home chef” in Combe. The pizzas were delicious.

On Wednesday (tomorrow) we leave for a very short drive from Anita’s Camping and Touring park to Bladen Chains Caravan club site at Blenheim, Woodstock. Predicted to take an massive 45 minutes.

The weather over recent days has been rather mixed.

On Saturday, the morning was a washout with very heavy showers. In the afternoon we managed a walk along the Oxford Canal towards Banbury.

In the evening we enjoyed a BBQ back at the campsite which was a great pre-cursor for the Euro 2020 (1) fixture, England (4) v Ukraine(0).

Sunday we headed towards the National Trust property at Farnborough Hall, which, just our luck, was closed – it only opens for two half days each week. There was however a 5.5 mile circular walk from the Farnborough Hall National Trust overflow carpark taking in some stunning countryside and views across the Cotswolds. Half way around the heavens opened – fortunately at the time we were just finishing our picnic in Aston Dassett and managed to shelter under the porch of the local church.

Monday was a “work” day. We filled the Safefill bottle at a local industrial unit “The Nursery” (see mylpg.eu). It was service only and the guy wasn’t impressed attending to us for a top-up fill of 6.6 litres!

Some shopping at Costco Coventry and then a visit to the accessory shop at Broadlane Leisure, Kenilworth, where we managed to buy a couple of very sturdy folding chairs. Will take a picture sometime but they are very comfortable and look like they will last the test of time.

Tuesday was a visit to Upton Hall and gardens at Edge Hill (another National Trust property) – who’s idea was it to buy Moe a lifetime National Trust pass?

Friday morning and we headed towards Chipping Campden and the village of Hidcote Bartrim to the Hidcote Manor Garden.

It is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain, with its linked “rooms” of hedges, rare trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders. Created by Lawrence Johnston, it is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

Our drive back from Hidcote Bartrim took us through the village of Edgehill and we just had to stop at the Castle Inn for a quick pint. Truly lives up to it’s name.

In the evening we headed into Cropredy which is a village in Oxfordshire through which the Oxford Canal navigates. Cropredy is apparently famous for it’s annual festival “The Cropredy Festival”, which certainly isn’t annual this year! A group called Fairport Convention use it as a re-union type concert – think some of the band live in this part of the world. If you are under 60 then you probably haven’t heard of the town or the band!

We ate at the Brasenose Arms and then took a stroll along the Oxford Canal.

The drive from Buxton to Mollington (Monday) took around 4 hours and was un-remarkable – save for the state of the A53 Buxton to Stoke road. It must qualify as one of the worst roads in the UK and doesn’t appear to have been maintained for years. Many of the 50 mph sections we could travel no more than 30, unless we wanted to see the caravan strewn across the carriageway with nothing left to tow but a trailer. Find an alternative route if you can!

We posted some details about our latest site (Anita’s) here.

After a few days at home to sort some things out, we returned to Mollington on Thursday afternoon. In the evening we visited the village of Warmington and ate at the Plough Inn.

Warmington is another picture-postcard Cotswold village with its own pretty duckpond.

The Plough Inn has a nice garden, which we had more or less to ourselves although the pub was doing a decent trade indoors. It seems to be a bit of a thing around here in that many of the pubs seem to have an Italian twist to the menus and the Plough was no exception. There was an extensive selection of Italian pizzas but in the end, I ate a Chicken pasta dish. Moe ate a Bruschetta so she would have room for a pudding!

We move on from the Caravan and Motorhome clubsite at Buxton tomorrow so we spent much of the morning packing away the awning and preparing to leave.

For lunch, we headed to the Parks Inn at Harpur Hill and ate their carvery. A week ago, we were lucky to get a table outside as the pub was absolutely full but today, we were able to eat inside with plenty of social distancing.

The food was good and the carvery priced at 11.95. If you are staying here, be sure to check it out.