The Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight (IOW) is one of our favourite places in England. For years we have travelled here annually, mainly on our motorcycles, and explored this beautiful island. After a tour of the West Country and catching up with family and friends we decided to spend a few weeks on the Isle of Wight, this time in Daphne and bringing our cycles. It’s about 45 minutes to travel from Portsmouth harbour to Fishbourne (IOW) on the car ferry. We booked through the Caravan & Camping club and got a generous 50% discount to take Daphne across the Solent.  

We spent some time “wild camping” and had booked a campsite for a few days in Wootton bridge. However with Lockdown 2 looming we asked the campsite if they would consider hosting us for the duration of the lockdown. Living in a motorhome full time and having nowhere else to go can feel stressful during these strange times so having a place to hole up and call home means the world. Luckily government guidelines are now a lot clearer for people in our position and campsites are allowed to have key workers and those who live full time in their caravans/motorhomes/vans to stay if they wish. We were pleased to be offered a place to stay at the campsite next to Kite Hill farm. The photos below will show you a little bit about our second lockdown:

Masks are compulsory on ferries and public transport.

We enjoyed watching ferries and other boating activity arrive in Fishbourne.

The view towards Tennyson down.

Ryde has a lovely seafront and pier. We enjoyed a final cafe breakfast before lockdown.

All set up at the sunny campsite. 

Walks around Wootton bridge were varied with woods, creeks and the harbour. 

Ivan and Otto cosy in Daphne.

Mackerel skies over the Old Mill Pond in Wootton Bridge.

We cycled and found lots of old railway lines made into cycle tracks.

Firestone copse was right next to the campsite and we got to know it well.

Spot the dog 😂

Ivan found a bench named after him.

We cycled to Quarr abbey and had the best cherry pie take out from the cafe 😍

More woodland walks.

We recommend the campsite. It’s very friendly, well maintained and the showers were fab. The campsite was closed for lockdown.

Early morning coffee and walks in the woods.

Otto relaxing in Daphne 😍

Ivan was thrilled when he came across the original Spice girls rock & roll bus from the film “Spice World”. 

From Island harbour you can cycle alongside the river Medina into Newport all on cycle lanes.

The chain link ferry between East and West Cowes had broken down so we managed to get our cycles onto a small bus ferry across. 

Lockdown ended on 2nd December 2020 and the IOW was put into Tier one so we celebrated with a few drinks in the local pub one evening. Not a substantial meal in sight! 

Our longest cycle was Sandown via Newport along the Red Squirrel cycle route. We aimed to get the train back to Ryde and then cycle back from there. However the trains were not running so with sore bums and aching calves we managed to cycle all the way back. An epic day out, phew 😅. 

Sunset over the campsite.

We managed to see a red squirrel in Firestone copse despite it being winter 😊.

Over the course of November/December 2020 we explored the island. It’s been great to spend lockdown finding new places we have never been to before on the island and keeping active. Thank you reading this blog. We hope you are keeping well xx 

The Top to the Bottom of England

Jane & Ivan, relaxed and happy by Grasmere lake in Cumbria.

We are in a bid to travel to all 48 counties of England and sleep at least one night in all of them. After our epic hike up the highest mountain in England we stayed on in Cumbria, caught up with friends and headed south to Somerset via Sussex. These are some of our photos and stories of our adventures from the top of England to the bottom: 

Wast water on a rainy day was the perfect spot to recover from our hike:

The top west of England is very scenic with a beautiful coastline and views across to Scotland:

On this north coast shore stories abound of battles with the Scots. Below is a statue of Edward 1, the ‘Hammer of the Scots’. 

Inside the Lake District national park is fantastic scenery that is hard to beat anywhere else in England:

We caught up with friends and had an evening on Ullswater lake:

Photos of Ullswater by James and Sarah

We carried on south to West Yorkshire and visited the original location for the long running TV drama Emmerdale: Esholt, just north of Leeds: 

The Woolpack pub was shut for refurbishment so we could not go in. The series is now filmed in a studio copying the original buildings from Esholt village for continuity. The pub used to be called “The Commercial Inn” and when they were filming they placed the name “The Woolpack” over the original pub sign, and then took it down again. Once the public became aware of where the TV series was filmed they started to visit in their hoards. The secret was out and so the landlord changed the name of the pub to The Woolpack permanently as he got fed up with keeping changing the sign. The inside of the pub was never used in the filming of the show and so visitors were always disappointed when visiting. We wonder what the inside will look like once refurbished. We know what we would do....😂. 

The next county we visited was Nottingham. We wanted to see Sherwood Forest and be amongst the mighty oaks of the Robin Hood stories: 

After a brief visit to our friends Dave and Elaine in Bedfordshire and an overnight stop in Buckinghamshire we got to the Thames river and realised we were close to London and not now far from the south coast: 

We can see the sea, and the temperature has plummeted for our stay in Sussex 😨. You can travel from the top to the bottom of England in one day, a journey of approximately 400 miles from Cumbria to Sussex. We like to travel slow and enjoy the luxury of time to explore. 

In contrast, a sunny day out at Stourhead in Wiltshire:

As we move into autumn we are enjoying foraging and making our own food. Apart from lots of apple delicacies we have made elderflower cordial, rosehip syrup and we will make something of our little haul from yesterday: 

Hawthorn berries for hedgerow ketchup; pears; walnuts and medlars.

In these challenging times it has been fairly easy to travel, staying safe and relatively self contained in our motorhome Daphne. As we travelled south we started to see local lockdowns and stricter Covid 19 regulations come into force in some parts of England. We are staying for a while in the south west and will continue to travel as much as we can slowly and safely. In the meantime, stay safe and keep well. 

Thank you for reading 💕