Our motorhome Daphne is the perfect post lock down travel wagon. As we all know Covid 19 has not gone away. We have our own facilities on board, our own sheets and bedding, towels and kitchenware. We dont have to share so can limit our risk of infection. Masks are now mandatory in shops and we have all the soap and water we need.
Campsites opened on the 4th July in England. So we started to plan our freedom. After 17 weeks we were sad to leave our lockdown sanctuary in Sussex, sad to say goodbye to family and friends and also excited to continue our travels. We made good friends at our lockdown campsite and as we all started to go our separate ways we were given a map of the UK by our neighbours John & Sheena. This was no ordinary map and once we have visited each county we can scratch the map to reveal its county flag. A great present and good inspiration to explore as much of the UK as possible. We set ourselves a challenge: we would start off by trying to sleep in as many different counties in England as possible. This is no mean feat as there are 48 of them!
Our scratch map of the UK, you can see the counties we have visited so far.
To date we have managed to sleep at least one night in nine out of the forty eight counties. Not bad after 2 and a half weeks back on the road. We have also had our niece Imogen to visit in the New Forest, celebrated a Covid 19 style 50th birthday for Jane's sister Angie in Somerset and visited friends: Ann-Marie in Cheltenham and Mary in Gloucester. Suffice it to say, we have had a great time travelling and making adventures in our motorhome Daphne.
Ivan with his slippy shoes 😂. We started off in Hampshire: the next county. We stayed on the tidal road at Keyhaven.
Otto at Keyhaven harbour looking out wistfully to Hurst castle and the Isle of Wight.
Imogen and Otto relaxing in the New Forest
Beautiful New Forest sunsets.....and relax 😀
Our home for 5 nights. We felt like we were camping in parkland. Lots of places to explore and we were right next door to Ringwood Forest.
Otto is pleased to see his mum Una and Janes sister Angie is even more pleased to have them together for her birthday.
A feast to celebrate Angie’s birthday 😋
Dunster castle. Photo by Angie Ward.
Visiting Dunster castle in Somerset. We booked ahead a time slot online and enjoyed a full afternoon with family.
Moving on we visited the White horse in Wiltshire
The sunset went on forever at the top of the ancient hill fort 😍
We were lucky to find a city centre car park that Daphne fitted in and we stayed 24 hours.
We had Bath crescent to ourselves early morning.
Victoria Park was alive with bees.
Ivan and Otto at the famous bridge in Bath.
We found some evening entertainment in Bath with an outdoor Pop up beach bar. Very quiet for a sunny Thursday night in July.
Bath city centre knows how to bloom 🌸🌺
Travelling north we tucked away en route for the night. We could see the Severn bridge and the river across the fields.
The Red lion let us stay in the pub car park for a few nights.
We always love a visit to Ross on Wye. A beautiful town full of history and book shops.
Ivan’s first pint of Guinness since lock down 🍻
The pepper pot.
Upton is another town worth a visit upon the Severn river.
After visiting friends we arrived in Evesham at nighttime and found a riverside car park to hunker down.
Evesham is a pretty Cotswold town on the river Avon and has beautiful parks and gardens to visit.
Ivan mid food prep in Daphne’s kitchen
We made ourselves at home with our campsite near Banbury.
We cycled to Cropedy. It’s very hilly and I’m sure Otto has put on weight in the basket!
Otto overlooking the Oxford canal.
We never think cygnets are ugly swans, they are gorgeous 😍
Some of our tomato plants are bearing fruit and we are starting to reap the rewards.
The tractor factor 😀. If all our journeys are this interesting we are going to enjoy our travels all the more. Keep in touch to see where we travel next and stay safe xx.
