Hello again from a relaxed and happy couple of Browns and a very sleepy dog 😀. After 6 weeks on the road we have been thoroughly enjoying ourselves taking in the sights of each county we visit in England. We have so far visited and slept at least one night in:
West Sussex
Hampshire
Somerset
Wiltshire
Avon
Gloucestershire
Herefordshire
Worcestershire
Warwickshire
Oxfordshire
Northamptonshire
Leicestershire
Rutland
Derbyshire
Staffordshire
West Midlands
Shropshire
Cheshire
Merseyside
Greater Manchester
Lancashire.
We have completed 21 counties of England, out of our challenge to try and visit and sleep at least one night in all 48 counties of England.
Our scratch map of the UK reveals the flags of each county we have visited.
In our last blog we had stopped in Banbury, Oxfordshire at a lovely campsite. In this blog we show you the mid north west of England. We have visited friends in Market Harborough, Leicestershire and also in Shropshire. Daphne has had some TLC and we have encountered two storms, thunder and lightening, rain, wind and hot hot weather. England is certainly a very beautiful country and we have seen some wonderful sights. We hope you enjoy the pictures below 😀.
Otto is now firm friends with Reggie, even though he stole his stick!
Ivan and Reggie relaxing after a cuppa and a stay on our friend Phil’s driveway in Leicestershire. We felt thoroughly spoilt by Phil, Charlotte, John, James & Emily as they cooked us a fabulous meal and we managed a socially distant visit in Phil’s garden.
We decided to visit the smallest county in England: Rutland. We cycled 20 plus miles around Rutland water and had one of the best days out so far. We even managed drinking with a mask on at the pub!
The campsite was empty mid week in August at Breedon on the hill. Not bad for £6 per night and we enjoyed a walk around the village in the evening.
The weather was getting hotter as we walked around Carsington water in Derbyshire.
We decided to find a campsite in the woods for a weekends forecast of extremely hot weather and we stopped for a few nights near the historic town of Ashbourne.
The county of Staffordshire was beautiful and we enjoyed the scenery and gorgeous sunsets wild camping at Blithbury reservoir.
The west midlands has over 500 miles of canals to explore. The farm shop at Great Haywood let us stopover and we explored the 5 ways of canals and rivers nearby.
One of our hottest days was spent cycling around Cannock chase. We are so pleased we brought our cycles with us and Otto has adapted to running alongside or having a carry in the basket when he gets tired.
We arrived in Shropshire and spent time relaxing near the river Severn allowing our plants to thrive with the welcome rain.
Ironbridge, Shrewsbury and the Shropshire hills were explored to our hearts content. It’s just wonderful waking up to new places to explore. We are loving this lifestyle.
Great to spend time with friends. We had a fab day out with Nick, Helly and their dog Millie. We also enjoyed a weekend with Ali, Mike and their dog Cleo.
Our next county of Cheshire led us to beautiful places, the river Dee and our lovely campsite near Chester. We generally stay in smaller campsites that are only certified for 5 units. No facilities are open due to Covid, however many of the smaller sites do not have facilities anyway and we are self contained in Daphne. When we are not in campsites we “wild” overnight using a website/app called www.searchforsites.co.uk for possible locations. The freedom to travel like this suits our new lifestyle as well as our budget.
PS. We hope you noticed Daphne’s new door poster #breakingbad 😛.
Daphne had some TLC with a service and MOT and passed with flying colours 😀. We celebrated by travelling to another country and popped into Wales to visit the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the Llangollen canal across the river Dee. We have seen this on TV and have always wanted to visit. We can say that it’s very hairy walking across 😱 and is an amazing site to see.
We took the ferry across the Mersey and dodged the showers to visit Liverpool for a day and night. Daphne was parked next to the historic Albert dock and we had great fun exploring the city. Last time we were there we were on our motorcycles catching the ferry to the Isle of Man. We looked into another visit to the Isle of Man and it’s still closed to visitors due to Covid 19.
Just outside Liverpool is the extraordinary sight of 100 iron men stretched out along the beach next to the infamous Liverpool docks at Crosby beach. The photos do not do them justice and we stayed next to the beach with only the sand dunes to protect us, imagining them coming to life and doing their worst 😱. At night time they are pretty eerie.
This way of life does not suit everyone and we cannot believe we have been living like this for 20 months now. Time has gone so quick. We find it best not to plan ahead more than a day or two and be open to new places and ideas. In this uncertain time we have found everyone to be friendly and welcoming. We feel safe in Daphne and have everything we need. As we live this life more we realise we need less and less and we love being outside and enjoying nature.
Thank you reading this blog. Stay safe, enjoy every minute and keep in touch. We hope to continue to travel the counties of England and see new sights. Living our best life 💕
Ironbridge, Shrewsbury and the Shropshire hills were explored to our hearts content. It’s just wonderful waking up to new places to explore. We are loving this lifestyle. 
