We left Hawick and hit the road for the shortish drive over to Jedburgh. Another stop , another possible overnight car park and what would turn out to be an amazing abbey . The only downside of travelling this time of the year was the high level maintenance that was going on in all the Historic Scotland properties . Another free one for us as members of Cadw . The ticket had paid for itself many times over this year . The roads were good and we were impressed . Money was being spent on this part of the United Kingdom and it showed . The Barnet formula certainly favours Scotland in comparison to Wales. No potholes , clear signage of anything worth seeing . We wondered what would happen if Scotland got their independence . ... read more

1121 miles the signpost said it was to Rome . Reivers to the right of us and Romans to the left of us ..............stuck in the middle with you.................... , me , Sion and our Girl Gabby. How did we come to be in such an odd place . We had left Carlisle and had a night stop in mind . In the middle of nowhere . Well it was in the middle of fields , hills and in the hamlet of Alston . In a field , in a car park next to the Nook Farm Cafe and Shop. Beneath the ancient form of Epiacum , Never heard of Epiacum . Me neither until today . We were on an overnight stop for motorhomers recommended by CampRA, CampRA was something new .It did not exist ... read more

Google the Giraffe . That is what the sign said . The instruction was writ large beneath a metal sculpture of a giraffe alongside the M6. What was that all about? You could hardly drive past without googling the Giraffe . It was a clever piece of marketing . We expected something like the Angel of the North . What did we get - a advertisement for a local company.. So why are we driving up the M6? Gabby the motorhome had arrived home a few weeks ago and we had spent the last few weeks emptying her out and refilling her with essentials for our first trip out of 2021. She had been nothing more than a wardrobe and storage cupboard for the last six months . This was our first opportunity to get her ... read more

So what brought us to Chirk Marina? A shortage of paint that is what brought us to the marina. You cannot buy some colours of paint for love nor money. Ducksback paint for fences - any colour apart from grey . What did we want grey of course . Is it right to blame Covid? I guess we will never know . Are the factories producing paint short of workers due to Covid? Are materials hard to source? Is it because everyone is into Do It Yourself . No holidays , no work so are folks painting every room , every fence and spending money on their homes ? It is impossible to second guess the reasons . WE can guess but probably will not come anywhere close to working out why things are hard to ... read more

May is drifting on as each month drifts along. Boris has opened up our country and life is for the time being feeling a little more like normal . We now can eat inside . We can have more guests at weddings. No limits on the numbers at wakes . Swimming and the gyms have all re-opened but for how long ? Boris has announced that he intends to follow his road map and open up the country properly by the 21st June . Portugal gave the green light to travellers who flooded at the first opportunity the airports and the planes. The chance of a holiday was too great to overlook . Spain and France are still locked down countries and for the first time in many years it seems the ferry companies might open ... read more