Off to the hills (and snow)

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Next stop the Brecon Beacons. We were really looking forward to this site as we had visited it in 2008 and loved cycling along the canal and climbing up into the Beacons. However we were a month later this time and it was freezing, the canal froze and it was so cold on the Beacons we thought our fingers were going to fall off. On the day we moved the snow started and by the time we arrived at the Malverns it was looking very pretty – doesn’t everything look wonderful covered in snow! Life did get quite challenging at this site, the temperature dropped to minus ten and all the water pipes inside the van froze. We were just about coping with this when the freezer decided it was too cold and defrosted all over the floor – it was time to go to the pub! It was a struggle to keep warm as the heating had packed up and we were using a small fan heater and oil filled radiator which were fine until it got really cold. We had arranged to take it to a dealer in Gloucester at 8 o’clock one morning on our way to Bath to meet out daughter Emma (and fiancé Andy) for the weekend. We had phoned her the day before because the roads were quite slippery and we didn’t think we’d get off the site, she had no snow so we were up and ready to go very early the next morning when she phoned to say they were snowed in. By then we were very cold and ready to go so we pushed on to Gloucester where we left the van and descended on Val (Trev’s mum ) while it was fixed and tried to find somewhere to go that night, luckily there was a site in Cirencester that was open and we set off there. On arrival the warden informed us that both the car and van must be on the hard standing and that you could just about make out where these were under the snow! Again it was very cold but Cirencester was lovely and we really enjoyed it. When we left it was still snowy, with the added problem of fog, hope it gets warmer as we go further south.

Trev’s family have really got the hang of visiting us in the van now, his dad came to Brecon and his mum to the Malverns and Cirencester, just need to work on some of my family now.

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Photos

The canal
(before it froze)

The canal
(after it froze)

Frozen ducks
who needs a freezer

Snow and fog at Cirencester
Whats next?