Waiting to go to France

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18th August
Got up early for a run with Mason down to the beach. The wind was blowing and the rain was falling and it was 7 o’clock in the morning. Mason had to do his hair before we left. Ran through the little lanes, through the forest and past a castle down to the beach - we weren’t going swimming that was for sure.
We had thought we would go to another beach this morning but because of the rain we decided to go straight to the big mining pit - not up to the Becon’s either. The closer we got to the turn off the heavier the rain was so another change of plan - straight to Bath. Crossed the Severn bridge which is incredible. It took 4 minutes to cross it. Bath according to Blake is a very pretty city. Gareth wanted to go to the Spa but only children over 12 are allowed in. Blake’s response to this was “you want to dump us somewhere now eh?” So instead of the spa we went to the Bath cricket ground and played in the nets. Cathedral, bridges, weirs, beautiful things everywhere and we go to the cricket nets. There was a game on - two women’s teams. There were three kids at the nets as well playing, two sisters and a brother. Their mum played for Bath and use to play for England. Mason watched them for a bit - “that girls not that bad Mum”. They played with them for a bit.
Then our trip became exciting. Amy was programmed for Bathampton because we wanted to go to a pub for dinner. We’re use to her saying turn right when she meant left and she did this to us. So we missed the turn off - so we kept going knowing that another pub would be around the corner. The next village was Bradford-on-avon that was in the direction we wanted to head so I plugged that into Amy saying we wanted to go to the centre of the town. Well ..... things were looking good until the roads we were on kept getting narrower and narrower. Until it was so narrow that the hedges were scrapping on both sides of Hugo and the road was no longer tar sealed instead it was muddy and wet!!! According to Amy our destination was only one minute down this track. When she said destination to your right we turned and found a paddock piled with dirty straw. We had to find a farm house to turn around and then work out how to get out of the labyrinth were we in. Once back on an A road we found Bradford-on-avon which is a good sized village. Not according to amy though - it’s a paddock of dirty straw.
Change of plans - head toward the M4 in preparation for tomorrows trip to Folkestone. We then drove straight to a fabulous pub called Plough Inn. Had the most amazing meal. The boys are now eating adult meals of the menus - Mason a rack of ribs, Anton chicken with cornmeal, Blake chilli and Gareth and I steak and ale pie. The meal was delicious. The owner had a bet on that mason won’t finish his ribs. What a foolish woman. Dad do you remember the ribs you had at Cross Keys in Horton near Sally’s house? Mason looked just like you did. Next was dessert - homemade chocolate icecream for the boys (I ate most of Blake’s) and I had a wild blueberry tart. Man it was good. Home cooked meals cooked by someone else are fantastic.
Free camped near the M4 by a rugby club. Scared off the car load of boys hanging out in the carpark smoking. Lay down and pretended we were at the lake house listening to Highway 1.

19th August
The boys got up this morning and played soccer on the field. Another van came down and parked next to us but after a few fights she drove up the road and parked. Obviously to noisy for her.

Now in Folkestone waiting to catch the ferry from Dover to Calais tomorrow morning. Finish this later - getting told to leave the cafe.

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