It's been a While - Part 2... 'Myned'

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With Malmesbury in our rear view mirror, we headed off to Minehead, formerly Myned, which is old English for Mountain or Hill. Yes it's got one them, a big one, hill that is, and we parked right underneath it for a week. More about that in a bit, firstly I need to tell you about our little diversion to Cheddar Gorge and how Lydia’s place on the Right is fun when it comes to meeting other drivers.

As we trundled along I saw a sign for Cheddar Gorge and thought it'd be a nice place for lunch, well what an adventure. All A roads but don't mean squat, I checked for a bus in front and we passed Articulated lorries coming towards us but that didn't mean it got a little tight. Generally we are 8 American inches wider that most UK heavy vehicles. Ah how I chuckled as Lyd put on her finest apology voice, calling down to held up drivers saying "Sorry" and "The Sat Nav sent us here". only one bloke got rude telling her ours was a stupid vehicle to bring down these roads. He may have had a point but I thought if he got his mouth down them then we'd have no problem.

Eventually we got to and parked up in Cheddar, spectacular walls of rock. We had some lunch while I plotted a route out that didn’t involve narrow lanes...

Another lovely drive and we found ourselves in Minehead, directed away from Butlins, don't want any of that, and a double length parking slot right on the Quay behind the Lifeboat Station. Oh yes and 10 yards from the Pub, brilliant spot.

During the next few days our Fit Bits almost exploded, we walked the coastal path to Porlock and Dunster Castle, not mention hours wandering around the woods and old cottages of Minehead. I found out one of my best Buddies was Married in Minehead Church and that we were actually parked less that 100 yards from his sister’s house. We had a hoot, and eve saw a double lifeboat launch, some fella had been away for hours with no life jacket and no comms, paddling around the Bristol Channel on SUP Board. Brave men and women of our RNLI found him and bought him safely home to his worried but relieved family.

A highlight of the week was a lesson learned, we ran out of water... Doh! I found a tap and tried filling up using a 5 litre water bottle. The angles didn't work and I was getting more down my leg than in the tank. Then thanks to a lovely lady traveller in a nearby Motorhome, inspiration struck, "I use a watering can" she said. Of course madam, I wondered how long it would take her to think of that... he he. So off I went and purchased a 7 litre can (four quid from the local Arkwrights). Do the maths, I walked 100yard filled the can, 100yards back, emptied into the RV and so on until we were full up. Our tank is just under 300 litres so that’s a lot of trips to the tap. I just told the local fishermen I had a lot of Window Boxes to water.

As a special treat for so lovely, Lyd could now wash her hair and make herself even lovelier, we even flicked on the Genny and fired up the hair drier. All mod cons...

Next stop was Portland but not before a stopover in Lyme Regis, but that’s for next time....

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