It’s been a while... Part-1

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Many miles under the RV, many hours in and under the RV fettling and firkling. All good stuff and now we’re just about there and really ready to get out on a longer road trip

Since the last blog we’ve proved To ourselves that we can live off the grid pretty much indefinitely, an essential test for an extended trip around Europe. The location for our test.... Minehead and Portland, what a hoot we had.

First stop was the lovely and historic town of Malmesbury. We pulled into town just in time to catch the car park attendant emptying the machines. We had found a parking space, well, five parking spaces right next to the brook, beautiful spot. ” Will we be ok here for the night” I asked. “Yes you’ll be fine” he replied, “there’s nowhere else for you to park around here”. Which that peace of mind we downed jacks and extended the slide out for a chilled evening.

We found we were parked in the shadow of Malmesbury Abbey, historically linked to Henry VIII and battered by civil war and electric storms. Today what’s left is beautifully kept and well Worth a visit. We watched the sun go down over the town and tucked ourselves for a good night’s sleep.

For good reason, I’m always twitchy about parking up in public car parks so I made sure I was up early to try and catch the CP attendant morning shift. A jolly looking lady and an attentive trainee turned up to check the machines. She saw me leave the RV and as I approached I could see she had something to say. I got in first to explain the evening shift chap had said it was OK to stay where we were and that we’d be off by 1100hrs,after we’d enjoyed a dog walk around her lovely town.... I paused. She looked at her trainee and made an, oh bugger, kind of face. “Well” she said, “thank you for letting me know, the chap yesterday shouldn’t have said it was OK and I’ve been sent to give you a ticket for parking across 5 spaces.” She went on to say that as long as we were gone before it got busy then we were ok. A lesson in discretion rather than ticket issuing for her trainee, all was good.

We walked the dogs, picked up some supplies, had breakie, then headed off towards Myned. Oh yes Via some very narrow roads and lunch in Cheddar Gorge...

To be continued.... ‘It’s been a while Part-2’

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