UK road trip part #1

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FRIDAY 31 JULY 2009

Slept through the flight back from Budapest - which arrived into Luton which I had obviously stuffed up on as I had organised to pick up the hire car from Gatwick. So I got the train all the way down from Luton to Gatwick - was peak hour so it was pretty packed - always interesting when you have a large backpack!

Got to Gatwick at about 9am and by the time I got the car etc it was about 10am when I hit the road. Was a bit odd being back in a car again - and a manual at that! Navigated out of the airport ok and thought I was on the right road to Brighton, but I had taken a slight detour. The roads were marked well - but a little too late when I had no idea which way to go! And the fact that they have no many A24s and A23s and M283s and M272s just got me all confused!! Anyway ended up having lunch in a little town called Chichester where I was able to pick up the necessary camping equipment - being a tent (four person for about 11 pounds), ground mat, some plastic cutlery and plates, another towel as I had lost mine in Hvar and some food. While in Chichester I also did a spot of shopping to replace a pair of cargo pants that had become unbearable because of all the holes in them and of course had a look around town and visited the cathedral.

Got lost again and ended up heading back into Brighton to look for a camping spot for the night - to discover they were pretty much all full because the next day was Brighton Pride. They directed me to another place about 20 miles away so after giving them a ring, I headed there. Was in a little village called Washington and it was dark by the time I got there. Run by an old man - was more expensive than anticipated and I had to put up the tent in the dark - which wasn’t too hard anyway.

1 AUGUST 2009, SATURDAY

Up early and packed up the tent (sort of anyway), showered and bundled everything into the car. ended up retracing my steps from yesterday and went through to Portsmouth - stopping for a bacon and egg mcmuffin on the way. It was an absolutely miserable day with a lot of rain so I didn’t really stop to look at any of the sights. I did however stop to do some laundry which was pretty much a necessity by this stage as everything I had needed a wash. So did the washing and mostly dried the clothes while grabbing a bite to eat and then headed onto the New Forest area. I had planned to go to one of the big city tourist information offices to ask about camping but ended up bypassing the town completely. Stumbled across a camping ground called Holland Park and drove on in. The ranger dude told me it was 25 pound a night and that they were all full up. However, when his boss wasn’t looking he also told me that if I had walked in on foot - it would be six pound and it was their policy not to turn backpackers away.

So I went and found a car spot not too far away and packed up the tent and my sleeping bag and my freshly washed clothes slightly better and walked in. Got served by a woman and it was no hassles at all - pitched my tent underneath a tree which I thought would be helpful if it rained again. It didn’t rain again - but what it meant was that there was a lot of twigs under the tent which if I rolled off the sleeping map dug into me.

After I set up in the mud I headed into town (cute little place called Brockenhurst) briefly to get some food from the local store and then basically chilled for the remainder of the evening (the next two hours).

2 AUGUST 2009, SUNDAY

Woke up very early this morning and showered and dressed. Decided to do two trips out carrying my things as I didn’t want to leave them sitting on the wet ground as I packed up my tent. No one was around though at reception to notice so it was all good.

After packing up everything I headed into a small service road to have a look at the national park. Lots of ‘wild’ horses just wandering around, few horse riders too and heaps of people walking dogs, etc. I ate my first breakfast sitting on a bench in one of the parking areas.

From there I ended up in Bournemouth and Poole. The weather was a bit nicer so I had a walk around. All of my electrical items had run out of charge so I was also on the hunt to find a powerpoint to use. Decided to walk into McDonalds and sure enough - they were nice and reliable and had numerous powerpoints all over the place. So I ordered myself a meal and set myself up at a table with everything on charge. They also had free wifi so I was able to do that while waiting for my camera and phone and laptop to charge up. Spent a good hour or so there - also downloading some readings for my uni assignments too.

It was almost lunchtime by then so I jumped back into the car and drove to Winchester where I spent most of the rest of the afternoon. First stop was the Great Hall, which is the only part of Winchester Castle that still stands - with its giant (weighs a ton) table top that hangs on the wall and looks kind of like a giant dartboard (called King Arthur’s Round Table). From there I strolled down towards the main pedestrianised shopping area, stopping at one of two of Winchester’s medieval gateways where I had a look through the quite small and child oriented Westgate Museum. I did however manage to get a bit of a view over the town from their roof top.

Walked through the shopping area and managed to pick up some books to read as I have been out for ages and will need something to read along the way. From there it was onto Winchester Cathedral. It has one of the longest medieval naves in Europe at about 160 metres. Outside there were markings that showed where the original cathedral was built, destroyed to make way for this one. I was browsing around inside (free to enter because it was a Sunday) and all of a sudden I found myself in the middle of Evensong which was a bit odd. Half the cathedral wasn’t accessible, although I did see Jane Austen’s grave and a monument to the guy that saved the cathedral from collapsing when he kept trying to fix the foundations in the early 1900s. As I didn’t want to be in the middle of a church service, I discretely left a short time later and headed onto Wolvesey Castle - which in fact used to be a palace. Only the remains are left, along with remains on the city walls. By then it was getting somewhat late in the afternoon so I head back to the car and out of the city. I had arranged to pick up Kirsty somewhere outside of London the following morning so I head towards Reading and Oxford. Passed through Reading from Winchester without seeing one camping ground anyway so continued on towards Oxford when I saw a sign pointing me towards a camping ground. Took me a while to find it as it was right down on the river with a hidden entrance. There didn’t appear to be a reception and after asking someone it turned out that reception was closed up for the day. There was a vacant pitch so I put the tent up anyway and just hoped for the best. I needed to dry some washing to draped it all over the car and aired out the tent while it was breezy and decent weather before making myself some dinner.

MONDAY 3 AUGUST 2009

Up early, showered and finished packing before deciding to drive into town. Reception still no open at 7:30am and gates locked to I walked into Hallingford to have a look around and see if there was somewhere to grab some food. Was only a tiny little town so spent about half hour walking around, basically establishing that nothing was open before heading back for a quick walk along the river, One of the gates was open, but reception and the second gate was still closed. So I sat for a while and ended up falling asleep in the back seat of the car. Woke just after 9am to discover the gates were open but there was still no one at reception and it looked closed up - so I left. Couldn’t stay around forever waiting for them when I had to be in Reading to pick up Kirsty at 10:30am. Stopped along the way to make a sandwich and got to the station at about 10:15am.

Kirsty got in about half an hour later so we hit the road heading towards Devon and Cornwall. Stopped to get fuel along the way and for a few other breaks as it was a decent drive through to Newquay. Poured most of the way down there too.

Got in at around 6pm - and first stop was Sainsbury’s for a few forgotten items before we started to hit up the caravan parks for a tent pitch. Most of them when I had looked at trying to book online had had minimum three night stay - so we were hoping if we just showed up and there was a pitch that we might be ok. The first place had already closed down reception for the day. The second one had a big sign that said couples and families only - said we were cousins but she still said no spots available. The third one - which was for 18 to 30s - had a minimum one week stay. The fourth one we were lucky - said we were cousins again (sign said couples and families only) and he gave us a pitch - and only 15 pound a night too for both of us which was pretty good. Pitched the tent while it was still light and then headed into town to grab a torch and some food. Grabbed a quick beer at a pub overlooking the beach which would have been lovely had it not been so overcast and miserable weather before heading back to the campsite. An Aussie guy opposite had seen our tent earlier and suggested that we buy some garbage bags to tape onto the outside to provide extra cover as it would likely rain throughout the night (and it is a cheap tent!!). So we set about attaching the bags to the outside of the tent with sticky tape.

By then it was getting dark so we lit the disposable BBQ and put some sausages on it for dinner. Took a bit of lighting because of the wind, but got it going in the end. Spent the remainder of the night just chilling.

TUESDAY 4 AUGUST 2009

I was up early and using the last of my laptop battery to get some of one of my uni assignments done. Made our way to breakfast in Newquay at around 11am before doing a spot of shopping/ browsing and driving through the Lands End. The weather was really crap so couldn’t see anything - didn’t stop raining and apparently even the airports were fogged in.

After lunch we did some more wandering around New quay - including having a beer at the good ol’ Walkabout. The weather had improved as well (stopped raining!). In the end we grabbed some drinks, some fish’n’chips and headed back to the campsite for the evening - as town was about 3 miles away so too far to walk and since I was driving it meant I couldn’t really have a drink.

WEDNESDAY 5 AUGUST 2009

Kirsty’s birthday today and we packed up the tent and car before heading to the beach in Newquay. Kirsty had bought a body board the day before and hired a wet suit and we headed to the beach. By now the sun was shining which was a nice change from the previous days. So we headed to the water - it was freezing. I just paddled, took photos and laid on the beach as I had no intentions of swimming in water that cold.

By lunchtime we grabbed some food and headed back to the car and to get changed out of swim wear and headed back to London. Stopped a few times along the way for fuel, food and a birthday beer in Andover at a cute little pub.

Ended up getting into north London at about 8:30pm. Found a park directly outside Kirsty’s house in north London and set about doing some washing and putting everything on charge. Headed out to grab some food and a few birthday drinks.

6 AUGUST 2009, THURSDAY

I was up and out early this morning as parking restrictions kicked in at 8am. Managed to make my way outside of London relatively unscathed and headed into Cambridge for a few hours look around. As it is uni holidays the place was almost like a ghost town, except for all of the tourists wandering around with cameras. From there I went via Norfolk area and Kings Lynn. Because it was raining so much I didn’t stop for lunch before heading onto the Grantham area and Derby. Was a pretty miserable day

Stopped at Belvoir Castle which is just outside of Grantham and supposed to be pretty nice. It was raining that much I could barely see it to start with, and then they said they had closed admissions about 10 minutes earlier. So I had a very wet wander around the gardens as it was still raining before heading back to the car. Drove into Derby but by this time it was dark and still raining and had a look around. Went to Sainsburys and grabbed some food to eat for dinner and headed to find somewhere to stay. Ended up staying just outside of Derby somewhere.

7 AUGUST 2009, FRIDAY

Rained a lot during the night. Thankfully when I got up and dressed at around 7 or 8am it had finally stopped. I had decided the night before that because I needed to get some of my uni assignments done and because it hadn’t really stopped raining that I would stay a few nights in hostels to have use of laptop and internet, etc. So first stop was McDonalds where I got a milkshake and identified a hostel in Nottingham (only 20 miles away) that appeared to have some availability. Parked the car in a shopping centre car park in Nottingham and headed out on foot to find the hostel and make a booking. Since it was too early to check in I headed out to do some sightseeing.

After orientating myself in the city and wandering through the pedestrian shopping area and market square (where they had a giant beach set up - despite the fact it was STILL overcast and grey and gloomy even if the skies hadn’t opened up for the morning!).

I then headed to Broadhurst shopping centre, the location of the entrance to the City Caves. Nottingham is built on hundreds and thousands of caves which were carved into the sandstone for houses, shops, businesses, etc. The tour that they run through a small section of the caves underneath the shopping centre is very much targeted at kids - they use actors to talk you through what used to happen down there, and I thought it was a bit basic (but they accepted my student ID card so I couldn’t complain too much). It was interesting seeing what the caves were like though - Nottingham has more caves than anywhere else in Britain and many are still accessible, none are natural and many were used during the blitz - Nottingham was one of the places bombed as they were making munitions for the war effort.

Grabbed some lunch before leaving the shopping centre and heading onto Nottingham Castle. The gardens were quite nice but the castle itself is basically new, having been rebuilt. Even the inside was just full of displays; including uniforms, some weapons, old artefacts and some paintings. There was a section on life in Nottingham too and of course the usual shop and café. With the ticket purchase for the castle (they also let me have student price) I also got an admission to the Brewhouse Museum down the road a little. And no - it was nothing to do with a brewery. It was basically just a museum that showed you life in Nottingham in recent decades - ie/ basically during WWII. It was interesting and quite well done; again very targeted at families with interactive things for kids.

By the time it was mid afternoon so I headed back to the car in the car park and repacked all of my things, grabbed an overnight bag and headed to the hostel. On the way out of the carp park I also checked how long I had been there and that I could leave the car overnight - they had a 24 hour parking charge so it was just easier than relocating it.

Checked into the hostel and showered since I hadn’t that morning and then basically got stuck into my uni assignment/s. I still had food so ate dinner in the hostel and by the time it got to about 10pm, just chilled and watched a movie (Ned Kelly). Hostel had some very interesting characters though - two men (one a local Nottingham man who for some reason was having legal issues which meant he couldn’t live at his house and was therefore living at the hostel until it was all sorted - he was about 60 or 70) and an Irish man (probably also in his 70s). They wouldn’t shut up all night and despite the fact that they knew my name insisted on calling me Miss Australia. The temporary hostel manager was Russian and had thought I was American - which I think is what started the Miss Australia thing. There were a few others there - an Aussie guy who was starting up in the manager position a few weeks later and, a few Italian guys and two German girls who were 16 and travelling on their own. Made for an interesting mix of characters which you don’t always see at hostels!!

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