Cambridge first stop.

---

Goodness, can't believe how long it is since I posted a blog on here. I've just been making photographic records of our most recent holidays and trips on my Facebook page and have somehow just not found time to write anything here as well.

Last blog was India 2019 and when we got back from there things changed, quite a lot, as Bob developed angina when we were there and ended up in Stoke Hospital July 19th where he had open heart surgery for a double bypass. All now very good indeed and it is hard to imagine looking and him now, restored to full health, that we had that pretty awful scare 2 years ago. It did curtail our activities though and we did no motorhoming as driving a 3.5 ton Tandy motorhome around with a dodgy heart is really not the best thing to try. So 2019 after India was a couple of short breaks... Wales and the Isle of Man followed by Lanzarote in November when he was recovered. So that was 2019.

2020 started with brilliant promise... Early February we flew to South Africa, Cape Town first then the Garden Route, Addo Elephant Park and back to Cape Town via the Vineyard inland road. Absolutely blooming marvellous, every single wonderful moment and within a month of our return we realised just how very lucky we had been to make that trip at all as Covid-19 suddenly struck ! That South African holiday sustained us throughout the following months when we were locked-down, stuck at home. Our poor Tandy motorhome sat sadly on the drive wondering what on earth it had done that it was not allowed to go anywhere and in fact the last time it had crossed the channel was end of June 2018. In September we were 'allowed out' and had a lovely trip to the English south coast with whistle stops in Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset.

Then we were locked down again !

Still locked down well into 2021 until June when we decided to go to Cornwall again. We have always, since we started motorhoming, been more than happy to use the Kisbee scooter to get around leaving Tandy on site. That is fine on the continent, in the warmer temperatures of Europe. Not so fine in Britain when it is cooler and generally wetter. We decided on a change of policy given we look to be taking more British based holidays than we have done before.
So decision made. Kisbee carried in the Tandy garage to be replaced by a Smart Car towed behind.

Things did not initially go well to plan. We arranged to buy a Smart Car and trailer and then needed a towbar fitting to Tandy. Towbar fitters said a very big NO. Tandy too old to have a towbar fitted. Ooops that brought our plans to a sudden stop... so we tootled along to the motorhome local dealers just wondering if there was something smaller we could change Tandy for as if we were not carrying a Kisbee we no longer needed a garage.
Fatal decision. Suffice it to say that we left the dealers with a signed agreement to buy a Chausson Welcome 530 which we both fell in love with at first sight. It had only come into the dealers that morning ! I am now under instructions not to buy anything trivial as we have just spent the Kid's Inheritance !

We did the Cornwall trip in Tandy but I drove our Qashqai as well instead of carrying Kisbee in Tandy's garage. An excellent decision as it meant we could get around a lot more easily once we were there.

That was Tandy's last trip with us and we waved it a rather sad goodbye a week after we got home. Then we collected the Chausson, new to us and immaculate. Think it hasn't been anywhere for last 2 years so barely run in. Sold the bike rack off the back and took the Chausson to have tow bar fitted. We were temporarily owners of a small Smart Car Trailer but for only a couple of days as we sold that again... didn't get that one quite right.

And now here we are. Lovely Chausson motorhome which we have spent last three weeks fitting out so it is exactly as we want it. Smart Arse our little red car follows faithfully behind on its newly fitted A-frame and all is well with our motorhome world.

So now we are in Cambridge for a couple of days and then on to Suffolk and Norfolk. When the sun returns (currently rather frequently awol) we will remove the roof of Smart Arse as it is a cabriolet and pretend we are driving round the South of France... and who knows one year soon we make it back there again.

---

Comments

[John and Sylvia]

Nice to have you back
Locked down here in Budgewoi in Oz. Please keep posting. Helps us realize that all is not lost and travel is still possible.

[Dancing Dave]

Which way Wales?
Great image...imagining all sorts of things

[Dancing Dave]

Right of way
Another great image

[Dancing Dave]

The swans sure have it
Having a recent obsession photographing pelicans, I could not go past this fabulous pic of swans. There is a gaggle of geese but what is a collection of swans called?

[Dancing Dave]

2019, Covid & motorhomes
I relate to how Covid can dull the enthusiasm to blog 2019 travel as lockdowns dampen perspectives in unforeseen ways. I am yet to blog Uzbekistan our last trip in 2019 after Russia, which was a highlight of long held desires, but your blog of South Africa that you just got in before the pandemic hit and your motorhome musings encourage me to shortly do so. Denise's wish is I retire and we buy a motorhome and disappear into the Aussie outback joining the Grey Nomads that inhabit those extremes. Due to Covid that may be the way forward as overseas travel for us is only in distant dreams.