Catch Up Continued ….

1944 – 1948: Chichester

26th to 30th June

A few days in Cobnor House 5 pitch site … a perfect base if you’ve a boat as a short hop to the launching site.  Aged P’s still homeless but staying with Clare and Chris.  A few meals with family and we dragged Maddy on a short 9km walk around the peninsula.  In theory this was a practice for our Snowdon trip next week … but it was all flat!

Motorhomer’s innovation and more than one use example.   8 to dinner, I put the car boot liner on top of the twin tub as a table extension!

Mum might have scoffed at my Pat Butcher fleece, but she was happy to wear it once it got chilly!  Clare brought her own.

Chichester Cathedral … home to nesting peregrine falcons.  Whilst in the nest there is a web cam.  Some twitchers pointed out a full grown falcon on the ramparts.

Incredible light looking out over Chichester Harbour.

 

1949-1953: Snowdon

1st to 5th July

Maddy had set herself a few 2021 targets and one was to climb Snowdon.  She enlisted me to make it happen … if anyone knows her father David, they’ll know why she didn’t ask him!  Despite meticulous planning, it nearly didn’t happen.  The campsite I’d booked for James and I rang to say the Glamping yurt with hot tub, I’d booked, at huge expense for Maddy and Jordan, had been double booked!  Given the levels of staycation, a similar set proved impossible to find.  Maddy and Jordan ended up 15 mins away in a Travel Lodge and we moved campsite …

We picked the first day of our stay as the best weather day, but had a lot of cloud at the summit.  I suggested to M that we do Ben Nevis next year, as J and I have not done it … she wasn’t keen!  We both had raw blisters on our heels from the constant up pressure, despite decent walking shoes.  And bless the young’uns … too tired to stop for the dinner I’d prepped!  Shower and rubbish snacks for them.

Mountaineers … at the start of our ascent.

We could have taken the train … and one group who saw us at the bottom were impressed we’d walked both up AND down!  Whilst it is 4.5 miles up and then the same down, it is a clearly defined path with few really steep sections.  There were quite a few folk clearly struggling with the climb.

We queued for about 20 mins at the top to get that all important summit photo …

 

We spent a day in Llandudno …. what a lovely place.  Alice as in Alice in wonderland used to holiday here and having had a cooked breaky, we followed a trail of some of the characters.  Until Maddy and Jordan suggested a pitch and putt tournament.  I’d no idea it was such fun … but then I won, with Maddy in second place.  Golfer James came last and competitive Jordan third!  Girl Power!!!   Found a really fab Gelateria.   

Fabulous long promenade.

I’m sure my ball was around here somewhere!

Maddy found a proper locals pub for Jordan to watch a Chelsea football game.  A first pub for J and I in about 18 months and a 1st football game for me.  Jordan assures me that the hitting the deck is to help point out fouls to the ref!!!

Maddy and J headed back on Sunday for work and uni.  J and I did a very wet walk from Betws-y-Coed to a waterfall … and when we got to the viewing platform it was cordoned off!  So drenched that I needed up buying a new pair of trousers and wearing them out of the shop! 

So much for the view of the waterfall!

Obviously summer has been skipped and we are now full on into Autumn! 

The weather did clear and the twin tub came out of the garage!

On our last day we went to Conwy, a walled medieval town.  Pretty, but unless you do the castle, it doesn’t take long!  We found another good ice cream …

Entrance to Conwy … easy in the car!

Summer of Car-Mal-Content!

The UK car had been collected eventually from Oxfordshire in time for our Snowdon trip.  Had to wait as no parts in UK and garage had to order one from Germany … a new air inlet manifold.  Cost £1,100!  The mechanic said lots of diagnostic faults as it had not seen a Merc garage in many years.  He recommended I book it in for an software update before lots of errors compounded.  

Like it knew it was going back to Mercedes … several things started going wrong.  It lost power, so acceleration was like being in a 1 litre car up hill.  Juddered on breaking as if ABS had stopped ….  Mercedes diagnosed lots of split and leaking hoses … £1650 to get it back on the road.  The car 10 years old and only worth £5-5,500 so I really hope that that is all we need to spend on it for a number of years.

Just as we got the Merc back, Zorba (the Greek Skoda Rooster which we drove over in) went into decline … again.  Bear in mind, we bought a dog!  We’ve already replaced the timing belt and water pump, disks and brakes, tyres and wheels and battery.  We’ve only owned it since January!!!  This time it was the glow plug warning symbol … ooh that shouldn’t be expensive at least.  But on the morning I was due to take it to Halfords for these to be replaced … it wouldn’t start.  The owner of the Chichester 5 pitch site was a mechanic … tried some magic spray and said it wasn’t glow plugs but injectors!  A phone call to the breakdown service in Athens … 2 hours later a mechanic with a low loader (how about that then!) looked at it for 1 minute and said ‘injectors’.  They cost us £1200, but would have been a lot more had we opted for Skoda badged ones!

The Merc’s turn again.  A flat tyre.  No locking wheel nut … we’d had the tyres replaced in Greece and obviously not been given the locking wheel nut back.  Fortunately a travelling drill nuts off man was on site and took them off … only £100 for cash … I wandered into Chichester for an ATM and returned with cash and an expensive Orvis waterproof jacket, mine no longer being fit for purpose as I’d discovered in wet Wales.  But we are now waiting for 4 non locking nuts to replace the missing ones … and driving very carefully in the meantime!

Jez didn’t like to be left out of the party … so we spent a day in Andover at Abacus having niggles fixed (bill so far over £500) and having to order lots of replacement parts for another visit in September.  On order are:  

• new hob … 2 out of 3 rings no longer working as thermo coupling shot … so rusty.
• fly screen … it was damaged due to Oscar escaping out the bottom but has not collapsed completely and is held up with masking tape.
• sky light over the bedroom … apparently it could shatter any moment and hs damaged the winder.
• reversing camera … all misted up and will be replaced with a much better one.