Summer Trip - Day 51 - Home

We left Bourne at about 10 in the morning, and had an uneventful drive home. The traffic was busy as we hit the Edinburgh bypass at rush hour, but we were home by 5.

In summary, these were the places we spent nights at on the trip:

Horton-in-Ribblesdale - 2 nights

Bristol* - 4

Eastbourne* - 4

Gravelines - 1

Guignicourt - 2

Savigny Le Sec - 1

Sommand* - 1

Les Bossons - 1

Refuge La Balme - 1

Rifugio Elisabetta - 1

Courmayeur - 1

Chamonix - 1

Les Bossons - 1

Annecy* - 1

Annecy - 2

Ugine* - 1

Decize* - 1

Decize - 3

Nevers* - 1

Lac du Der* - 1

Charleville-Mézières - 2

Revin - 3

Givet* - 1

Fort-Mahon-Plage - 1

Berck - 1

Boulogne -2

Gravelines - 1

Birchington-on-Sea - 2

Leysdown, Isle of Sheppey* - 1

Grays* - 2

Debden - 1

Cambridge - 1

Bourne* - 1

 

* - free nights (19 out of 50)

Summer Trip - Day 50 - Bourne

In the morning we left the site and then parked the campervan in a side street in the village of Stow Cum Quy, and caught the bus into Cambridge. We first came to St Mary's church, where we went in for a look around.

We bought tickets to go up the tower, but it was busy so we decided to leave it till later. We went for a walk, seeing many of the university colleges around the city.

We went back to St Mary's and climbed the tower, taking in the views.

We did some more walking, and watched the tourists getting punted along the River Cam.

We bought some of the famous Chelsea buns from Fitzbilly's baker to have with our lunch, they were delicious!

We went in to the Fitzwilliam museum, and saw some of the Egyptian artifacts.

However the most impressive bit was the internal architecture of the building itself.

After this we walked around some more. This was an unusual artistic tree display at one of the colleges.

We caught the bus back to the campervan, and drove on to Jenny and Gordon's house in Bourne in Lincolnshire. We bought fish and chips for tea at George's.

Summer Trip - Day 49 - Cambridge

We packed up and left the site, and drove north. We stopped at Thaxted and had a walk around, seeing the guildhall, windmill and church. 

 

Then we drove on to Saffron Walden and parked on the edge of town. We got a plan of the town walking route from tourist information, and set off to do it. There are lots of historic houses etc. We walked round Bridge End garden. It has a maze but unfortunately it was closed. 

We saw the church as well, the largest in Essex.

We bought some lunch in Waitrose and ate it on the Common. There is a turf labyrinth there, which was probably first set out in the 12th century.

After buying petrol and provisions in Tesco we drove on, going to a Caravan Club CL just outside Cambridge. The owner wasn't around but it looked like there were free spots so we parked up.

Later we went for a walk to the White Swan pub for a pint. For dinner we made sweet potato curry.

When the owner came back he only charged us £10 cash for the night, despite the fact we had hookup and showers.

Summer Trip - Day 48 - Debden

We left Grays about 11, and drove north to Chelmsford. After parking we went for a walk along the River Chelmer, then had lunch. 

Next we drive to Malden, where we walked down through the High Street to the river. It was very busy there, we saw some Thames barges, and a fairground in the park. 

We went back to the campervan and drove to Great Dunmow, where we had another short stroll, with Shirley trying a bit of the assault course.

We had a pint in the Angel & Harp,  then drove on to our next camp site, Hamperden End near Debden, £10 cash without electric hookup.

We set up, and later we had vegetable chilli for dinner.

Summer Trip - Day 47 - Grays

After breakfast we walked to Grays station with Linda and got the train to Southend. It was very sunny and Southend was heaving.

This was the Adventure Island amusement park.

First we bought some chips for lunch, then walked out to the end of the pier, the longest in the UK at 1.3 miles. 

Then along the seafront, there seemed to be some kind of spiritual music festival on.

We went as far as a park with ponds in it. 

We got the train back about 5pm, and walked home. Dinner was burgers, sausages, pork kebabs and salad.

Summer Trip - Day 46 - Grays

This was our wild camping spot in the morning sun. Pretty nice.

In the morning we went into Leysdown itself and had a stroll. Lots of amusement arcades!

Then we drove to Warden Point and had a walk on the beach. The cliffs have eroded there an there are buildings on the shore that have collapsed into the sea. There are also supposed to be fossils there but we didn't find any.

We then drove on and parked in Minster, and cycled along the promenade to Sheerness. In Sheerness we walked round looking for the historic bits, we found the Blue Town, but there wasn't really much to see. We had our lunch on the beach and cycled back.

Saw lots more beach huts.

It was now time to drive to Linda's house in Grays in Essex. This meant using the Dartford Tunnel at Friday rush hour, which wasn't much fun.

We arrived in Grays just before 6, did some shopping at Morrisons then went to Linda's. Later we went out to the Oak pub for dinner. We slept in the campervan in the driveway.