England and Wales - Day 13

We drove to Penrith in the morning, and had breakfast at Booths. We then filled up with petrol at Morrisons.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, though there was quite a lot of rain.

England and Wales - Day 12

We left Ledbury and headed east, going to visit Shirley's cousin Mike at his house in Prestbury. Another cousin Pauline was there too.

After coffee with them we got onto the M6 and headed north. It wasn't a great journey, mainly due to holdups in the roadworks.

We were going to spend the night at a car park we'd used before on the moors at Jubilee Tower in the Forest of Bowland. However when we got there we found there were new gates on it, and on searching the Internet it seemed that they are locked at night.

Rather than wait for that we decided to go on to another spot, which was a remote picnic area next to a wind farm.

We were bothered a bit by kids parking next to us for a while, but eventually it settled down.

England and Wales - Day 11

We'd decided to walk the length of the Malvern Hills today. First we walked to Ledbury station which was about half an hour away.

We caught the train to Malvern Link. From there we walked up to the start of the Malverns, passing the Clock Tower on the way.

We then started walking all the Malverns from north to south.

The highest one is Worcestershire Beacon.

We carried on down the ridge, which is actually quite a lot of up and down.

At the British Camp Cafe we had in ice cream.

British Camp itself is an Iron Age hill fort at the top of Herefordshire Beacon.

Eventually we reached the end and stopped for a rest at a monument, which we'd seen from miles away.

We had quite a long cross country walk back to the site at Ledbury, including crossing a farmyard we weren't supposed to be in.

Back at the campervan we had showers then fish fingers and potatoes for dinner.

England and Wales - Day 10

We left Bristol and drove to the market town of Ledbury in Herefordshire. We shopped for provisions at Tesco and then parked on the main street and had a wander around. It has some nice old buildings and lanes.

We drove to the camp site we were staying at, The Elms, which was just about a mile out of town.

We chilled for a bit, then walked into town later for a pint in the Prince of Wales pub.

Back at the campervan we had pizza for dinner.

England and Wales - Day 9

A bunch of us went out to brunch at Rosemarino's in Clifton. We both had BLTs, Scott had polenta cubetti on the side.

We went for a walk on Clifton Downs, and saw some feral goats in a gorge.

Later Barry took a load of us out to dinner for his birthday. We went to the Bag O' Nails pub first,.

Then we all went next door to the Chai Shai Kitchen restaurant. The starters and main courses were from the restaurant and were very good, and the desserts we'd brought ourselves, including nice cakes.

England and Wales - Day 8

We were invited round to Tamsin and Barry's for breakfast, which was nice. Bacon, sausage, beans and scrambled egg.

Later we drove off with Barry and Rachel and visited the National Trust property Newark Park at Wotton-under-Edge. We had a walk round the gardens and a guided tour of the basement kitchens.

In the evening we went round to Pauline and Stuart's for dinner, mackerel pate followed by salmon risotto.

England and Wales - Day 7

In the morning we walked into Bristol, and met Shirley's TTN work colleagues Jade, Marion and Rachel, plus Rachel's daughter Lien and Ian for coffee in Mrs Potts Chocolate House.

We walked round the shops for a bit then back to the house for a short nap.

Later we went to Barry's 70th birthday party.

England and Wales - Day 6

After going into Abergavenny to use the facilities, we drove up the hill again and parked in the furthest west car park for Sugarloaf Mountain.

We walked a circular route which went down first then up through an oak forest.

In the distance we could see the Green Man music festival site, where we knew some of our friends were.

At the top of Sugarloaf it was very windy.

On the way down we came across some wild Welsh ponies.

After the walk we drove to Bristol and parked in Green Street. We took our stuff into Pete and Jenny's house and settled in.

Later we went round to Barry's for cake, then to the Shakespeare for a pint. Tamsin made us dinner in the evening, lentil Bolognese and sweet potato.

England and Wales - Day 5

We drove down to the public toilets in Pontsticill, then back up to the car park at the top of the valley for Pen y Fan horseshoe.

First we walked up to Upper Neuadd Reservoir, then steeply up to the ridge.

From there we walked round the horseshoe, the first main peak being Corn Du.

After that we kept going round to Pen y Fan, Cribyn and Fan y Big.

After that we kept walking at height round a couple more valleys, with good views back to the horseshoe.

We then descended back to the car park. We drove to Lidl in Merthyr Tydfil, bought some bits and pieces, then went on to Ebbw Vale where we had beer and burger in the Picture House Wetherspoons.

We then drove to the car park above Abergavenny for Sugarloaf Mountain.

England and Wales - Day 4

We had a long drive today, all the way to south Wales. From Chester we went down A roads crisscrossing the border.

Eventually we arrived at the Brecon Beacons, and parked in a car park just past Talybont Reservoir.

Dinner was sweet potato curry.

England and Wales - Day 3

We went for a circular walk from the van. First up to the top of Great Asby Scar where there is a large area of limestone pavements.

We then went east across some farmland, to the bottom of Pots Valley. We had our lunch there then walked up the quiet valley.

We reached the bird hide on Sunbiggin Tarn but unfortunately it was locked.

We drove further south to Kirkby Lonsdale, stopping at Booths for provisions. We stayed at Kirkby Lonsdale Rugby Club, in a field.

It had interesting showers, communal ones in the rugby changing rooms. We went for walk into town, passing Ruskin's View over the River Lune, and had a pint at the Orange Tree pub.

Back at the van we had tuna, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes and pesto for dinner.