Wales 22-24/8/12

Wales 22-24/8/12

After a night spent on the sea front at PorthCawl, we drove to Swansea. We watched the Lorax film (a Dr Seuss story much loved by Dizzi) which was brilliant.

We drove to Bracelet Bay in The Mumbles to have a walk

In the evening we had a yummy meal with our good friends Jim and Kiera who we asked to hold our wedding ceremony next July and much to our joy they accepted!

 

Afterwards we drove into the Gower, and slept in the car park at some woods.

After a quiet and peaceful night, we drove to the massive Rhossili Bay to do some surfing with our new body boards and wetsuits

after surfing, Ralph had the crazy idea of walking the entire length of the beach and back. It didn’t look far, but took an hour and a half each way!

 

Featureless landscapes are deceptive!

The next day we drove to the Hill End campsite (the other end of the Rhossili Bay) to do some more surfing, and sneakily use their showers

After picking up a dulcimer in Cardiff, we drove to Glastonbury to spend the night, then to Frome the next day, finally returned home after 5 weeks of life on the road.

 

We’ve had quite an adventure, and hope you’ve enjoyed our blog. Next ( on the 29th August) we are off to Santorini in Greece for a week, and will blog that too. Long holidays are certainly one of the perks of teaching in schools! Viva la holiday!

Lots of love

Ralph, Dizzi and Jeff

Penzance 20-21/8/12

Penzance 20-21/8/12

We awoke and looked around the land James has bought with a friend Dan, to cultivate as an organic veg and fruit farm

 

Breakfast in James’ truck

 

Today we went surfing at Praa Sands. James and Matt were doing the proper job, and we used body boards

On the way back from the beach, we stopped off at a surf shop and we bought our very own wetsuits and body boards

 

The evening brought a wonderful sunset

You can see the Sea from James’ truck

We had a barbecue, and sat up talking until late in the night

 

The next day Dizzi and I were convinced that we must try proper surfing. We went with James to Gwithian beach. The conditions we’re perfect, and we hired boards. Dizzi was first to master standing up, with Ralph soon after. We are converts! Surfing rules!

Sadly we now left our beloved Cornwall, and drove to PorthCawl in Wales

Sweet dreams, Dizzi, jeff, ralph

 

The Lizard 19/8/12

The Lizard 19/8/12

We drove to the most Southerly point of Cornwall – the Lizard, and walked down to the old harbour, where we saw a wild seal! It’s a very dangerous bit of sea – the Ship’s Graveyard.

The weather was miserable, so we didn’t stay long, and went to Church Cove, which had a lovely little Church by it.

As night fell we headed off to Penzance to see our friend James Millar for supper in his very comfortable, converted Horse Truck

 

Good night, jeff, Dizzi and ralph

St Ives 16-17/8/12

St Ives 16-17/8/12

We bought a 24 hour ticket for the car park at the train station right in the middle of St Ives. This was our view from the van’s back doors:

 

In the evening we walked into town and took some pictures from the pier, and went to the Union Inn to use the Wifi and have a few drinks (Ralph drank Old Rosey cider, which was 7.4%, and felt a little p****d!)

The next morning there was a little fair going on raising money for the Life Boat which had lots of stalls, raffles and traditional fair ground rides.

Ralph bought a pasty for lunch. As soon as he walked out of the shop, a Sea Gull swooped down onto his head, and took a bite from his pasty which he wasn’t very happy about!

 

We walked around the streets, beach and shops and explored the quaint back streets and lanes that crisscross all over st ives. There was a very interesting shop called Kudos, which was stuffed full of fascinating stock. Several 200 year old guitars, worth £2500, we’re hanging from the ceiling with string!

 

We nipped to the local swimmingpool and had a quick swim and shower before driving up the coast a short way to the village of Zennor, to the Tinner’s Arms, and joined in with the famous folk jam session where we both got a free pint for joining in!

 

Love ralph, jeff and Dizzi

 

Penryn 14-15/8/12

Penryn 14-15/8/12

Washday! We spent the morning looking for a laundrette. The first place took a week, the next was closed, and third time lucky, we struck gold.

We then mooched around Falmouth, which we thought was a very nice place: quite like Totnes, Frome and Glastonbury rolled into one.

We visited Bex Short, a friend of Dizzi’s since primary school. She has just completed a Jazz degree (her instrument is Saxophone)

After walking the dogs, and picking up an Indian take away, we drove out to the Argal reservoir to park up for the night. We had a scrummy curry picnic.

After that it was cinema night in the van, and we watched Blades of Glory, and Hugo on the laptop.

The next morning after walking jeff round the reservoir

we picked up our laundry, then went to visit our friends Robin and Martha for lunch at their house in Penryn. They are both very talented musicians, check out Martha’s website: http://www.marthatilston.co.uk/

Late afternoon, saw us on the road again, this time to St Ives. We parked up in town (bought a 24 hour ticket) then hit the town

Good night, Jeff, Dizzi and Ralph

 

 

 

 

Tintagel to Merther 12/8/12

Tintagel to Merther 12/8/12

Had a belly busting vegetarian breakfast at the King Arthur Inn, whilst doing some blogging.

Then we went to the Celtic Legend shop

Ralph bought a Dragon’s skull, and a fossilised fairy. Ralph also chose his wedding ring – an elf ring (very similar to the one in The Lord of the Rings (but a good ring, with a sweet message written on it, not an evil one!) Here’s a photo of the man who runs the shop, displaying Ralph’s ring

We then drove to the tiny hamlet of Merther (near Truro) to see Dizzi’s friend, and Dulcimer student Carol.

She was having a barbecue to celebrate her man Tony’s completion of a beautiful Shepard hut. He built it all. He also builds amazing houses (we saw the photos) We would recommend him to anyone: we can give it his number if you are interested.

We stayed for supper, then slept in the van on their drive

In the morning, we got up in time for tony to come back for lunch and had a lovely lunch of BBQ leftovers

In the afternoon we had a really cool dulcimer jam with carol in the shepards hut ( video to follow) and carols 91 year old dad had a tinkle on the tank drum ( he was really good at it)

We took the opportunity to have a nice shower and tidied up the van before heading off towards penryn. We stopped off at a pretty little church on the way and saw a very funny gravestone!

We reached falmouth, where we found a lovely headland car park in to spend the night ( shared with lots of smooching couples in cars)

Sweet dreams, Ralph, Jeff and Dizzi.

 

 

 

 

 

Carol and Martin, near Tintagel 11/8/12

Carol and Martin, near Tintagel 11/8/12

Carol and Martin live in a beautiful, magical cottage. They are lovely people, and folk musicians who play Dulcimer and Violin. We had a long chat about life, had lunch, bit of a jam, and washed in their sweet bathroom.

Here’s a few photos of their place.

As they were preparing for a weekend of sailing, we drove to Tintagel (land of Arthurian legend)

They have a handy Car Park that’s £3.50 for a night in a van.

We went to the King Arthur Pub and used their Wi-Fi to do some blogging, then watched a film on our IPad in the van.

Love Ralph, Jeff, Dizzi

 

Croyde to Cornwall 10/8/12

Croyde to Cornwall 10/8/12

In the morning we walked into Croyde – a very pretty, but busy place.

We looked in the Surf shops, and to our amusement we found this one:

Then we strolled to the beach, which was in proper seaside mode.

We lay on the sand, and went for a little swim.

Then we slowly walked back to the van in the sweltering heat and both got a bit tanned! Soon we set off for Cornwall. On a friends recommendation we drove to Widemouth bay, and found a tremendous park up at a viewpoint above the bay.

We walked down the cliff a little and found a beautiful bench where we sat and watched the sun set. You don’t get hotel rooms as good as this!

 

Ralph did some more editing of music on the laptop and iPad while Dizzi curled up and read her book

We’ve been musing on the concept of a ‘busking holiday’. Busking is best in places that are not really nice holiday places, and nice holiday places are not very good for busking. On a precious sunny day one doesn’t want to be busking, when one could be on a great walk, and when it’s raining you can’t busk. So, this trip’s priority now is clearly a holiday. We will busk when it fits in, but we feel that we will do more busking excursions when we get back home.

After a nice chat to some fellow sunset admirers, we had a windy nights sleep.

Love Dizzi, Jeff and Ralph

 

 

Exmoor to Croyde 10/8/12

Exmoor to Croyde 10/8/12

After doing our waking up things, we walked up to the old coast guard cottage by Bossington.

It was a scorching hot day. So much so that Ralph had to strip to his pants.

We walked right up to the top of the hills and the view was just stunning! There was a magical mist over the bay and we wished we had a camera that could take panoramic photos as there was beautiful views all the way around the valley.

The pink and yellow colours of the Heather and Gorse playing with each other was a sheer delight.

We had another pasta picnic lunch, Ralph recoded some music on the Ipad, and we had a general lounge around in the sun.

Then we drove along the majestic A39, through Exmoor (up and down 25% gradient hills) if anyone is thinking of doing a van trip, there are some tremendous park ups at the various view points along this road.

Arrived at Croyde, which was very busy, and totally sewn up with regards to vans parking up over night, so we headed out a little way and found a super little spot in a church car park – it was a little bit of Eden in the busy town.

Ralph took the opportunity to work on editing the vocals recorded with Barbara, and Dizzi read her book.

Night night, love J,D,R

 

Exmoor to Croyde 10/8/12

Exmoor to Croyde 10/8/12

After doing our waking up things, we walked up to the old coast guard cottage by Bossington.

It was a scorching hot day. So much so that Ralph had to strip to his pants.

We walked right up to the top of the hills and the view was just stunning! There was a magical mist over the bay and we wished we had a camera that could take panoramic photos as there was beautiful views all the way around the valley.

The pink and yellow colours of the Heather and Gorse playing with each other was a sheer delight.

We had another pasta picnic lunch, Ralph recoded some music on the Ipad, and we had a general lounge around in the sun.

Then we drove along the majestic A39, through Exmoor (up and down 25% gradient hills) if anyone is thinking of doing a van trip, there are some tremendous park ups at the various view points along this road.

Arrived at Croyde, which was very busy, and totally sewn up with regards to vans parking up over night, so we headed out a little way and found a super little spot in a church car park – it was a little bit of Eden in the busy town.

Ralph took the opportunity to work on editing the vocals recorded with Barbara, and Dizzi read her book.

Night night, love J,D,R