A Mere Weekend Away

Have they gone yet? Oh that’s good! Those biker hooligans were really lowering the tone of the place. My motorhome audience is so much more genteel than those smelly riders.

I didn’t expect to be chatting again so soon after all those recent bike trip posts, but we seem to find ourselves away for a quick weekend break in Vince.

There were two possible scenarios when Gill said “Shall we head off somewhere this weekend for a lazy break in the van?”

Scenario 1: Ken says, “Actually you know what? I’ve just had a ten day holiday in France with my mates while you were slaving at work and on your own at home, so I could just do with staying at home and relaxing for a bit.”

Scenario 2: Ken decides he’s too young to die and goes off to check Vince’s tyres & fill his tanks in preparation.

Poor Vince. He hasn’t been fired up since our weekend break in Bridgnorth in late March. Even though we parked him up all clean and tidy he seems to be a dirt-magnet standing on the drive so his wipers were welded to the windscreen and he had dark lines down his sides where the dirty rainwater had been running off the roof. I had to give him a quick once-over with the scrubbing brush while his fresh water tank was filling. At that point we weren’t too sure where we were going so we tend to fill the tank in case we end up somewhere with no water supply.

We still had plenty of gas, and just enough diesel to take us a couple of hundred miles so we consulted searchforsites and found a little place near Ellesmere in Shropshire. We’re not even leaving our own county!

Newnes Caravan Park is a tiny site about a mile and a half from Ellesmere, a pretty Shropshire town by the side of a lake – or mere as they call it here. The facilities here are actually rather good. Instead of the traditional toilet or shower blocks, they have a couple of wooden cabins (heated!) which contain little en-suite type bathrooms with a loo, sink and shower in each. Very nice. We were welcomed by Peter, the warden, who made himself at home in Vince for 45 minutes whilst – in theory – dropping off our receipt. We got his whole life story and his views on the upcoming election, brexit, and the mystery of the six campers who might be arriving for a rally – or might not. I’ll keep you posted on that one.

It was chucking it down on our arrival last night – which always provides entertainment for us as we can park up, put the kettle on and start our break while we watch the poor caravannists unhooking, pushing and pulling their caravans around in the mud, trying to put up awnings in the downpour and generally giving each other grounds for divorce. The site has a big shelf of DVD’s for campers to borrow so we looked forward to watching a movie after dinner. Unfortunately the camp site owner seems to be a bit of a Trekkie as out of 40 DVD’s, 38 were different generations of Star Trek shows. We didn’t bother.

We were hoping to walk into town today for a lunch and wander round the mere but so far it’s done nothing but rain. The weather forecast says it might dry up this afternoon so we’ll try then. Meanwhile it’s more coffee, more reading, more radio and in my case – more blogging. It’s quite addictive you know 🙂