An Epic Journey!
To make the most of the last month of my summer holidays we decided to chase the sun and head south with our plan being to get to Bath during the city's folk festival and then work westwards into Wales to visit Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia before heading back across country to Durham where I had a careers training event to attend, and then back up to Edinburgh.
We left Edinburgh on 6th Aug and spent the first night in Sedbergh, a lovely little village in Yorkshire. This was the first trip we'd taken our bikes with us so we used them at the first opportunity - to cycle the 2 miles from the Crosshall Farm campsite to Sedbergh where we enjoyed a pint in the sun. The next day we drove a couple miles up the road to the Cautley Spout waterfall and walked up to a viewing point. If we'd had more time we would have liked to do the fall walk up around the waterfall but we planned to get further south so got back on the road. Unfortunately we'd forgotten what Friday traffic on the motorway was like and we ended spending most of the day in the van, arriving at the village of Long Itchington (just north of the Cotswolds) at about 5.30pm. We were staying in a basic campsite at the back of the Green Man pub...the sun was shining and we had a nice evening exploring the village and chilling.
Saturday was yet again another (unintentional) long driving day as we headed through the Cotswolds towards Bath. We had planned to meander through some villages to get a feel for the Cotswolds but the amount of traffic meant there were jams whenever we approached a village...so we changed plans and headed east on to the M5 (which also had hold-ups!) and finally arrived in Bath around 3.30pm. We had booked to stay at the Avon Rugby ground campsite (about 2 miles away from the city) as part of the Bath Folk Festival...we had no idea what to expect however I don't think either of us had imagined arriving to a near deserted rugby ground with a couple of tents in the corner!! Turns out the festival isn't that big, there were events happening in town all week and even though there was a programme of events we didn't see any visible promotion in the city, instead we would just fall upon the odd folk group playing music outside a pub or at a market. The next day we cycled into Bath and visited the Bath Artisan Market (listening to live music by Kadia which was a good foot-stomping band) and then headed back to the campsite mid-afternoon. The showers at the campsite were another great talking point for us...being a rugby club they just had 2 communal shower rooms (male/female) so this in itself was a first for me...Glenn also had the joy of a freezing cold shower as the boiler bust on the second day!
The next day it rained heavily so we drove 30mins to the town of Lacock and visited the National Trust owned Abbey and Museum of Photography (William Talbot invented the negative and lived in the converted Abbey). As the weather improved we took a walk around the picturesque village and got some lunch in a local pub before heading back to the campsite for a chilled afternoon and BBQ tea.
On Tuesday we had a slow start to the morning (bacon baps for breckie) and then cycled into town before continuing (once we'd eventually found the starting point!) to cycle the 'Two Tunnels Greenway', a lovely 13mile circular route taking in two tunnels, a viaduct and then back alongside the canal. After the ride we spent the evening chilling at the campsite. We then spent our last day in Bath wandering around taking in the sights and enjoying the sun.
On Thursday we left the campsite and headed over the river Severn and stayed in The Beeches Farm campsite, just north of Chepstow. We headed back to the town for the afternoon and met up with Glenn's friend Daniel and wife Ari (who are in the middle of a move to Cardiff) for a good catch up...lovely night! It rained really heavy and fairly constantly all night so not much sleep in the cammy!
The next day we set off, aiming to drive through the Brecon Beacons and get as far as Tenby...however the van spluttered a bit to start and within 20 minutes of driving the electrics (wipers, indicators etc) had slowly come to a halt (not good!!). We pulled over and the van refused to start so we called AA (thank goodness I'd taken out cover just before this trip!) and within an hour we had a mechanic with us. To cut a looooog, fairly depressing story short, we had a problem with our alternator so had to have a battery booster pack attached to get us to a local garage in Coleford (Beale's) where they (very, very kindly as it was a Friday afternoon!) took a look at the van straightaway and confirmed that the alternator needed to be replaced. Initial quotes were coming in at £400 for a replacement which was added to the fact that they were worried about the rust on the surrounding pipes and any additional damage that might happen when replacing the alternator. Our options were to stay and get the van fixed (potentially weeks!), get the AA to get us back to Edinburgh (costing around £1000!) or get a jump start and hope the battery lasted to get us back up to Edinburgh (?!) We spent the evening deliberating over our options in a local pub before spending the night in the van on the garage forecourt. Initially making the decision to charge the battery, buy a battery charge up pack and then spend the evening in a local campsite so we could head north on a potentially quiet early Sunday morning, the garage charged up our battery early Saturday morning while we headed back to the pub for breakfast. On our return we found out the garage couldn't source a starter battery...so the only option left was to head off immediately, buying a spare battery in case ours ran out and taking our chances with the Saturday traffic. The guys at the garage didn't even charge us for any labour so we paid for the battery and gave them a tenner for a pint. At 10.15am we got a jump start and headed for Edinburgh which strict instructions to limit (ie don't use) using any electrics including indicators, brake lights, air con, headlights, windscreen wipers, electric windows...) as this would deplete the battery quicker. We counted down the roads as we went from the A40 on to the M50, M5 and then on to the M6 where we were hit with slow moving traffic for a good 20mins. About 2 hours in the clock started dimming and soon a quick indicator check (and then the fact our speedo stopped working) showed the battery was pretty much drained. After a very scary 10mile drive to the nearest services at Keele, we pulled in to get petrol without turning off the engine...however it locked in 'Park' gear and we had no option but to kill the engine. At this point we were rather disappointed the battery only lasted 2 hours (and 100 miles) as we had another 4 (350 miles) to go to home...after grabbing a coffee Glenn changed the batteries over, we got a push off the forecourt and then an altruistic motorhome couple pulled up and gave us a jump started and off we went again! With clear roads we pushed on and despite feeling like we were in a sauna with the lack of any cool air and some hairy break-resisting moments, we pulled in to our parking spot 4 hours after leaving the services....HALLELUJAH!
