It occurred to me a while ago that some of my regular blog readers, when reading about my various camping holidays, may be under the impression that I live on a permanent diet of coffee and cake as I seem to consume vast quantities of the stuff on a regular basis. The actual truth is very different though - at home I have a fairly healthy diet, only eat cake for a weekend treat and drink very little coffee, preferring tea instead.
The whole coffee-and-cake thing originally came about when I camped with my now-ex partner. He was an avid coffee drinker and whenever we were out somewhere during the day we would always find a cafe where we would have a mid-afternoon coffee - and the coffee always went down better if accompanied by some form of dessert. Sometimes it would be apple pie and cream - his favourite - but mostly it would be cake. Then when I became a solo camper I somehow continued the habit of having a coffee break while I was out exploring different places, and as coffee didn't seem right on its own it was inevitable that it would be accompanied by cake. And so a personal 'tradition' started back in 1997 has continued, and will no doubt continue as long as I'm on my camping travels. Add to that my own mad idea from early 2010 when I decided I would eat my way round the UK, having coffee and cake at each different place I went to, and it really does seem like I have nothing else.
So just out of interest, and as much for my own amusement as anything else, I recently decided to count up and make an alphabetical list of all the places where I've had coffee and cake since becoming a solo camper - and it's quite a lot, with four places having played 'coffee-and-cake host' more than once. So here it is -
Abergele, Alnmouth, Amble, Amlwch, Ardnamurchan Point, Bala, Beaumaris, Boot, Bungay, Caernarfon, Cheerio Cafe (name of exact location unknown), Cleethorpes, Conwy, Cromer, Deganwy, Durham Services, Elvaston Steam Rally, Filey, Fleetwood, Fort Augustus, Hemsby, Horning, Hunstanton, Llanberis, Llandudno, Llangollen, Llanrwst, Mallaig, Moelfre, Mundesley, Norfolk Shire Horse Centre, Oulton Broad (x 2), Pately Bridge, Penmon (Black Point), Plas Newydd, Potter Heigham (Latham's x 16), Ravenglass, Redwings Horse Sanctuary, Rhos-on-Sea, Scarborough (x 2), Seahouses, Skipton, Southwold, Thorpeness (x 2), Whitby, Wyre Estuary Country Park.
So that's 46 different places and a total of 64 lots of coffee and cake so far - that's an awful lot of cake! And just in case you're thinking that having consumed all those calories I must look like Mrs. Blobby....well thanks mainly to a very active home and work life I don't, and my profile photo at the top of the page doesn't lie! :)
About Me
- Tigermouse
- Hi! I'm Eunice and I live in Bolton, Lancashire, with my two dogs Sophie and Sugar and an assortment of cats - well it used to be Sophie and Sugar, now it's Sophie and Poppie. I first began camping back in 1997 when my then partner took me to Anglesey for my birthday weekend. We slept in the back of the car - a hatchback - using the cushions off the settee at home as a mattress, and cooked and brewed up on a single burner camping stove. The site was good, the views were great, the weather fantastic and I was completely hooked. Following that weekend we got a two-man tent and some proper accessories and returned to Anglesey two weeks later, then over time we progressed to a three-man tent followed by an old trailer tent, then a new trailer tent, a campervan and finally a caravan. When my partner decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street - literally - in April 2009 and I suddenly found myself alone after fifteen years, I decided there was no way I was going to give up camping and caravanning if I could cope on my own. This blog is the story of my travels, trials and tribulations since becoming a solo camper - I hope you like it
