About Me

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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

Saturday November 16th 2013 - Lincolnshire seal weekend

The promise of a bright morning saw me leaving home at 7.45am  for a two-night stay at Willow Lakes in north east Lincolnshire and a visit to the seal colony at Donna Nook. The drive eastwards was easy and trouble free and I arrived at Willow Lakes in glorious sunshine soon after 10am; the site wasn't busy, with the only other residents being two people in a caravan and MissE from the camping group, so it looked like it was going to be a very quiet weekend. 

 After a quick dog walk and a chat with MissE, who was just getting ready for her own visit to the seals, I made a start on putting up the tent. It didn't take that long but by the time I'd knocked the last peg into place, put the bedrooms in and made a brew the sun had gone in and the sky had clouded over, so not wanting to waste any daylight I decided to pile everything into one side of the tent and take myself off to Cleethorpes for a couple of hours - I could sort things out later on.

 It didn't take long to get to Cleethorpes and after finding a parking space towards the north end of the sea front I got a ticket for two hours from the machine then set off with the dogs along the long promenade. With it being out of season there wasn't really much to see; everything was more or less the same as when I'd been there in February though it was nice to see that this time the flowerbeds were full of winter pansies which gave a bit of colour to the promenade gardens.


When I'd walked for quite a distance I crossed the road and headed back to the van, looking in various shop windows as I went, and when I saw a cafe advertising home made steak pie with veg, mash and gravy for a very reasonable price I decided to leave the dogs in the van and treat myself to a very late lunch/early evening meal - it would save making myself something when I got back to the tent. This was the same cafe where I'd had coffee and cake earlier in the year, and though it didn't look much from the outside the staff were very friendly and the meal was lovely; the pie really was home made and the veg perfectly cooked, and at only £4.95 including a mug of coffee it was very good value for money.

 When I got back to the van I only had ten minutes left on the car park ticket and as there was nothing else I particularly wanted to see I thought I may as well head back to the site. It was almost dark when I got there, and leaving Sophie and Sugar in the back of the van I went to sort out the inside of the tent. With the bed made up and everything else in place I went across for a quick chat with MissE then released the dogs from the van, and with the heater on to keep the tent cosy I settled down for an evening of tv and reading and eventually an earlier-than-usual bedtime.
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