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

Tuesday April 22nd 2014 - Going home day - dull and grey

I woke at 6am to hear rain on the tent - not what I wanted when I had to pack up and go home but by the time I got up a couple of hours later it had stopped, and it stayed fine for the rest of the morning. Having wiped the worst of the raindrops off the tent with a spare dog towel it was bone dry by the time I got to taking it down, so at least I could pack it away and not have to open it out again when I got home. It was just gone noon by the time I was ready for leaving the site, and all that remained was to take the dogs for their final walk before the journey home.

 As I was walking back towards the site entrance I heard the whistle of the approaching steam train; if I wanted to get a photo with the engine at the right end of it I would have to be quick, so with the dogs almost dragging behind me I ran back to the van for my camera and made it back to the bridge on the lane just in time to get a shot of it before it was uncoupled and shunted up the line to the other end. That was my last photo of the weekend, so with Sophie and Sugar finally settled in the back of the van I pulled away from my pitch and set off for home.

The drive back was trouble-free and had no delays, and an hour and fifty minutes after leaving the camp site I was pulling up outside home. I had a couple of hours before I had to go to work but there was no point in unpacking the van as I would no doubt be away again in less than a couple of weeks. I had no idea where I would be going, but even though I'd only just arrived back from one bank holiday I was already looking forward to the next one.
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2 comments:

  1. Unknown2 May 2014 at 10:14

    Hi Eunice, welcome back!

    Sounds like you had a very nice Easter break despite the scary drive up the hill! And shame on you for 'breaking and entering' into the abbey ;-)

    As ever, wonderful photographs! I particularly liked the pictures of Llangollen as they brought back memories of my childhood in the '60's. Llangollen was a place we would visit once or twice a year during the school holidays. I seem to remember an annual music festival that my grandmother loved and insisted on taking us to. We would all pile into an old 'Charabanc' that would rattle and roll all the way!

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  2. Tigermouse2 May 2014 at 23:36

    Glad you like the photos Phil.

    That drive up the hill was definitely an experience I'd rather forget. As I was leaving the site to come home the following day I saw the owner's wife and when I mentioned it she said if she'd realised how big my van is she wouldn't have told me to go up there in the first place, as it's really only suitable for normal-sized cars. To be honest though, knowing what I do now, I don't think I'd attempt it again even in the smallest of cars!

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