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 September 20th 2016 - Going home day

Another lovely morning arrived and with it came the unwanted task of packing up to go home. It was 10am before I started tidying the tent and transferring things into the van but I wasn't in too much of a rush so it was almost noon by the time I was ready for taking the tent down. The thick footprint groundsheet had done a good job of protecting the underside from the previous Friday's rain and wet ground but when I came to move the groundsheet itself I was surprised to find a lovely crop of white mushrooms growing underneath it, although they were rather flat from having been constantly walked on. Now I know mushrooms grow in warm, damp and dark conditions but that's the first time I've ever had any growing underneath my tent.

 It had been hot thirsty work packing everything away so I chilled out for a while with a can of Coke then took the dogs for a final walk along the cliff top and the beach. Even in the middle of the day there were very few people around and I almost had the long stretch of beach to myself - and it doesn't matter how many times I walk along there I never get tired of the view or the beach itself.

Those were to be my last photos of the holiday and I left my pitch for the final time at 1pm. As I drove slowly along the access road through the site I saw a lady walking towards me with a greyhound on a lead, and just ahead of me, close to a static caravan, was a small rabbit obliviously sitting picking at the grass. The lady had her hand on the dog's collar to stop it from pulling forwards so I stopped the van and got out to chase the rabbit away - I didn't want to witness a bloodbath. 

 The rabbit barely moved however and when I looked closely I could tell from the swollen half-closed eyes and the lesions on its head that the poor little thing had myxomatosis; if it had been perfectly well I wouldn't have got anywhere near it before it scarpered. Luckily it saw finally saw me and hopped off underneath the caravan out of reach of the dog, and after a brief word with the lady I got back in the van. 

 I felt so sorry for the little rabbit; I knew it would die a slow and probably painful death so if I could have caught it I would have brought it home and taken it to the vet to be dealt with humanely, but being right underneath the caravan it was completely out of my reach so sadly I had to leave it behind. As I got near to the site entrance I noticed that the cat had gone from up the nearby tree so presumably it had finally climbed down on its own and gone back to where it came from. Driving down the lane from the site I was happy that it wasn't actually stuck up there but I still felt sad for the rabbit. 

 As I left California behind I resisted the temptation to go to Latham's for a final coffee and cake and decided to wait until I reached the Cheerio Cafe and have a proper meal instead. It was just gone 3.30pm when I got there and I must have been their last customer of the day as they closed up while I was in there. With a good plateful of steak and kidney pie and mash and a coffee to fortify me I was on my way again soon after 4pm, and with no delays en route I was back home at 7pm just as the daylight was fading - and as I took what I needed out of the van I was already thinking ahead to next year's Norfolk holiday.

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10 comments:

  1. nashvillecats23 October 2016 at 11:07

    Always a tug at the heart strings when one has to return home....back to normality and the old grindstone.
    Great post and pics. Tigermouse.
    Yvonne.

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  2. Tigermouse3 October 2016 at 15:03

    I've been holidaying down there since 1982 Yvonne, though only camping there since 1998, but I'm so familiar with the area that I feel as much at home there as in my own town. I've often thought about buying one of the statics on the same site but it's a bit of a long way just to go for a weekend so it wouldn't really be worth it. One day though, when I can afford to give up work, who knows....

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  3. Ruth Livingstone3 October 2016 at 19:53

    Norfolk beaches are rather special, aren't they. But we must try and keep them secret 😉

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  4. Tigermouse3 October 2016 at 20:03

    It's unbelievable how unspoilt most of the beaches still are, and when you have ones like Holkham and Wells you could drop the whole population of Norfolk on them and they still wouldn't be crowded. Someone once told me that Northumberland's beaches were fabulous but the ones I went to a few years ago weren't a patch on the Norfolk ones.

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  5. Anabel Marsh3 October 2016 at 21:33

    Always a good sign when you go home planning to come back! Lovely beaches.

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  6. Tigermouse3 October 2016 at 21:40

    They certainly are Anabel. I keep promising myself to have breakfast on the beach one day but I haven't got round to doing that yet - maybe next year if I remember :)

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  7. Eileen H4 October 2016 at 16:01

    You seemed to have had a lovely holiday bar that one day of awful weather. That is a lovely beach.
    I feel sad for that sick rabbit too and I couldn't stand to see one killed by a dog either. A man I know took his dogs out with the intention of catching rabbits and his description made me feel ill :(
    Looking forward to a return visit next year will see you through the coming winter months and having to go to work in the meantime.

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  8. Tigermouse5 October 2016 at 08:14

    I love 'my' beach Eileen and never get tired of it, especially the stretch in the second and third photos. The camping field is just on top of the cliff to the left of the cottage; the first photo was taken from just the other side of the cottage.

    I've been thinking recently that maybe I should go somewhere different in September as I've been going to California since 1982, but it feels so much like home that I'd miss it if I didn't go. I've recently discovered a website about exploring Norfolk and it's giving me some good ideas so I know there's plenty for me to see yet :)

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  9. Bag End Gardener6 October 2016 at 09:08

    Nature isn't kind, is She? If the greyhound had caught the rabbit it might have died quicker than it would do otherwith with Myxamatosis.

    Sad to go home but always nicer to break camp in dry weather. Hope you felt relaxed and refreshed after your holiday.

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  10. Tigermouse6 October 2016 at 09:15

    Well I did feel relaxed and refreshed until I got back to work the day after I came home, since then I've been so busy I need another holiday! lol

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