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 August 29th 2017 - Piglets, alpacas & Pensarn beach

Sometime during the previous night's sleep my subconscious had been faintly penetrated by the sound of seagulls tap dancing on the van roof - I hadn't a clue what time it was and my more-asleep-than-awake brain quickly reverted to total shutdown. When I finally awoke properly at 7.30am it was to a grey cloudy day and raindrops on the windows, and when I got out of the van my son informed me that there had been a very heavy rain shower about 4am - so it had been the sound of rain, not tap dancing seagulls, which had penetrated my brain earlier on.

 Unfortunately, with the tent not having a fully integrated groundsheet, the rain had also penetrated underneath the bottom where it didn't touch the ground and there was a puddle on the groundsheet inside; it was soon mopped up with a towel though and with that job done I took the dogs for their first walk of the day. Across the lane from the site entrance were three fields - the first one was used for visitors' parking but I could see some piglets in the next one so I went across to take a look - there were three with what I assumed to be mother pig. Further along the field was a small horse box which seemed to be the living quarters of a goat and in the field beyond was a small group of alpacas and a herd of sheep, but the piglets were my favourites and I fell in love with the smallest one.


After a leisurely breakfast, during which the sun kept trying to break through the clouds, we started the packing up process and everything was in the van by 11.15am. With one final photo of the site I drove out of the gates for the last time and headed down the road to Pensarn where a dog walk along the beach was followed by an early lunch in the Pantri Bach cafe nearby.


It was an easy drive home with no delays and the further north we got the more the day brightened up until we arrived home in glorious sunshine at 3.15pm. It had been a good weekend, made even better by the lovely weather we'd had and also meeting up with Eileen and Annie again, and though I knew the sea air wouldn't have made my son's ankle any better the change of scenery had been good for him in other ways so I was more than happy with that.

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4 comments:

  1. Eileen H5 September 2017 at 07:44

    When I started reading your post about seagulls on your van I immediately thought that it'd be about 4 a.m.:) I don't hear rain in the night but I regularly hear seagulls that start squawking about 4 o'clock. I'm sure rainfall on your van would disturb your sleep though. The animals are very cute and I didn't know anything about that farm being at Manorafon until I first met you last year. The pigs are Gloucestershire Old Spots and I only know that because I watch Countryfile :) I'm so glad you and Michael had a good weekend, brought plenty of sunshine with you and yes, it was lovely to meet with you again.

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  2. Tigermouse5 September 2017 at 09:49

    I thought the pigs were Gloucestershires too but according to Manorafon's website they are Oxford Sandy and Blacks, and if you look at pictures of the two breeds you can see that while the markings are very similar the colours are different. I'd love a couple of piglets but they don't stay tiny for long :(

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  3. Anabel Marsh5 September 2017 at 16:48

    Whatever they are, those piglets are definitely cute!

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  4. Tigermouse5 September 2017 at 20:13

    They certainly are - the one in the third photo was my favourite :)

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