Brooks on Tour

Cirencester! The site was full.  I think the glorious sunshine brought everyone out.  When I booked there was lots of space showing on the caravan club website.  It took us a while to get set up as the electricity wouldn't work. It took us some time to work out that the bollard had tripped as the lights were working. We reported to the wardens who sorted it out for us quickly.  We usually find that the heating has warmed the caravan by the time we have finished setting up, this time we were cold for a while. The temperature dropped overnight to -1.8 Saturday morning we walked into Cirencester town centre through the Bathust Estate - it takes about 20 minutes. The pathway is lined with beautiful old trees. We stood and watched what we initially thought was a woodpecker tapping away lowdown on a tree trunk amongst the ivy.  As it came into clearer view we thought it was a treecreeper from the way it moved.  Having since looked at a bird identification book we now know that it was a

A quick weekend visit to Devizes. It had been just over a month since our last trip away but we had completely forgotten the order to do things.  We couldn't understand why the caravan wouldn't move out of its parking space at the storage site and then discovered we had left the wheel lock on, on site we forgot to close the drainage for the water so lost a whole barrel of water - so stupid. Once we sorted ourselves out we visited the Three Magpies pub at the top of the lane by the site and enjoyed ham egg and chips and a drop of 6X. Saturday we went to Devizes for a wander in the sunshine after heavy rain overnight, It was very cold out of the sunshine.  Devizes is such a busy interesting town with a good market that is always worth a look at.  We both slept for most of the afternoon, we were both so tired. Our microwave has been replaced after the plastic seal melting on the door so we tested it out with some Waitrose ready meals, all working fine. Devizes is a nice site,

Our last trip of the year to our favourite part of the country, Exmoor and the town of Dulverton.  We have been aware of the caravan site in Dulverton for many years, even before we had a caravan. With few sites open over the holiday period it seemed an ideal opportunity to escape from the madness that is Christmas.  The motorway was very quiet as we headed south on the M5 towards Tiverton on Christmas Day in fact we were so early that we had to pull into a layby so that we wouldn't arrive before the allotted time.  We arrived at 1pm and got set up quickly. There were families and friends bustling between caravans sharing food and cooking facilities, an excellent idea if you are going for the traditional lunch.  We had brought our lunch with us which we enjoyed whilst watching the Queens speech, old habits die hard! We walked in to town as the light was fading, it's surprising how much more you see when there is no one else around. The buildings are very interesting if you

Another weekend at Longleat - with a difference.  We had arranged to meet up with the couple Jill and Rob who we had met in Cornwall back in August, and it was Gary's work early Christmas "do" which was being held at Centre Parks on Saturday night, Centre Parks is just up the road from the Longleat site.   We made good time on Friday and were settled on site quickly.  We managed to get the pitch next to Jill and Rob who joined us for a glass or two after we had eaten.  It was great to catch up and hear their stories and adventures of being permanently on the road.  They will be heading off to Cirencester next and will be at Broadway for Christmas. Saturday we pottered around on site.  It had been arranged that a minibus would collect us to take us to Centre Parks. We were ready and waiting in the pouring rain at the entrance to the site as agreed.  After half an hour we were fed up with waiting.  We managed to get a signal on our phone by standing in the dishwashing ar

Cirencester Park in the dark, luckily we had bought ourselves some head torches which makes life so much easier. There was a pitch available on what is known as "millionaires row", these pitches are wider than some of the hardstanding pitches that are available at Cirencester and allow you to park your car at the side rather than in front the van, which we much prefer.  I like to be able to watch the world go by.  We were set up and enjoying our curry in just over half an hour. There is a lot to be said for keeping the caravan ready to go. We had heavy rain overnight so drove into Cirencester Saturday morning for a wander round town, one day we will walk in through the park.  Our friends, who live in the area, visited us in the afternoon. After they left we settled down to an evening of reading - so relaxing. Our pack up Sunday morning was leisurely but we still managed to be home by lunchtime.

A weekend at Longleat Caravan Club site.  We arrived at 6.pm after hitting the rush hour traffic in Westbury.  The site was quiet but slowly filled up during the evening.  Saturday we went to Webbs and bought a washing line (I was never going to buy one of these!) We sat and read Saturday afternoon and watched the rugby on TV.  Saturday the site filled up, it's half term so lots of people were arriving for the week.   These weekends away in the van are a real treat, we may not do much but we relax and we sleep so well. Sunday morning arrived and we were home and back to reality too soon!

A weekend getaway to Malmesbury about half an hour from home.  The site is amongst a residential caravan/park home site.  There were lots of contractors in the the touring bit of the site that left early Saturday morning and returned in the evening.  This may not be the same in peak season.  The toilets/showers are ok but cold (the temperature was 6.5 degrees) there was no heating.  The site is all grass and quite churned up at the end of the season and the recent rain.  There is also a tent camping field which has fantastic views across the river to Malmesbury Abbey and town. Saturday we drove into Malmesbury, we were on a mission to find a decent vacuum for the caravan we bought a Morphy Richards super vac it is rechargable so should be fine for taking away with us. We went to the Abbey which has fantastic carving and a beautiful vaulted ceiling.  We returned back to the van for lunch in the afternoon we walked through the camping field and followed the river back into Malmesbury, 

Our much awaited week in Cornwall arrived, we travelled to Trewethett Farm Caravan Club site between Boscastle and Tintagel.  The site is right on the coastal path with fantastic views over the sea.  The pitches are arranged in tiers, each with a front row and a back row.  Each back row pitch is spaced so that you look through a gap between caravans to the sea rather that at the caravan in front of you.  The front row pitches are very popular but the site allows you to move pitch.  When you see a vacant pitch that you would like to move to you put a marker on it, like a chair or an aqua roll and move! You just need to let reception know so that they have an idea of where everyone is.  We chose a second row pitch as all the front row was full.   We had arrived on site to find that the antifreeze had leaked from the holding tank in the wardrobe and had soaked the linen bag that is used for dirty washing.  The inside of the cupboard was splashed with blue as was the underside of the