Brooks on Tour

We returned to Morn Hill following a very enjoyable trip in May.  On picking up the caravan from storage we had a problem with the motormover and ended up having to man handle the caravan onto the towbar as we don't have space to reverse if all of our storage neigbours are on their pitches.  We phoned Webbs caravans in Salisbury en-route.  Webbs suggested we call in to their service centre.  Webbs sorted out our motor mover problem and we were soon on our way to Winchester.      The weather was warm although the sunshine was intermittent. We chose to pitch on the lower site again and although the road noise seemed louder than we remembered it didn't bother us. The sky was very unusual with interesting cloud formations.  We found a four leaf clover on our pitch.  Hoping this is good luck. Wednesday we needed to stock up the fridge so made our way to the local supermarket.  We spent most of the afternoon snoozing and readi...

A long journey because of roadworks at Highworth.  Our welcome at site was not good as the warden appeared stressed.  Lots of people had been delayed because of a road closure following an accident and the warden was trying to deal with phone calls and book us in.  We were given no information about the site.  We drove off to find a pitch,the site is mainly grass.  We chose a pitch near the play area but discovered as we reversed in there was a huge backward slop. Although we carry ramps, it felt easier to look further and choose a different pitch.  We eventually settled on pitch 72.  All of the pitches feel on top of each other and the site was full.  There were lots of children and would guess that the wildlife park opposite the site is the attraction.  The site has lots of trees but the roads are narrow which is why if feels crowded..  There is one facilities block for over 120 pitches. Saturday morning some friends visited and we we...

We arrived at Morn Hill Site on the outskirts of Winchester in just under 2 hours despite the heavy traffic and us going the wrong way twice!  The road from the A303 to the A34 South is not clearly signed and we ended up going North.  We also missed the caravan club site entrance and had to find a suitable turning place on a busy dual carriageway.  On arrival at site we found that some Alde heating fluid had again leaked from the header tank, this has been an ongoing problem for us with no one really knowing why it happens. Morn Hill is an all grass site, the site is split in two, the upper site (where the site office is) is flat. The lower site is on different levels each "site" has a facilities block.  There are lots of trees and the main road runs along the side of the site, I think road noise is more noticable on the upper site but we were not really aware of it from our pitch on the lower site.  Friday night there was torrential rain acommpanied by thunder...

Friday night on a Bank holiday weekend is not a good idea for a speedy getaway.  The M4 and M5 had traffic jams and it took us 3 hours to get to Exebridge Lakes.  We awoke to a hard frost on Saturday morning, -4 according to our weather station, after breakfast we drove into Dulverton to buy some pies,  The farmers market was on as well with lots of tasty things to eat on offer as well as local craft people selling their wares.  I was very taken with the work of a local artist Jessamy Keill y who was displaying some of her work.  I particularly liked the Exmoor stags they were very simple pictures in black ink.  We bought our pies and headed back to the caravan we spent the afternoon sleeping and reading, we are both tired.  Sunday we went to meet with the couple we had met in Cornwall last year. They have found a house in Minehead that they are going to buy.  We all had lunch at the Black Venus in Challacombe, a favourite pub of ours. We talked...

Thursday night after finishing work we headed to Glastonbury and The Old Oaks. We had booked to stay until Monday.  We were pitched in The Orchard -  we were disappointed, the pitch sloped backwards the view out of front of the van was at the cabins instead of the countryside you see when pitched on the terraces.  I asked at the office if there were any other pitches available but unfortunately there were not, we decided to make the best of it. Friday was very warm and sunny we went to Wells and walked around The Bishops Palace.  The old ecclesiastical   buildings are very interesting, you can imagine the choristers rushing from their houses over the cobble stones to the cathedral for evensong. We discovered cherry and almond danish pastries from Burns the Bread - bakers, they were delicious. Saturday was windy and raining heavily, we managed a trip to the supermarket and that was about it. It was still raining Sunday which doesn't usua...