A Look Back At 2021
The year started as it had ended with restrictions on our daily lives to help combat the Covid-19 global pandemic, we had hoped that this year we would see things start to improve, little did we know at the start of the year that things were going to get worse.
January
After a very restricted Christmas the pandemic took hold and we were placed in another national lockdown, only being allowed out for essentials. Vera, our van was parked up with us unable to use her.
February
Lockdown continued, but as the end of the month approached news came that it would soon end.
March
The national lockdown ended but we were advised to 'stay local' we found that Wales and Scotland were practically out of bounds and we really didn't feel like travelling at the moment.
April
With April arriving and the new shoots of spring all around us we started looking at trips away.
There was a THS (temporary holiday site) advertised up in Southport at the end of the month, somewhere we had never been, our friends Alan & Cath were up for it so plans were made and a booking was made.
Due to work commitments were couldn't get away until the Tuesday afternoon, the drive up the M6 was as chaotic as usual, we arrived in Southport for teatime, Southport was a real surprise, the main street was full of Victorian buildings and its pier was one of the longest I can remember seeing, so long there was a 'petite train' running from one end to the other, we also explored Formby with its sand dunes and pine forest, it was beautiful, so wild and peaceful, mile after mile of dunes and beach with very few people about, the rest of the week was great with plenty of spring sunshine.
May
May was one of those months where we found it difficult to get away, not for any particular reason, we just ran out of time
June
June saw us get away twice, first we spent Leominster, a place we have travelled through many, many times but never stopped, we found a great little Caravan & Motorhome Club CS site, its a brand new site, Tickbridge Farm based on their small holding right beside the stretford brook a lovely peaceful site perfect for exploring Leominster. We also took a trip out to Wigmore Castle an English Heritage site, we walked our legs off. it was a great few days.
We also travelled out to one of our favourite locals, Eardisland in Herefordshire. We met up with good friends Norman & Jean with whom we hadn't seen for a long time due to the restrictions placed on us all over the last 18 months.
We spent a long time chatting and catching up, we walked a lot and spent many an hour in the local pubs tasting the local ales for research purposes of course.
July
July saw us take our first 'proper' touring holiday, Adele had been planning it for weeks.
We were going to Scotland. We had read many travel blogs and articles on the interweb and it appeared that due to not being able to easily travel to the continent most campervan / MoHos were going to Scotland so to try and avoid the crowds we were going to south west Scotland to be more precise, Dumfries & Galloway.
We met up again with Norman & Jean, to start our tour we stopped off for our first night in Yorkshire at a THS in Clapham, we moved on to the Cumbrian coast before crossing the border into Scotland. We had a great two weeks exploring this wonderful area.
August
August started badly, Adele contracted Covid-19 and had to self isolate, she was really quite poorly then just as she was starting to feel better I came down with it too together with our grown up kids so it was late in the month before we were able to get away, lots of sites full due in part to the lack of confidence in travelling abroad, so we decided to use the van for day trips out from home, one such trip was to Wenlock Priory in the town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire, an English Heritage site.
We took time to wander around this old market town with its black and white buildings and old covered market.
September
September saw schools back and less people out and about camping, we managed three trips out, first to the lovely market town of Ludlow to visit another English Heritage property, Stokesay Castle, this place was stunning, we had seen many YouTube videos of the place but we still weren't expecting what were saw. We stayed at Feather Knowle Farm a C&CC cs at £10 PN it was just brilliant, so peaceful with views out over the Shropshire countryside towards Clee Hill.
Ludlow was as ever lovely and we spent a day wondering the town and around the castle walls.
Our second outing in September saw us visit Kenilworth Castle, just a day trio but another great day out
We drove over the Llantisillo mountains and the horseshoe pass to a quiet camc cl, Plass Newydd where their chickens roamed free and came to see us every morning.
We moved on to Bala, we had planned to walk around the lake but the temperature had dropped drastically, it was bitter cold and the wind was blowing a hooley.
We drove out towards the Welsh coast to visit Llandanwg and the church in the dunes before heading home.
October saw us visiting The New Forest an area we had passed through many times but never visited, our midweek trip caught the best of the weather with cold bright sunny days although very windy it rained a lot but only during the night. We started our trip on the coast at Lymington where the ferry to the Isle of Wight leaves, we visited Mudeford, Keyhaven marshes and Bucklers Hard where some Nelsons fleet were built. We stayed at lovely CL campsites, camped wild and stayed within the New Forest itself hoping to see the wild ponies whilst we camped, there were lots of wild life but no ponies, ponies we did see on the days we just parked up on the moors around the forest, relaxing with a cup of tea the ponies just strolled up to the van enjoying a munch on the grass.
The whole trip was great, somewhere to pop back to again.
November
November saw us again just going out for day trips, we had a really good autumnal day in the Wye Valley, we had planned to visit Symonds Yat, what we didn't know was Symonds Yat has an East & West part, one was just a caravan and amusement park by the river, Symonds Yat East was just up our street, pleasant relaxing walks by the river, the only issue was the rip off car parking charges, we went to visit Symonds Rock, a Forest England site in the the woods but again here the rip off prices put us off £4 parking for cars which was ok but for MoHo it was £8
We moved on to The National Trust site at The Kymin, lovely walks but the house was closed due to Welsh Covid-19 laws. We met a lovely Canadian couple visiting from London we chatted for sometime before they continued with their walk.
December
There were no stop-overs in December, we did however continue with our day trips out, we started with a short drive to Droitwich to visit The National Trusts Hanbury Hall, all decked out with an '80s style Christmas with Slade on the record player, babychams and snowballs to drink and party food in tupperware bowls, it was a great day out and a lovely start to Christmas
Our second day trip was to Wolverhampton to visit Wightwick Manor, again another NT property dressed for Christmas, Wightwick is classed as a treasure house as all the furniture, paintings and settings are original which gave the house a really homely, lived in feel.
I'm writing this on 29th December; we have managed another year of great trips, mini tours and days out despite the continued Covid-19 pandemic, at the beginning of the month (December) a new strain had been found which is more contagious, over 120,000 new cases every day, France and Germany closed its borders to UK citizens, The Netherlands started another national lockdown and Spain added more conditions for entry there, we did manage Christmas without anymore restrictions but we think they may be coming in the new year, nearly 2 years of restrictions on our life styles and freedoms, now if anyone does actually read this blog and get to this point, I do understand why and do not totally disagree with all the measures, however as time goes on priority must now be on peoples mental heath as well as physical heath.
We wish you all good health, stay safe, follow the guidelines and hopefully we will all be back travelling and exploring in our MoHos where ever we want to go very soon.
We hope to see you on the road.
nige & adele
benivanadventures - travels in our campervan
All the links in this blog take you to our original blogger posts that also has links to our YouTube videos
Annual Trip Details:
Miles: 3519
Ave MPG: 30.9
Fuel Cost: £ 761.52 / £1.48 per ltr
Fuel Cost: £ 761.52 / £1.48 per ltr
Car Parking: £ 42.50
Nights: 31
Camp Fees: £ 257.80
Camp Ave per night: £ 8.31
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We put our holiday photos in to small videos & slideshows and are uploaded on to our YouTube Channel, benivanadventures, they are not professionally produced but give a feeling of the area and places we visit - Click on our logo above.
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