Anchors Away

Wednesday 27th August
Day 1

Blue Anchor Bay

Finished work and after a quick shower we were on the road, Adele had the found a THS in Somerset at Blue Anchor Bay just up the road from Minehead, the journey down was fine, just the normal M5 traffic, we arrived at Home Farm rally field and were met by the stewards of the South West Region, we booked in for three nights although we were hoping to stay until Sunday but the THS finishes strangely on Saturday, not to worry we will fine somewhere to stay for one more night.



We parked up, had a cup of tea before taking Archie for a walk returning for nibbles and a drink before supper.
We had a really relaxing evening reading and listening to music before bed.

Thursday 28th August
Day 2

Woke at 6am, after a very peaceful night, took Archie for a walk on the beach and almost got cut off by the tide, the end of the beach had a rock sea defence that we couldn't climb up so back from where we came, just making it.


Back to the van for breakfast, a proper campervan breakie, bacon, egg, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms and fried bread, lovely.
It was gone 10.30 when we left the site for the short drive to Dunster, somewhere we have been before but never visited the castle so that was our aim for today, the weather might scupper our plans as the forecast is for heavy showers but we will see how we get on.

Dunster Castke was only 15 minutes down the road, we were shown specific MoHo parking which was good to see but at £13.50 was expensive compared to the £5.00 for cars, fortunately, being National Trust members it was free.
The castle and grounds were another £18.oo per person, it soon starts adding up to get our annual membership back.
The estate is dog friendly but Archie was not allowed in the castle itself so Adele and I took turns to have a look around, its a nice property with some really interesting rooms, I particularly liked the 17th century leather wall hangings and the small room down stairs known as the shooting room set out ready for a game shoot.




Outside we wandered the grounds down to the old mill which is still working.
It was now lunchtime and although we had had an English breakfast we were getting hungry so stopped off at the mill cafe for a bite to eat, nice fresh tuna sandwiches with coleslaw and salad, a cream tea for Adele and for me an apricot spelt cake.

We swapped over dog sitting duties and Adele went for a look around the house whilst Archie and me took a walk up into the village before walking back through the castle park and meeting up with Adele later.



We met up later and went back to the van all three of us were somewhat worn out, but before we returned to the THS we took a short drive down to Minehead for a nose around, but as we were tired we didn't stop and continued on to Blue Anchor Bay, we parked up in a different spot tonight, not for any particular reason, just that we could.


We sat and read, wrote the diary and chilled before supper which tonight is 
Later we took Archie for his evening walk before another early-ish night.

Friday 29th August
Day 3

Woke after another good nights sleep, I took Archie for his morning walk along the beach before returning for breakfast.
We made plans to visit Cleeve Abbey, now I don't know what we were expecting but we weren't expecting what we found.
Founded over 800 years ago, Cleeve Abbey housed  a community of Cistercian monks for over 350 years. At its peak it was home to 28 monks and was more complete than we expected.



After a spot of lunch we went in search of what is claimed to be the tallest tree in England, but after a few dead ends and a 28 mile detour we never found it.

We instead went to the visit the village Bossington now looked after by the National Trust, its a quaint village with hollyhocks and roses covering the cottages.
After walking the village we took the coastal path down to the beach which is the far end from Porlock Weir, it was extremely windy but we did have a pleasant walk.


Returning to the van, time was getting on, we decided rather than returning to the THS and cook tea we would call in to Minehead and pick up Fish and Chips, we parked up at the harbour end of the seafront and ate our tea with the sights and sounds of the waves breaking on the pebble beach.
It was getting dark when we got back to Blue Anchor Bay, we took Archie for a quick walk before bed.

Saturday 30th August
Day 4

Another good night, we we up early-ish, took Archie for his beach walk, and returned to the van for breakfast, we need to be off before 12pm as the THS closes today, an odd day really as most meets and THS close on a Sunday.
We had our normal full English, by the time we had finish we were the last ones left apart from the stewards.
We thanked the stewards before leaving, today we are taking the short trip to Watchet, there are two specific MoHo spaces down by the harbour but we couldn't get in as the were taken by council bin lorries having their break.





Eventually we found another carpark which had plenty of spaces and big enough to park the van.
We had a wonder around finding an old pack horse bridge besides a thatched cottage, we walked along the harbour and watched the fishermen as they landed a huge conger eel.
Back into the Main Street and Adele spotted a small bar called The People's Tavern, that served local ciders and beer so we popped in for a tasting, what a quirky place it was, highly decorated with sketches, paintings and photos, the cider was out of this world with literally dozens of different ones to try, the staff were especially welcoming, with lots of locals and a few tourists enjoying a lunch time drink.
As my hearing has not improved since last nigh, Adele went to the bar to order, came back with two ciders and a local ale.




We had a great hour or so in this brilliant bar before venturing out to drizzle and cloud, it didn't stop us from further exploring this small seaside town.
We found a CAMC CS just out of town and called to make sure they had space, they did, but after having two attempts to find the place we gave up and traveled a few miles further to a commercial site, which with hindsight  was not the thing to do, it was noisy, had dogs running around without leads and kids playing football around the units, all the thing we dislike.
We had tea of lamb dinner and a nice bottle of wine, the rain had now cleared and we were treated to a love sunset. Unusually for us we sat and watched some TV before bed, as we closed the blinds we could see the site for Hinckley point power station all lit up.



Sunday 31st August
Day 5

Woke at 7am after a good nights sleep, surprising really considering the noise during last evening.
We both had showers at the sites amenity block, they are mini wet rooms with toilet, hand basin and shower cubical, the showers were hot and quite powerful, wether that was due to being one of the first up or there is constant hot water I don't know but good all the same.
Whilst Adele was showering I took Archie on a short walk and found a dog walking / training area, all fenced  of so could let him off the lead to have a run, he did seem to enjoy himself


 
we then took a stroll around the fishing lakes before returning to the van for breakfast, the clouds have now cleared and are treated to blue skies and sunshine.



We tidied up after breakfast and emptied the tanks before setting the sat-nag for 'home' the journey was dull and boring with stop start most of the way until we had pasted Bristol, we arrived home just after 2pm, considering we have only had four nights away we have packed in quiet a bit, its been really relaxing for most of it and the weather was much, much better than was forecast with us only getting wet once.

benivanadventures - travels in our campervan

Trip Details:


Miles: 339  

Ave MPG:  31.6mpg

Fuel Cost: £69.78 

Car Parking: £3.80 

LPG £ 


Nights: 4

Camp Fees: £73.00

Camp Ave per night: £18.25 


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