Saturday.. it must be Shrewsbury

11 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by Simon Barlow in General, Travelling in the UK, Trips

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Canterbury, Caravanning, Caravans, Chirk, Crystal Moorea, Lady Heyes, Poppy's Sweet Shop, Shrewsbury, Touring, Travel Trailers

From the camp site, it’s about ten miles into Shrewsbury down the A5. If you follow the town centre signs, just before you cross the river, there is a long stay car park next to the Shropshire Council / Shrewsbury Town Council offices and you can cross the river Severn via the footbridge. Car parking charges were a quite reasonable £4 for ten hours.

Crossing the foot bridge, you have to work your way through the Riverside Shopping Mall… then through Gallery Mall. I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins. Walking through the malls it was sightly depressing, every other shop seemed to be empty and in darkness. Sue and I were hoping that Shrewsbury was not going to be another town centre that seemed to be in terminal decline. Continue reading →

Oswestry….. arrival

11 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by Simon Barlow in General, Trips

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Bear Extender, Camping & Caravanning Club, Caravanning, Caravans, Chirk, Fiamma, Nottinghamshire DA, Oswestry, Safefill, Touring

Arrived at Oswestry C & CC site at 12:20 yesterday after an 80 mile drive, which considering it was a Friday only took 1:40. Leaving home, there was just the odd snowflake, but most of the way here was dry and clear. Only when we got to the outskirts of Wrexham did we get light drizzle.

The warden here is very friendly and virtually gave us our choice of pitches, I think there are only eight or ten caravans and motorhomes on site at the moment. We decided on the far end of the site and the warden walked down with us to guide us on to the pitch.

All set up

Setting up only takes us about 20 minutes, and the kettle normally goes on… or the beer and wine are opened, depending on the weather. This time was a little different. Sue filled the Aquaroll while I powered up the van’s electrics and handled the pink stuff and wastehog at the other end of the van. Returning the watering can to the front locker, I also turned on the Safefill gas bottle and went to turn the electrics on, shut the taps, fire up the heater and turn the water pump on. I always use a gas ring on the hob to purge any air out of the gas line… the ring lit… and the heater soon followed. Now for the water. I shut the drain tap and pressed the pump ‘on’ button…. nothing. Hmm. Frozen up. Bugger. I could hear the relay clicking to activate the pump, but I couldn’t hear it run. I know we were below freezing in Manchester a few nights ago, and I thought I’d got all the water out of the system anyway. Apparently not. Continue reading →

Wrexham Christmas Market

14 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by Simon Barlow in General, Trips

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Bear Extender, Camping & Caravanning Club, Caravan Club, Chirk, Chirk Castle, Erddig Hall, Hand Hotel, Lady Margarets, National Trust, WiFI, Wrexham

October came and passed, because of Sue’s on-call commitments to the hospital and the fact that everyone seemed to want heart surgery there was little chance at getting away. However, December looked promising. Sue’s colleague was due to have major knee surgery in December, so getting away before then would be ideal, after her colleague’s surgery Sue would be on call until at least the end of January. The prospect of mulled wine and a Christmas market seemed good. A brief search on the internet reveled that Lincoln Christmas Market was one of the top events this time of year. Going on to the C & CC’s on line booking system was a nightmare, some idiot decided that it needed improving and instantly took it back several steps in my opinion… and that of many others looking at the complaints and postings on some of the forums. Just as I thought it was sorted, Sue announced we would have to move it back a week due to work commitments changing.

Right, so Lincoln was out… where else. We had been in touch with Pete & Julie as we were hoping to meet up again with them…. and they suggested York. Back on to the C & CC website… better still ring the sites. After ringing a few, some would be closed, some were fully booked and some were advising that the same time last year they were either flooded or knee deep in snow. York was off.