Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom

Well, we are back in England – no more problems with not being able to understand what people are saying… oh wait, yes there will – because of all those different accents! But at least we will understand road signs and shopping will be easier!

Our first night in the UK was spent in a campground in Welwyn Gardens and we didn’t feel like cooking (note the use of the Royal “We”), so we asked at the office if there was a pub or something within easy walking distance. We were told of a Pub that was within 5 minutes of the campground and, whilst they hadn’t been there themselves, they had heard that it was pretty good. Well, if that’s pretty good, I don’t need to see fantastic! The restaurant in the Beehive (Beehive Lane, Welwyn Garden City) was indeed under new management and their menu was a great selection and included a selection of 5 different Roasts. Nick ordered the Roast and was able to pick what he want from the veges on offer but because of his dislike of all members of the Brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, brussell sprouts, etc) and his well-known hatred of pumpkin, his choice was restricted to carrots and roast potatoes. The management’s concern at his lack of vegetables – does Sir want some mashed potatoes or Yorkshire pudding? No thanks, I’ve got roast potatoes. They brought over more meat, more roast potatoes and cooked him some peas. The manager even came over and said that next time we were coming in for a meal, if we rang ahead, they would make sure that there would be vegetables available for Nick! Now, THAT is service! And, the food was very tasty too!

Time to head back over Oxford-direction, to visit our friends Sally & her family. The local pub was happy for us to park our Motorhome in their carpark – yes, we did have a meal there. We almost feel like locals there – the publican and the local shop remembered us! This gave us time to get a UK SIM card for MJ’s phone and to get on-line and do all the necessary admin and updates. Thank goodness for the generosity of friends with good wifi! Whilst visiting Sally, we planned our next stops – we were wanting to visit the south-east area of England and it turns out that Sally came from that neck of the woods, so was able to make some great suggestions.

First stop was Arundel and once again, we encountered the European mentality of “Closed for Winter”. All the campgrounds in the area were closed, Arundel Castle was closed… are you getting the picture? After consulting one of the on-line resources we were using to find camping, we read that you could park your motorhome in the castle carpark in Arundel. When we got there (in the dark) on the Friday night, we could see that there were no height barriers in use and so, we drove in and parked up out of the way for the night. Imagine our chagrin when, in the morning, we looked out the window to see snow in the carpark AND the height barriers closed!

Panic! We walked over to the barriers and saw a sign which says that the barriers are closed between 6pm-8am, over weekends and Bank Holidays. The catch is that when the height barriers are open, you can’t see the signs! So, we managed to get hold of the Castle office and were told that there would be someone down at the carpark at 11am, so we headed off for a walk around the old town, looked through a couple of shops, and stopped for coffee & cake at one of the many cafes in the town, with plenty of time to be back in the carpark and make our escape!

Thankfully, there was one campground open in Brighton and because we had made a booking, we had a spot for the next 3 nights. But we have a question – if no-one goes caravanning in winter, why was the campground in Brighton full?

Did I mentioned that it had snowed overnight whilst camping in Arundel? Well, in continued to snow in Brighton too! Whatever happened to “it doesn’t snow in England any more”? Ok, so it wasn’t knee-deep or anything, but there it was definitely snow-cold! Oh well, we enjoyed that bracing walk along the beach to the Brighton Pier, but we enjoyed the bus ride back to the campground! Turns out that the public transport in Brighton is pretty good – a day ticket or a day excursion ticket meant that exploring was very affordable. We even got the bus out to Lewes for a day trip to the Anne of Cleves Museum and Lewes Castle for the total fare of less than £9-00! We also spent almost a whole day walking around the Pavillon – “admiring” the architecture, the decor and furniture. Whilst it was cold there, we did enjoy our few days in Brighton.

Another high point for this part of the world was a visit to Heathfield and Ashdown Forest. At Heathfields, we met Sally’s dad & step-mum, both who were very welcoming and super friendly – now I know where Sally gets it from. For those who grew up with Winnie-the-Pooh and A.A.Milne, Ashdown Forest was where Mr Milne moved to and where his wife and son (Christopher Robin) lived whilst he worked in London. From the stories he was be told about what their son had been up to during Dad’s absences in London, A.A.Milne developed and wrote the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Today, you can go for a walk through the Forest, and visit “the Enchanted Place”, “Roo’s Sandy Pit”, the “Heffalump Trap”, the “100 Aker Wood”, the “North Pole” as discovered by Christopher Robin & Pooh, and “Eeyore’s Gloomy Place” (link to the info about the Walks – http://www.ashdownforest.org/enjoy/walk ing/MappedWalks.php). And if you drive on to Hartfield, then you can visit the Pooh Corner shop and the Poohsticks bridge.

This has been a recurring theme in England (more than in the rest of the UK) – height barriers restrict access for tall vehicles such as motorhome driven by tourists or there is the ever-present pay for parking. We kind of expected to have to pay for parking in towns but we were stunned to see “Pay for Parking” in parking areas in the middle of forests! Not very welcoming to visitors who want to explore the countryside! Grumble, Grumble, Grumble…

Ok, so it was time to head down towards Rye and Hastings. We discovered a Hotel in Rye where we could park in the carpark and if we had dinner in the hotel restaurant, then the parking was free! Very happy with that! And, if you parked in the spot closest to the Hotel, then you were also able to tap into the free WiFi! Bonus!!

Whilst in Rye, we visited the Ypres Tower – yippee, it was open! OK, so all you Commonwealth readers – when you visit a Commonwealth War Graves site with more than 40 graves, there is always an altar, and a Cross of Sacrifice. Well, the sword that is used to cast all of the swords that appear on every Cross of Sacrifice is on display in the Ypres Tower in Rye – well worth a visit. You can also see some interesting displays and read all about smuggling that used to be rife in that part of the world, as well as the history of Rye.

As fans of the show “Foyle’s War”, we visited Hastings to see the places that were used in the original 6 Series (before it was moved to Dublin). Hastings can be quite hilly, so it was a bit of a hike to walk around, but we saw the house used for external shots of Christopher Foyle’s home, and various other spots. We took a ride up the Western Cliff Railway (the Eastern Railway was closed for winter) to find locations that were used in the episodes at the end of the war. It was lots of fun for us.

By now, it was time to start thinking about the work we had ahead of us – with sorting & packing of gear to be shipped back to Australia, cleaning Oscar ready for going into Storage and packing our bags for the journey home. This also meant that we had to empty our storage unit (1 cubic metre can hold a lot of stuff!) and put it all into Oscar and then drive down to Upper Basildon and set up in the yard of STJ Motorhomes. These were the guys who sold Oscar to us and they had kindly offered to store Oscar for us whilst we went home – thanks Steve, Chris, Dan & James. James was the new boy who we hadn’t met, but the day we arrived, the rest of the crew were off in France on a skiing holiday, so poor James played host to us but he was well prepped – when we arrived, he said “I’ve been told to expect you and let you do whatever you want.”! Looks like we’re off to a good start!

What was going to stay in Oscar? What did I want to bring back? If we leave this here now, do we want to bring it home later? If so, then will it big enough to fit into our luggage. These were just some of the questions we had to deal with. We decided that this shipment home would be the only big shipment home, so any large items would have to come back to Aus now such as our electric bicycles. We bought a few large plastic crates into which we packed various books, cooking gear, souvenirs. We also had a number of cardboard cartons which were filled with winter jackets, winter boots, snow boots (yes, we did finally get to use them), as well as a number of bulky items. All together, our bundle that it rapidly approaching Australia came to a whopping 3.91 sq.metres. How do you collect that much stuff and where the heck are we going to put it all when it arrives home?

Finally, all the packing was finished, Oscar was scrubbed within an inch of his life (inside & outside) and we were ready to head to our last stopping point – Hemel Hempstead where our friends Robin & Linda kindly provided us with accommodation, meals, entertainment and gossip.

Our flight home was scheduled to depart on 18 February which meant that we would be celebrating our 23^rd Wedding Anniversary – so off to London to paint the town red! The only downfall was that our wedding anniversary coincided with the Valentines weekend and all the cheap deals at hotels were gone. We were left with the choice of staying a dodgy place for a small fortune or look a little bit further out of town – we ended up finding a nice little hotel a couple of blocks from Paddington Station which would also be convenient because it meant that we could easily catch the coach back to Hemel after our weekend in the big smoke.

We finally did a tour of the Houses of Parliament and as a treat, Nick booked a High Tea on the Terrace. We visited the Household Cavalry Museum with all the history of the Blues & Royals and the Lifeguards. We also had dinner out and instead of doing a West End Show, we took some advice from Linda and visited one of the many Comedy Clubs in London. And the high point of the weekend was the chance to catch up with a workmate and meet his new family. It was great to see Tom again and meet his gorgeous little girl, who took a real shine to Duggy!

And now, it is off to Heathrow, and homewards bound!