wetter washing

Now the washing is all done and dry I can talk Devon. It has been a bit of a trauma but we cope. We were not sure whether to go as the weather looked bad, but decided we would make the best of it etc etc and on Monday we packed up the camper van with bikes and headed west. We were aiming for Salcombe, last visited by R and K in 1993, in a hot and sunny summer trip around the west country. Famed for big argument on long walk to Hope Cove. I recall the argument was about sailing, or more precisely it was about R's assumption that a sailor, seen for a cliff top, was male, and my not letting it lie that his assumption showed his implicit sex discrimination. We have had similar arguments many times since, as R does not think that it matters if you use 'he' to talk about a person whose gender is unknown. I think it does matter, and even struggle with God being a he. Anyway, I digress, and luckily for R, we do too  and are not continually stuck in this argument. Phew. Anyhow, I decided it would be lovely to go down to Salcombe, or more specifically, Hope Cove, for a few days in the balmy april weather. It would have been, wouldn't it, last year or the year before.  But not this year, with no green shoots to be seen, nervous daffodils bobbing in the wind and wishing they hadn't bothered. So, all was going well until the brakes failed near Dorchester. R was driving, thank you God, and nursed campo on to the town centre where we found a garage and left her in good hands. It was an overnight stay, so the girls went to the cinema while we drank coffee. Then we found a hotel, then we found a very authentic Italian restaurant. The wine drinking started. After a busy night in a huge bed ( Amy was sharing too and I woke up feeling like I had been kicked all night - oh - I had) I went for a quick jog around the town. After reading the paper and doing the crossword, sitting in a coffee shop, buying lunch, playing games in all the shops in town and A and R visiting Tutankhamun's burial lair (which is bizarrely situated in Dorset, methinks?) we had almost done all there was to do. True, we did not do the teddy bear museum, the Chinese Warriors (what is it with Dorset that all the wonders of the ancient world are there?) or the dinosaur museum. Sometimes you can't keep me down from museumtastic life, but I was not feeling the love, it was raining, we had spent £650 unintended pounds on brakes, plus the various costs of hotels and coffees and I was tempted to join H and call for a turning for home.

A hauled me back from the brink of giving up with a quote from Reepicheep ' There is no honour in turning away from adventure'. On we grimly drove, into a danker and damper west of England. The roads past Bournemouth west are nothing more than cart tracks. Luckily for us our campo has a top speed of 66 mph so it copes well with carts. Once I had to overtake someone (in a sports car!) and had to psych myself ( and the van) up for it. Karageen is a lovely campsite in a pretty spot and should be enjoyed in the sunshine. We are 4 other campervan/caravan owners were enduring it in the rain. And the wind. We cycled into Salcombe and ate an award winning pub lunch, Then cycled home in the rain. We played games invented by A, including the homonym game and hunt the finger ( it is quite easy to find a finger as it is attached to your hand). We watched a couple of DVDs as R had brought a TV (I had ridiculed the idea initially but was glad to have a few hours of watching Swallows and Amazons in my sleeping bag in the end).  We watched Arthur and the Invisibles, which is better than I imagined it would be. Perhaps helped by the wine.  After a few hours of this warmth and toasty campo time the wind got up and along with the rain battered the awning on campo to such an extent that we had to take it down and stow it in the toilet. We decided to go home in the morning. So, to summarise:

Do turn away from adventure sometimes if it is raining.
Do not accidentally stay in Dorchester unless you are on some weird quest to spot the most wonders of the ancient world in the wrong places.
Do draw a line on a map (about next to Swanage) which says 'Here are no further!' when it comes to planning camper van holidays.

We are NOT going to Scotland in the camper van. R is talking about selling our share and getting a folding tent thing. I am not selling my share yet, I love waking up in my camper van more than waking up anywhere else. But I have to say that I love waking up in my camper van in Netley more than waking up in it anywhere else in the world. 3 miles from home strikes me as the perfect driving distance to avoid brake trouble and cart tracks. I am not saying no entirely to R's folding tent on wheels but I will need a lot of persuading that it is cuter and more funky than campo.