Polperro to Helston

Polperro, a smaller seaside village just 4 or 5 miles down the road was also bustling with tourists although there is no beach to speak of here - just a harbour inlet with boats on the dry with it still being low tide. Quaint little shops and holiday houses drawing in the crowds and you can understand why as these villages have such charm. From there we ended up on one of those very narrow, windy, one lane country roads where you spend quite a bit of time backing up. It was a relief to eventually join a slightly wider lane which led to Bodinnick and the car ferry to Fowey. Our "short-cut" had worked out after all!

Cheers from Polpero!

We have been to Fowey and the towns between there and Helston, where Faye and Paul live, before so there was no need to stop anywhere else until we got to Truro at 6.30pm. By this time we were hungry so we has a lovely Thai "earlybird" special at the only unreserved table at a restaurant whose name we can't remember. Then it was just a short skip and a hop to Helston - lovely to see Faye, Paul, Dan (who at 15 is now taller than Len) and Livvy (who at 13 is now as tall as me)!

Having a busy time in Helston!

Plymouth to Looe

The Elfordleigh Country Club Hotel was a pleasant place to stay being set in the countryside with an 18 hole golf course surrounding it, and with gym, swimming and sauna facilities. It was tempting to book in for a round of golf which at 30 pounds each wasn't that expensive by English standards but they are very particular about the correct dress and not having golf shoes with us meant we wouldn't have been allowed on the course, so that was a good saving!

Our bed was narrow, being less than the width of a double but luckily we are little people. We weren't expecting much from the hotel restaurant being the only ones there at 7.30 and having been told that we would need to book as it can get busy. However a couple of groups arrived about 8.00 making it not quite so quiet and we were impressed with the meals, especially the beautifully prepared veges such as the stuffed courgette cylinder. The breakfast was also nice and too big!

Waiting for the armada!

From Plympton we followed our tablet map into The Hoe at Plymouth from where you get great views out over the harbour and there is an observation "Eye" as in London for views out over the city, rivers and sea. I'm not one for views from a height but we took the plunge never-the-less and did the 4 circles - not too bad apart from when it stopped for ages at the top and the wind was swaying it back and forward! Very reasonably priced at 5 pound 50 for old age pensioners!

2 pubs and a giant!

Saltash was the next stop as we have often seen the Pub with the big Union Jack painted over the entire front and end from the train so we decided it needed closer exploration even though it was a big hill to go down and climb back up.

A  Looe with a view!

We found all the holiday makers at Looe a very popular beach side resort with historic quaint shops along very narrow wiggly lanes, quite a nice beach although there was a little wind chill getting up by the time we got there, and a river with lots of beached boats and green "sea lettuce" being low tide. It is a very picturesque little spot however which would be even prettier at high tide.

Chard to Plympton

Friday morning we were treated to another big English breakfast, eating too much, at our excellent B&B, the only unusual feature there being the shower in the corner of the bedroom. Luckily the toilet was separate!
The day was a busy one trying to explore as many places along the coast as possible to see the beaches, villages, towns, lovely thatched houses along the way, one very very narrow windy road which went for miles and if we met anything one of us would have to back up. This is typical for this area and Cornwall of course and even worse at the moment as we are into a summer bank holiday weeekend.

Typical thatched cottage en route to our next stop

I will try and let the photos do the talking, the places we saw being Seaton with its long stretch of pebbly beach, little Beer with its boats and small areas of deck chairs, Branscombe, Sidmouth with its mainly pebbly beach and nice walk along the bottom of high sandstone cliffs to another pebbly beach arond the corner and to gardens along the clifftop and Exmouth with its long lines of terraced hotels along the waterfront and terraced houses in the streets.

Strolling around Sidmouths sandstone cliffs

Then Teignmouth with its pier, nice walk along the waterfront which is part of the South Devon coastal walk but only some sand at low tide for children to play in - at high tide the water would be up to the sea-wall - we had a coffee and cake here in the seemingly "old-fashioned" town.
Busy stretched-out Torquay next with its long beach, amusements, and double rows of beach huts and seamlessly joining onto Paignton. We bypassed Brixton to head to the car ferry which took us over the River Dart to Dartmouth, a quaint little riverside town where we would have liked to linger but time was now of the essence as we need to get to the Elfordleigh Countryclub Hotel in Plympton out of Plymouth before dark!

Kingsbridge, a lovely interesting looking town on the river was another spot we would have liked to explore but after a brief stroll along the river eating our ice-creams to wake us up it was time to quickly move on. Our galaxy tablet has come into it's own! We can't get navigation on it here but if we go into maps it will find where we are and I can follow our progress on the map. I don't think we ever would have found this hotel without it - all the narrow streets that only fit one car and twists and turns it would normally have been impossible but our little map with the blue blip showing where we were was absolutely amazing - exciting even! And yes we did just make it before dark - what a long day!

Bournmouth, Poole, Lyme Regis & Chard

Thursday morning Len was feeling much better and we re-traced the walk I did the previous evening along the beach promenade to the central park and shops in the sunshine after another hot night. It was much quieter with hardly anyone on the beach and with only one beach hut being used out of the many we passed, the others all still being closed up and padlocked. The squirrels in the park were not afraid of us at all and would come up really close, almost begging for nuts.

Shades of blue at Poole harbour!

We then drove on to Poole which has a large harbour with many inlets, boats, canoes and the odd person crabbing. Crowds of people about, both on the harbour side and the beach enjoying the continuing warm sunshine. We enjoyed people watching while we had a coffee in one of the beach cafes before driving on to Lyme Regis through Bridport where there was quite a traffic delay. It took us about 35 minutes to travel 3 miles but the rest of the day wasn't quite so bad.

Trying to spot a space for 2 on Lyme Regis beach!

Lyme Regis is a quaint seaside village, very small compared with Bournemouth and mostly covered with pebbles although there was a good, very crowded, sandy area close to where everyone was swimming. We had a lie down on the large pebbles which aren't as uncomfortable as they look and can give quite a macro-acupressure effect on those sore parts on your back if you wiggle in the right direction! We wished we had taken our togs with us even though we had no towels.

From there we headed a little inland to Chard where we had booked to stay at the Watermead B&B for the night. David and Trudy were very hospitable providing home-made biscuits and tea in the garden when we arrived, Dave introducing us to George their 4 month old chocolate labrador at the same time. David and Trudy are doing a 13 day campervan trip in NZ in October after going to their nephew's wedding in Melbourne so that was a good talking point and, who knows, we might meet up with them in a camp ground somewhere as we will still be in Debussy then! We had dinner at Wetherspoons, a chain pub serving food a bit like Cobb & Co, and which was a short walk away at the bottom of the village. It was busy,busy and we met up with a few of the locals who shared our table, one of them being the window cleaner for the B&B!

Portsmouth to Bournemouth

Wednesday morning we drove into the heart of Portsmouth to the Historic Dockyards with Len still feeling poorly after a rather sleepless night with stomach pains and feeling intermittently hot. We're pretty sure we can blame the chicken!
We decided not to go onto the historic ships such as the HMS Victory and the Mary Rose but we had a good external view of HMS Warrior 1860 which was the first iron hulled armoured warship and a worry to the French.One of the "tame"

HMS Warrior

We went to the top of the Spinnaker tower for a great view of Portsmouth harbour, the boating marinas, the dockyards and the harbour entrance with the Isle of Wight beyond.

From Portsmouth we headed west again to coastal Lymington bypassing Southampton and striking a half hour delay through the New Forest on the way. Lymington is a cute town, bustling at this time of the year on a hot summer's day with lots of families down at the cobbled harbour fishing for crabs as at Littlehampton. We had a soup at the busy Kings Head Pub before driving through Christchurch which is twinned with Christchurch in NZ. It looked like a nice town. Just along the road is Bournemouth where we had booked to stay the night at the Dursley Dean Hotel for 60 pounds, before we read the reviews, so we were prepared for the worst!

One of the many "tame" squirrels in the park!

OK, the hotel is old and tired with very creaky floorboards and a "boing" of the pronounced mattress springs everytime one rolls over, especially on my side! But the positives were that it didn't stop Len sleeping well after his bad night in Portsmouth, the bedroom was spacious, the ensuite was enormous and we were just a few yards from the excellent, long sandy beach with its promenade lined by what seemed like hundreds of those quaint English beach huts.

Len needed a lie-down when we arrived about 4.30 so I had a good leg stretch down the steps leading from the top of the cliff to the beach and then along the long promenade to the pier area where there were all the usual amusements/ penny arcades plus a land train, an outdoor theatre, palms that you could pay to climb, food stalls etc. There were crowds of people about, both on the promenade and on the beach. From there I wandered through the central park to the shopping area where I only visited the Tesco express for some fruit and yoghurt before backtracking towatds the beach, this time taking the high cliff path back to the Hotel instead of the beach promenade.

Bournemouth is a really nice spot and I can see why it is a popular family holiday destination although for me it is a little too busy at this time of the year. It really makes me appreciate the more accessible beaches we have in NZ without all the traffic hold-ups to get there!

Littlehampton to Arundel

Littlehampton, a coastal town westward from Brighton was our first stop after leaving Brighton on Tuesday morning. Here we had a walk through the village and then down to and along the river where we were fascinated by all the families lining the river with their specially purchased buckets, nets and lines "fishing" for crabs. Some of them were catching bucketfuls before returning them to the river and either small bits of fish or streaky bacon seemed to be good bait. We thought there must have been a crabbing competition on but no - they were just doing it for fun.

T getting the crack!

The one that nearly got away!

From here we headed for Arundel, a lovely little historic town further inland on the banks of the Arun River, and once a busy fishing village. We wandered about the town, visited the Church and the Cathedral and then the Arundel Castle and Gardens set up on a hill. The original castle was built in 1067 with some of it still surviving although it had a big rebuild between the 1870s and 1890s. It has been the family home of the Dukes of Norfolk and their ancestors for nearly 1000 years. Lots to see but as you are not allowed to take photos it will be difficult to remember. I think we have completed our castle and palace tour for this trip now!

Arundel Castle

Then it was back on the road with all the stop- start holiday traffic - more stop than start with big queues in both directions. We stopped for the night at the Inn Lodge Hotel on the outskirts of Portsmouth, this hotel also being the best we could find on booking.com at 70 pound a night - a notch or 2 up from the previous night - not posh by any means but comfortable and more spacious. Just a pity that the person in the room next door decided to switch their TV on full volume at 6.30 am - we had a news update without having to turn ours on! Len hadn't sleep well in the night as his tummy had been very squeazy since Monday afternoon in Brighton - we wonder if it was the chicken salad he ate there for lunch as that was the only time we had eaten something different - I had soup.

Brighton

After getting a little lost we enjoyed the windy, tree-lined drive down a lesser road to Brighton on Monday, a place Len had been to 30 years ago and I had never been to but had heard lots about. We were warned that with the busy summer holiday traffic there could be delays of up to 2 hours getting to our accommodation especially in the afternoons but we were early enough to avoid this.
By chance we managed to find a parking building very close to the Churchill Brighton, the cheapest guest house that we could find on the internet the night before! Accomodation is so expensive in England generally and especially on the south coast in summer school holidays. Commonly rooms are between $200 - $400 a night so we were very happy to find this one for $79 a night.
They say you get what you pay for so we were not surprised to climb 4 storeys up a narrow, rickety staircase to our tiny, tiny, past it's use-by date room with it's dinky little ensuite and views of all the surrounding close buildings. Debussy is a palace in comparison!
However the double bed which virtually took up the whole room was comfortable and clean with its lovely white sheet and white duvet and the most amazing bonus was that the little fridge in the corner had complimentary drinks and kit-kats! These included 2 bottles of beer, 2 small bottles of wine, 2 cans of coke and 2 waters - amazing as most of the hotels we have stayed in haven't even a fridge let alone complimentary drinks (Yes they were definitely free but we managed to restrict ourselves to just using half of them).

North Laine

The generosity of the drinks offset the unwelcome taste we had in our mouths at having to pay 25 pounds, around $50, for our overnight carparking. At home we can park our bus for 2 days and 2 nights in a camp ground for that with electricity, showers, toilet and cooking facilities all included! You can understand why most Brits holiday in Europe.

However we loved our short stop-over in Brighton - it's a quirky, eclectic, interesting city known as "the Gay Capital of Britain" and like none other I have been to before. So many people and such diversity made our walk along the pebbly beach, down the pier with all it's amusement arcades, through the town and down the Lanes or Laines which have shops along narrow alleyways following the street pattern of the original fishing village, a truly entertaining experience in itself.

Brighton Pavilion

It took us a couple of hours to explore the huge and amazing Royal Pavilion built by George 1Vth early in the 19th century. The outside is a western interpretation on Indian architecture and the inside is lavishly modelled on Chinese architecture and furnishings - very ornate, the huge chandelier over the massive dining table being just one of the features that instantly springs to mind.

Lots of restaurants to choose from in the evening so we picked the busiest one we could see and just had a little wait before a table was free. It was Italian with very reasonable prices so after a pasta dish for Len and a canneloni for me it was time to head back to our attic.

Matt & Annas wedding

Thursday 15th August
After breakfast we caught the Hoppa bus back to Heathrow to pick up our rental car, a manual, diesel Peugeot 208 which is very new and goes well especially now that Len is used to the more sensitive steering than he has had in Debussy. There was no detail on the map provided but somehow we just followed our noses and found our way through the Surrey countryside to the DeVere Hotel at Horsley Park where we were meeting up with Wils & Esme, Joan, Norman and Nicola. It was a lovely drive along the narrow, windy, tree-lined roads and the sun was shining.

Horsley Park

The original large country manor at Horsley Park dates back to the mid 16th century and parts of it remain today. The grounds are large with lots of paths to wander along amongst the trees and around a small lake. It was great to meet up with the family and the 4 nights we spent there seemed to pass by quickly with some sightseeing around the area on Friday and a gathering at The Drummond Pub in Albury that evening with Matt and Anna and other family and friends. This had been preceded by a pizza dinner at The Duke of Wellington Pub which was just up the road from our Hotel.
Matt and Anna's happy wedding was held on Saturday in a lovely old Church in the tiny village of Shere and this was followed by an excellent reception in an old converted barn way out in the countryside. Joan and Norman had kindly organised a bus for all our travels so we could sit back and relax and not worry about getting lost! Lots of champagne had by all, a nice wedding 'breakfast', a disco and dancing saw us pretty tired by the time the bus was ready to leave just before midnight. We aren't sure if we can blame the socialising or the jetlag for our general sleepiness!

The Bridal Party post wedding

The weather has been great - apart from a heavy shower that decided to descend while we were all in the Church the days have been a mixture of sun and cloud with the day temperatures ranging between 22 - 26 and rather too warm for us at night without any air conditioning in our hotels. It has certainly been a very good English summer this year and for once I'm fine in a T shirt and shorts!

Celebrating Wils & Esmes Ruby Wedding on Sunday morning

Sunday afternoon we, together with Len's family, went out to Deborah and Bill's (Anna's parents) house. in Farley Green, near Albury for a lovely early dinner. Matt and Anna joined us there as they still had some time up their sleeves before flying to Sicily for their honeymoon today (Tuesday).

Auckland to Heathrow

Debussy is now having a well earned rest, after providing our transport and living quarters for nearly 11 months, whilst we return to England to catch up with all Len's family and see how many of his grandchildren are now taller than us!

On Sunday 11th August we had a leisurely trip up to my niece, Jacki and Tims house in Auckland where they have kindly offered a piece of their large lawn for us to store the bus on while we're away. We had bought a new breathable cover to keep Debussy cosy and Len's challenge the next day was to try and get it on in between the heavy showers which kept coming from nowhere. The instructions stress that the bus must be dry before covering which was more than a mission but I know he did his best! Before the cover went on it was spring cleaning time and we were lucky to be able to squash all the things remaining in our fridge into Jackis!

It had been really good to spend time with the family and grandchildren in Tauranga, seeing some of their sport and musical activities - Madi playing the keyboard expertly in the school band, Amelia also doing well on the piano and Jack showing us his talent on the guitar, Oliver and Tommy's scary plays and Sofia's enthusiasm in all things! We are going to miss them!

Tuesday 13th August we were picked up by the loquacious shuttle driver who told us about all his family and friends as he drove us in 3rd gear to the airport - Thai Airways this time as we will spend a few days in Thailand on our way home. We felt there was a little more leg room on the flight to Bangkok than we have had on Singapore but from Bangkok to Heathrow there was considerably less room, especially when the people in front reclined their seats. However I managed to watch 6 movies while Len saw 3 and played a lot of games. Good calm flights really with just a little mild turbulence on the second leg but not much sleep so we were pretty tired when we arrived at Heathrow 30 hours after leaving Auckland.

Spot the photographer!

The Premier Hotel close to Heathrow allowed us into our room just before noon probably because we looked a little untidy sprawled on their chairs halfheartedly trying to keep our eyelids up. Once in our room we were quickly asleep and didn't stir for 4 hours after which we had to try and leap up fearful that we would never get to sleep again when night actually came. Dinner in the Hotel restaurant was a bit of a let down, the menu reading more appetitisingly than the food looked on the plate. However the beds were nice and comfy, the room spacious (especially compared to what we are used to!) and we had no problem sleeping for reasonably long intervals through the night.

Breakfast the next morning was at a little cafe called Moniz 10 minutes walk down the road that we had visited previously when staying at the Doubletree Hilton which is over the road. The only problem being that we arrived at 7.30 and it didn't open til 8.00am so we did a wander around the streets which are litter-ridden, noisy with the constant overhead planes, mostly uncared for houses, and a generally not-very-safe feeling though, as with the rest of London, nobody ever looks you in the eye and are suspiciously surprised if you give them a greeting.

However the breakfast was again hearty and cheap, the waitress polite but guarded. No friendly openness around here but we know that the villages are better!