The British South West

After heading out of London, the first stop was a road side services area for lunch, then it was full steam ahead to Stonehenge. The history of the place is as amazing this time around as it was 15 years ago when I came here with Calum on our honeymoon. I think the kids would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t so darned cold and windy! 

 

 

 

After Stonehenge, we headed to the overnight accommodations at a motel in a roadside services area (motel, service station, fast food place, and coffee shop). It would have been OK if the room didn’t reek of cigarette smoke. Not bad for a non-smoking establishment, grrrrrr….. No matter what we did, we couldn’t get rid of the smell. I must have used over ½ the can of odour neutraliser I got from reception, and could still smell it. Yuck! If I ever walk into a room that smells like that again, I’m walking straight back out again to ‘strongly request’ another room! 

Tuesday we couldn’t wait to be shot of the smell of the smoke, so we were up, organised and out the door quickly for breakfast and to be on our way to Portsmouth to visit the historical Naval dockyard, and the HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. It was amazing to walk through a ship that was in service with the Royal Navy before Cook discovered Australia! Because we wanted to get to Bovington Tank Museum (well, Calum and Cameron did…) before the tank rides finished, we didn’t go through the Mary Rose exhibit at the dockyard. If we knew what was there, we could have easily spent the majority of the day there. Lesson – research these things more thoroughly beforehand so we can plan accordingly.

 

So, Bovington…  Again a windy day, but a little bit of sun so not too bad. When we got there, the first thing we did was go for a ride on the APC – Calum can tell you more about what it is; to me, it’s just an army truck! Although, Danielle didn’t join us. She could have taken photos of us though! I don’t think tanks and ships are her thing, so it hadn’t been all that good a day for her so far. After the APC ride, Dan and I left the boys to wander around the tank museum while we trotted off to do our own thing. Cam was happy – the UN has a scout vehicle called a ‘Ferret’. For those of you that don’t know, this is Cam’s nick name.

 

 

 

 

‘Our own thing’ ended up being driving down narrow country laneways through Alice in Wonderland villages (you know, houses with thatched rooves just crying out for arms and legs to appear out of the sides of them), to the coastal town of Lulworth Cove. Where Danielle proceeded to make me climb a bloody steep hill. Damn, I’m out of shape! The views out to the Isle of Wight and up and down the chalk cliffs of the coastline were spectacular when we reached the top, though. But coming down was so much easier!

 

 

 

On our way back to pick up Calum and Cam, we detoured past Monkey World, but their last admissions were at 4pm, so we missed out on seeing the monkeys much to Danielle’s disgust. I’m sure we’ll get the chance to see some later on in the trip though…

From Bovington, it was off to our overnight digs in Yeovil via a white horse carved into the chalk hillside, and the carving of an anatomically correct (and erect!) male, called ‘The Giant’. However ‘The Giant’ wasn’t known as a point of interest in the GPS, and it had other ideas about our where our destination in relation to the town that was selected should be. Lesson 1 – when putting in ‘hazy’ locations into the GPS, double check the directions on Google Maps!

 

We stayed in a B&B in Yeovil that night which, while a bit on the small side as far as room size goes, was very clean, cosy, and welcoming. The manager, Martin, was really helpful – getting us new light bulbs for two of our lights when we arrived, and then fixing our cold water tap in the bathroom the next morning because the nut came undone and it spurted water out in a fountain unless pressure was put on it to keep the spigot down! Once the dramas with the tap were sorted, and we were packed up and breakfasted, it was off to spend the day in Bath.

 

We had issues with the directions the GPS was giving us in Bath as well – it kept wanting us to go in directions that we couldn’t get to, and the wrong way down one way streets! Google Maps to the rescue! The first port of call once we finally found somewhere to park was the Roman Baths. We did a self-guided audio tour, and I think the kids even enjoyed looking around. They would have enjoyed it more if they were allowed to go for a swim in the hot pools.

 
 
 


From there, it was a walk through the Bath Abbey, past a memorial to Governor Arthur Phillip, and then to look at the Pulteney Bridge and weir. Then we were off to get the car, and try and find the Royal Circle, and the house where Arthur Phillip died. Again the GPS was ignored, this time in favour of a paper map. We found it! Had a wander around, then headed back to the car – with an interlude for the kids to play a round of mini golf (would have been less stressful if Cameron listened to instructions once in a while rather than thinking he knows how to play…) – for our trip to our overnight resting place on the outskirts Bristol. Yet another magical mystery tour courtesy of the GPS. Lesson 2 – use the post code when entering destination addresses into the GPS. That way, if there is more than two of the same number on the same street (as it passes through 2 different towns) you won’t end up at the wrong one! Google maps to the rescue, yet again. 

 

 

 

And that brings us up to date! We are currently at Bristol waiting for our laundry to be done before packing up and heading off to Warwick, where tomorrow we visit the Warwick Castle. Hopefully the kids will enjoy that.