Lyepol Day Two

The motorhome provided excellent sleeping facilities for Alison and I and this was the day when we took it out to Ludlow to visit the castle. That turned into something of an adventure which I'll come back to in a bit. In the meantime I want to add in some photos from the day at the cottage. It was beautiful.

We had a lovely start to the day. I took the children out with the trolley to collect kindling for the fires and they just loved exploring the banks, in and around the trees. Kate's parents had come down to supervise the work on the boiler. The cottage looked fantastic through the trees from the river but it is so different from what we might expect in respect of modern conveniences.

The toilet is a little tempremental, there is no power other than that provided through a generator used for just a few minutes each day and the solar panels which ran the lighting and powered two usb points. Of course, there was little or no signal which meant the use of technology was extremely limited. There was also no TV which all meant we could focus on enjoying ourselves outside and being with one another.

I was surprised no one had yet built a cairn on the beach, Joe reported the beach as having appeared just a year ago after  a series of storms. We built a small one very quickly and Maria used the charcoal to sign a number of the stones.

We enjoyed a picnic in Ludlow where we visted the castle which is where I completed another of the 57 challenges - playing hide and seek in a castle. I had imagined doing that at Corfe Castle, closer to home, but it was an unexpected opportunity too good to miss. It was a chilly day despite patches of blue and we were glad to be in motorhome by the end of the afternoon. That was the start of the next adventure as tried to drive out of the town.

I followed Kate along the road only to discover the lane narrowed considerably, was slightly offset as you emerged from the worst of it and on the right hand side, there was a shrub which forced the m/h further across to the left. We couldn't make it In fact, I had scratched the left side of the m/h, how much I was unsure and it was impossible to carry on. However, the option of reversing was almost impossible too. The wing mirrors had to be folded in to avoid further damage and it took the best efforts of the passengers to assist me in backing out, inch by inch, very slowly and always aware that other vehicles could ride up behind us and start to cause a jam.

It was very stressful and my leg was shaking playing the clutch, desperately trying to get out of the jam, all while cursing myself for being so foolish.

The lane eventually began to widen and I was able to swing round and leave the town centre by an alternative route. It wasn't until we got back half an hour later that I got out to check the damage. It was slighter than I had thought or imagined but very annoying still. What an idiot!

I got on my bike and went for a ride round the hills which was plenty of a distraction. The hills immediately out of the cottage were steep and long. It was hard work.

The evening was great though. With the children in bed and the other adults all playing board games, I sat by the river and had a good all sing song, enjoying a few drinks along the way. Then I walked along the narrow road we had driven in on and took some photos of the closing dusk.