Menonwardly Bound

Hello van-pals! Time for an update on where and when of YAM and The Grey.

My thanks to Mac2 for the posey-portraits (I mistakenly placed my own watermark) and to Mac1 for the departure shots...

I left the cottage at Holton early-ish on that Friday morning and drove not a quarter mile to the local farm shop. There I stocked up the fridge with a few tasty local produce items and milk and bread and then it was on to Dedham Vale.

Being the dreadful blogger and vlogger that I have become, I failed to take any photos of note, beyond lots of the lovely church there! I have yet to work out how I am going to attach my phone for on the road filming without having to buy more equipment at this stage. Sigh... I ended up spending two nights at that park up as it was only £5 per day and 50p per night. Bargain. Peaceful, friendly and restful.

From there I headed west, via Braintree and to a place called Audley End, near Saffron Walden. I had a lunchtime stopover in a leafy layby at Braintree... only to witness a constant parade of solo male drivers stopping as well, getting out of their vehicles and walking up and down the line. Aha. Midday, broad daylight, brash as you like. Two of them even tried to open my side door. I introduced them to Duckling, my knobkerrie-style walking cane. They moved on. This had been an unplanned stop, so I just had my lunch and drove away, no harm. 

Thankfully, most of the park ups I've researched on Park4Night have provided warnings of the places which are frequented by the dogging diocese, so apart from one night (and that wasn't at all serious), I have had nothing but peaceful and enjoyable places to sleep.

From Audley End I moved to Cooks Wharf near Cheddington (close to Aylesbury). That was the messiest place I stayed, but peaceful and friendly. The bins were totally overflowing... and I witnessed on Sunday afternoon, a constant flow of locals coming and emptying out their boots and backseats of bags and bags. Thrown on top and left where they fell. No care taken at all to be tidy or place the stuff thoughtfully. Guess who is likely to get the blame...???!!! That made me fizz a bit, I confess. Not having my helping hand with me, I couldn't do too much, but what I could, I tidied and placed more appropriately. Honestly, what would their mothers say???

From there, I moved on to Newbury/Donnington. A fab charge up for Grey at the leisure centre and then out to countryside nearby for a perfect park up that afforded a fine sunset.

After that, it was down to Farley Mount Park, a little outside Winchester. Oh my... I think I may have hatched several hairy chooks and possibly a handful of scaly geese on those back roads! Little more than cattle tracks. They did, thankfully, have plenty of spots for passing traffic and the locals all seemed to tolerate a Grey Behemoth coming at them! Once at the park I chose (there are several, but Grey's size required I chose the largest parking spot), we got settled in and had a fine view of a beautifully wooded valley. 

Lots of dogwalkers arriving and leaving and not at all bothering about the van. One older gentleman was clearly on for a chat. He had two Viszlas with him... and it turned out he was from Aberdeen, though now a local. I actually asked him if he thought it was okay to stay the night and he cheerfully said it was no problem. Lots of vans spend time there, he said. In the morning, he brought the wife along to say hello! All parkups should be as good.

Mind you, we had the most almighty rainstorm which lasted most of the late afternoon and into the night... and there was very low, to none, on the phone signal/wifi. Talking book it was then.

Thus it was Wednesday and I was only an hour away from Tigger's castle. The drive was not without incident, as short as it was. I was ready for the slightly shorter route out of the cattle track part, but once on the two-lane roads again, there were several roadworks stations, including one that fooled the satnav yet again. I turned in where it told me to, only to see the ROAD CLOSED signage too late!!! It was about two miles before I could find a place to chuck a u-y and go back to that junction. There was recaluclation in the workings and it came good in the end. I stopped at Cosham viewpoint for half an hour to enjoy the view over Portsmouth and out to the Isle of Wight. 

More on the anon... Me-Now-Views will hold balance of what pics there are!