Campsites,England #1of2

Found a place to camp on the grounds of a castle on the cliffs over looking Dover and the English Channel, then learned we can ride a ferry up the English Channel to Zeebrugge, Belgium rather than just straight across the channel to France. Will save driving time and miles, and the boat ride is a change. We bought an alarm clock so we can get up very, very early (at 4:30), to catch the boat. From the ferry we could see the pink cliffs of Dover shining in the dawns early light.

Few campsites in Great Britain have electricity, and we are at one of those few, in Littlehampton. Must find out how to find those with electricity, because it’s too cold without the heater. We left the campsite at 8:30 and drove to Arundel. There’s a castle on the hill and Emmy fed our stale bread to a lot of ducks and swans in the river. We’ve found that each fresh loaf of bread we buy generates two loaves of stale bread to feed the ducks, etc.

Not too far from the campsite near Bournemouth, we toured Lord Mountbatten’s home in Romsey. All Emmy could say was, “My kitchen is better, my bathroom is better,” etc., and so on. Her kitchen and bathrooms are hundreds of years newer, also. The Cathedral in nearby Glastonbury is one of the most interesting building ruins we have seen.

At the campsite in Bath, they had both electricity and a sign saying “Complete.” Although it appeared there was plenty of room, the old sour-puss would not let us in. At a gas station near Bath, we asked about a campsite, and one of the customers knew of one. We followed him to an old farm house where there was camping space next to the barn, but we were not able to plug in the electricity. It hasn’t been too cold lately.

Just north of Blackpool we found a campsite sign that said “Full Today,” but no one was in the office and it didn’t look full, so we just went in and parked. Sometime in the middle of the night, someone pounded on the outside of the camper telling us we were trespassing, and we were a fire hazard. I said we would pay in the morning, so he went away. In the morning he was agreeable and apologized for waking us. Said he was always having problems with the police for letting in too many people, and they often park too close each other. But he said we had parked properly, even the police would agree.