We hope 2021 will end better than it has started, and perhaps some normality may return for us all. We find ourselves in Dorset under this lockdown and are so thankful that we have a friend who has a friend who is able to us on his land, but how did we find ourselves here!!
Back in February last year whilst organising Graemes 60th Birthday celebrations (24/12) we planned to head to Scotland what is lovingly called the NC500 followed by a stay at a Lakeland Hotel over Christmas. THE NC500 is a 500 mile circuit from Inverness up and over the North Coast. We have loved and travelled to Scotland many times now, in different seasons but never really over the winter months, and well we have the van to do it in! The motorhome is fully winterised and we thought why not go and see the dramatic north coast. A big plus for us as well is that Scotland also allows wild camping (sadly this may be changing). We have camped at some really incredible locations up mountain passes, loch side vistas you name
it weve had it! There is nothing better than waking to these special places and the mantra of us well behaved campers is ‘to leave the area cleaner than you found it and we do.
Unfortunately the NC500 was now out of the equation as Scotland was going into full lockdown. Also with the NC500 being inundated just like Cornwall it again looked like for some time Motorhomes would not be so So we changed tack, something we are very good at and headed off to the Lakes Tier 2 to Tier 2. We had a great 7 nights on campsites at Keswick and Windermere even having to move pretty hastily from one site as the waters of Derwentwater rose to dangerous levels. With the rules regarding Christmas we were prepared for the call from The Hotel telling us that it had all been cancelled. We were somewhat pleased when we received an email to tell us even though they had had many cancellations because of changing Tier levels they were still going ahead with The Christmas festivities. With only 14 of us booked in there would be plenty of space to socially distance ourselves. We checked in
on Christmas Eve having been upgraded to the Bridal Suite and had a great time with some other lovely guests and left feeling very spoilt.
Our thoughts had now turned to what we saw was an inevitable 3rd lockdown and the Caravan Park annual closure on Jan 15th. A trip to Europe was planned into our diary and the ferry was booked for a departure of the 30th of Dec hoping to avoid a lot of the unknown questions of Brexit?!?!. Once again circumstance changed and our plan to head to Southern Spain was now delayed as we felt it irresponsible to travel to Europe as it was.
More and more people are opting to live full time in Motorhomes and at present we slip through the net regards the current rules! Where were we going to go?
We are extremely thankful to those who offered us a home, and on this occasion particularly Alan and Marilyn. We met them whilst in Morocco and the plan was to meet up over the course of this year. That hadnt happened so when I cheekily sent them a message saying hey fancy over this lockdown?? they immediately
responded Your more than we have plenty of space. So here we are, we arrived on Jan 2nd, travelling to avoid the lockdown rules and here we will probably be until the Caravan Park opens again on 15th March (or will it ?!?) Its a new patch for us to explore, walking distance into Wareham for shopping, and great heathland for dog walking. Weve helped with a couple of jobs around the place (its a currently closed hotel).
We are incredibly thankful to have somewhere safe to be, during the lockdown and whilst the UK works out how it is going to this growing army of Motorhome owners who prefer a life on the road and not being static in one spot.
